Geography Exam Notes

Absolute Location

  • A place's exact location.

Core

  • A region with a good economy and high population density with prosperity.

Density

  • The amount of people in a specific area.

Distance Decay

  • When two people are far away from each other, they interact lesser and lesser.

Distribute

  • Spread out over a region.

Ecological Perspective

  • The behavior between living things is based on your environment.

Environmental Determinism

  • Locations with different climates have different patterns of human development.

Flow

  • Movement towards a place with goods and information.

Formal Region

  • Areas that share one thing or more in common with each other.

Friction of Distance

  • Going to a faraway place takes a lot of time and effort, so two cities that are far away don't communicate much.

Functional Region

  • Like a central place that is common with everything that is around it.

Globalization

  • Interdependence of people and countries.

Human Geography

  • All the events of Earth that have made people who they are

Location

  • A specific place

Mental Map

  • Places that you are very familiar with that you can pinpoint their destination from a close range without using directions

Model

  • Frameworks that can let us make an accurate representation in spatial representation

Node

  • One point that is focused on

Pattern

  • How the Earth is similarly spaced out

Perceptual Region

  • A region that has similar cultural beliefs

Periphery

  • Countries that developed weakly.

Physical Geography

  • Geographic features are natural features that are on Earth’s surface

Place

  • A specific point in the world

Posibilism

  • Humans can adapt to environmental problems that are natural and modify using tech.

Region

  • A place in the world that has similar characteristics all over a selected place.

Relative Location

  • Another position that is relative to you.

Scale

  • The area of the world being studied.

Semi-periphery

  • In between Core and Peripheral.

Site

  • An absolute location’s physical characteristics.

Situation

  • A place’s location that is relative to other surrounding places.

Space

  • General location not specific.

Spatial Perspective

  • How and why Physical characteristics have been placed in a space.

Sustainability

  • Focusing on Renewable energy while consuming it

Sustainable Developments

  • Developing humans and growing them in a sustainable way so that it doesn’t have any backlash that will affect the future generations.

Theory

  • An explanation used to explain events that people witnessed and make a possible answer.

Time-space Compression

  • Shrinking in relative distance due to improvement and advancements in technology.

Vernacular

  • A language that is spoken by the common people in a certain area.

World System Theory

  • Hierarchies split into 3 groups based on their power, economics, technology, and social standing.

Absolute Distance

  • The measurement of the actual physical space between two places.

Absolute Direction

  • Directions that always point the same way even if you go to a different country. An example is like North, East, West, South.

Cartographer

  • A map maker

Census

  • An official count of the number of people in a certain country or space.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

  • A mapping system that captures, stores, and then displays geographic information that can form simple and complex maps.

Global Positioning Systems

  • A network of 31 U.S. satellites that orbits Earth and conveys data on your location to all kinds of devices that we use today car.

Map Scale

  • The relationship between a distance on a map and the same distance on the ground

Quantitative

  • Information that can measured by numbers

Qualitative

  • Quality of quantity.

Reference Map

  • A type of map that shows a specific feature of Earth's surface

Relative Map

  • People’s perception of how 2 places are interacting based on time, cost, effort, and distance

Relative Direction

  • Direction based on a person’s perspective

Remote Sensing

  • Collecting information about Earth by satellites, or other devices rather than going there

Thematic Map

  • Focusing on a specific theme or subject and can show different attributes such as distribution, flow, connections, and ETC.

Topography

  • The study of the features of Earth’s Surface and its shape.

Agricultural Density

  • The number of farmers per unit of arable land to show the amount of land worked by farmers in a region.

Arable

  • Land that is good for farming to grow crops

Arithmetic Density

  • The total number of people divided by the total land area to show how much crowd is in a place.

Carrying Capacity

  • The limit to how many people and animals can live in an environment and can be supported and not be damaged

Climate

  • The weather conditions over a region. Usually over a long period of time

Crude Birth Rate

  • The amount of births for every 1,000 people in a year

Crude Death Rate

  • The amount of deaths for every 1,000 people in a year.

Demographics

  • Data that can tell something about the characteristics of the people like age, race, and average income.

Dependency Ratio

  • The number of people who can’t work compared to the number of people that can work. People depend on these workers for support.

