Unit 1 vocab

  1. GIS (Geographic Information System) - captures, stores, queries, and displays the geographic data.

    1. EXAMPLE: GIS can help build a new store or business that will actually be successful by finding a huge population.


  1. Photogrammetry - taking measurements of Earth’s surface from photographs.

    1. EXAMPLE: A person drone flies over the city to determine how busy the streets are.


  1. Remote Sensing - data transferring from long-distance methods.

    1. EXAMPLE: a satellite transferring phone call signals from your phone to others.


  1. GPS (Global Positioning System) - a system that determines the precise position of something on Earth.

    1. EXAMPLE: A person using GPS to navigate to a restaurant.


  1. Geotagging - identifying and storing a piece of information by its precise latitude and longitude coordinates.

    1. EXAMPLE: An iphone tracking the exact location of an air tag.


  1. Mashup - a map that shows data from a source onto a map made by a mapping service.

  1. EXAMPLE: Mashup can show a certain store or restaurant on a map.


  1. Map - a two-dimension flat scale model of Earth’s surface that serves two purposes, which can be used as a reference tool or a communication tool.

    1. EXAMPLE: I use a map to find out where Europe is.


  1. Cartography - the science of making maps.

    1. EXAMPLE: creating a map of where the continents are is cartography.


  1. Cartographer - a person who makes maps.

    1. EXAMPLE: A cartographer making a huge map of everywhere he’s traveled.


  1. Map Scale - the size of the map which affects the level of detail and area covered.

    1. EXAMPLE: The map scale is small, so it shows a specific area and has more detail to it.


  1. Projection - transferring locations on Earth’s surface to a flat map.

    1. EXAMPLE: A cartographer draws locations of Earth like Africa onto a map.


  1. Robinson - a map which distorts direction but keeps the level of all distortion over the map low.

    1. EXAMPLE: People use the robinson map to get a visual representation of the entire world.


  1. Mercator - does not distort because direction is consistent, distorts more to the poles, distorts distance

    1. EXAMPLE: A mercator map makes Antarctica look larger than it actually is because it is a part of the poles.


  1. Homolosine - a map that distorts distance, shape, and direction, but has proportionally sized continents

    1. EXAMPLE: Africa has the precise size it should have on the map.


  1. Gall-Peters - doesn’t distort relative size, distorts shape

    1. EXAMPLE: The size of Asia is perfect compared to the other continents because of this map, but the shape is heavily distorted.


  1. Winkel - minimizes distortion of shapes and size on land areas.

    1. EXAMPLE: Cartographers use this map to show small scale areas and provide a more accurate view of the continents.


  1. Geographic Grid - a system of imaginary arcs drawn in a grid pattern on Earth’s surface.

    1. EXAMPLE: A globe with a geographic grid.


  1. Absolute Location - describes the location of place where it never changes

    1. EXAMPLE: The eiffel tower is located in Paris.


  1. Choropleth Map - a map where recognizable areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the variable (needs color and range)

    1. EXAMPLE: The darker the state, the higher population of Asians that live there.


  1. Graduated Symbol Map -  A map with symbols that are scaled proportionally 

    1. EXAMPLE: The larger the circle, the more population density of how many people had covid in different locations..


  1. Cartogram Map - A map in which the size of the country of state depends on the amount of the variable.

    1. EXAMPLE: The larger the area of the state or country, the more mcdonalds there are.



  1. Dot Distribution Map - A map that uses points or other symbols to represent the quantity or value.

    1. EXAMPLE: The more clustered the points are in an area, the more crops are being grown.


  1. Isoline Map - uses lines to connect point locations with similar values

    1. EXAMPLE: Areas within the same region connected by lines experience about the same temperatures..


  1. Place - a description of a specific point on Earth’s surface that contains its physical or human characteristics.

    1. EXAMPLE: China is a place.


  1. Location - the position that something is located on Earth.

    1. EXAMPLE: My house is a specific location.


  1. Toponym - the name given to a place on Earth.

    1. EXAMPLE: The United States is a toponym.


  1. Site - the physical character of an area on Earth

    1. EXAMPLE: Florida has humid and moist weather.


  1. Absolute Location - describes the location of place where it never changes

    1. EXAMPLE: Ayala high school is right next to the shoppes.


  1. Situation - the location of a place relative to other places on the Earth.

    1. EXAMPLE: Ayala is only around 12 blocks away from Veterans Park.


  1. Relative Location - the location of a place relative to other places on the Earth.

    1. EXAMPLE: My house is 15 blocks from the shoppes.


  1. Region - an area on Earth’s surface containing cultural and/or physical characteristics.

    1. EXAMPLE: California has people that speak a variety of languages, but primarily English..


  1. Formal/Uniform Region - an area within which everyone shares in common one or more characteristics. 

    1. EXAMPLE: New York is a formal region because it is a city with defined boundaries and government.


  1. Functional/Nodal Region - an area on Earth’s surface containing cultural and/or physical characteristics.

    1. EXAMPLE: A restaurant has a functional region that includes addresses to which they will deliver food.


  1. Vernacular/Perceptual Region - an area people believe exists part of their cultural identity

    1. EXAMPLE: The middle east is a vernacular region.


  1. Cultural Landscape - cultural features (language and religion), economic features (Industry and Agriculture), and physical features (Climate and Vegetation) are combined.

