APHUG Unit 1 Thinking Geographically vocabulary

Distance decay (friction of distance)

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

• if you go farther from something then you will interact with it less

distortion

Inaccuracies created when representing a 3d object on a 2d surface, maps can have distortion of shap, distance, area (size), and direction (SADD)

environmental determinism

the view that a natural environment has a very controlling influence over various aspects of human life including cultural development

flow-line map

a map that shows the movement of people, animals, goods, ideas, and physical process

formal region

a geographical area inhabited by people who have one or more traits in common; relatively uniform with regard to one or more cultural/physical traits

functional region

a region defined by the particular set of activities or interactions that occur within it; organized around a focal point (node)

GIS

geographic information system- a computer system that stores, organized, analyzes and displays geographic data in layer

globalization

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

human geograpgy

one of two major divisions of geography; studies how human activity affects or is influenced by earth’s surface

natural resource

materials or substances that occur in nature and can be used for economic gain.

perceptual/vernacular region

a geographic area that is perceived to exist by its inhabitants, based on the widespread acceptance and use of a unique regional name; based on shared feelings and attitudes of inhabitants

place

a specific point on earth with human and physical characteristics that distinguish it from other points

possibilism

the theory that the physical environment may limit human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to their environment

population density map

a map that shows how many people live in an area

projection

the system used to transfer locations from earth’s surface to a flat map

reference map

a map that shows geographic locations on earth’s surface, such as locations of cities or oceans

region

a geographical area based on one or more common characteristics or functions

regionalization

an organization of earth’s surface into distinct areas that are viewed different from other areas

relative distance

describing the distance between locations using qualitative terms or non-traditional measurement of distance (one hour north of)

relative location /situation

the location of a place relative to its surroundings and other places

remote sensing

the acquisition of data about earth’s surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or other long-distance methods

satellite imagery

images of the earth collected by imaging satellites operated by governments and businesses around the world

satellite navigation system

based on a global network of satellites that use data to determine precise position of something on earth. global positioning system (gps), operated but the USA, is the most prevalent

scale of analysis (inquiry)

a scale that determines what is being studied based on the size of the areas being examined. patterns and processes at different scales reveal variations in, and different interpretation of, data

scale

generally, the relationship between the portion of earth being studied and earth as a whole (local, regional, global). specifically, in a physical sense the relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on earth’s surface

spatial

describing how things are organized across space

spatial pattern

the location of places, people, and events, and the connections among places and landscapes. looks to answer the questions like “why of where?”

(clumped, stochastic, uniform?)

sustainability

the use of earth’s renewable and non-renewable resources in ways that ensure resource availability in the future

thematic map

a map that emphasizes the spatial patterns of geographic statistics or attributes and the relationships between them. ex: cartogram, choropleth, flow line, isoline, population density, ect.

time-space comparison

the idea that the world feels smaller than it used to as a result of improved technology in communications and transportation systems

watershed

area that is served by a water source (functional region)

five themes: region

grouping areas of the world together to better understand it (formal, functional, perceptual)

five themes : place

characteristics of a location

five themes: location

where a place is on earth

five themes: movement

the people, goods, and ideas travel from place to place

five themes: human environment interaction HEI

the way people and the environment affect each other (adapt, modify, and depend).

absolute distance

describing how far a distance is in quantitative units of distance (miles, kilometers, ect)

absolute location

the exact location of a place on earth

cartogram

a special kind of map that distorts the shapes and sizes of countries or other political regions to present data for comparison

cartography

the science of making maps

census

the official count of the individuals in a population (in the USA it happens every 10 years)

census tract

an area delineated by the U.S. bureau of the census for which statistics are published; in urbanizes ares, census tracts correspond roughly to neighborhoods.

cultural landscape

the physical imprint human make on the environment

choropleth map

a thematic map that uses tones or colors to represent spatial data as averages values per unit area

isoline/contour map

a map displaying lines that connect points of equal value; for example, a map showing elevation levels (topographic)

toponym

the name by which a geographical place is known