AP Human Geography Exam Review

Spatial pattern

The general arrangements of things being studied and the repeated sequence of events, or processes, that create them

Reference Map

Maps that reer to general information about places

Political Map

Shows and labels human-created boundaries and designations, such as countries, states, cities, and capitals

Physical Map

Shows and labels natural features such as mountains, rivers, and deserts

Road Maps

Shows and labels highways, streets, and alleys

Plat maps

Shows and labels property lines and details of land ownership

Thematic Map

Shows spatial aspects of information or of a phenomenon

Cloropleth Maps

Uses varios colors, shades of one color, or patterns to show the location and distribution of spatial data. Often show rates or other quantitative data in defined areas

Dot Distribution Map

Used to show the specific location and distribution of something across a map. Each dot represents a specified quantity

Graduated Symbol Map

Uses symbols of different sizes to indicate different amounts of something. Larger sizes indicate more of something, smaller indicates less.

Isoline Map

Uses lines that connect points of equal value to depict varations in the data across space. When lines are close together, the map depicts rapid change. Where the lines are farther apart, the phemomenon is relatively the same

Cartogram

The sizes of countries are shown according to some specific statistic

Scale

The ratio between the size of things in the real world and the size of those same things on the map

3 types of Scales

Cartographic scale, geographic scale, and the scale of the data represented on the map

Cartographic scale

The way the map communicates the ratio of its size to the size of what it represents

Small-scale Map

Shows a larger amount of area with less detail (Ex: Global scale Earth at night)

Large-scale Map

Shows a smaller amount of area with a greater amount of detail (Ex: North America at night)

Absolute location

The precise spot where something is according to a system

Latitude

The distance north or south of the equator

Equator

An imaginary line that circles the globe exactly halfway between the North and South Poles

Longitude

The distance east or west of the prime merdian

Prime Meridian

An imaginary line that runs from pole to pole through Greenwich, England

International Date Line

An imaginary line located at 180 degrees longitude, but makes deviations to accomodate international boundaries

Relative Location

A description of where something is in relation to other things (Ex: Describing Salt Lake City as being “just south of the Great Salt Lake and just west of the Rocky Mountains, on Interstate 15 about halfway between Las Vegas, Nevada, and Butte, Montana”

Connectivity

How well 2 locations are tied together by roads or other links

Accessibility

How quickly and easily people in one location can interact with people in another location

Direction

Used in order to describe where things are in relation to each other

Distance

A measurement of how far/how near things are to one another

Absolute distance

Usually measured in terms of feet, miles, meters, or kilometers (Ex: The absolute distance from home to your school is 2.2 miles)

Relative distance

The degree of nearness based on time/money and is often dependent on the mode of travel (Ex: Traveling from home to your schoo; takes 10 minutes by car or 25 minutes walking)

Elevation

The distance of features above sea level, usually measured in feet or meters

Distribution

The way a phenomenon is spread out over an area

Clustered/agglomerated phenomena

Arranged in a group or concentrated area (Ex: Restaurants in a food court at a mall)

Linear phenomena

Arranged in a straight line (Ex: Distribution of towns along a railroad line)

Dispersed phenomena

Spread out over a large area (Ex: Distribution of large malls in a city)

Circular phenomena

Equally spaced from a central point, forming a circle (Ex: Distribution of the homes of people who shop at a particular store)

Geometric phenomena

In a regular arrangement (Ex: Squares/Blocks formed by roads in the Midwest)

Random phenomena

Appear to have no order to their position (Ex: Distribution of pet owners in a city)

Mercator projection

Used for navigation. Directions are shown accurately, but land masses near the poles appear large

Peters projection

Spatial distributions related to area. Sizes of land masses are accurate, however, shapters are inaccurate, especially near the poles

Conic projection

General use in midlatitude countries. Size and shape are both close to reality, but direction is not constant

Robinson projection

General use. Oval shape appears more like a globe than does a rectangle, but area, shape, size, and direction are all slightly distorted

Landscape analysis

The task of defining and descibing landscapes

Field observation

The act of physically visiting a location, place, or region and recording firsthand, information there

Spatial data

All of the information that can be tied to specific locations

Remote sensing

Gathers information from satellites that orbit the earth or other craft above the atmosphere

Aerial photography

Professional images captured from planes within the atmosphere

Geospatial data

All information that can be tied to a specific place

Fieldwork

Observing and recording information on location, or in the field

Qualitative data

Information that is presented in word form and is often up for interpretation and debate

Quantitative data

Information that can be counted and presented in number form

Geovisualization

Concerns the visual representations of geospatial data and the use of cartographic techniques to support visual analytics

Global Positioning System (GPS)

Use the locations of multiple satellites to determine and record a reciever’s exact location

