AP HuG - Unit 1 Vocab

Fieldwork

The process of collecting data and information through direct observation and interaction in a specific location.

Accessibility

The ease of reaching a destination or the degree to which a location can be accessed.

Political Ecology

an area of inquiry concerned with the environmental consequences of dominant political economic arrangements and understandings

Terra Incognita

unknown lands that are off limits

Human Geography

a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with the built environment, with particular reference to the causes and consequences of the spatial distribution of human activity on the Earth's surface

Relocation Diffusion

Involves the actual movement of individuals who have already adopted the idea or innovation, and who carry it to a new, perhaps distant, locale, where they proceed to disseminate it

Epidemic

A widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time

Spatial Distribution

refers to how resources, activities, and human demographic features of landscapes are arranged across the earth

Globalization

a set of processes that are increasing interactions, deepening relationships, and accelerating interdependence across national borders

Cultural Landscape

The visible imprint of human activity on the landscape

Sequent Occupance

refers to sequential imprints of occupants, whose impacts are layered one on top of the other, each layer having some impacts on the next

Global Positioning System

A satellite-based navigation system that allows us to locate things on the surface of Earth with extraordinary accuracy

Movement

refers to the mobility of people, goods, and ideas across the surface of the planet

Spatial Perspective

a way of identifying, explaining, and predicting the human and physical patterns and the connections of various locations

Pattern

the arrangement of objects on Earth's surface in relation to other objects

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of a cultural trait or innovation through a population in an area, resulting in an increase in the number of adopters.

Cultural Trait

A single element of a culture, such as a belief, practice, or object.

Physical Geography

studies the natural features of earth, as well as earth's natural processes

Distance

The amount of space between two points, often measured in units such as miles or kilometers

Human-Environment

The interaction and relationship between human beings and their physical environment

Relative Location

describes the location of a place in relation to other human and physical features

Medical Geography

Mapping the distribution of a disease (the first step to finding its cause)

Geocaching

An outdoor recreational activity in which participants use GPS to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches."

Reference Maps

show locations of places as well as human and natural geographic features

Cultural Hearth

an area where cultural traits develop and from which cultural traits diffuse

Spatial Interaction

the flow of information, products, and human beings from one location to another

Functional Region

a region with a particular set of activities or interactions that occur within it

Rescale

The process of changing the scale at which a phenomenon is analyzed or understood.

Formal Region

A region defined by a shared cultural or physical trait, such as language, culture, or physical features.

Contagious Diffusion

a form of expansion diffusion in which nearly all adjacent individuals and places are affected

Activity Space

those places we travel to routinely in our rounds of daily activity

Pandemic

worldwide outbreaks

Cultural Complex

more than one culture may exhibit a particular culture trait, but each consists of a discrete combination of traits

Cartography

The art and science of map-making.

Place

A specific point on Earth distinguished by particular characteristics

Landscape

The visible features of an area of land, including physical and human-made elements.

Mental Map

maps in our minds of places we have been and places we have merely heard of

Sense of Place

The emotional and cultural significance that a location holds for individuals or groups

Hierarchical Diffusion

a pattern in which the main channel of diffusion is some segment of those who are susceptible to what is being diffused

Culture

an all-encompassing term that identifies not only the whole tangible lifestyle of peoples but also their prevailing values and beliefs

Cultural Diffusion

The process by which cultural traits and innovations spread from one culture to another

Connectivity

The degree to which different locations are linked or connected to one another

Absolute Location

The precise location of a place using a coordinate system, such as latitude and longitude

Five Themes

A framework for understanding geography, including location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and region.

Possibilism

the doctrine that the choices that a society makes depend on what its members need and on what technology is available to them

Environmental Determinism

belief that human behavior, individually and collectively, is strongly affected by, even controlled or determined by the physical environment

Cultural Ecology

an area of inquiry concerned with culture as a system of adaptation to and alteration of environment

Perceptual Region

intellectual constructs designed to help us understand the nature and distribution of phenomena in human geography

Independent Invention

When a cultural trait develops in more than one hearth without being influenced by its development elsewhere

Stimulus Diffusion

Not all ideas can be readily and directly adopted by a receiving population; yet, these ideas can still have an impact

Region

an area that shares similar characteristics

Cultural Barrier

Prevailing cultural attitude rendering certain innovations, ideas or practices unacceptable or unadoptable in that particular culture

Location Theory

theory concerned with the geographic location of economic activity

Diffusion

the spread of an idea or characteristic over time

Thematic Maps

tell stories showing the degree of some attribute or the movement of a geographic phenomenon

Spatial

How something is laid out; space on Earth's surface

Location

the position of something on the earth's surface

Perception of Place

Belief or understanding about a place developed through books, movies, stories or pictures

Remote Sensing

the process of taking pictures of the Earth's surface from satellites to provide a greater understanding of the Earth's geography over large distances

Geographic Information System (GIS)

compare spatial data by creating digitized representations of the environment, combining layers of spatial data and creating maps in which patterns and processes are superimposed

Time- Distance Decay

the declining degree of acceptance of an idea or innovation with increasing time and distance from its point of origin