APHUG U1

Unit 1: Thinking Geographically

Lesson 1.1-Intro to Maps

• Maps are the most important tool of a geographer and help organize complex info

• Reference maps are maps made for people to find general information about places

• Political Maps: Show and label man-made boundaries and designations like countries, states, cities, and capitals

• Physical Maps: Show and label natural features

• Road Maps: Show and label highways, streets, and alleys

• Plat Map: Show and Label property lines and details of land ownership

• Thematic maps show spatial aspects of information or of a phenomenon

• Choropleth Maps: Use colors/shades or patterns to show the location and distribution of spatial data

• Dot Distribution Maps: Show the specific location of distribution of something across a map using dots/symbols

• Graduated/Proportional Symbol Maps: Use different sized symbols to indicate an amount of something (Bigger=More, Smaller=Less)

• Isoline Maps: Use lines to connect points of equal value

• Topographic Maps: Represent elevation

• Cartogram Maps: Distort sizes of countries to show a statistic

• Scale is the ratio between things on a map compared to the real world

• Cartographic Scale: How a map communicates the ratio of it's size to what it's representing

• Ex: 1 inch is 10 miles, 1/200,000, a line with markers

• Small Scale Maps: Show a large area with little detail

• Large Scale Maps: Show a small area with greater detail

• Spatial patterns refer to the general arrangement of phenomena on a map

• Absolute location: Uses longitude and latitude to determine precise location

• Latitude: Measures North and South

• Longitude: Measures East and West

• Relative Location: Describes a location in relation to things around it

• Absolute distance: Exact measurement using feet, miles, etc

• Elevation: Distance above sea level

• Types of Distribution:

• Clustered/Agglomerated: Concentrated area

• Linear: Along a line

Dispersed: Spread over a large area

• Circular: Equally spaced from a central point

• Projections are how an area is translated onto a map

• ALL MAPS have some type of distortion because spheres can't accurately translate onto a flat surface

• Mercator projection: Designed for navigation because of accurate direct and shape but distorts size of land masses to be larger than they are

Lesson 1.2-Geographic Data

• Landscape Analysis is the task of defining and describing landscapes

• The first part of landscape analysis is to observe

• Field Observation: The act of physically going to a location and recording

• Spatial Data: All the information that can be tied to a specific location

• Remote Sensing: Using satellites to gather information via the Earth's atmosphere

• Aerial Photography: Images taken from planes within the atmosphere

• Geospatial Data: Quantitative or qualitative data that is gathered by an organization or individual

• Includes all spatial data besides locations like where a mountain or river is

• Geospatial data is collected through Fieldwork: Observing and recording information on location

• Ex: Census, surveys, photos

• Geospatial data can also be collected from government policy documents like treaties or agreements

Lesson 1.3-The Power of Geographic Data

  • Geographic data can be used to positively impact the world, but if misused it can have negative consequences

  • Geo-Visualizations: Digital 2-D or 3-D interactive maps

  • Ex: Google Earth

  • All data has limitations and geographers must be careful to accurately gather and interpret data

  • Ex: Data commonly excludes the homeless and undocumented workers

  • Geographers use geospatial data to find problems in our world and fix them

  • Ex: Nuba Mountains in Sudan (Full story on pg. 23)

• Geographers used remote sensing technologies to identify a water shortage in the area, eventually organizations like Nuba Water Project were established and now Nuba is thriving

Lesson 1.4-Spatial Concepts

  • Spatial Approach: The arrangement of the phenomena being studied across the surface of the earth
    Focuses on location, distance, direction, orientation, flow, pattern, interconnection, movements of people and things, changes in places over time, and human perceptions of space and place

  • Space is used to understand place
    Space: The area between two or more phenomena or things

  • Location: Identifies where specific phenomena are located using either a grid of relative to another location

  • Place: The specific human and physical characteristics of a location

  • A group of places form a region (1.7)

