AP HUG EXAM VOCAB

Functional Region

Area organized around a node or focal point, where the characteristic chosen to define it dominates at a central focus and diminishes in importance outward.

Perceptual Region

A place that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity, emerging from informal sense of place rather than scientific models.

Azimuthal Projection

Map projection where directions from a central point are preserved, usually with radial symmetry.

Mercator Projection

Map projection with straight meridians and parallels that intersect at right angles, used for marine navigation, with most distortion at the poles.

Peters Projection

Equal-area cylindrical map projection where areas of equal size on the globe are also equally sized on the map.

Robinson Projection

Map projection that distorts shape, area, scale, and distance in an attempt to balance the errors of projection properties.

Anthropogenic

Caused or produced by humans.

Qualitative Data

Described in terms of its quality, including informal or relative characteristics such as culture, language, and religion.

Quantitative Data

Precisely describes data using numbers and measures, such as population and economic statistics.

Diffusion

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

Expansion Diffusion

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

Hierarchical Diffusion

Spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places.

Contagious Diffusion

Rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population.

Stimulus Diffusion

Spread of an underlying principle, resulting in a cultural adaptation from the introduction of a cultural trait from another place.

Relocation Diffusion

Spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another.

Migrant Diffusion

Spread of an idea through people, where the phenomena weakens or dies out at its previous source.

Distance (Absolute)

Exact measurement of the physical space between two places.

Distance (Relative)

Approximate measurement of the time and cost it takes to travel between two places.

Environmental Perception

A person's idea or image of a place, which may often be inaccurate.

Five Themes of Geography

GENIP: location, human/environmental interaction, region, place, movement

Location

Position; situation of people and things

Human/environmental interaction

Reciprocal relationship between humans and the environment

Region

Area on Earth's surface marked by a degree of homogeneity (uniformity) of some phenomenon

Place

Uniqueness of a location (or similarity of two or more locales); phenomena within an area

Movement

Mobility of people, goods and ideas; phenomena between areas

Goode's Homolosine

A hybrid map that focuses on equal-areas; sometimes referred to as the 'orange peel map'

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Collection of computer hardware and software permitting spatial data to be collected, recorded, stored, retrieved, used, and displayed.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

Satellite-based system for determining the absolute location of places.

Holocene epoch

Current interglaciation period extending from around 12,000 years ago to the present.

Environmental determinism

A 19th- and early 20th-century approach to geography arguing that the physical environment caused human activities.

Possibilism

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

Cultural Ecology

The geographic study of the multiple interactions of human-environmental relationships.

Absolute Location

Position on Earth's surface using the coordinate system of longitude and latitude.

Relative Location

Position on Earth's surface relative to other features.

Formal Region

An area within which everyone shares one or more distinctive characteristics.

Reference Map

Generalized map type designed to show general spatial properties of features.

Thematic Map

Made to reflect a particular theme about a geographic area.

Cartogram

Map in which some thematic mapping variable is substituted for land area.

Choropleth Map

Thematic map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the statistical variable being displayed.

Dot Density Map

One dot represents a certain number of phenomena.

Proportional Symbol Map

Type of thematic map in which the areas of symbols are varied in proportion to the value of an attribute.

Topographical Map

Quantitative representation of relief, usually using contour lines.

Parallel

Line of latitude.

Meridian

Line of longitude.

Pattison's Four Traditions

Earth-science, locational, spatial tradition.

Stage 5: Negative Growth

Death rates that exceed birth rates; countries such as Japan, Italy, and Germany.

Stage 6

Not officially a stage, but some wealthy regions in developed countries experience increased birth rates.

man-land

human/environmental interaction

area-studies

regional geography

Remote sensing

method of collecting data or information through the use of instruments (e.g., satellites) that are physically distant from the area or object of study.

Scale

1) the territorial extent of something; 2) the representation of a real-world phenomenon at a certain level of reduction or generalization; represented as a fraction (large scale = large detail, small area; small scale = small detail, large area)

Sequent occupancy

The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape; symbolizes how humans interact with their surroundings. (ex Temple Mount in Jerusalem)

Site

The physical character of place; what is found at the location and why it is significant.

Situation

The location of a place relative to other places.

Carrying capacity

the population level that can be supported, given the quantity of food, habitat, water and other life infrastructure present; it tells how many people an area - or country or region - will be able to support.

Census tract

areal unit that best approximates a neighborhood in size through small county subdivisions (around 4,000 people, often with similar racial, ethnic, age, or socioeconomic traits)

Cohort

population of various age categories in a population pyramid. This is important because this can tell which stage a state is in the demographic transition model.

Baby Boom

people born in the US between 1946 and 1964; this post-war era allowed for better education, employment, peace and prosperity - increasing higher rates of both marriage and fertility.

Baby Bust

period in the US during the 1960s and 1970s when fertility rates dropped as many female baby boomers sought higher levels of education and jobs, marrying later in life.

Generation X

people born in the US between 1965 and 1980; will be the first to have the burden of supporting the Baby Boom cohort as they head into retirement.

