Unit 1:

1. MAPS

   1. Spacial Patterns - Locations of (any) things on earth

      1. Absolute Distance: An exact measure of the separation between two points using a standard, such as inches, feet, miles, or kilometers

      2. Relative Distance: A measure of social, cultural, or political differences or similarities between two locations that cannot be depicted on maps

      3. Absolute Direction: Indicates North, South, East, West

      4. Relative Direction: Describes the location of one thing in relation to another

      5. Clustering/Dispersal: Describes how phenomena (things that exist) are spread out across an area

      6. Elevation: Measures the height of geographic features relative to sea level (usually represented by an isoline map)

   2. Every map has a scale, which explains how distance on the map relates to distance in the real world

      1. Scales can be represented by a ratio (1:1000 = 1 in = 1000 mi)

      2. Scales can be represented by a bar (0 mi |__|__|__|__| 1000 mi)

      3. A large-scale map - zoomed in on a particular feature and details are larger

      4. A small-scale map - zoomed out to a national or global level and details are smaller

         1. Large scale → Large buildings -&- Small scale → Small buildings

   3. Maps indicate Direction, usually depicted by a compass rose

   4. TWO KINDS OF MAPS

      1. Reference Maps: Displays specific Geographic Locations (Like a blueprint for the construction of a building)

         1. Road Maps → Locations of roads and highways

         2. Topographical Maps → Shows mountains and valleys while depicting changes in elevation

         3. Political Maps → shows boundaries or provinces of states and countries

      2. Thematic Maps: Displays Geographic Information

         1. Choropleth Maps → Visualizes data with / different colors (e.g. a map that shows which state voted a Democrat or Republican for presidential election)

         2. Dot Distribution Maps → Uses dots to visualize the location of certain data points

            1. ONE-TO-ONE - One dot equals one unit of data

            2. ONE-TO-MANY - One dot represents a group

         3. Graduated Symbol Maps → Uses symbols to visualize data (e.g. uses different size circles in proportion to represent population of a areas)

         4. Isoline Maps→ Uses lines to depict data (most common are topographic maps showing changes in elevation)

            1. Lines closer together indicate a rapid change in data

            2. Lines farther apart indicate smaller changes in data

         5. Cartogram → Distrorts the size of geographic shapes to display differences in data (There is a trade-off to ensure what will be distorted and what will be accurate)

            1. Mercator Projection - Latitude and Longitude lines meet at right angles 

               1. The farther south/north you get the more distorted the land masses become

            2. Peters Projection - Challenges Eurocentric Mercator Projection by depitcing continents according to the true size of their landmass

               1. While size-landmasses are accurate, the shapes are distorted

            3. Polar Projection - Views the world from the noth or south pole

               1. While directions are true, distortion occrus at the edges of map

            4. Robinson Projection - A comprimise between Peters and Mercator Map Projections

               1. Distributes all kinds of distortions to all parts of the map equally

2. GEOGRAPHIC DATA

   1. Quantitative Data - Numbers-based

   2. Qualitative Data - Descriptive and language-based

   3. Individuals (like researchers orcCommunity advocates) and Organizations can gathers geographic data

   4. How data is gathered -

      1. Geospatial technologies - Technologies that use hardware or software to examine and measure geographical features on teh earth 

         1. GPS (Global Positioning System) - Use satellites to communicate with devices on earth to connect an absolute location which is where you currently are to another destination which is where you want to go - FINDING LOCATIONS

         2. GIS (Geographic Information Systems) - Software that can manipulate geospatial data that can be used for research or problem-solving - FINDING ANSWERS TO RESEARCH-BASED PROBLEMS (like figureing where to put a new parking lot)

         3. Remote Sensing - A method of data collection that gathers information about geographic locations through satellite immagery which can help visualize population patterns and other geospatial information

      2. Field Observations - When a researcher or geographer physically visits the location and makes written observations about what they see

   5. Data is important to people who make decisions

      1. The government needs CENSUS DATA for ubran planning

         1. Place of Residence

         2. Race

         3. Gender

         4. Income

3. SPATIAL CONCEPTS 

   1. Six Major Geographic Concpets that we can use to think about spatial relations or we are going to consider the tools that help us think geographically

      1. Absolute location refers to the precise geographical coordinates of a particluar place on the earth’s surface (In order to understant Absolute Location, you need to understand Latitude & Longitude