Dispersed

  • People and things can be spread out over a region

Fertility

  • The ability to produce children

Human Migration

  • The movement of people from different places to another usually for refuge or work.

Infant Mortality Rate

  • The number of babies who die before the age of 1 for every 1,000 births

Landform

  • The natural features on Earth’s surface like mountains and valleys

Life Expectancy

  • The average number that a person is expected to live based on 2 factors: where they live and when they are born.

Mortality

  • The number of deaths in a population

Physiological Density

  • The number of people per unit of arable land to show how much demand/pressure there is on arable land.

Population Density

  • The number of people living in a region per unit of that area.

Population Distribution

  • How people are distributed over an area, and we can see the more crowded places and the less populated places.

Population Pyramid

  • A pyramid-looking graph that can show the age or gender of a population to understand the structure of that population.

Sex Ratio

  • The number of males for every 100 females in a population.

Subsistence Agriculture

  • Growing enough food to feed themselves and their families, with maybe a little to sell

Temperate Climate

  • A not too cold or hot temperature.

Total Fertility Rate

  • The average number of children that women are expected to have in their life based on today’s birth rates.

Antinatalist

  • The belief that it is morally wrong to have children

Demographic Transition Model (DTM)

  • A theory of the history of the population’s deaths from a high to a low. It basically explains population changes as a country develops

Doubling Time

  • The time it takes for a population to grow double the amount it was

Epidemiological Transition Model (ETM)

  • A model that can describe a population’s wellbeing and its patterns as it develops

Land Degradation

  • Land that becomes useless and unable partly because of human disasters and really extreme weather conditions

Neo-Malthusian

  • People who think that overpopulation is a problem that will lead to humanity’s demise, and they are based off of Malthus but include modern technology as a factor.

Overpopulation

  • Where a population exceeds the carrying capacity

Pronatalist

  • The practice of encouraging people to have children

Rate of Natural Increase (RNI)

  • The measure of how much a population is changing based off of mortality and growth of a population

Urbanization

  • The growth and increase of people moving to urban places like cities and towns from rural areas.

Asylum

  • Protection from persecution and other problems that one’s country is facing

Brain Drain

  • Skilled workers leaving for opportunities

Chain Migration

  • Family members migrating together one by one in order

Circular Migration

  • Temporary back-and-forth movement between countries

Circulation

  • Regular movement within specific areas

Demographics

  • Statistical study of population characteristics

Distance Decay

  • Decreased interaction with increased distance

Emigration

  • Leaving one's country for another

Forced Migration

  • Involuntary relocation due to circumstances

Friction of Distance

  • Distance increases movement costs and effort

Gravity Model

  • Predicts migration based on population

Guest Worker

  • Temporary foreign laborers

Human Migration

  • Movement of people between locations

Human Trafficking

  • Illegal trade for exploitation purposes

Immigration

  • Permanent settlement in foreign countries

Internal Migration

  • Movement within a country’s borders

Internally Displaced Persons

  • Forced to leave home but remain within the country

Interregional Migration

  • Movement between different regions within countries

Intervening Obstacle

  • Obstacles that block migration processes

Intervening Opportunity

  • Chance to settle before destination

Intraregional Migration

  • Movement within the same region
  • Family connections facilitating migration patterns

Mobility

  • Ability to move across spaces

Net Migration

  • Difference between immigration and emigration

Pull Factor

  • Attracts migrants to new locations

Push Factor

  • Drives people away from homes

Quotas

  • Limits on the number of immigrants

Refugees

  • Individuals fleeing persecution or danger in their home country

Relocation Diffusion

  • Movement of people and cultural traits to one place

Remittances

  • Money sent back home by migrants that are working in different countries

Repatriate

  • Return to one’s home country

Skills Gap

  • Discrepancy between available skills and needs

Step Migration

  • Steps to relocate to one place

Transnational Migration

  • Maintaining ties across multiple countries

Adherent

  • Someone who believes and supports a religion

Artifact

  • Ancient Items that are unique to a culture and have vital information about a culture or their people.

Centrifugal Force

  • Forces that split political and ethnic groups

Centripetal Force

  • Forces that bind things like groups together

Culture

  • The beliefs, values, practices, behaviors, and technologies shared by a society and passed down from generation to generation.

Cultural Landscape

  • A natural landscape that was modified and changed based on the cultural beliefs and practices of values.

