AP Human Geography 1.4-1.7

Vocab quiz 2

Spatial approach

Considers the arrangement of the phenomena being studied across the surface of the earth. This approach focuses on things such as location, distance, direction, orientation, flow, pattern, and interconnection.

Space

This is used to understand place. This is the area between two or more phenomena or things.

Location

Identifies where specific phenomena are located either on a grid system or relative to another location.

Place

Refers to the specific human and physical characteristics of a location.

Region

A group of places in the same area that share a characteristic.

Site

this can be described as the characteristics at the immediate location- for example, the soil type, climate, labor force, and human structures.

Situation

this refers to the location of a place relative to its surroundings and its connectivity to other places.

Sense of place

This is related to the concept of place. Humans tend to perceive the characteristics of places in different ways based on their personal beliefs.

Toponyms

Locations can also be designated using this. This provides insights into the physical geography, the history, or the culture of the location.

Time-space compression

This is the shrinking "time-distance," or relative distance, between locations because of improved methods of transportation and communication.

Spatial interaction

This refers to the contact, movement, and flow of things between locations.

Flow

This refers to the patterns and movement of ideas, people, products, and other phenomena.

Friction of distance

indicates that when things are farther apart, they tend to be less connected.

Distance decay

the inverse relationship between distance and connection is a concept called.

Patterns

This refers to the general arrangement of things being studied.

Distribution

The way a phenomenon is spread out or arranged over an area to describe patterns.

Spatial Association

Matching patterns of distribution is called this. This also indicates that two or more phenomena may be related or associated with one another.

Human-environmental interaction

The dual relationship between humans and the natural world is at the heart of human geography. The connection and exchange between them are referred to as human-environmental interaction.

Natural resource

this includes items that occur in the natural environment that people can use.

renewable natural resources

theoretically are unlimited and will not be depleted based on use by people.

Non-renewable natural resources

These are limited and can be exhausted by human uses. These resources are often discussed in terms of energy resources to power the world's societies.

Sustainability

this is the overarching theme of human geography and relates to trying to use resources now in ways that allow their use in the future while minimizing negative impacts on the environment.

Land use

the study of how land is utilized, modified, and organized by people is this.

built environment

The physical artifacts that humans have created and that form part of the landscape, in their understanding of land use.

cultural landscape

anything built by humans is part of this and is in the realm of land use.

cultural ecology

the study of how humans adapt to the environment.

Environmental determinism

The belief that landforms and climate are the most powerful forces shaping human behavior and societal development while ignoring the influence of culture.

Possibilism

In reaction to environmental determinism, contemporary geographers developed a theory. This theory acknowledges limits on the effect of natural environment and focuses more on the role that human culture plays.

Geographic scale

sometimes called relative scale, refers to the area of the world being studied.

Global scale

area shown: the entire world

World Regional Scale

area shown: multiple countries of the world

National scale

area shown: one country

National Regional scale

area shown: A portion of a country or a region(s) within a country

Local scale

area shown: a province, state, city, country, or neighborhood

Aggregation

This is when geographers organize data into different scales such as by census tract, city, county, or country. This allows the data to be more easily mapped or organized in a chart or graph.

False conclusion

Inaccurate generalizations that are not supported by the data or logical reasoning.

Regions

Have boundaries, unifying characteristics, cover space, and are created by people.

Formal regions

united by one or more traits:

Functional regions

these regions are organized around a focal point and are defined by an activity, usually political, social, or economic, that occurs across the region.

perceptual regions (vernacular regions)

While all of these regions exist, their exact boundaries depend upon the person who is defining them.

Subregions

divide regions into smaller areas. shares some characteristics with the rest of the larger region but is distinctive in some ways.