Unit 1 AP Human Geo terms

Absolute Location

A specific point on Earth's by a coordinate.

Relative Location

A point's location in relation to other locations.

Site

The physical characteristics of a place.

Situation

The location of a place relative to its surroundings and other places.

Location

The position of a particular place or point on the Earth's surface.

Human Environment Interaction

The way humans interact with the enviornment.

Region

An area defined by certain similar characteristics, which can be physical, cultural, or political.

Place

A specific point on Earth distinguished by particular characteristics, including physical and human elements.

Movement

The transportation of people, goods, and ideas across different locations.

Cultural Landscape

The way culture has shaped the landscape.

Perception of Place

The way a place is perceived or seen.

Sense of place

The emotional connection someone has to a place.

Sequent Occupance

Different societies changing the landscape

Epidemic

A disease outbreak in a local area.

Medical Geography

The perception of the world medically.

Pandemic

A global outbreak.

Formal Region

A region that is determined politically with set boundaries

Functional region

A region with a node that shows a certain function

Perceptual region

The way a certain region is perceived and what they perceive.

Climate region

A regional that shares similar climate

Dispersion

Distributing things or people.

Distribution

The people are moved around.

Scale

A ratio of distance.

Spatial Distribution

Describes how resources, people and phenomena occur.

Spatial Perspective

A way of viewing the world using location, arrangement and phenomena.

Contagious Diffusion

Rapid widespread of a cultural trait or idea.

Cultural Diffusion

When different cultures mix through interactions such as trade.

Expansion Diffusion

The expansion of a cultural trait or idea.

Hierarchical Diffusion

A type of cultural diffusion where a cultural trait slowly spreads to areas where the trait is non dominant.

Independent invention

The invention of a cultural trait.

Relocation Diffusion

A type of Cultural diffusion caused by the movement and relocation of people (ex: Jewish people going from Europe to Israel after ww2).

Stimulus Diffusion

A culture evolves due to the adaptation of new locations.

Cultural Ecology

The study of how humans and societies adapt to their physical and social environments.

Environmental Determinism

How society does things such as construction, based off natural surroundings.

Location Theory

Study of economic activities to maximize profit.

Political Ecology

How politics shape human environments.

Possiblism

The way humans have shaped the environment.

Human Geography

How human activity has influenced or been influenced by the environment.

Physical Geography

The study f landforms and locations of places.

Globalization

Expanding economically and socially around the globe.

Local Diversity

Unique cultural traits by a local area.

Multinational Corporation

Large companies that span through different countries (ex: McDonald’s).

Space Time Compression

As we advance in technology, places that were harder to access in the past are now easier due to more advanced technology (ex: in the 1800’s you would have to travel on a long boat trip to get from New York to London, but now we can get there by flying in a plane).

Time Distance decay

If there is a restaurant in one point, many people who live around it will go there more than people who live further away.

Culture

The way of life of a particular group of people due to their background and where they are from.

Cultural barrier

Problems in communicating with other cultures due to different beliefs.

Cultural Complex

A cluster of different cultural traits that have the same theme.

Cultural hearth

The place where cultural traits originate.

Cultural trait

The components of a culture.

Activity Space

The set of locations and routes between them.

Connectivity

The state of being connected or interconnected.

Spatial interaction

Any movement of people, information and other things.

Cartography

The study of maps.

Chloropleth Map

A map that uses color to show a certain trend.

Distortion

The way a map changes based on the type of map.

Generalized Map

Simplifies complex information.

Greenwich Mean Time

The yearly averagev of the time each day when the Sun crosses the Prime Meridian