AP Human Geo Unit 1 Terms

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Abiotic -

Composed of nonliving or inorganic matter

Acculturation -

The process of changes in culture that result from the meeting of two groups each of which retains distinct cultural distinctions

Atmosphere -

The thin layer of gases surrounding earth

Behavioral Geography -

The study of the psychological basis for individual human actions in space

Biosphere -

All living organisms on earth, including plants and animals as well as microorganisms

Biotic -

Composed of living organisms

Cartography -

The science of making maps

Citizen Science -

Scientific research by amateur scientists

Climate -

The long-term average weather condition at a particular location

Concentration -

The spread of something over a given area

Connection -

Refers to the relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space

Conservation -

The sustainable management of a natural resource

Contagious Diffusion -

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population

Cultural Ecology -

A geographic approach that emphasizes human-environment relations

Cultural Landscape -

An approach to geography that emphasizes the relationships among social and physical phenomena in a particular study area

Culture -

The body of customary beliefs, social norms, and material traits that together constitute a group’s distinct tradition

Density -

The frequency with which something exists within a certain area

Diffusion -

The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time

Distance Decay -

The diminished importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin

Distribution -

The arrangement of something across Earth’s surface

Ecology -

The scientific study of ecosystems

Ecosystem -

A group of living organisms and the abiotic spheres with which they interact

Environmental Determinism -

A nineteenth and early twentieth century approach to the study of geography which argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences. Geography was therefore the study of how the physical environment caused human interactions

Expansion Diffusion -

The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in an addictive process

Formal Region -

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

Functional Region -

An area organized around a node or focal point

Geographic Information System -

A computer system that stores, organizes, and displays geographic data

Geographic Information Science -

The development and analysis of data about Earth acquired through satellite other electronic information technologies

Geotagging -

Identification and storage of a piece of information by its precise latitude and longitude coordinates

Global Positioning System -

A system that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers

Globalization -

Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope

Greenwich Mean Time -

The time in the zone encompassing the the prime meridian, or zero degrees longitude

Hearth -

The region from which innovative ideas originate

Hierarchical Diffusion -

The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to person to other persons or places

Humanistic Geography -

The study of different ways that individuals form ideas place and give those places symbolic meanings

Hydrosphere -

All the water on and near Earth’s surface

International Date Line -

An arc that for the most part follows one hundred eighty degrees longitude although it deviates in several places to avoid dividing land areas. When the International Date Line is crossed heading east (toward the USA) the clock moves back twenty four hours, or one entire day. When it is crossed going west (toward Asia), the calendar moves ahead one day

Latitude -

The numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels measuring distance north and south of the equator

Lithosphere -

Earth’s crust and a portion of the upper mantle directly below the crust

Location -

The position of anything on the Earth’s surface

Longitude -

The numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians drawn on a globe and measuring distance east and west of the prime meridian

Map -

A two-dimensional, or flat, representation of Earth’s surface or a portion of it

Map Scale -

The relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on the Earth’s surface

Mashup -

A map that overlays data from one source on top of a map provided by a mapping service

Mental Map -

A representation of a portion of Earth’s surface based on what an individual knows about a place that contains personal impressions of what is in the place and where the place is located

Meridian -

An arc drawn on a map between the north and south poles

Network -

A chain of communication that connects places

Nonrenewable Resource -

Something produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans

Parallel -

A circle drawn around the world parallel to the equator at at right angles to the meridians

Participatory GIS -

Community-based mapping, representing local knowledge and information

Pattern -

The geometric or regular arrangement of something in a particular area

Place -

A specific point on Earth, distinguished by a particular characteristic

Polder -

Land the the Dutch have created by draining water from an area

Possibilism -

The theory that the physical environment may set limits on human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to the physical environment and choose a course of action from many alternatives

Poststructuralist Geography -

The study of space as the product of ideologies or value systems of the ruling elites

Preservation -

The maintenance of resources in their present condition with as little human impact as possible

Prime Meridian -

The meridian, as zero degrees longitude, that passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England

Projection -

A system used to transfer locations of Earth’s surface to a flat map

Region -

An area distinguished by a unique combination of trends or features

Relocation Diffusion -

The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another

Remote Sensing -

The acquisition of data about Earth’s surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or from other long-distance methods

Renewable Resource -

Something produced in nature more rapidly that humans can consume it

Resource -

A substance in the environment that is useful to people, is economically and technologically feasible to access, and is socially acceptable to use

Scale -

Generally, the relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole

Site -

The physical character of a place

Situation -

The location of a place relative to another place

Space -

The physical gap or interval between two objects

Space-Time Compression -

The reduction in the time it take to diffuse something to a distant place as a result of improved communications and transportation systems

Spatial Association -

The relationship between the distribution of one feature and the distribution of another feature

Stimulus Diffusion -

The spread of an underlying principle even though a specific characteristic is rejected

Sustainability -

The use of Earth’s renewable and nonrenewable resources in ways that do not constrain resource use in the future

Syncretism -

The combining of two groups into a new cultural feature

Toponym -

The name given to a portion of Earth’s surface

Transnational Corporation -

A company that conducts research, operates factories, and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters or shareholders are located

Uneven Development -

The increasing gap in economic conditions between core and peripheral regions as a result of the globalization of the economy

Vernacular Region -

An area that people believe exists as a part of their cultural identity

Volunteered Geographic Information Creation -

dissemination of a geographic data contributed voluntarily and for free by individuals