Ap HuG Unit 1 Vocab

Unit 1 Vocabulary

1. Physical geography: study of spatial characteristics of various elements of the physical environment (landforms, climate, bodies of water, ecosystems, and erosion)

2. Human geography: study of spatial characteristics of humans and human activities (population, culture, politics, urban areas, economics)

3. Four-level analysis: the four most common types of scales of analysis in human geography: comprehension, identification, explanation, and prediction

4. Analyze: to break down into parts and study each part carefully

5. Theory: system of ideas and concepts that attempt to explain and prove why pr how interactions have occurred in the past or will occur in the future

6. Concepts: key vocabulary, ideas, and building blocks that geographers use to describe our world

7. Processes: a series of steps or actions that explain why or how geographic patterns occur

8. Models: representations of reality or theories about reality, to help geographers see general spatial patterns, focus on the influence of specific factors, and understand variations from place to place.

9. Spatial models: show where things are, where they should be, and how they move through physical space (look like stylized maps).

10. Non-spatial models: show a pattern and illustrate theories and concepts using words, graphs, or tables (not on a map)

11. Spatial patterns: patterns represented on a map: absolute and relative distance and direction, clustering, dispersal, and elevation

12. Networks: a set of interconnected nodes (entities, places, cities)

13. Quantitative data: information that can be measured and recorded; numerical data

14. Geospatial data: information that describes objects, events or other features with a location on or near the surface of the earth.

15. Qualitative data: information that is descriptive rather than numerical or statistical in nature; information describing color, odor, shape, or some other physical characteristic

16. Scales of analysis: patterns and processes at different scales reveal variations in, and different interpretations of, data. ; the amount of territory that a map represents. Scale includes local, regional, country, or global.

17. Reference maps: maps designed for people to refer to for general information about places

18. Political maps: a map that shows man-made features such as boundaries, countries, and cities

19. Physical maps: a map that shows natural features such as mountains, rivers and deserts

20. Plat maps: a diagram or map that is used to show how property is divided within a county, city, or neighborhood

21. Thematic maps: a map that shows a particular theme, or topic ex: choropleth, dot distribution, graduated symbol, isoline

22. Choropleth maps: uses various colors, shades of one color, or patterns to show the location and distribution of data

23. Dot distribution maps: a map where dots are used to demonstrate the frequency or intensity of a particular phenomena

24. Graduated symbol maps: a map with symbols that change in size according to the value of the attribute they represent.

25. Isoline maps: a thematic map with lines that connect points of equal value.

26. Topographic maps: maps that use isolines to represent constant elevations

27. Cartogram: the sizes of countries are shown to some specific statistic

28. Geographic scale (relative scale): the ratio between the size of things in the real world and the size of those same things on a map

29. Small-scale maps: shows fewer details, and focuses on a larger area (region, world)

30. Large-scale maps: maps that cover smaller areas with greater detail

31. Absolute location: the precise point where a place is located on earth (ex: GPS coordinates)

32. Relative location: where a place is located in relation to another place (ex: the McDonalds is in the same shopping center as Safeway)

33. Density: the number of things—which could be people, animals, plants, or objects—in a certain area.

34. Concentration: the spread of something over a given area.

35. Dispersed concentration: when the objects in an area are relatively far apart

36. Clustered concentration: if the objects in an area are close together

37. Accessibility: the degree of ease with which it is possible to reach certain location from other locations

38. Absolute direction: based on the cardinal points of north, south, east, and west. These appear uniformly and independently in all cultures, derived from obvious givens of nature

39. Patterns: the geometric or regular arrangement of something in a study area.

40. Absolute distance: exact measurement of the physical space between two places.

41. Relative distance: approximate measurement of the physical space between two places.

42. Distribution: the arrangement of something across earth's surface

43. Map projection: a way of representing the spherical earth on a flat surface

44. Field observations: the act of physically visiting a location, place, or region and recording, firsthand, information there

45. Spatial analysis: the analysis of geographic data about a certain place.

46. Spatial data: all of the information that can be tied to a specific locations.

47. Remote sensing: process of gathering data about earth from instruments far above the planet's surface

48. Aerial photography: taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated position off earth's surface.

49. Global positioning systems (GPS): a system that determines accurately the precise position of something on earth through satellites, tracking stations, and receivers

50. Geographic information system (GIS): a computer system that stores, organizes, analyzes, and displays geographic data

51. Space: refers to the physical gap or interval between two objects.

52. Location: the position of something on the earth's surface

53. Place: specific human and physical characteristics of a location

54. Region: a group of places on earth with similar human and/or physical features

55. Site: the exact location of a city

56. Situation: the location of a place relative to surrounding areas

57. Sense of place: state of mind derived through the infusion of a place with meaning and emotion by remembering important events that occurred in that place or by labeling a place with a certain character

58. Toponyms: place name

59. Time-space compression: the shrinking of time distance between locations because of improved methods of transportation and communication

60. Spatial interaction: movement of peoples, ideas, and commodities (goods bought and sold) within and between areas

61. Flow: movements of people, resources, and culture

62. Friction of distance: when things are farther apart, they tend to be less well connected

63. Distance decay: decline of activity or function with increasing distance from its point of origin

64. Human-environmental interaction: connection and exchange between humans and the natural world

65. Renewable natural resources: resources are produced in nature more rapidly than they are consumed by humans (ex: wind energy)

66. Non-renewable natural resources: resources are produced in nature more slowly than they are consumed by humans (ex: coal)

67. Sustainability: the use of earth's resources in ways that ensure their availability in the future

68. Land use: the way in which land is used within a given area (ex. Agricultural, residential, industrial)

69. Built environment: the man-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from personal shelter to neighborhoods to the large-scale civic surroundings.

70. Cultural landscape: modifications to the environment by humans, including the built environment and agricultural systems, that reflect aspects if their culture

71. Cultural ecology: the relationship between culture and the environment, dealing with human adaptations to various environments.

72. Environmental determinism: the idea that human behavior and development is controlled by the physical environment

73. Possibilism: the theory that the physical environment may set limits on human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to the physical environment and choose a course of action from many alternatives.

74. Aggregation: a large group or collection of people, animals, or things.

75. Formal regions (uniform regions or homogeneous regions): an area in which everyone shares in one or more distinctive characteristics

76. Functional regions (nodal regions): an area organized around a node or focal point and are defined by an activity that occurs across the region. Ex: pizza delivery areas - the pizza shop is the node

77. Perceptual regions (vernacular regions): an area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity

78. Subregions: a smaller division of a geographic region.