APHG

Relative Location

The position of one place (or person) in relation to the position of another place (or person). Example/Reminder: measured in time or distance.

Cultural Landscape

The built forms that cultural groups create in inhabiting Earth and the meaning, values, representations, and experiences associated with those forms. Example/Reminder: looking at the city from a skyline.

Time Space Compression

The decreasing distance between places, as measured by travel time or cost; often summarized by the phrase 'the world is shrinking.' Example/Reminder: Advanced communication (phones) and travel (planes).

Interdependence

The ties established between regions and countries that over time collectively create a global economic system that is not necessarily based on equality. Example/Reminder: Does NOT mean equality. Means there is a two-way flow of goods and ideas that create dependencies on both ends of the connection.

Geographic Processes

The physical and human forces that work together to form and transform the world. Example/Reminder: Earthquakes, Deforestation.

Diffusion

The pattern by which a phenomenon such as the movement of people, or their ideas, technologies, or preferences, spreads from a particular location through space and time. Example/Reminder: Helps trace how spatial patterns emerge and evolve.

Independent Invention

Occurs when the same or very similar innovation is developed at the same time in different places by different people working independently. Example/Reminder: Similar stone tools were created by early human communities at the same time in different parts of the world.

Expansion Diffusion

Occurs when ideas or practices spread throughout a population, from area to area, in a snowballing process, so that the total number of knowers or users and the areas of occurrence increase. Example/Reminder: A snowball getting larger and larger as it rolls down a hill collecting more snow.

Hierarchical Diffusion

Occurs when ideas leapfrog from one important person, community, or city to another, bypassing other persons, communities, or rural areas. Example/Reminder: Trends.

Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion

Occurs when ideas leapfrog from a lower level of a hierarchy to a higher level. Example/Reminder: The spread of Walmart from rural Arkansas to larger, more populated areas.

Contagious Diffusion

The wavelike spread of ideas in the manner of a contagious disease or forest fire, moving throughout space without regard for hierarchy. Example/Reminder: Memes, cartoons or videos spreading quickly from person to person.

Stimulus Diffusion

Occurs when a specific trait is rejected, but the underlying idea is accepted. Example/Reminder: Combination of cultural imitation and innovation to produce a new form or variation.

Relocation Diffusion

Occurs when individuals or groups with a particular idea or practice migrate from one location to another, thereby bringing the idea or practice to their new homeland. Example/Reminder: European settlers brought Christianity to America.

Friction of Distance

The inhibiting effect of distance on the intensity and volume of most forms of human interaction; time-space compression diminishes friction of distance. Example/Reminder: Time, money, energy reduce level of interaction between places.

Ecosystem

A territorially bounded system consisting of the interaction between humans and the environment.

Environmental Perception

The mental images that comprise humans' perception of nature; environmental perception may be accurate or inaccurate.

Nonrenewable Resources

Natural resources that are available on Earth in finite quantities and will eventually be used up.

Renewable Resources

Natural resources that Earth will naturally replenish over time.

Greenhouse Gasses

Compounds in the atmosphere from fossil-fuel combustion, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), that absorb and trap heat energy close to Earth's surface.

Greenhouse Effect

The global warming trend caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Environmental Determinism

The belief that the physical environment is the dominant force shaping cultures and that humanity is a passive product of its physical surroundings.

Possibilism

The belief that any physical environment offers a number of possible ways for a society to develop and that humans can find ways to overcome environmental challenges.

Global Scale

Geographic scale that looks at geographic phenomena across the entire world.

Regional Scale Analysis

Geographic scale that identifies and analyzes geographic phenomena within a particular region.

National Scale Analysis

Geographic scale that identifies and analyzes geographic phenomena within a specific country.

Local Scale Analysis

Geographic scale that identifies and analyzes geographic phenomena within a state or province, a city or town, or neighborhood.

Glocal Perspective

Geographic perspective that acknowledges the two-way relationship between local communities and global patterns, emphasizing that the forces of globalization need to take into account local-scale cultural, economic, and environmental conditions.