Chapter 1 Aphg VOCAB

Absolute Location

The exact position of a place on Earth's surface using the coordinate system of longitude and latitude.

Cartography

The science or practice of drawing maps.

Cartogram

A map in which some thematic mapping variable is substituted for land area. The geometry or space of the map is distorted to convey the information of this alternate variable.

Contagious Diffusion

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population. An example is the spread of ideas placed on the internet.

Choropleth Map

A thematic map that uses tones or colors to represent spatial data as average values per unit area.

Clustering Distribution

The arrangement of objects in a space where they are grouped closely together.

Cultural Barrier

Obstacles to the spread of ideas, innovations, or cultural traits due to prevailing cultural attitudes or practices.

Cultural Complex

A group of culture traits all interrelated and dominated by one essential trait.

Cultural Hearth

The region from which innovative ideas originate, which then spread to other areas.

Cultural Landscape

The fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group, reflecting the interactions between humans and their environment.

Diffusion

The process by which a feature or trend spreads from one place to another over time.

Dispersal Distribution

The arrangement of objects in a space where they are spread out over a large area.

Distance Decay

The diminishing in importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin.

Distortion

The alteration of the original shape or other characteristic of something, often seen in map projections.

Distribution

The arrangement of something across Earth's surface.

Dot Map

A map type that uses a dot symbol to show the presence of a feature or phenomenon. Dot maps rely on a visual scatter to show spatial patterns.

Environmental Determinism

An approach to the study of geography that argued that the physical environment caused human activities.

Epidemic

A widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of a feature from one place to another in a snowballing process, which can occur in three ways: hierarchical, contagious, and stimulus diffusion.

Formal Region

An area within which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics, such as a common language or climate.

Functional Region

An area organized around a node or focal point, where the defining characteristic diminishes in importance outward.

Geographic Information System (GIS)

A computer system that stores, organizes, analyzes, and displays geographic data.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

A satellite-based system for determining the absolute location of places or geographic features.

Globalization

The process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.

Proportional Symbol Map

A map that uses symbols of different sizes to represent data associated with different areas or locations.

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

The mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, which is used as the standard time against which all other time zones are measured.

Hierarchical Diffusion

The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places, such as the spread of hip-hop/rap music.

Hinterlands

The area surrounding a central place, from which people are attracted to use the place's goods and services.

Isoline Map

A map that uses continuous lines to represent regional differences in a geographical variable, such as temperature or elevation.

Location

The position that something occupies on Earth's surface, which can be described in absolute or relative terms.

Mental Map

An internal representation of a portion of Earth's surface based on what an individual knows about a place, containing personal impressions of what is in the place and where the place is located.

Mercator Projection

A cylindrical map projection that preserves accurate compass direction but distorts area, especially near the poles.

Multinational Corporation

A company that operates in multiple countries, often with headquarters in one country and operations in others.

Pandemic

An epidemic that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population.

Perceptual Region

A region that only exists as a conceptualization or an idea and not as a physically demarcated entity, often based on cultural identity.

Physical Geography

The branch of geography dealing with natural features and processes.

Possibilism

The theory that the physical environment may set limits on human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to the physical environment and choose a course of action from many alternatives.

Projection

The system used to transfer locations from Earth's surface to a flat map.

Quantitative Data

Data that can be measured and recorded using numbers, such as population density or income levels.

Qualitative Data

Data that is descriptive and conceptual, which can be categorized based on traits and characteristics.

Reference Map

A map that shows the location of the geographic areas for which census data are tabulated and disseminated.

Region

An area distinguished by a unique combination of trends or features.

Relative Location

The position of a place relative to other places.

Relocation Diffusion

The spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another.

Remote Sensing

The acquisition of data about Earth's surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or from other long-distance methods.

Satellite Imagery

Images of Earth collected by imaging satellites operated by governments and businesses around the world.

Scale

The relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole, often represented as a fraction or ratio.

Sense of Place

The feeling that an area has a distinct and meaningful character.

Site Location

The physical character of a place, including its absolute location, spatial character, and physical setting.

Situation Location

The location of a place relative to other places.

Space-Time Compression

The reduction in the time it takes for something to reach another place due to improved communications and transportation systems.

Spatial Distribution

The physical location of geographic phenomena across space.

Spatial Interaction

The movement and flows involving human activity.

Spatial Perspective

Observing variations in geographic phenomena across space.

Stimulus Diffusion

The spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse, such as the different menu items from McDonald's as it spreads around the world.

Symbol Map

A map that uses symbols to represent specific data points, often used to show the distribution of various phenomena.

Thematic Maps

Maps that emphasize a particular theme or subject area, such as population density or climate.