Cultural Norm

  • Shared beliefs and values that were practiced and supported from a given society.

Cultural Relativism

  • The evaluation of a culture solely by its unique standards

Cultural Trait

  • Customs that are a part of everyday life for a specific culture

Denomination

  • Subdivision of a branch and usually unites a number of local congregations

Dialect

  • A variation of a standard language specific to a general area

Ethnicity

  • People who identify themselves by their physical attributes

Ethnic Neighborhood

  • Cultural landscapes within communities of people outside of their areas of origin

Ethnocentrism

  • Evaluation according to standards and customs of their own cultures

Gender Identity

  • A personal feeling of one's gender and how they identify themselves

Gendered Space

  • Spaces designed and incorporated into the landscape to accommodate gender roles.

Gentrification

  • Renovations and improvements conforming to middle-class preferences

Identity

  • How humans make sense of themselves and how they wish to be viewed by other humans

Language

  • The carrier of human thoughts and cultural identities

Mentifact

  • The central, enduring elements of a culture that reflect its shared ideas, values, knowledge, and beliefs

Pilgrimage

  • A journey to form cultural perceptions, beliefs, and values

Placemaking

  • A community-driven process in which people work together to create a place where they can live, work, play, and learn

Popular Culture

  • The widespread beliefs of ordinary people in society at a point in time

Postmodern Architecture

  • A reaction to modern designs of architecture

Religion

  • A system of spiritual beliefs that helps form cultural perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and values

Safe Space

  • Spaces where people from a community are accepted like the LGBTQIA+ community

Sect

  • A relatively small group that has separated from an established denomination

Sense of Place

  • The subjective feelings and memories people associate with a location

Sequent Occupance

  • Successive societies leave behind their cultural imprint, which shapes the cultural landscape

Sociofact

  • Organization and structures that influence social behavior

Third Place

  • A space that is separate from home or work

Toponym

  • Something that can help define what is unique about a place

Traditional Architecture

  • Established building styles of different cultures

Traditional Culture

  • Established behaviors, beliefs, and practices that are passed down generation to generation

Acculturation

  • The process in which people within one culture adopt some of the traits of another while still retaining their own distinct culture

Assimilation

  • A category of acculturation in which one culture adopts almost all the customs, traditions, language, and other cultural traits of the other

Collectivist Culture

  • The expectation that members have a collective responsibility within a family

Contagious Diffusion

  • An idea or cultural trait that spreads adjacently

Creolization

  • An occurrence when people incorporate elements from an incoming or conquering culture and endow them with new meanings

Cultural Appropriation

  • The act of adopting elements of another culture

Cultural Convergence

  • Cultures that interact and then become more similar to then adopt one another’s ideas, innovations, and other cultural traits

Cultural Divergence

  • Conflicting beliefs or other barriers cause 2 cultures to become less similar

Cultural Hearth

  • Where a cultural trait originates

Diffusion

  • The process by which a cultural trait spreads from one place to another over time

Expansion Diffusion

  • The spread of cultural traits or ideas by means other than people moving

Hierarchical Diffusion

  • The spread of a trait from a person or place of power or authority to other people or places

Lingua Franca

  • A common language used among speakers of different languages, often as conquered people adopt the language of the conqueror

Multiculturalism

  • Diverse cultures coexist within a shared space

Relocation Diffusion

  • The spread of cultural traits or ideas through the movement or relocation of people

Stimulus Diffusion

  • The fundamental idea behind a cultural trait stimulates an innovation or cultural trait

Syncretism

  • A type of acculturation in which traits from 2 or more cultures blend to form a new custom, idea, value, or practice

Buddhism

  • An Indian religion based off Buddha or Siddhartha

Christianity

  • The number 1 followed religion that believes in one god and Jesus

Ethnic Religion

  • Closely tied with a particular ethnic group generally in a particular region.

Hinduism

  • A major religion usually followed by the people of India. They believe in multiple gods

Islam

  • A major religion developed in the Middle East. They believe in one god whose name is Allah.

Isolate

  • Disconnection with the rest of the religion in the world.