    1. EXAMPLE: The Great Wall of China is a large feature that represents the Chinese.


  1. Spatial Association - observed within a region if the distribution of one feature is related to the distribution of another feature.

    1. EXAMPLE: a pile of dirt in the woods.


  1. Scale - the relationship between a part of Earth being examined and Earth completely

    1. EXAMPLE: a building design with a scale of 1 unit on the design would represent 15 units in the real world.


  1. Globalization - Forced or process that involves the entire world and results in making something worldwide in scope

    1. EXAMPLE: The scale of the world is shrinking.


  1. Transnational Corporation - conducts research, operates factories, and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters and principal shareholders are located.

    1. EXAMPLE: Starbucks has many locations around the world.


  1. Space - physical gap or interval between two objects

    1. EXAMPLE: the space between Italy and Portugal


  1. Distribution -  the arrangement of a feature in space

    1. EXAMPLE: A dot distribution map arranges the size of dots depending on how clustered or spread out something is.


  1. Density - frequency with which something occurs in space

    1. EXAMPLE: car, people, houses


  1. Concentration - the extent of a feature’s spread over space.

    1. EXAMPLE: oceans, mountains, lakes, forests



  1. Pattern - the geometric arrangement of objects in space.

    1. EXAMPLE: How clustered two areas are, or the elevations of mountains in an area


  1. Uneven Development - the increasing gap in economic conditions between regions in the core and periphery that results from the globalization of the economy

    1. EXAMPLE: Supermarkets in Thailand compared to the US.


  1. Diffusion - A feature that spreads across space from one place to another over time.

    1. EXAMPLE: Tesla started in San Carlos but expanded and is now used in countries such as China and Germany.


  1. Hearth - A place from which an innovation originates at

    1. EXAMPLE: Tesla originally started in San Carlos.


  1. Relocation Diffusion - when people move from one location to another

    1. EXAMPLE: my parents moved from China to America.


  1. Expansion Diffusion - the spread of a feature from one place to another in an additive process.

    1. EXAMPLE: Buddhism spreads across Asia where many people practice the religion.


  1. Hierarchical Diffusion - the spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places.

    1. EXAMPLE: Different TikTok trends that go across the world and other people join in.


  1. Contagious Diffusion - the rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population.

    1. EXAMPLE: the spread of social media using apps such as facebook.


  1. Stimulus Diffusion - the spread of an underlying principle even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse.

    1. EXAMPLE: How pasta was different after the spread from Italy to the US


  1. Distance Decay - the further away, the less likely the two are to interact eventually diminishes with increasing distance then disappears.

    1. EXAMPLE: Justin moved 7 years ago to a different state, so now I have no communication with him.


  1. Space-Time Compression - the reduction in the time it takes for something to reach another place.

    1. EXAMPLE: Calling people using your phone.


  1. Assimilation - the process in which a group's cultural features are altered to resemble those of another group.

    1. EXAMPLE: Chinese people moving to America and adapting to speak English and start a new life.


  1. Acculturation - the process of changes in culture that result from the meeting of two groups.

    1. EXAMPLE: Immigrants learning a new language, such as how the Chinese need to learn English to get around.


  1. Syncretism - the combining of elements of two groups into a new cultural feature.

    1. EXAMPLE: Chinese practice the beliefs of Buddhism and Confucianism.


  1. Resource - a substance in the environment that is useful to people economically and technologically feasible to access, and acceptable to use.

    1. EXAMPLE: Natural Resources


  1. Renewable Resource - produced in nature more rapidly than it is consumed by humans.

    1. EXAMPLE: Wind


  1. Non-renewable Resource - produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans.

    1. EXAMPLE: Natural gas


  1. Cultural Ecology - the geographic study of human environment relationships.

    1. EXAMPLE: The Chinese people of Asia


  1. Environmental Determinism - the belief where physical development caused social development.

    1. EXAMPLE: countries along the equator, tropical areas.


  1. Possibilism - physical environment mighty limit human actions

    1. EXAMPLE: Kazakhstan is far from bodies of water causing dehydrations.


  1. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) - the time at the prime meridian which is the master reference time for all points on Earth.

    1. EXAMPLE: Time from one side of the world to the other.


  1. Polder - piece of land from draining water

    1. EXAMPLE: land from dried up puddles


  1. Relative Distance - measurement describing two points relative to travel time and ease of travel between two countries.

    1. EXAMPLE: the distance between Europe and North America