APHG Chapter 1

formal region

clearly defined with a border of some kind (cities, states, countries, etc.)

functional region

central place and the surrounding areas are affected by it, centered around a place/thing with a purpose (cafeteria, tv station)

vernacular region

defined by people’s perception and understanding of the environment (the south)

culture region

area where people with similar cultures live

spacial association

degree to which things are similarly arranged in space, helps create regional associations (strong to weak depending on distribution)

situation

description of a place based off other locations

site

description of a place (physical characteristics)

toponym

name given to a place

transnational corporations

companies that cross borders for international profit (ex: McDonald's). They might shift products from place to place

globalization

a force or process that results in increasing connections between places (smaller scale, increases inequality)

core

developed countries; greater wealth/power; build based on poorer nation's resources

periphery

undeveloped countries; less wealth/power; uses natural resources to manufacture

distance decay

the eventual disappearance and diminished importance of an event with increasing distance from its origin (space/time)

connection diffusion

relationships among people and objects that cross the barrier of space

diffusion

process where a feature spreads across the globe over time

hearth diffusion

place where an innovation is from

relocation diffusion

the spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another (stays the same)

expansion diffusion

the spread of a feature to another in an additive process (new people start doing this quickly)

hierarchical diffusion

the spread of an idea from people or places of authority (reverse hierarchical: where people with less power spread an idea) (expansion)

contagious diffusion

rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic (not disease) (expansion)

stimulus diffusion

the spread of an underlying principle even though the characteristic itself doesn't diffuse (ex: yoga) (expansion)

polder

a piece of land created by draining water from an area

dike

a damn; wall used to prevent flooding

distribution

the particular arrangement of a feature across space (density, concentration, and pattern)

density

the amount per unit size

concentration

the extent of a feature's spread over space

pattern

geometric or regular arrangement of something in an area (think: grid)

scale

the relationship between distance on a map and the corresponding distance on the ground

scale of analysis

the scale used to analyse the event/data

longitude

meridians

latitude

parallels

large scale

shows less area but more depth

global scale

shows whole world without borders or details

regional scale

global scale with regional borders (continents)

national scale

global scale with national data (has political boundary lines)

local scale

national scale with subnational divisions (ex: states in the U.S.)

chloropleth

different data points are colored differently

cartogram

distinct regions are shaped by data not actual size

isoline

connect points of similar values (weather)

mercator projection

a map projection of the earth onto a cylinder; areas appear greater the farther they are from the equator

gall-peters projection

a more accurate projection of continents/countries both size and location wise (still distorted, land area remains good though)

robinson

created in an attempt to find a good compromise to the problem of accurately showing the land masses (distorts poles but less than before) - this is the one used most often today as it rounds the lat. and long.

azimuthal projection

a point on a rounded area (usually one of the poles) is picked as the center, and it’s usually super accurate at the top, but gets super distorted the further we go

goode homolosine

alternative to the gall-peters to portray the world, cuts off oceans

GIS

Geographic Information Systems (layers different data points to make one multipurpose map

determinism

physical environment causes social development (outdated)

possibilism

physical environment might limit some human actions, but people can and will adjust to their environment

pillars of sustainability

environmental, economic, social