APHUG ALL UNITS

Absolute Location

A place that is located by mathematically calculating its location using latitude and longitude

Cartography

The art and science of map-making

Circular pattern

Objects that circle another object; also known as centralized pattern

Cultural landscapes

Products of interactions between humans and their environment

Daylight savings time

Pushes the clock forward one hour in the spring in order to allow people to enjoy more sunlight in the afternoon during the warm spring and summer months

Distortion

Caused by trying to represent a three-dimensional object (the Earth) on a two-dimensional surface (flat map)

Environmental Geography

A branch of geography that centers on the interaction of human and physical geography on the environment

Equator

An imaginary circle that lies exactly half way between half way between the North and the South Poles

Eratosthenes

Greek scholar accurately calculated the circumference of the Earth by using the sun

Formal Regions

Regular states or provinces with sometimes physical boundaries or imaginary boundaries drawn by the governments

Functional regions

Focuses on a core area that lessens in distinct characteristics as one travels into the region’s margin

GIS

A computer system that capture, stores, analyzes and displays data. Has different layers like soil layer or forest cover layer

Globalization

The expansion of economic, political, and cultural activities to the point that they reach and have impact on many areas of the world

Greenwich mean time

Standard time at the Prime meridian

Grid pattern

Reflects a rectangular system of land survey adopted in much of a country under the Ordinance of 1785

Hecataeus

A Greek who reconstructed a map and live in the late 6th and early 5th centuries B.C.E

Human Geography

Where people are, how they are alike and different, how they interact, how do they change the natural landscape and how do they use them

Idrisi

Arab geographer worked for the king of Sicily, he went out with several people to go on a scientific expedition to find a remarkably accurate representation of the world. The final world map they created was lost

Immanuel Kant

1700s, German philosopher and geographer that defined geography as the study of interrelated spatial patterns (the description and explanation of differences and similarities between one region and another)

Landscapes

The overall appearance of an area that is shaped by both human and natural influence

Latitude

Distance north and south of the equator

Linear pattern

Along straight lines

Location

The position of something on earth’s surface

Longitude

Numbering system that calculates distance east/west of the prime meridian

George Perkins Marsh

19th century American geographer focused on human action on the destruction of the natural environment

Mercator projection

Invented by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 to navigate ships across the Atlantic ocean between Europe and the Americas. When traveling east to west the map is true, but distorts size of area, especially when nearing the North And South Poles, like Greenland and Antarctica are huge

Meridian

An arc drawn between the North and South poles that measures longitude

Multi-national Corporations

Have centers of operation in many parts of the globe

Parallel

A circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator

Pattern

The arrangement of objects on earth’s surface in relationship to one another

Perceptual (vernacular) regions

Places people believe are part of their cultural identity

Periphery

The region’s margins

Peters projection

Introduced in 1975 by historians and geographers Arno Peters. The land masses are equal in area, but the shapes are distorted

Place

A specific point on earth with human and physical characteristics that distinguish it from other points

Physical geography

The natural environment itself

Physical site characteristics

Climate, topography, soil, water sources, vegetation, and elevation

Prime meridian

Set by international agreement on a line of longitude that runs through Greenwich, England, and lines of longitude are spaced 15 degrees apart in both directions (east and west) from it

Ptolemy

A Greek scholar who lived 500 years later than Eratosthenes, recalculated the circumference of the earth much smaller. His mistakes was believed for hundreds of years (he created a grid system that serves as a basis for the latitude and longitude system we have today)

Random pattern

No regular distribution can be seen

Regionalization

The organization of earth’s surface into distinct areas that are views as different from other areas

Robinson Projection

The most commonly used map (used in classrooms). Corrects the distortion in the Mercator projections by curving the latitudes inward on the paper. The distortion close to the poles is severe but quickly declines to moderate levels moving away from them

Carl Sauer

20th century geographer from California shaped the field of human geography arguing that cultural landscapes should be the main focus

Scale

The relationship between the size of an object or distance between objects on a map and size of the actual object or distance on earth’s surface

Site

The physical and human-transformed characteristics of a place

Situation

Relative rotation

Solar time

Based on the position of the sun in the sky as the day progresses

Space

The physical gap or distance between two objects

Space time compression

Describes the changes that rapid connections among places and regions have brought