Geographic Information System (GIS)

Computer system that can store, analyze, and display information from multiple digital maps or geospatial data sets

Physical geography

The study of the spatial characteristics of various elements of the physical environment (Landforms, bodies of water, climate, ecosystems)

Human geography

The study of the spatial characteristics of humans and human activities (population, culture, politics, urban areas, and economics)

Spatial approach

The arrangement of the phenomena being studied across the surface of the earth. Focuses on things like location, distance, direction, orientation, flow, pattern, interconnection, the movements of people and things, changes in places over time, and even human perceptions of space and place

Space

The area between 2 or more phenomena or things

Location

Identifies where specific phenomena are located either on a grid system or relative to another location

Place

The specific human and physical characteristics of a location

Region

A group of places in the same area that share a characteristic

Site

The characteristics at the immediate location (Ex: The soil tpe, climate, labor force, and human structures)

Situation

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

Sense of place

A strong feeling or perception people have of a place (Ex: Characteristics of Rome, Italy, might be described differently by a local resident than by an outsider)

Placelessness

A place that inspires no strong emotional ties in people or lacks uniqueness

Toponyms

The name of a place

Time-space compression

The shrinking “time-distance,” or relative distance, between locations because of improved methods of transportation and communication (Ex: London and NYC being closer now than it was in the 19th century due to air travel shortening the time it takes to get to each destination, although the absolute distance has not changed)

Spatial interaction

The contact, movement, and flow of things between locations (Can be physical like roads or informations like radios and internet service)

PLACES WITH MORE CONNECTION HAVE AN INCREASE IN THIS

Flow

The patterns and movement of ideas, people, products, and other phenomena

Distance decay

The effect od distance on cultural or spatial interactions (The larget the distance, the less interaction) (Ex: The weakening of a radio signal as it travels across space awy from a radio tower)

Pattern

The general arrangement of things being studied

Distribution

The way a phenomenon is spread out or arranged over an area to describe patterns

Spatial association

The relationships between different objects in an area (Looks at how objects are arranged, connected, and possibly isolated in a place) (Ex: How the distribution of malaria and the mosquito match and could relate/associate to one another)

Human-environmental interaction

How people shape the environment and how the environment shapes people

Natural resource

Items that occur in the natural environment that people can use (Ex: Air, water, oil, fish, soil, nutrients)

Renewable natural resource

Theoretically are unlimited and will not be depleted based on use by people

Non-Renewable natural resource

Are limited and can be exhaused by human uses (Ex: Fossil fuels, earth minerals)

Sustainability

Relates to trying to use resources now in ways that allow their use in the future while minimizing negative impacts on the environment

Land use

The study of how land us utilized, modified, and organized by people

Environment

Usually a reference to nature and natural things (Ex: Plants, animals, water, air)

Built environment

The physical artifacts that humans have created and that form part of the landscape, in their understanding of land use (Ex: Buildings, roads, signs, farms, fences)

Cultural landscape

Anything built by humans in the realm of land use

Cultural ecology

The study of how human adapt to the environment

Environmental determinism

The belief that landforms and climate are the most powerful forces shaping human behavior and societal development while ignoring the influence of culture (Developed by geographers in 19th and early 20th centuries) (Theory largely discredited because of its reliance on the use of Europe as a case study)

Possibilism

A view that acknowledges limits on the effects of the natural environment and focus more on the role that human culture plays (Diff cultures may respond to the same nat. envir. in diverse ways) (Ex: Nethelands overcoming the threat of floods and rising sea levels by developing a water management system)

Scale of analysis

Allows geographers to look at the local, regional, country, or global scale

Geographic scale

The area of the world being studied (Ex: Global scale means a map of the entire planet)

Global scale

The entire world (Ex: Global earth at night)

World Regional

Multiple countries of the world (Ex: North America)

National

One country (Ex: The United States)

National Regional

A portion of a country or a region(s) within a country (Ex: the Midwest)

Local

A province, state, city, county, or neighborhood (Ex: Tennessee)

Aggregation

When geographers organize data into different scales such as by cenus tract, city, county, or country. Allows data to be more easily mapped/organized on a chart/graph

Formal (Uniform) Region

United by one or more traits (Political: Brazil, physical: Sahara, cultural: SW Nigeria, or economic: Gold Coast of Africa)

Functional (Nodal) Region

United by networks of communication, transportation, and other interactions (Ex: Pizza delivery areas)

Vernacular (Perceptual) Region

Defined by the informal sense of place that people ascribe to them (Ex: the American South)

Subregion

Shares some characteristics with the rest of the larger region but is distinctive in some ways (Ex: Latin America covers parts of North and South America, from Mexico to Chile)