Unit 1

1.1

Reference Map: what you generally think a map is, shows general information about places - political, physical, road, and plat maps

Thematic Map: shows spatial aspects of information/phenomenon

Choropleth Map: various colors/shades to show location + distribution of spatial data - often rates/quantitative data

Isoline/Isometric Map: lines that connect points of equal value to depict variations in data across space - most common is topographic map

Graduated Symbol/Proportional Symbol Map: symbols of diff. sizes to indicate diff. amounts of things

Dot Distribution Map: dot used to show the specific location + distribution of something across a map

Cartogram: sizes of things shown according to a variable/statistic

Clustering: phenomena in a group/concentrated area

Density: number of things in a certain area

Arithmetic Density: total # of people/total land area

Physiological Density: # of people/arable land

Agricultural Density: # of farmers/arable land

Concentration: spread of a feature over space

Clustered/ Agglomerated: phenomena are arranged in a group/concentrated area - e.g. restaurants in a food court at a mall

Dispersal: phenomena are spread out over a large area - e.g. distribution of large malls in a city

Elevation: distance of features above sea level

Map Projection: showing a curved surface (the world) on a flat surface (a map)

Map Distortion: relative size, direction, shape - you can’t have all 3 correct

Azimuthal/ Planar: shows true direction from single point, view of earth as seen from space

Mercator: navigation - size is distorted as you get further from equator

Peters Projection: spatial distributions related to area - sizes accurate, shapes inaccurate

Robinson Projection: general use - no major distortion, everything slightly distorted, oval shape

1.2

Remote Sensing: use of cameras/other sensors mounted on an aircraft/satellite to collect digital images/videos of the earth’s surface

GIS: geographic information system - computer system to store/analyze/display information from multiple digital maps/geospatial data sets

GPS: receivers on the earth’s surface use the locations of multiple satellites to determine and record a receiver’s exact location (there will always be some error)

1.3

Census Data: process of collecting, compiling, and publishing data about the population and housing of a country or region

Satellite Imagery: images of the Earth taken from artificial satellites orbiting the planet

Map Scale: relationship between distance on the map and distance on the ground

Scale of Analysis: At what level is the data grouped

1.4

Absolute Distance/Location: longitude and latitude

Relative Distance / Location: description of where something is in relation to another things

Space: the area between two or more phenomena or things

Place: refers to the specific human and physical characteristics of a location

Sense of Place: related to the concept of place.

Site: immediate characteristics

Situation: location of a place relative to its surroundings and its connectivity to other places

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

Cultural Diffusion: the geographical: social spread of the diff. aspects of one culture to diff. ethnicities

Innovation: a new method/idea/process/etc.

Cultural Lag: idea that culture takes time to catch up with technological innovations and that social problems/conflicts are caused by this lag

Transculturation: merging of diff. cultural elements

Assimilation: when an ethnic group is absorbed/integrated (people, ideas, or culture) into a wider society/culture

Acculturation: the adoption of certain cultural and social characteristics of one society by another society

Diffusion: spread of a cultural trait

Relocation Diffusion: culture spreads through human migration

Expansion Diffusion: contagious, stimulus, hierarchical

Hierarchical Diffusion: spread through power (people, places)

Contagious Diffusion: spreads person to person

Stimulus Diffusion: “copycat” underlying concept, slight variation

Friction of Distance:

Syncretism

Distance Decay

Time-Space Compression

Pattern