Comprehensive Geography: Maps, Data, Culture, Politics, Agriculture, Cities, Industry

Reference Maps

Designed for people to refer to for general information about places.

Thematic Maps

Used as a communications tool to tell us how human activities are distributed.

Isoline

A type of thematic map that uses lines to connect points of equal value.

Proportional Symbol

A thematic map that uses symbols of different sizes to represent data.

Cartogram

A thematic map that distorts the size of areas to represent data values.

Choropleth

A thematic map that uses different shades or colors to represent data.

Dot Density

A thematic map that uses dots to represent the presence of a feature.

Clustering

A spatial pattern where features are grouped or bunched together.

Dispersal

A spatial pattern where features appear to be distributed over a wide area.

Elevation

Using levels to indicate how high or low something is located on land.

Absolute Distance

The exact measurement of distance between two points.

Relative Distance

The distance between two points in relation to other locations.

Robinson Map

A map projection where everything is distorted in small amounts.

Gall Peters

A map projection that distorts the shape of countries, especially near the equator.

Mercator Map

A map projection where the shape and directions of countries are fairly accurate but greatly distorted toward poles.

Goode Map

A map projection that accurately portrays continent sizes but distorts directions and distances.

Geospatial Data

All information including physical features and human activities.

Geographic Information System (GIS)

A computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth's surface.

GPS

Geographic Positioning System, which uses data from satellites to pinpoint a location on Earth.

Remote Sensing

The process of taking pictures of the Earth's surface from satellites or airplanes.

Census Data

An official count of individuals in a population, occurring every 10 years in the USA.

Absolute Location

The precise spot where something is located.

Relative Location

Where something is in relation to other things.

Space

The extent of an area, which can be in a relative and absolute sense.

Place

Refers to the specific human and physical characteristics of a location.

Distance Decay

A geographical term that describes the effect of distance on cultural or spatial interactions.

Time-Space Compression

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

Pattern

The geometric or regular arrangement of something in an area.

Sustainability

The goal of reaching equilibrium with the environment while meeting present needs and leaving resources for future generations.

Natural Resources

Physical materials constituting part of Earth that people need and value.

Environmental Determinism

The theory that the physical environment determines social development.

Possibilism

The theory that the physical environment may limit some human actions, but people can adjust to their environment.

Scale

The relationship between distance on the ground and the corresponding distance on a specific map.

Formal Region

A region based on quantitative data that can be documented or measured.

Functional Region

A region based around a node or focal point.

Vernacular (Perceptual) Region

An area that shares a common qualitative characteristic, defined by people's beliefs.

Ecumene

The term used by geographers to mean where people are settled on Earth.

Arithmetic Density

Total number of objects in an area.

Physiological Density

Number of people supported by a unit area of arable land.

Agricultural Density

Ratio of the number of farmers to the amount of arable land.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum population size of a species that the environment can sustain.

Overpopulation

When there are not enough resources in an area to support a population.

Age/Sex Ratio

Comparison of the numbers of males and females of different ages.

Population Pyramid

A graph of the population of an area by age and sex.

Demography

The study of population

Crude Birth Rate (CBR)

The number of live births per one thousand people in the population

Crude Death Rate (CDR)

The number of deaths per one thousand people in the population

Doubling time

The time period it takes for a population to double in size

Fertility

The number of live births occurring in a population

Infant mortality rate (IMR)

The number of children who don't survive their first year of life per 1000 live births in a country

Mortality

The number of deaths occurring in a population

Rate of Natural Increase (RNI)

(birth rate - death rate)/10 - a positive NIR means a population is growing and a negative NIR means a population is shrinking

Total fertility rate (TFR)

The average number of children a woman is predicted to have in her child bearing (fecund) years

Antinatalist policies

When a country provides incentives for people to have fewer children

Pronatalist policies

When a country provides incentives for people to have more children

Push Factors

Force that drives people away from a place (no jobs, slavery, political instability, no water)

Pull Factors

Force that draws people to immigrate to a place (jobs, to be near family)

Intervening opportunity

The presence of a nearer opportunity that greatly diminishes the attractiveness of sites farther away

Intervening obstacle

A force or factor that may limit human migration

Asylum seeker

A person seeking residence in a country outside of their own because they are fleeing persecution

Chain migration

A series of migrations within a group that begins with one person who pulls people to migrate to the same area

Step-migration

Migration to a far away place that takes place in stages

Forced migration

When people migrate not because they want to but because they have no other choice

Guest worker

A legal immigrant who is allowed into the country to work, usually for a relatively short time period

Internally displaced persons

A person forced to flee their home who remains in their home country

Refugee

A person who flees their home country and is not able to return

Transhumance

Moving herds of animals to the highlands in the summer and into the lowlands in the winter

Transnational migration

Moving across a border into another country

Voluntary migration

People choosing to migrate (not being forced)

Dependency ratio

The ratio of the number of people not in the workforce (dependents) and those who are in the workforce (producers)

Life expectancy

The average number of years a person born in a country might expect to live

Cultural Relativism

The culture should be judged based on its own standards, not based on another culture

Ethnocentrism

Judging other cultures based on the rules of your culture

Taboo

Something that is forbidden by a culture or a religion

Cultural landscapes

The forms superimposed on the physical environment by the activities of humans. Example: Street lights, rice fields, churches, cemeteries, etc.

Ethnic Neighborhoods

Neighborhood, district or suburb which retains some cultural distinction from a larger surrounding area.

Indigenous people

A culture group that constitutes the original inhabitants of a territory, distinct from the dominant national culture, which is often derived from colonial occupation.

Indigenous community

The community of indigenous people living together working to keep their culture alive.

Sense of place

A strong feeling of identity that is deeply felt by inhabitants and visitors of a location.

Language

A set of mutually intelligible sounds and symbols that are used for communication (Soda vs Pop).

Religion

The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods (Church and Mosque).

Ethnicity

The fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition. (China Town).

Gender

Refers to the cultural differences in how men are treated differently than women.

Relocation Diffusion

A form of diffusion where the ideas being diffused are transmitted by their carriers as they migrate to new areas.

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of an idea through a population in a way that the number of those influenced becomes continuously larger.

Contagious diffusion

Transmission of a phenomenon through close contact with nearby places, like diseases.

Hierarchical diffusion

An idea spreads by passing first among the most connected individuals, then spreading to other individuals.

Reverse Hierarchical diffusion

Diffusion up a hierarchy, such as from a little city to a big one.

Stimulus diffusion

A form of diffusion in which a cultural adaptation is created as a result of the introduction of a cultural trait from another place.

Creole or creolized language

A language that began as a combination of two other languages and is spoken as the primary language of a group of people.

Lingua Franca

Mutually understood & commonly used by people who have different native languages.

Colonialism

An effort by one country to establish settlement in a territory and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles on that territory.

Imperialism

The policy of extending a country's influence through political or military force to areas already developed by an indigenous people.

Globalization

World interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology.

Time-Space Convergence

The decline in travel time between geographical locations as a result of transportation, communication, and related technological and social innovations.

Cultural Convergence

Different cultures acquire common ideas, products, and traits, becoming more similar.

Cultural Divergence

Different parts of a cultural region are exposed to different influences and become dissimilar.

Indigenous language

A language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous people.

Language extinction

A language that is no longer spoken by anyone as their native language.

Dialect

Different forms of the same language used by groups that have some different vocabulary and pronunciations.