Unit I Vocab

Fall Exam

Environmental Determinism

A doctrine that claims that cultural traits are formed and controlled by environmental conditions.

Environmental Possibilism

The theory that the environment sets certain constraints or limitations, but culture is otherwise determined by social conditions.

Political Map

A map showing units such as countries, states, provinces, districts, etc. Each is normally a different color

Physical Map

A map that shows land and water features

Reference Map

A map type that shows reference information for a particular place, making it useful for finding landmarks and for navigation.

Thematic Map

A map that emphasizes a single idea or a particular kind of information about an area

Choropleth Map

A thematic map in which ranked classes of some variable are depicted with shading patterns or colors for predefined zones.

Dot Map

A thematic map in which a dot represents some frequency of the mapped variable

Graduated Symbol Map

Uses symbols of different sizes to indicate different amounts of something

Isoline Map

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

Cartogram Map

A map in which the shape or size is distorted in order to demonstrate a variable such as travel, population or economic production.

Topography

A description of surface features of land.

Satellite Navigation System

Portable device that uses GPS to plot the user's position.

Geographic Information Systems

A computer system that stores, organizes, analyzes, and displays geographic data.

Remote Sensing

The acquisition of data about Earth's surface from long-distance methods.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Data

\-Quantitative- numerical -Qualitative- descriptive observations ex. colors

Cultural landscape

The visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape

Time-Space Compression

Through processes such as globalization time is accelerated and the significance of space is reduced.

Distance Decay/Friction of Distance

Longer distances make interaction, trade, communication, etc. more difficult.

Map Scales (Small vs. Large)

A small-scale map covers a larger geographic region with little precision; whereas, a large-scale map covers a relatively small geographic area with greater precision.

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.

Sustainability

The ability to keep in existence or maintain. A sustainable ecosystem is one that can be maintained.

Scale of Analysis

How zoomed in or out you are when looking at geographic data.

How is data interpreted at different scales (global, regional, national, local)?

Cartographic Scale - ratio of map size to real-world size. Geographic Scale - amount of territory the map represents. Scale of Data/Scale of Analysis - level of data being measured (local, national/country, regional/continental, global).

What are the main map projections and what is each used for?

Mercator: Navigation

Peters: Spatial Distributions Related to Areas

Conic: General Use in Mid-latitude Countries

Robinson: General use

What are the distortions of the Mercator and Robinson Projections?

Mercator: Distance between lines of longitude appears constant and land masses near the poles appear larger. Robinson: Area, shape, size, and direction are all slightly distorted.

What are the uses of the Mercator and Robinson Projections?

Mercator: Directions are shown accurately and lines of latitude and longitude meet at right angles.

Robinson: No major distortion and an oval shape appears more like a globe.

What are the drawbacks of map projections?

Mercator: Massively distorts size at higher latitudes.

Peters: Distorts shape.

Conic: Ditances between regions and their areas are distorted at the poles.

Robinson: Distorts polar areas.

Define the three types of regions.

Formal Regions (aka Uniform, Homogenous): unifying physical or human characteristic.

Functional Region (aka Nodal): center of activity, unified by communication or transportation network(s).

Perceptual Region (aka Vernacular): formed by stereotypes.

Give an example for each type of region.

Formal Regions: Countries, states, cities...

Functional Regions: A trade route, transportation hub, shopping center...

Perceptual Regions: The Bible Belt, Silicon Valley, The Midwest...

Perceptual Regions: The Bible Belt, Silicon Valley, The Midwest...