AP Human Geography Units 1.4-1.7

Cultural Ecology

Studies the interactions between societies and their local environments.

Environmental Perception

How geographers look at how humans use the land they live on or how humans perceive nature.

Natural Hazards

Physical dangers present in the environment, shaped by knowledge, experience, values, and emotions.

Natural Resources

Minerals, forests, water, and fertile land.

Natural resources are used for ____

Economic gain.

Nonrenewable Resource

Resources available on Earth in limited quantities (cannot come back).

Renewable Resource

Plentiful resources, Earth will renew them naturally over time.

Sustainability

A set of practices that meet the needs of the present without compromising future generation’s ability to meet their needs.

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 (Geographic area determines what you can do with it).

Environmental Possibilism

Any physical environment offers a number of possible ways for a society to develop.

Region

An area or division having definable characteristics but not always fixed boundaries.

Formal/Uniform Region

A geographic area inhibited by people such as a language, religion, or system of livelihood.

Functional/Nodal Region

A geographic area that has been organized culturally, or economically on its own.

Perceptual/Vernacular

Based on the shared feelings and attitudes of the people live in the area (area made by something shared).

Regional Identity

The awareness of belonging to a group of people within a region.

Mental Maps

A personal representation of a portion of the Earth’s surface (memorized).

Sense of Place

The emotional, psychological, and social connections people form with specific locations, leading to a feeling of attachment and meaning.

Contested Boundaries

Where boundaries are the subject of dispute. (boundaries contested by 2 regions).

Scale & Regional Analysis

Examining patterns and processes within and between regions at multiple geographic scales (local, national, regional, and global).

Map Scale

Explains how the distance on a map relates to distance in actual space.

Scales of Analysis

The geographic level at which a phenomenon or data set is studied and interpreted.

Types of Scales of Analysis

Local, Regional, National, and Global

Global Scale of Analysis

Looks at geographic phenomena across the entire world.

Regional Scale of Analysis

Looks at phenomena within a specific region. Ex: Southeast Asia.

National Scale of Analysis

When phenomena is identified and analyzed for a specific country/state.

Local Scale of Analysis

Identifies/analyzes geographic phenomena within a state or province, city, town.

Glocal Perspective

To capture the simultaneous importance of both global and local scales of analysis (and the scales in between).

Space

The areas we occupy as humans

Place

How we modify space based on who we are as a group of people.