Thinking Geographically

These flashcards cover key terms and definitions related to geography, including human geography, types of maps, spatial concepts, geography technology, and environmental theories.

What is Human Geography?

The study of people and places, how we make places, organize space and society, and interact in localities, regions, and the world.

What are reference maps?

Maps used to show landforms and/or places, including physical and political maps.

What is a physical map?

A reference map that shows identifiable natural landmarks such as mountains, rivers, oceans, and elevation.

What is a political map?

A reference map that shows political boundaries such as countries, cities, and capitals.

What are thematic maps?

Maps used to display specific types of information (theme) pertaining to an area.

What is a cartogram?

A thematic map that shows statistical data by transforming space, e.g., population.

What is a choropleth map?

A thematic map that uses shading or coloring to show statistical data, such as population.

What is a dot density map?

A thematic map that uses dots to indicate a feature or occurrence, e.g., population.

What is a graduated symbols map?

A thematic map that indicates relative magnitude of some value for a geographic region with symbols that vary in proportion to the data.

What is absolute distance?

Measurement using a standard unit of length, e.g., miles or kilometers.

What is relative distance?

Measurement of the social, cultural, and/or economic connectivity between places.

What is absolute direction?

Finding a location using compass directions such as north, south, east, or west.

What is relative direction?

Finding a location without using compass directions, e.g., left, right, forward.

What is spatial pattern?

The way things are laid out and organized on the surface of the Earth.

What is clustering?

Objects that form a group, e.g., coastal population.

What is dispersal?

Objects that are scattered, e.g., rural population.

What is elevation?

Height above sea level.

What is spatial scale?

Hierarchy of spaces, e.g., global, regional, national, local.

What is map distortion?

All maps are distorted when projecting a 3-dimensional surface onto a 2-dimensional surface.

What is geospatial technology?

Technology that provides geographic data used for personal, business, and governmental purposes.

What is GIS (Geographic Information System)?

A map created by a computer that combines layers of spatial data for analysis.

What is remote sensing?

Collecting data with instruments that are distant from the area of study.

What is absolute location?

The precise location of a place using the Earth’s Graticule (latitude and longitude).

What is relative location?

The location of a place relative to other human and physical features.

What is pattern in geography?

An arrangement of objects on Earth, including the space in between those objects.

What is human-environment interaction?

The ways humans modify or adapt to the natural world.

What is distance decay?

The idea that the likelihood of interaction diminishes with increasing distance.

What is time-space compression?

The increasing sense of connectivity that seems to bring people closer together despite distances.

What is globalization?

The process of increased interconnectedness among countries in economics, politics, and culture.

What are natural resources?

Something found in nature that is necessary or useful to humans.

What is environmental determinism?

Theory that a society is formed and determined by the physical environment.

What is possibilism?

Theory that the environment sets certain constraints but people use creativity to respond to their conditions.

What is a formal region?

A region marked by a shared trait, e.g., cultural or physical traits.

What is a functional region?

A region marked by a particular set of activities that occur, e.g., a city's metropolitan area.

What is a perceptual/vernacular region?

A region that exists as an idea, e.g., the South.