AP Human Geo Unit 1 Vocab

Absolute direction - Direction described by the directions on a compass

Absolute distance - The distance that can be measured with a standard unit of length

Absolute location - A precise position on Earth’s surface, measured using GPS coordinates

Activity space - Where a person goes and what they do on a day-to-day basis

Aerial photography - Remote-sensing photography that produces highly detailed images

Border zone - A region where cultural makers overlap and blend into a recognizable border culture

Cartogram - A map that distorts the geographic shape of an area in order to show the size of a specific variable

Cartographer - A person who makes maps

Census - An official count or survey of a population

Choropleth map - A thematic map that shows data aggregated for a specific geographic area, often using different colors to represent different values

Compass rose - A drawing showing the four cardinal directions and the map’s orientation

Contagious diffusion - The wavelike spread of ideas without regard for hierarchy

Contested boundaries - Boundaries that are disputed for religious, political, or cultural reasons

Cultural ecology - The study of the interactions between societies and their local environments

Cultural landscape - The built forms that cultural groups create in inhabiting Earth and the meaning, values, representations, and experiences associated with those forms

Culture - Shared practices, technologies, altitudes, and behaviors passed from one generation to the next

Data aggregation - The process of collecting and organizing large amounts of information

Diffusion - The pattern by which people, ideas, technologies, or preferences spread from a particular location over time

Dot density - A map that uses dots to represent objects or counts

Ecology - A biological science concerned with studying the complex relationships among living organisms and their physical environments

Ecosystem - A territorially bounded system consisting of the interaction between humans and their environment

Elevation - Distance above sea level

Environmental determinism - The belief that the physical environment is the dominant force shaping cultures and that humanity is a passive product of its physical surroundings

Environmental perception - The mental images that comprise human’s perception of nature

Expansion diffusion - When ideas or practices spread throughout a population, increases the total number of knowers or users

Fieldwork - Learning and doing research involving first-hand experience

Formal region - A geographical area inhabited by people who have one or more traits in common

Friction of distance - The inhibiting effect of distance on the intensity and volume of most forms of human interaction

Functional region - A geographic area that has been organized to function politically, socially, culturally, or economically as one unit

Gender - A general term for the ways in which a society defines the differences between males and females

Geographic information system (GIS) - A software application for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth’s surface

Geographic processes - The physical and human forces that work together to form and transform the world

Global citizen - People who are aware of and understand the wider world

Global positioning system (GPS) - A system of 24 satellites that transmit radio signals to Earth used to provide directions from one place to another

Global scale - Geographic scale that looks at geographic phenomena across the entire world

Globalization - The process by which organizations or companies develop international influence or operate on a global scale

Global perspective - Geographic perspective that acknowledges the two-way relationship between local communities and global patterns, emphasizing that the forces of globalization need to take into account local-scale cultural, economic, and environmental conditions

Goode homolosine projection - A map projection that avoids shape distortion by creating interruptions in the map’s continuity

Greenhouse effect - The global warming trend caused by rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide

Hierarchical diffusion - When ideas pass from one important person, community, or city to another while bypassing other persons, communities, or rural areas

Human geography - The branch of geography that studies how human activity affects or is influenced by Earth’s surface

Independent invention - When a very similar innovation is developed at the same time in different places by different people working independently

Infrastructure - The basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a society

Interdependence - The ties established between regions and countries that overtime create a global economic system that is not necessarily based on equality

Isoline - A line on a map that connects or links two different places that share a common or equal value

Latitude - The horizontal lines circling Earth parallel to the equator

Legend - A key to the meaning of symbols and colors on a map

Local scale analysis - Geographic scale that identifies and analyzes geographic phenomena within a state, province, city, or neighborhood

Longitude - The vertical lines on Earth’s surface that connect the poles

Map - A two-dimensional representation of a geographical area

Map projection - A method for representing the surface of Earth on a two-dimensional surface

Map scale - The distance on a map in relation to distance in actual space

Map symbols - Graphic elements that help organize the information on a map

Mental map - A personal representation of a portion of Earth’s surface

Mercator projection - A map projection that distorts the size of areas, but keeps directions intact

Metropolitan area - An area composed of a heavily populated urban core and its less populated surrounding areas

National scale analysis - Geographic scale that identifies and analyzes geographic phenomena within a specific country

Natural hazard - A physical danger present in the environment

Natural resources - Materials or substances that occur in nature and can be used for economic gain

Nodes - Central points where the functions of a functional region are coordinated and directed

Nonrenewable resources - Natural resources that are available on Earth in finite quantities and will eventually be used be up

Perceptual / vernacular region - A geographic area that is perceived to exist by its inhabitants, based on the widespread acceptance and use or a unique regional name

Peters projection - A map projection that shows all landamasses with their true area but distorts their shapes

Place - How we modify space based on who we are

Polar projection - A map projection that looks down at Earth from the perspective of one of the poles

Possibilism - The belief that any physical environment offers a number of possible ways for a society to develop, allowing humans to find ways to overcome environmental challenges

Prime meridian - The zero-degree line of longitude that runs through Greenwich, England

Proportional / graduated circle map - A map that uses symbols of different sizes to represent numerical values

Reference map - A map that shows geographic locations on Earth’s surface

Region - A geographic unit based on one or more common characteristics or functions

Regional analysis - The process of examining patterns and processes within and between regions at multiple different geographic scales

Regional identity - The awareness of belonging to a group of people within a region

Regional scale analysis - Geographic scale that identifies and analyzes geographic phenomena within a particular region

Relative direction - A direction that can be described as a position relative to another

Relative distance -A measurement of the level of social, cultural, or economic similarity between places despite their absolute distance

Relative location - The position of one place in relation to the position of another place

Relocation diffusion - When individuals or groups bring particular ideas or practices with them during migration

Remote sensing - The scanning of Earth by satellites or high-flying aircraft in order to obtain information about it

Renewable resources - Natural resources that Earth will naturally replenish over time

Reverse hierarchical diffusion - When ideas leapfrog from a lower level of hierarchy to higher level

Robinson projection - A map projection that keeps all types of distortion relatively low over most of the map

Satellite imagery - Images of Earth’s surface gathered from sensors mounted on orbiting satellites

Scale - The territorial extent of an idea or object

Sense of place - How a person feels about a particular place and why it’s important to them

Space - The areas we occupy as humans

Spatial patterns - The placement or arrangement of objects on Earth’s surface, including the space between them

Spatial perspective - A geographic perspective that seeks to identify and explain the uses of space

Stimulus diffusion - The process by which a specific trait is rejected, but the underlying idea is accepted

Sustainability - The group of practices that meet the needs of the present without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their needs

Thematic map - A map that emphasizes the spatial patterns of geographic statistics or attributes, and sometimes the relationships between them

Time-distance decay - The idea that things closer together are more similar, and interaction between places decreases the farther apart they are

Time-space compression - The decreasing distance between places measured by travel time or cost

Topographic map - A graphic representation of the three-dimensional configuration of Earth’s surface

Tsunami - A large ocean wave produced by the displacement of a large volume of water