HGAP Unit 1

Unit 1: thinking geographically- 

Regions:

Formal-

• Cultural regions have fuzzy borders/perceptual region

• Political regions- well-defined 

• Environmental- transitional and measurable

 Functional/nodal-

• Farther apart places are from each other (rare) = larger area of influence 

Vernacular/Perceptual- 

• Based on people's perception 

Location:

Absolute location-

• latitude= north/south of  equator (equator 0° latitude) (North pole 90° latitude)

• Longitude = East/west of Prime Meridian (0°) (International Dateline 180° longitude)

• Notion- (latitude, longitude)

Distance:

Distance decay- the farther away from the origin the less likely they will interact

Tobler law (1970)- all places are interrelated but closer places are more related than farther ones 

Space-time compression- decreased time + relative distance between places (technology reduces)

Patterns:

Scattered- dispersed, Linear- straight line, Sinuous-wavy

Density:

Arithmetic density- # of things per square unit of distance 

Physiological Density- # of people per square unit of arable land 

Agricultural density-# of farmers per square unit of arable land 

Map scale:

Large scale= zoomed in (high detail), small scale=zoomed out (low detail)

Map scale: 1;50,000  map ratio: 1/50,000

Scale of analysis-

state/national scale shows countries

Global shows whole world 

Regional scale 

Geographic Tech:

GIS: Uses data layers for spatial analysis and mapping

GPS: uses absolute location and system of satellites for navigation 

Remote sensing: computerized scanner to record data from space

Maps: 

Topographic- contour lines of elevation and other natural landscape features (ex: roads)

Thematic- any map with a theme

• Choropleth - uses color variations to express geographic variability 

• Isoline map- uses contour lines to connect areas of equal value/characteristics

• Dot density maps- uses dots to express volume and density

• Flow line map- uses lines of different thickness to show direction and volume 

• Cartograms- size or shape of areas are distorted to represent specific variable

Projections:

Equal area projections- attempt to keep distance and area, but distort shape ex: conic projection

Conformal projections- attempt to keep shape, but distort relative area ex: mercator 

Mercator- 

• Accurate direction 

• Distorts size , location, and relative area

• Has 90°  angle longitude and latitude lines

Robinson-

• Distorted at pole

• Distorts a little bit of everything so nothing is too distorted 

Gall Peters-

• Accurate size 

• Distorts shapes, direction, and distance  

Goodes-

• Interrupted map

• Equal area map 

• Shows size and shape 

• Distortion with distance and direction 

Conic-

• Accurate distance and area

• Distorted away from parallels/ at pole and distorts shape

• Equal area projection 

Fuller-

• Accurate shape and size 

• Distorts direction

Planar aka Azimuthal-

• Accurate at center 

• Size and shape become distorted further from the poles