  • There are two ways to refer to a place

  • Site: Characteristics at the immediate location

  • Ex: Soil type, climate, labor force, and human structures

  • Situation: Relative to its surroundings and connectivity to other places

  • Ex: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

  • Site- Desert climate, large labor force, and modern Islamic city

  • Situation- Located roughly in the center of the Arabian Peninsula between Africa and asia

  • Sense of Place: A individual's perception of a place based on personal beliefs

  • Ex: Your home evokes strong feelings for you and not a stranger

  • Toponyms: The name of a place

  • Can provide insight into physical geography, history, or culture of an area

  • Time-Space Compression: The shrinking of "time-distance" or relative distance between locations because of advances in technology

  • Resulted in global forces influencing culture globally reducing local diversity

  • Spatial Interaction: The contact, movement, and flow of things between locations

  • Places with more connections will have greater spatial interaction

  • Flow: The patterns and movement of ideas, people, products, and other phenomena

  • Friction of Distance: When things are far apart, they are less connected

  • Distance Decay: The inverse relationship between distance and connection

  • The world is more spatially connected now compared to all of our history

  • Patterns: 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, indicates two or more phenomena could be connected

    Lesson 1.5-Human-Environmental Interaction

    • Human-Environmental Interaction: The connection and exchange between humans and the natural world
      Geographers believe humans influence the physical world just as
      much as the environment can influence humans

    • Natural Resource: Items that occur in the natural environment that people use

    • Ex: Air, water, oil, fish, soil, and minerals

    • Renewable Resource: Theoretically unlimited resources that will not deplete by human use

    • Ex: Trees, solar power

    • Non-Renewable Resource: Limited resources that can be depleted by human use

    • Ex: Natural gas, nuclear energy

    • The world's natural resources are not distributed evenly, this uneven access impacts countries' cultures, political systems, and rate of economic development

    • Sustainability: 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

    • Built Environment: Physical artifacts that humans have created and that form part of the landscape

    • Architectural styles vary from place to place

    • Cultural Landscape: Anything built by humans

    • Cultural Ecology: The study of how humans adapt to the environment

    • Environmental Determinism: The belief that landforms and climate are the most powerful force shaping human behavior and societal/cultural development

    • Very outdated belief that used to justify racism

    • Possibilism: The belief that acknowledges limits from the natural environment and focuses on the role of human culture to modify the environment to better fit their needs

    • Different cultures may respond to the same environment differently based on their beliefs, goals, and technology

    Lesson 1.6- Scales of Analysis

    • Scale of Analysis: Level of generalization, allows geographers to look at the local, regional, country, or global scale
      Local Scale: Smallest scale, around 1,000-8,000 people

    • Regional Scale: Studies a region

    • National/Country Scale: Studies a whole country
      Global Scale: Studies the whole world by contrasting countries or continents

    • The smaller the scale, the more detailed the data

    • The larger the scale, the more generalized/less detailed the data

    • Geographic/Relative Scale: The area of the world being studied

    • Aggregation: when geographers organize data into different scales which allow it to be more easily mapped/organized on a chart of graph

    • Accurate conclusions need to supported with accurate and scale-appropriate data

    Lesson 1.7-Regional Analysis

    • Regions: Contain boundaries, unifying characteristics, cover space, and are made by people

    • Characteristics politically, physically, culturally, and economically

    • Formal/Uniform: United by one or more unifying characteristics

    • Functional/Nodal: Organized around a focal point and are defined by an activity that occurs across the region

      Ex: An airport is a node, and the locations that flights connect form a functional region

    • Vernacular/Perceptual: Boundaries depend on an individual's sense of place

    • Ex: The border of the American South

    • Subregion: Smaller areas in regions, have distinctive characteristics that set them apart from the greater region

    • Regions are generalizations of an area which cause them to overlook variations and differences

    • People and characteristics within a region are transmitted and do not stop at the boundary

    • Ex: Between the U.S. and Mexico people do not suddenly stop speaking Spanish or English