Spatial organization

The location of places, people, and events, and the connections among places

Spatial perspective

The patterns of both natural and human environments, distributions of people, and locations of all kinds of objects

Time zone

A region that has adopted the same time standard time, usually referred to as the local time

Topography

The natural land surface

Toponym

Names that distinguish from other places

US Census Bureau

Biggest employers of geographers in the US, collects information of world’s inhabitants

“Why of where”

Why a spatial pattern occurs

Activity Space

An area in which an individual moves about as he or she pursues regular, day-to-day activities. This an area reachable on a typical day, and influenced by factors including age group, ability to travel, and opportunities to travel

Agricultural (Neolithic) Revolution

The time when human beings first domesticated plants and animals, creating a stable food sources allowing people to no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering and in turn have higher survival rates

AIDS

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; a disease that began in central Africa during the late 20th century and spread to many countries around the world due in part to globalization

Arable Land

Land that is suited for agriculture

Arithmetic Growth

Linear increase at a constant rate

Arithmetic (crude) Population Density

The total number of people divided by the total amount of land area

Awareness Space

Locations of places about which an individual has knowledge even without visiting all of them, includes activity space and additional areas newly encountered or about which one acquires information

Carrying Capacity

The number of people an area can support on a sustained basis. Not a consistent figure, it depends largely on the area’s level of technology

Chain Migration

Migration of people to a specific location because relatives or members of the same nationality preciously migrate there

Circulation

Short-term, repetitive movement that occurs on a regular basis

Critical Distance

The distance beyond which cost, effort, and means strongly influence willingness to travel

Crude Birth Rate

The total number of live births in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society

Crude death Rate

The total number of deaths in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society

Demographic Equation

Equation that summarizes the amount of growth or decline in a population during a certain period of time

Demographic Momentum

The tendency for growing population to continue after a fertility decline because of their young age distribution

Demographic Transition Theory

The process of a change in a society’s population from a condition of high crude birth rates and low rate of natural increase to a condition of low crude birth and death rates, low rate of natural increase, and a higher total population

Demography

The study of population characteristics

Diversity

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

Dislocation

When people are forced from their homes due to ethnic strife, war, or natural disasters

Distance Decay

The diminishing in importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin

Dot Maps

A representation of population with each dot representing a certain number of people

Emigration

Migration from a locationE

Endemic

A disease that is constantly present to a greater or lesser degree in people of a certain class or in people living in a particular location

Epidemiologic Transition (Mortality Revolution)

The distinctive cause of death in each stage of the demographic transition. Explains how countries’ population changes

Ethnicity

A category that is less based on physical characteristics, and emphasizes a shared cultural heritage, such as language, religion, and customs

Exponential Growth

Growth that occurs when a fixed percentage of new people is added to the population of new people is added to the population each year

Female Infanticide

The intentional killing of baby girls due to the preference for male babies and from the low value associated with the birth of females

Forced Migration

Migration that involves the involuntary movement from ones home, when people have no choice but to migrate

Geometric Rate

How population grows, occurs when the individuals reproduce at a constant rate

Gravity Model

A model that states spatial interaction - including migration - is directly related to the size of the populations and inversely related to the distance between them

Immigration

Migration to a location

Industrial Revolution

A series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods

Infant Mortality rate

The total number of deaths in a year among infants under 1 year old for every 1,000 live births in a society

In-Migration

When more people immigrate to a country than emigrate from it

Internal Migration

Migration within the borders of a country

Inter-Regional Migration

Migration from one region to another

Intervening Obstacles

Physical features that halt or slow migration from one place to another

Intervening Opportunities

Prospects that arise for those who are migrating before they reach their final destination, that allow them to settle earlier

Intra-Regional Migration

Migration within a region

Life Expectancy

The average number of years an individual can be expected to live, given current social, economic, and medical conditions. At birth it is the average number of years a newborn is expected to liveK

Linear Growth

Expansion that increases by the same amount during each time interval

Malthus, Thomas

An economist who became the first critic to note that the world’s population was increasing faster than the food supplies needed to sustain it

Migration

Involves a permanent move to a new location, either within a single country or from one country to another

Migration Selectivity

The tendency for certain types of people in a population to move, it is influenced by age, education, and family ties

Natural Increase

The percentage growth of a population in a year computed as the crude birth rates minus the crude death rate