KBAT UNIT 1 AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

Mr. B

Cartography

The science or practice of making maps.

Contagious Diffusion

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population.

Cultural Ecology

The study of how humans interact with and adapt to the environment.

Culture

The body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits that together constitute a group's distinct tradition.

Density

The frequency with which something occurs in space (people, houses, cars, etc.).

Diffusion

The process by which a characteristic spreads from one place to another over time.

Distance-Decay

The idea that the farther apart two places are, the less interaction they will have.

Distribution

The arrangement of something across Earth's surface.

Environmental Determinism

The belief that the environment directly shapes human behavior and culture.

Equator

An imaginary line drawn around the Earth equally distant from both poles, at 0° latitude.

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of a feature from one place to another in a snowballing process.

Formal Region

An area in which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics.

Friction of Distance

The idea that distance requires effort and cost, so as distance increases, interactions decrease.

Functional Region

A region organized around a node or focal point.

GIS (Geographic Information System)

A system that captures, stores, analyzes, and displays geographic data.

GPS (Global Positioning System)

A system that determines the exact position of something on Earth through satellites.

Gravity Model

A model predicting interaction between two places based on their population sizes and distance.

Hierarchical Diffusion

The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority to other people or places.

Hearth

The place where an innovation or idea originates.

International Date Line

An arc that mostly follows 180° longitude and marks the change of calendar days.

Latitude

The numbering system used to indicate location of parallels north or south of the equator.

Longitude

The numbering system used to indicate location of meridians east or west of the Prime Meridian.

Mercator Projection

A map projection that preserves direction but distorts size, especially near the poles.

Model

A simplified representation of reality used to explain or predict spatial patterns and processes.

Possibilism

The belief that the environment sets limits, but humans can adjust and choose their own path.

Prime Meridian

The meridian at 0° longitude, running through Greenwich, England.

Projection

A system used to transfer locations from Earth's surface to a flat map.

Relocation Diffusion

The spread of an idea through the physical movement of people from one place to another.

Remote Sensing

The acquisition of data about Earth's surface from a satellite or long-distance method.

Robinson Projection

A map projection that shows most distances, sizes, and shapes fairly accurately but has distortion around the edges.

Scale

The relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole.

Site

The physical characteristics of a place (climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, etc.).

Situation

The location of a place relative to other places.

Space-Time Compression

The reduction in the time it takes for something to reach another place due to technological improvements.

Spatial Analysis

Examining geographic patterns to identify relationships.

Stimulus Diffusion

The spread of an underlying idea, even though a specific characteristic fails to spread.

Time Zones

Regions of the globe that observe a uniform standard time.

Tobler's First Law

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

Toponym

The name given to a place on Earth.

Uneven Development

The increasing gap in economic conditions between core and peripheral regions.

Vernacular Region

A perceptual region defined by people's beliefs, feelings, and images.

Cultural Ecology

The study of how humans adapt to and modify the environment.

Diffusion

The process by which a characteristic spreads across space from one place to another over time.

Globalization

The process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.

Regions

Areas that are divided based on common characteristics such as culture, climate, or government.

Define Geography

The study of where things are found on Earth's surface and the reasons for their location.

Define Human Geography

The study of how humans make places, organize space and society, interact with the environment, and create meaning.

Spatial Perspective

Looking at the patterns of human behavior and their spatial expression on the landscape.

Distribution (Classification)

The arrangement of something across Earth's surface (density, concentration, pattern).

Location (Classification)

A particular position or point in physical space, identified by absolute or relative terms.

Region (Classification)

An area defined by one or more distinctive characteristics or trends.

Simplification (in mapmaking)

Leaving out certain details on a map to focus on what is important.

Symbolization (in mapmaking)

Using symbols to represent certain features on a map.

Categorization (in mapmaking)

Grouping information into categories for easier understanding on a map.

Induction (in mapmaking)

Generalizing information from specific observations on a map.

Types of Scale (Mapmaking)

Cartographic (map ratio scale), geographic (local, regional, global scale), analytic (scale of data analysis).

Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Map Projections

Some preserve shape, some area, some distance, but all maps distort reality in some way.

Gravity Model (Application)

A model used to predict the amount of interaction between two places based on population size and distance.

Types of Diffusion (Models)

Relocation, contagious, hierarchical, and stimulus diffusion.

Examples of Diffusion in the Real World

Spanish language spread to Latin America (relocation), spread of memes (contagious), spread of fashion trends from celebrities (hierarchical), McDonald's menus changing in different countries (stimulus).

Dot Distribution Map

Uses dots to represent a quantity of something in a given area; good for showing clusters but can get cluttered.

Choropleth Map

Uses shading or coloring to represent data values across areas; good for showing patterns but can hide variation within areas.

Strengths of Dot Maps

Show precise distribution patterns well.

Weaknesses of Dot Maps

Can be hard to read when dots overlap.

Strengths of Choropleth Maps

Easy to visualize data across regions.

Weaknesses of Choropleth Maps

Assumes uniformity within boundaries that may not exist.

Cartographic Scale

The ratio between the distance on a map and the corresponding distance on the ground.

Analytic Scale

The level at which data is analyzed, like neighborhood, city, country, or world.

Geographic Scale

Refers to the scope of an area being studied (local to global).

Possibilism

The belief that the environment sets certain limits, but people have the ability to adjust and make choices.

Environmental Determinism

The belief that the physical environment controls human behavior and societal development.

Cultural Ecology (again)

The geographic study of human-environment relationships.

Cultural Landscape Textbook Chapter 1

Focuses on Basic Concepts: spatial analysis, diffusion, cultural ecology, types of regions, globalization, mapping skills.