GEOG 211 Midterm

anthropocene

an unofficial geological time interval used to describe the current period in Earth's history when human activity has become the dominant force shaping the planet's climate, ecosystems, and geology

Ecological Imperialism

the biological expansion of Europe where Europeans intentionally and unintentionally spread crops, animals, and diseases across the ‘new world’

absolute location

a place’s exact location on the earth’s surface measured in terms of coordinates and often referred to about in nominal terms as opposed to absolute terms

situation

a place or feature’s location relative to other places or phenomena

complementarity

a spatial interaction where one region has a surplus of a resource, good, or service that another region demands, creating a basis for trade, movement, or economic exchange

friction of distance

moving people, goods, or information incurs costs in time, energy, money, and physical effort, and that these resistance costs increase with distance

First Law of Geography

everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things

globalization

the growing integration and interdependence of the world's economies, cultures, populations, and political systems through cross-border trade, technology, and investment flows

relative distance

the time required to get between two points, OR, the cost required to get between two points

region

areas that are defined by one or more distinctive characteristics or features

formal region

show uniformity in one or more physical or cultural features, such as a mountain range

functional region

defined by interactions among places, such as communication or trade

spatial diffusion

the manner in which phenomena spread through space over time

expansion diffusion

the spread from one place or person directly to a neighbouring place or person

relocation diffusion

the spread between widely separated points, often with little or no diffusion in between

hierarchical diffusion

diffusion up or down a hierarchy, such as networks, institutions, and organisations

spatial distribution

the arrangement of a phenomenon—such as people, plants, or geological features—across the Earth's surface, analyzed through patterns

scale

the size, relative or absolute, you could say level at which we are analysing, modelling, and understanding of phenomena

territoriality

the delimited area over which an individual or group exercises control; in the case of states, territory delineates an area where certain rules or regulations can be enforced with the goal of controlling people and resources

boundary permeability

the degree to which a psychological, social, or organizational boundary allows elements, tasks, or thoughts from one domain to enter another

centrifugal forces

forces that pull states apart and can eventually lead to their disintegration

centripetal forces

cultural, economic, social or other forces that help to bind a state together

failed state

a country whose government has lost the ability to exercise basic authority, protect its borders, or provide fundamental public services and security

geographic imagination

the cognitive framework and set of cultural assumptions people use to understand, represent, and navigate space, place, and territory

cartographic bias

when a map distorts physical reality, human geography, or political boundaries to favor a specific viewpoint, culture, or agenda

imperialism

the practice, the theory and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan center ruling a distant territory

ethnocentrism

the tendency to evaluate, interpret, and judge other cultures based on the standards, values, and norms of one's own culture

nation-state

a state made up of and governed by a homogenous group of people in that they share a common identity

nation

a cultural identity; a group of people who share common values, beliefs, sense of place, or other form of shared identity and want to have their own government and rule themselves

state

a physical territory; independent political units that claim exclusive jurisdiction over defined territories and over the people and activities within them

discourse

the shared systems of language, writing, symbols, and cultural practices that shape how people understand, represent, and construct places, identities, and spatial relations

hegemony

a state wherein a group within a society exerts undue influence over the society

socio-natural systems

complex, dynamic networks where human societies, economies, and institutions are deeply intertwined and co-evolve with biological, geological, and ecological processes

system boundary

an imaginary or physical line that separates a system from everything else in its environment

stock

a quantity at a specific point in time

flow

a rate of change over a period of time

ecosystem

a community of living organisms interacting with one another and with their non-living physical environment

keystone species

an organism that holds an ecosystem together, exerting a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its total population or abundance

sustainability

the ability to maintain or support a process, community, or system over the long term without depleting essential resources

natural capital

natural resource stocks (soil, water, air, genetic resources, etc.) and environmental services (hydrological cycle, pollution sinks, etc.)

human capital

skills, knowledge, labour (includes good health and physical capability)

economic/financial capital

capital base (cash, credit, debt, savings, other economic assets)

physical capital

infrastructure (buildings, roads), production equipment and technologies

social capital

social resources (networks, social claims, social relations, affiliations, associations)

advent of agriculture

humans transitioned from a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle to permanent settlements and systematic food production

Pax-Britannica

commercial state; did not want to occupy countries, wanted access to markets

colonies of settlement

a territory where large numbers of immigrants arrive with the intention of living permanently rather than just extracting resources or managing trade for a parent country

colonies of extraction

territories where a metropolitan power or transnational corporation extracts natural resources, cash crops, and labor for export without permanent mass settlement

global polycrisis

when crises across multiple global systems become causally entangled, producing combined harms that are much greater than the sum of their individual effects

progress trap

a condition where a human society solves an immediate problem using ingenuity, only to create a larger, unintended crisis that it lacks the resources or political will to fix

ecosystem-based management

an environmental management approach that considers the entire ecosystem—including humans, living species, physical environments, and economic and social needs—rather than focusing on a single species or issue in isolation

adaptive governance

a flexible, collaborative, and learning-based approach to decision-making that helps organizations and communities manage complex, uncertain, and rapidly changing environments

dissipative structure

a self-organizing, ordered pattern that forms and is maintained in an open thermodynamic system far from equilibrium, requiring a continuous flow of energy and matter to persist

externality

an unintended cost or benefit experienced by a third party who is not directly involved in an economic transaction or activity

Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES)

voluntary, conditional financial transactions where beneficiaries or buyers pay landowners and farmers to manage their land in ways that protect or restore natural resources and provide ecological benefits

carrying capacity

the maximum population size of a species that a specific environment can sustainably support indefinitely

rule of 70

Doubling time (years) = 70/Annual growth rate (%)