The Cultural Landscape - Unit 1 AP Human Geography Terms.
Abiotic - system composed of non-living or inorganic matter, three of earths systems and abiotic.
Acculturation - the process of changes in culture that result from the meeting of two groups, each of which retains distinct culture features.
Assimilation - the process by which a groups cultural features are altered to resemble those of another more dominant group
Atmosphere - a thin layer of gasses surrounding earth.
Behavioral Geography - emphasizes the importance of understanding the psychological basis for individual human actions in space
Biosphere - all living organisms on earth including plants and animals, as well as microorganisms.
Biotic - system composed of living organisms, one of earths systems is biotic.
Cartography - the science of mapmaking
Citizen Science - scientific research by amatuer scientists.
Climate - The long-term average weather condition at a particular location. Climate is classified A-E in the Köpen system.
Concentration - The extent of a features spread over space.
Connection - refers to the relationship among people and objects across the barrier of space.
Conservation - the sustainable use and management of earth's natural resources to meet human needs such as food, medicine, and recreation.
Contagious diffusion - the rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population. A type of expansion diffusion
Cultural ecology - the geographic study of human-environment relationships.
Cultural landscape - a combination of cultural features such as language and religion, economic features such as agriculture and industry, and physical features such as climate and vegetation.
Culture - the body of customary beliefs, material traits, and social forms that together constitute 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 across space from one place to another over time.
Distance decay - the phenomenon where the further away someone is from another, the less likely the two are to interact. Contact diminishes with increasing distance and eventually disappears.
Distribution- The arrangement of a feature in space. Three main properties of distribution across earth are density, concentration, and pattern.
Ecology - the scientific study of ecosystems. Ecologists study the interrelationships between living organisms and the thre abiotic environments.
Ecosystem - a group of living organisms and the abiotic spheres with which they interact.
Environmental determinism - an approach by alexander von humbolt and carl ritter that states human geographys should apply laws from the natural sciences to understand relationships between the physical eniornment and human actions.
Expansion diffusion - the spread of a feature from one place to another in an additive process
Formal region - also called uniform region, an area within which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics. (ie: cultural value or a common language)
Functional region - also called nodal region, an area organized around a node or focal point. (ie: a school district)
Geographic Information system (GIS) - captures, stores, queries, and displays the geographic data.
Geotagging - identification and storage of a piece of information by its precise latitude and longitude coordinates.
Global Positioning System (GPS) - a system that determines the precise position of something on earth.
Globalization - a force or process that involves the entire world and results in making something worldwide in scope.
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) - the time at the prime meridian (0 degrees longitude) and it the master reference time for all points on earth. Also called Universal Time (UT)
Hearth- a place from which an innovation originates
Hierarchical diffusion - the spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to another persons or places. A type of expansion diffusion.
Humanistic Geography - A branch of human geography that emphasizes the different ways that individuals form ideas about place and give those places symbolic meanings.
Hydrosphere - all of the water on and near earths surface
International Date Line - an imaginary line on earth that marks the transition between calendar days. You move the clock back 24 hours if youre heading eastward towards america, and forward 24 hours if youre heading westward towards asia.
Latitude - the numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the equator.
Lithosphere - earths crust and a portion of upper mantle directy below the crust.
Location - the position that something occupies 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-scale model of earths surface, or a position of it.
Map Scale - the relationship of a features size on a map to its actual size on earth.
Mashup - a map that overlays data from one source on top of a map provided by a mapping service, such as google maps or google earth.
Mental Map - a personal representation of a portion of earths surface.
Meridian - an arc drawn between the north and south poles. Location of each meridian is identified by longitude.
Network - a chain of communication that connects places. Interaction takes place here.
Nonrenewable resource - produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans.
Parallel - a circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and at right angles to the meridians. Location of a parallel is identified by latitude.
Participatory GIS - community based mapping.
Pattern - the geometric arrangement of objects in space.
Place - a specific point on earth, distinguished by a particular characteristic.
Polder - a piece of land that is created by draining water from an area.
Possibilism - states the physical environment may limit some human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to their environment.
Poststructuralist geography - examines how the powerful in a society dominate, or seek 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 impacts as possible.
Prime meridian - the meridian that passes through the royal observatory at greenwich, england, and is 0 degrees longitude.
Projection- the scientific method of transferring locations on earths surface to a flat map.
Region - an area of earth defined by one or more distinctive characteristics.
Relocation diffusion- the spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another.
Remote sensing - the acquisition of data about earths surface from a satellite orbiting earth or from other long-distance methods.
Renewable resource - produced in nature more rapidly than it is consumed by humans
Resource - a substance in the environment that is useful to people, economically and technologically feasible to access, and socially acceptable to use.
Scale - the relationship between the portion of earth being studied and earth as a whole.
Site - (the second way geographers describe location) the physical character of a place.
Situation - the location of a place relative to other places (ie: its near the gas station)
Space - refers to the physical gap or interval between two objects.
Space-time compression - describes the reduction in the time it takes for something to reach another place over time.
Spatial association - occurs within a region if the distribution of one feature is related to the distribution of another feature. (ie: the connection between areas with high poverty rates and high crime rates)
Stimulus diffusion - the spread of an underlying principle even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse. A type of expansion diffusion.
Sustainability - the use of earths resources in ways that ensure their avalibility in the future. Has three pillars: environments, society, and economy.
Syncretism - the combination of elements of two groups into a new culture feature.
Toponym - the name given to a place on earth
Transnational corporation - conducts research, operates factories, and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters and principal shareholders are located.
Uneven development - the increasing gap in economic condition between regions in the core and periphery that results from the globalization of the economy.
Vernacular region - also called a perceptual region, an area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity.
Volunteered geographic information (VGI) - the creation and dissemination of geographic data contributed voluntarily and for free by individuals.