AP Human Geo Unit 1 Vocab

Absolute Location

Description of the position of a place in a way that never changes, such as geographic coordinates of latitude and longitude.

Acculturation

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

Assimilation

The process by which a group’s cultural features are altered to resemble those of another group.

Atmosphere

The thin layer of gases surrounding Earth.

Biosphere

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

Cartogram

A map in which the size of an area is proportional to the value of the variable.

Cartography

The science of making maps.

Choropleth Map

A map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the variable.

Climate

The long-term average weather condition at a particular location.

Concentration

The extent of a feature’s spread over a given area.

Connection

The relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.

Conservation

The sustainable management of a natural resource to meet human needs.

Contagious Diffusion

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

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

Informally Greenwich Mean Time (GMT. The time in the zone encompassing the prime meridian, or 0 degrees longitude.

Cultural Ecology

A geographic approach that emphasizes human-environment relationships.

Cultural Landscape

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

Culture

The body of a material possessions, customary beliefs, and social norms that together constitutes the distinct tradition of a group of people.

Density

The frequency with which something exists within a given unit of area.

Diffusion

The process by which a feature spreads 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.

Dot Distribution Map

A map that depicts data that consists of discrete observations. Each dot represents a predetermined number of observations, which could be one or many.

Ecology

The scientific study of ecosystems.

Ecosystem

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

Environmental Determinism

A 19th- and early 20th-century approach to the study of geography that 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 activities.

Expansion Diffusion

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

Formal Region (or Uniform Region)

An area in which everyone shares in at least one distinctive characteristic.

Geographic Information System (GIS)

A computer system that captures, stores, queries, and displays geographic data.

Geotagging

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

Graduated Symbol Map

A map that displays symbols that change in size according to the value of the variable,

Hearth

A place from which an innovation originates.

Hierarchical Diffusion

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

Hydrosphere

All of the water on and near the Earth’s surface.

International Date Line

An arc that for the most part follows 180 degrees longitude. When the IDL is crossed heading east (toward America), the clock moves back 24 hours, or one entire day. When it is crossed heading west (toward Asia), the calendar moves ahead one day.

Isoline Map

A map that connects places of a particular value by lines.

Latitude

The numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the equator (0 degrees).

Location

The position of anything on 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 Earth’s surface.

Mashup

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

Meme

Contagious diffusion through the internet or social media.

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

A natural resource that cannot be readily replaced by natural means at a pace quick enough to keep up with consumption.

Parallel

A circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and at right angles to the meridians.

Pattern

The geometric or regular arrangement of something in a particular area.

Photogrammetry

The science of taking measurements of Earth’s surface from photographs.

Place

A specific point on Earth, distinguished by a particular characteristic.

Polder

Land that is 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

A geographic approach that examines how the powerful in a society dominate, or seek to control, less powerful groups, how the dominated groups occupy space, and confrontations that result from the domination.

Preservation

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

Prime Meridian

The meridian, designated as 0 degrees longitude, that passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England.

Projection

A system used to transfer locatoins from Earth’s surface to a flat map.

Region

An area distringuished by one or more distinctive characteristics.

Relative Location

The location of a place relative to another place.

Relocation Diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend through physical 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 than it is consumed by humans.

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

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 takes to diffuse something to a distance 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.

Sustainability

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

Syncretism

The combining of elements 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 part of their cultural identity.