Ap Human Geography Unit 1

Physical geography

The study of how the land on Earth forms and where features are in the environment like where landforms are, plants grow, and animals live. (The study of natural processes and the distribution of features in the environment, such as  landforms, plants, animals, and climate.)

Human geography

The study of the events and processes that have shaped how humans understand, use, and alter the earth.

Spatial perspective

• studies how people live on earth 

• Studies how they are organized 

• why events in society happen and shows where things are located and why it is there

Ecological Persepctive

The relationship between land and the thing living there

Location

A position or point on earth

Absolute location

The exact spot of an object

Relative location

A description where a place is in relation to objects or places near it

Site

Refers to a place's exact location and physical characteristics

Situation

A place’s location in relation to other places or its land features

Space

The area between 2 or more things on Earth’s surface

Density

The amount of things(people, animals, objects) in a specific area

Pattern

How things are arranged in a particular space

Flow

The movement of people, good, or information that has economic, political, social, and cultural effects

Environmental determinism

A theory stating human behavior is controlled by the physical environment

Possiblism

A theory arguing that humans have more abilities to produce a result than environmental determinism suggest

Distance decay

Key geographic principle Describes the effects of distance on interactions

Time -space compression

Describes how relative distances between places sink

Sustainability

The use of materials on Earth and land in ways that it is ensured that they will be available in the future

Scale

Areas of the world being studied

Region

An area on Earth that has distinct characteristics from others

Formal region

An area with 1 or more shared traits

Functional region

An area organized by a function around the center of an activity or interest

Node

The center (focal point) of a functional region

Perceptual Region

A region that reflects people’s feelings and attitude about a place

Globalization

The expansion of  economic, cultural or political processes into a global scale.

World system theory

Immanuel Wallerstein created this to describe the spatial and functional relationships between countries in the world’s economics

Core

Wealthy countries with higher education and more advanced tech 1st world countries

Periphery

Countries that have less wealth, lower education, and high tech 3rd world countries

Semi-periphery

Countries that include both core and periphery traits 2nd world countries

Sustainable development

Development that meets the needs of now without compromising the ability of future generations to get what they need

Quantitative data

Information collected measured with numbers

Qualitative data

Interpretations of data sources

Geographic information system(GIS)

A sophisticated mapping software system that is used to find precise location, collect and share data, create maps, and tracks changes in physical feature

Topography

The shape and features of a land

Global positioning systems (GPS)

A network of at least 31 satellites in the U.S. system that orbit the earth and transmit location data to cell phones

Cartographers

The people who make maps

Absolute distance

Distance that can be measured using a standard form of length

Relative distance

Distance measured by other criteria

Map scale

The mathematical relationship between the map itself and the part of the real world it shows

Reference map

Generalized sources of geographic data and focuses on location

Thematic maps

Has a specific purpose or theme and focuses on the relationship in geographic data

Mercator projection

Continents shape is maintained as well as direction but the size is very distorted

Galls-peters projection

Size of area is relatively precise but the shapes appear elongated

Robinson projection

Projection looks like a globe, shapes become more distorted the farther away it is from the equator

Azimuthal

Preserves direction, is like a flattened disk that distorts shapes and areas, typically only shows half of the earth

Conformal projection

Distorts area but keeps shape in tact

Cylindrical projection

Distorts shapes but preserves direction

Equal area projection

Distributes the distortion of area equally in the man but distorts the shape of landmasses

Spatial patterns

Local ( state, district, province, county, neighborhood , school), regional( places with a common physical or cultural characteristics),National (countries or nation-states) , global (THE WORLD )