APHUG UNIT 1

Unit 1 Vocabulary Words:

Environmental Determinism

The theory that human behavior is controlled by the physical environment.

Formal Region (uniform region)

An area in which everyone shares one or more distinctive characteristics.

Functional Region (nodal region)

An area organized around a node or focal point.

Globalization

The increasing interconnection of all regions in the world through politics, communication, transportation, marketing, manufacturing, and social and cultural processes.

Mental Map

A map in one’s mind.

Place

A specific point on Earth, distinguished by a particular characteristic

Possibilism

The theory that the physical environment merely establishes limits of what is possible for the human population

Region

An area distinguished by one or more distinctive characteristics

Space

The physical gap or interval between two objects.

Time Compression

The reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place as a result of improved communications and transportation systems.

Site

The physical character of a place

Situation

The location of a place relative to another place

Vernacular Region (perceptual region)

A popular region that is named for the way people perceive it.

Toponym

The name given to a portion of Earth’s surface

Absolute Location

Position on Earth's surface using the coordinate system of longitude (that runs from North to South Pole) and latitude (that runs parallel to the equator)

Relative Location

the position of a place or entity based on its location with respect to other locations.

Remote Sensing

the process of taking pictures of the Earth's surface from satellites (or, earlier, airplanes) to provide a greater understanding of the Earth's geography over large distances.

Sense of Place

State of mind derived through the infusion of a place with meaning and emotion by remembering important events that occurred in that place or by labeling a place with a certain character.

Placelessness

the loss of uniqueness of place in the cultural landscape so that one place looks like the next.

Human Environmental Interaction

The effect that humans have on their environment and the effect that the environment has on humans