AP Human Geography Unit 1 Important Vocab

Abiotic

Composed of nonliving or inorganic matter

Aculturation

The process of changes in culture that results from the meeting of two groups, each of which retains distinct culture features

Assimilation

The process by which a group's cultural features are altered to resemble those of another more dominant group.

Atmosphere

A thin layer of gases surrounding Earth

behavioral geography

the study of the psychological basis for individual human actions in space

Biosphere

Consists of all life on Earth and all parts of the Earth in which life exists, including land, water, and the atmosphere.

Biotic

composed of living organisms

Cartography

The science of making maps

Citizen Science

scientific research by amateur scientists

Climate

The long-term average weather condition at a particular location

Concentration

The spread of something over a given area.

Connection

Relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.

Conservation

The sustainable management of a natural resource

Contagious Diffusion

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population.

Cultural Ecology

Geographic approach that emphasizes human-environment relationships.

cultural landscape

An approach to geography that emphasizes the relationships among social and physical phenomena in a particular study area.

Culture

Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people.

Density

The frequency with which something exists within a given area

Diffusion

The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time

Distance Decay

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

Distribution

The arrangement of something across Earth's surface.

Ecology

The scientific study of ecosystems

Ecosystem

A group of living organisms and the abiotic spheres with which they interact

enviromental determinism

an 19th and early 20th century approach to the study of geography with argued with general law sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences.Geography was therefore the study of how the physical environment caused human activities.

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in a snowballing process.

formal region (AKA uniform or homogenous)

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

Functional Reigon(aka Nodal reigon)

An area organized around a node or focal point

Geographic Information Science (GIScience)

The development and analysis of data about Earth acquired through satellite and other electronic information technologies

Geographic Infromation System (GIS)

Geotagging

identification and storage of a piece of information by its precise latitude and longitude coordinates

Global Positioning System (GPS)

A system that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers.

Globalization

Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope.

GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)

The time at the prime meridian (0°) and is the master reference

Hearth

The region from which innovative ideas originate

Hiearchical Diffusion

the spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places

Humanistic Geography

The study of different ways that individuals form ideas about place and give those places symbolic meanings.

Hydrosphere

All the water at and near the surface of the earth, 97% of which is in oceans

International Date Line

An arc that for the most part follows 180° longitude, although it deviates in several places to avoid dividing land areas. When you cross the International Date Line heading east (toward America), the clock moves back 24 hours, or one entire day. When you go west (toward Asia), the calendar moves ahead one day.

Latitude

The numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the equator.

Lithosphere

Earth's crust and a portion of upper mantle directly below the crust

location

The position of anything on Earth's surface.

Longitude

The numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians drawn on a globe and measuring distance east and west of the prime meridian

Map

A two-dimensional, or flat, representation of Earth's surface or a portion of it.

map scale

The relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on Earth's surface.

Mashup

a map that overlays data from one source on top of a map provided by a mapping service

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 a place and where places are located.

Meridian

An arc drawn on a map between the North and South poles.

Network

A chain of communication that connects places

nonrenewable resource

Something produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans

parrallel

A circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and at right angles to the meridians.

Participatory GIS (PGIS)

Community-based mapping, representing local knowledge and information.

Pattern

The geometric or regular arrangement of something in a study area.

Place

A specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular character.

Polder

Land created by the Dutch by draining water from an area.

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.

Poststructuralist Geography

The study of space as the product of ideologies or value systems of ruling elites.

preservation

Maintenance of a resource in its present condition, with as little human impact as possible.

Prime Meridian

0 degrees longitude

Projection

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

Region

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

relocation diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend through bodily 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 other long-distance methods.

renewable resource

Something produced in nature more rapidly than it is consumed by humans

resource

A substance in the environment that is useful to people, is economically and technologically feasible to access, and is socially acceptable to use.

Scale

Generally, the relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole, specifically the relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on Earth's surface.

Site

The physical character of a place

Situation

The location of a place relative to another place

Space

The physical gap or interval between two objects

space-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

Spatial Association

The relationship between the distribution of one feature and the distribution of another feature.

Stimulus Diffusion

The spread of an underlying principle, even though a specific characteristic is rejected.

Sustainability

The use of Earth's renewable and nonrenewable natural resources in ways that do not constrain resource use in the future.

Syncretism

the combining of elements of two groups into a new cultural feature

Toponym

The name given to a portion of Earth's surface.

Transitional Corporation

A company that conducts research, operates factories, and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters or shareholders are located.

uneven development

The increasing gap in economic conditions between core and peripheral regions as a result of the globalization of the economy.

vernacular region(aka preceptual reigon)

an area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI)

Creation and dissemination of geographic data contributed voluntarily and for free by individuals

Regionalism

Refers to a group perceived identification w/ a particular reigon of any scale

Reigonalization

the organization of earth's surface into distinct areas that are viewed as different from other areas

absolute location

Exact location of a place on the earth described by global coordinates

relative location

The position of a place in relation to another place