Judaism

  • A religion developed among the Hebrew people of Southwest Asia in present-day Israel and Lebanon about 4,000 years ago

Language Family

  • A group of languages that came from a common ancestor

Language Branch

  • Many languages that are related through a common ancestor within a language family

Language Group

  • A group of languages that are found within a branch that share a common origin

Secularized

  • Religious beliefs do not dictate public policy

Sikhism

  • Founded by Guru Nanak, who lived from 1469 to 1539, in the Punjab region of northwestern India

Universalizing Religion

  • These religions attempt to appeal to a wide variety of people and are open to membership by all, regardless of a person’s location, language, or ethnicity.

Administer

  • Defending boundaries by managing the way they are maintained and how goods and people will cross them

Antecedent Boundary

  • Established boundaries before many people settle in an area.

Autonomous

  • Given some authority to govern their own Territories.

Choke Point

  • A narrow, strategic passageway to another place through which it is difficult to pass.

Colonialism

  • The practice of claiming and dominating overseas territories

Consequent Boundary

  • A type of subsequent boundary that takes into account differences within an existing cultural landscape, separating groups that have distinct languages, religions, ethnicities, or other traits.

Define

  • Explicitly stating in legally binding documentation such as a treaty where borders are located

Demarcating

  • Marking a boundary with stones, pillars, walls, fences, or other physical objects

Delimit

  • Drawing boundaries on a map in accordance with a legal agreement

Devolution

  • When the central power in a state is broken up among regional authorities within its borders.

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

  • An area of ocean that extends up to 200 nautical miles beyond a nation’s territorial boundaries

Geometric Boundary

  • Mathematical and follows lines of latitude and longitude or are straight-line arcs between two points.

Imperialism

  • The push to create an empire by exercising force or influence to control other peoples or nations

Irredentism

  • Attempt to acquire territories in neighboring states inhabited by people of the same nation

Multinational State

  • A country with different ethnicities and cultures living inside its borders.

Multi-State Nation

  • Consists of a population that shares a cultural or ethnic background but lives in more than one country.

Nation

  • A cultural entity

Nation-State

  • A territory in which a group that views itself as a nation is the same as the politically recognized boundaries the state calls its own.

Neocolonialism

  • The use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies.

Political Geography

  • The study of the ways in which the world is organized as a reflection of the power that different groups hold over territory.

Relic Boundary

  • A boundary that isn't a border but holds historical significance

Self-Determination

  • The right of all people to choose their own political status.

Semi-Autonomous

  • A subdivision that has a degree of autonomy or self-governance, but not complete sovereignty

Shatterbelt

  • A region with ongoing political instability

Sovereignty

  • The right to control and defend a territory and determine what happens within its borders.

State

  • A politically organized independent territory with a government, defined borders, and a permanent population.

Stateless Nation

  • A people united by culture, language, history, and tradition but not possessing a state

Subsequent Boundary

  • Drawn in areas that have been settled by people and where cultural landscapes already exist or are in the process of being created.

Superimposed Boundary

  • Boundary made by various superpowers

Territoriality

  • A concept with many dimensions

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)

  • A law that made exclusive economic zones

Concurrent

  • Operating or occurring at the same time.

Electoral College

  • A set of people—called electors—who are chosen to elect the president.

Federal State

  • A state where power is more broadly shared between a federal government and its regional units.

Gerrymandering

  • The process in which a party controls a majority of seats in the state legislature and then draws legislative maps that favor the party

Majority-Minority District

  • Districts where minorities make up the majority of voters

Reapportionment

  • Seats in the House of Representatives are reallocated to different states.

Redistricting

  • The process of redrawing a state’s internal political boundaries that determine voting districts for the U.S. House of Representatives and the state’s legislature to accurately reflect changes in population numbers.

Unitary State

  • The majority of U.S. states are unitary, and in unitary states, more power is held by a central government that maintains authority over all the state’s territory, its regional units, and its people

Economies of Scale

  • More goods and services can be produced for less money on average

Ethnic Cleansing

  • Attempts by the state to eliminate an ethnic group through expulsion, imprisonment, or killing

Ethnic Nationalism

  • Is when the people in a country identify as having one common ethnicity, religion, and language.

Ethnic Separatism

  • When people of a particular ethnicity identify more strongly as members of their ethnic group than as citizens of the state

Ethnonationalism

  • Is when the people in a country identify as having one common ethnicity, religion, and language.

Supranational Organization

  • An alliance of three or more states that work together in pursuit of common goals or to address an issue or challenge that the countries share.