Unit 1 AP Human-Geography vocabualry

Absolute direction

corresponds to the direction on a compass, like north, South, East, or West and combinations like northeast, or southwest

Absolute Distance

The distance that can be measured with a standard unit of length such as a foot or yard

Absolute location

A precise position on Earth’s surface

Activity space

Where a person goes and what he or she does on a day-to-day basis

Aerial Photography

Remote-Sensing high photography that produces fine-grained, high resolution, highly detailed images

Border Zone

A region where cultural markers overlap and blend into a recognizable border culture

Cartogram

A map that distorts the geographic shape of an area in order to show thee size of a specific variable; the larger the area on a cartogram, the larger the value of the underlying variable

Cartographer

a person who makes maps

Census

An official count or survey of a population typically recording various details about individuals, such as age, gender, or race

Choropleth Map

A thematic map that shows data aggregated for a specific geographic area, often using different colors to represent different values

Compass Rose

A drawing, usually found on the edge of a map, showing the four cardinal directions (North, South, East, and West) and the map’s orientation

Contagious Diffusion

The wavelike spread of ideas in the manner of a contagious disease or forest fire, moving throughout space without regard for heirarchy

Contested Boundries

Boundries that are disputed for religious, political, or cultural reasons

Cultural Ecology

The study of the interactions between societies and their local environments

Cultural landscape

The built forms that cultural groups create inhabiting earth- farm fields, cities, houses and so on- and the meaning, values representations and expiriences associated with those forms

Culture

The shared practices, technologies, attitudes, and behaviors that society transmits from one generation to another

data agression

The process of collecting and organizing large amounts of information

diffusion

The pattern by which a phenomenon such as the movement of people or their ideas, technology, or preferences. Spreads from a particular location through space and time

dot density and dot distribution map

A map that uses dots to represent objects or counts; the dot can represent 1 object ( a one-to-one dot density map) or a number of objects (one-to-many dot density map)

ecology

A biological science concerned with studying the complex relationships among living organisms and their physical enviroments

ecosystem

A territorially bounded system consisting of the interactions between humans and the enviroment

elavation

Distance above sea level

Environmental determinism

The belief that the physical environment is the dominant force shaping cultures and that humanity is a passive product of its physical surroundings

Environmental Perception

The mental images that compromise humans’ perception of nature; environmental perception may be accurate or inaccurate

Expansion Diffusion

Occurs when ideas or practices spread throughout a population, from area to area, in a snowballing process, so that the total number of knowers or users and the areas of occurance increase

Fieldwork

Learning and doing research involving first-hand expiriences which takes place outside the classroom setting

Formal Region

A geographical unit based on one or more common characteristics or functions

Friction of Distance

The inhibiting effect of distance on the intensity and volume of most forms of human interaction; time-space compression diminishes friction of distance

Gender

A general term for the ways in which a society defines the difference between male and female

Geographic Information System (GIS)

A software application for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth’s surface; allows the rapid manipulation for problem solving and research

Geographic Processes

The physical and human forces that work together to form and transform the world

Global Citizen

A person who is aware of and understands the wider world and his or her place in it

Global Positioning System (GPS)

A system of 24 satellites that orbit Earth twice daily and transmit radio signals Earthward; the basis for many map based apps that provide directions on how to get from one place to another

Global Scale

A geographic scale that looks at geographic phenomena across the entire world

Globalization

The process by which businesses and other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale

Global Perspective

A geographic perspective that acknowledges the two-way relationship between local communities and global patterns, emphasizing that the forces of globalization need to take into account local-scale culture economic, and environmental conditions

Goode Homolosine Projection

A map projection that avoids shape distortion and the restrictions of a rectangular map by creating “intteruptions” in the maps continuity; in each section map projections are shown “equally” like an orange peel

Greenhouse Effect

The global warming trend caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide (co2)

Greenhouse Gasses

Compounds in the atmosphere from fossil-fuel combustion such as carbon dioxide (co2) that absorb and trap heat energy close to Earth’s surface

Hierarchical diffusion

Occurs when ideas leapfrog from one important

Human Geography

Independent invention

Infrastructure

Interdependence

Isoline

latitude (lines)

Legend

Local Scale Analysis

Longitude

Map

Map Projection

Map Scale

Map Symbols

Mental Map

Mercator Projection

Metropolitan Area

National Scale Analysis

Natural Hazard

Natural Resources

Nodes

Nonrenewable Resources

Perceptual/ Vernacular Region

Functional Region

Peters Projection

Place

Polar Projection

Possibilism

Prime Meridian

Proportional or Graduated Circle Map

Reference Map

Region

Regional Analysis

Regional Identity

Regional Scale Analysis

Relative Direction

Relative Distance

Relative Location

Relocation Diffusion

Remote Sensing

Renewable Resources

Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion

Ribinson Projection

Satellite Imagery

Scale

Sense of Place

Space

Spatial Patterns

Spatial Perspective

Stimulus Diffusion

Susainability

Thematic Map

Time-Distance Decay

Time-Space Compression

Topographic Map

Tsunami