Generation Y (aka Millennials)

people born between 1980 and 1997; also referred to as 'Echo Boomers' (many are the offspring of Baby Boomers).

Generation Z

people born from 1997-2015ish

Crude birth rate (CBR or natality)

number of live births per year per 1,000 people

Crude death rate (CDR)

number of deaths per year per 1,000 people

Demography

geographic study of population

Overpopulation

relationship between the number of people on Earth, and the availability of resources; Problems result when an area's population exceeds the capacity of the environment to support them at an acceptable standard of living.

Underpopulation

it is the opposition to overpopulation and refers to a sharp drop or decrease in a region's population. Unlike overpopulation, it does not refer to resources but to having enough people to support the local economic system.

Stationary population level (SPL)

when the crude birth rate equals the crude death rate and the natural increase rate approaches zero. (aka Zero population growth; Often applied to countries in stage 4 of the demographic transition model)

Demographic equation

The formula that calculates population change. The formula finds the increase (or decrease) in a population by doing births minus deaths plus (or minus) net migration.

Demographic Transition model

this model illustrates how states are transformed from a less developed to a more developed country; has 5 steps.

Stage 1

is Low Growth (high stationary; with high birth and death rates); no country today, but some poor or war-torn regions are in this stage.

Stage 2

is High Growth (early expanding; with high birth but declining death rates (due to improved health and sanitation)); less developed states such as Kenya, Haiti, Cambodia, …

Stage 3

is Moderate Growth (late expanding, with declining birth rates and already lower death rates); are often newly industrialized states such as Brazil, China, Mexico, …

Stage 4

is Low Growth (low stationary; with low birth and death rates); developed countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, …

Demographic momentum

this is the tendency for growing population to continue growing after a fertility decline because of their young age distribution; once this happens a country moves to a different stage in the demographic transition model.

Demographic trap

when a country remains in stage 2 of the demographic transition; death rates fall, but birth rates remain high if living standards do not improve (resulting in endemic poverty with parents relying on children as their social security).

Dependency ratio

the number of people who are too young or too old to work compared to the number of people in their productive years; tells how many people each worker supports.

Distribution

The arrangement of something across Earth's surface (space); population distributions- geographers identify the three main properties as density, concentration, and pattern.

Doubling time

the number of years needed to double a population, assuming a constant rate of natural increase; this number is calculated by dividing 70 by the rate of natural increase (RNI).

Ecotone

transition area between two biomes (areas of similar climactic zones); where two communities meet and integrate.

Ecumene

the proportion of earth's surface occupied by permanent human settlement; it tells how much of the land has been built upon and how much land is left for us to build on.

Life expectancy

(infant & child mortality rate) a figure indicating how long an average person may be expected to live.

Major population concentrations

East Asia: largest concentration; China, Japan, North and South Korea (>1.5 billion people). South Asia: second major concentration; India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka (1.5 billion). Europe: third major concentration; Britain to Russia, including Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Netherlands, Belgium, parts of France, northern Italy (700 million). North America a far fourth; east-central US and southeastern Canada (<200 million).

Mortality

there are two useful ways to measure mortality; infant mortality rate and life expectancy.

Infant mortality rate

(IMR) the annual number of deaths of infants under one year of age, compared with total live births; expressed as the annual number of deaths among infants per 1000 births rather than a percentage.

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)

A measure that indicates how developed a country is; a high IMR signifies a Less Developed Country (LDC) while a low IMR indicates a More Developed Country (MDC).

Child Mortality Rate (CMR)

Annual number of deaths of children between the ages of 1 and 5, compared with total live births, also calculated as number of deaths per 1,000 births.

Maternal Mortality Rate

Annual number of deaths of women during childbirth per 1,000 women.

Natural Increase

The percentage by which a population grows in a year, calculated as CBR - CDR = RNI (or NIR), excluding migration.

Population Growth

Linear (arithmetic) growth increases at a constant amount per unit time (1, 2, 3, 4, …); exponential (geometric) growth doubles each population (2, 4, 8, 16, …).

Population Explosion

A sudden increase or burst in the population in a geographical area or worldwide, occurring in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as countries moved to stage 2 of the DTM.

Population Structure

Also known as composition or distribution; represented by a population pyramid, which shows the number of males and females in a population in five-year age groups.

Population Curves

Relates to growth and decline in the natural increase.

J-Curve

A projection showing exponential growth, resembling a J-shape; resource use may parallel or exceed this growth rate if the population is technologically advanced.

S-Curve

The horizontal bending or leveling of a J-curve, indicating that population growth slows as birth rates decline through development.

Population Densities

The frequency with which something occurs in space.

Arithmetic Density

The total number of people divided by the total land area, indicating how many people per area of land.

Physiological Density

The number of people per unit of area of arable land, which is suitable for agriculture.

Agricultural Density

The number of farmers per unit of area of farmland, indicating the efficiency of agriculture in a country.

Population Policies

Typically sponsored by governments to manage population growth.