AP Human 1.4-1.7

Considers the arrangement of the phenomena being studied across the surface of the earth. Focuses on location, distance, direction, and orientation.

Spatial Approach

Area between two or more phenomena or things.

Space

Identifies where specific phenomena are located either on a grid system or relative to another location

Location

The specific human and physical characteristics of a location

Place

A group of places in the same area that share a common characteristic

Region

The characteristics at the immediate location

Site

The location of a place relative to its surroundings and connectivity to other places

Situation

The way humans tend to perceive the characteristics different places based on their personal beliefs.

Sense of Place

The name of a place

Toponym

The shrinking time distance or relative distance, between location’s because of improved methods of transportation and communication.

Time Space Compression

Refers to the contact, movement, and flow of things between locations

Spatial Interaction

Refers to the patterns and movements of ideas, peoples, products, and other phenomenona.

Flow

When things are farther apart, they tend to be less connected KEY WORD DISTANCE (THE DETTERENT THE PHYSCIAL DETTERENT THAT PREVENTS THE PHENOMENA BEING SPREAD ACROSS A DISTANCE) REPRESENTS THE EFFORT THE CAUSE

Friction of Distance

The decreasing interaction and connection between places due to physical distance

Distance Decay

The general arrangement of things being studied, and geographers must be able to describe patterns accurately and with precesion.

Patterns

The way a phenomenon is spread out or arranged over an area to describe patterns.

Distribution

Two or more phenomena may be related or associated with one another. For example, the distribution of malaria matches the distribution of the mosquito that carries it

Spatial Association

The dual relationship between humans and the natural world is at the heart of human geography

Human Environment Interaction

Items that occur in the natural environment that people can use.

Natural Resource

Resources that are theoretically unlimited and will not be depleted based on use by people

Renewable natural resources

Are limited and can be exhausted by human uses

Non renewable resources

An overarching theme in human geography and relates to trying to use resources now in ways that allow their use in the future while minimizing negative impacts on the environment.

Sustainability

Study of how land is utilized, modified, and organized by people

Land Use

Physical Artifacts humans have created and that form part of the landscape

Built Environment

Anything built by humans & nature

Cultural Landscape

The study of how humans adapt to the environment

Cultural Ecology

The belief that landforms and climate are the most powerful forces shaping human behavior and societal development while ignoring the influence of culture

Environmental Determinism

A view that acknowledges limits on the effects of the natural environment and focuses more on the role that human culture plays

Possibilism

Sometimes called relative scale, refers to the area of the world being studied SPECIFICALLY THE AREA

Geographic Scale

Scale at the Global Level

Global Scale

Scale at the Global Level, broken down into regions

World Regional Scale

Scale of a country (states shown)

National Scale

Scale of state of country

National Regional Scale

Scale of city or town

Local Scale

When geographers organize data into different scales such as by census tract, city, county, or country. This allows the data to be more easily mapped or organized in a chart or graph.

Aggregation

Inaccurate generalizations that are not supported by the data or logical reasoning

False Conclusion

United by one or more traits like political, physical, cultural, environmental, or economic (ex Sahara desert region)

Formal Regions

Regions are organized around a focal point and are defined by an activity usually political, social or economic, that occurs across a region. United by networks of communication (ex pizza shop)

Functional Region

Regions defined by an informal sense of place that people ascribe to them. The boundaries of them differ from person to person and each person has a different sense of what unites and defines these regions.

Perceptual Regions

Have boundaries, unifying characteristics, cover space, and are created by people

Regions