         1. Latitude & Longitude together form a grid that overlays the entire world that make finding abosolute locations possible

      2. Relative Location means to describe one place in reference to another and is usually measured in distance or time (Disney world is 3 hours away from us by bus)

      3. Space refers to the physical characteristics of a location and can be measured mathematically (City A is 50 miles away from City B or City B is 30 mi^2)

      4. Place refers to the meaning people attribute to the locations in which they live which cannot really be measured mathematically

      5. Flows - describe patterns of spatial interaction between different locations (e.g. roads faciliate movement locations, meaning if Place-A has many roads to Place-B, then it has move interaction, more flow)

      6. Distance Decay - the further apart two things are, the less connected they will be

      7. Time-Space Compression - refers to the decreased distance between places measured by the time or cost it taeks to travel between them

      8. Geographic Patterns are used by people to try to make sense out of how phenomena are arranged on hte landscape

         1. Random pattern - no order whatsoever

         2. Lineaer pattern - objects under study arranged in a straight line

         3. Dispersed pattern - the phenomena are scattered throughout a large space like farms

4. HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS

   1. Natural Resources 

      1. Renewable resources - resources that can be used in unlimited measure

      2. Non-Renewable resources - resources that are only available in limited measure

   2. Sustanability - How gegraphers study how humans use non-renewable resources and then develop recommendations and policies for preserving them for future use. Sustainability is concerned with population and the environmental impact of how humans use resources and geographers make recommendations for how to minimize that impact

   3. Land Use - Describes how human beings use and modify the land on which they live

      1. The differences in built landscape is qhat geographers refer to as Cultural Landscape

         1. How the built environment reflects the values and culture of the people who built it

   4. Human Evironmental Theories - geographers established two frameworks of thoughts that help them think about those interactions

      1. Environmental Determinism - A theory that flourished in the 19th and early 20th centuries that argues that physical environment determines how a people’s culture develops - “Environment determines Culture”

         1. This was the dominant theory b/c it helped justify europeans to themselves that colonizing lands in tropical regions was just fine b/c if people lived in a tropical region then that means they were lazy b/c they didn’t have to work very hard for their food

      2. Possibilism - The opposite of determinism, arguing that humans are the driving force in shaping their culture and that whatever environment a people finds themselves in offfers many different possibilities for developing a culture (those possibilites change  with the level of technological advancement that is present within a culture

         1. For cultures with access to many technologies, environment plays less of a role in how their culture is formed

5. SCALES OF ANALYSIS

   1. Scales indicates how large or small the data set is

   2. Analysis means thinking about data and coming to conlusions about it

   3. Scales of Analysis = Drawing conclusions bas on different data sets

      1. Global - analysing data at the global level - what does this phenomena look like on the whole earth

      2. Regional - analysing data at the continental level - the point is to draw comparaisions between two or more regions (e.g. life exspectancy in Africa compared to North America)

         1. A region is some geographical unit which shares some unifying principle. And that unifying principle can be cultural, like a shared language, economic, like a treaty that binds states together into an economic unit, a pattern or activity, like farming, or anything else that helps bind people together

            1. Formal Region / Uniform Region / Homogenous Region is linked by common traits like language, religion, or economic prosperity - Its the geographer that defines the region based on the shared traits that they want to analyse

            2. Functional Region / Nodal Region - a region organized not based on shared traits but on shared function

               1. How that works - one entity serves as the node or the center point of the region and this Center Point defines the activity in a region

            3. Formal and Functional regions can overlap but often don’t take up the same space

            4. Perceptual Region / Vernacular Region - defined by people’es shared beliefs and feelings about themselves (e.g. the american south think of themeslves as hospitable and they walk slowly and are very religious), but the borders of perceptual regions are vague

            5. But even with Formal And Functional Regions, Borders can be transitional - since boundaries have no distinct end and start, they are often the subject of disputes knwn as contested boundaries

      3. National - studies phenomena in a particular country (e.g. median household income in Germany compared to median household in the Czech Republic

      4. Local - analysing data at the state or city level (e.g. graduation rate of one state vs another)

   4. The further you zoom in, the larger the scale

      1. Global Map = Small Scale Map | City Map = Large Scale Map

   5. Changing the scale of analysis reveals different variations of patterns and processes