| Question |
Answer |
| place |
a specific point on earth distinguished by a particular character |
| built landscape |
the built landscape is represented by those features and patterns reflecting human occupations and use of natural resources |
| sequent occupance |
the notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contribution to the cumulative cultural landscape. this is an important concept in geography because it symbolizes how human interact with their surroundings. |
| cultural landscape |
a combination of cultural features such as language and religion, economic features such as agriculture and industry, and physical features such as climate and vegetation |
| density |
the frequency with which something occurs in space |
| arithmetic density |
total number of objects in an area- used to compare distribution of population in different countries |
| physiological density |
number of people per unit of area suitable for agriculture |
| diffusion |
the process by which a characteristic spreads across space from one place to another over time. |
| hearth |
the place from which innovation originates |
| relocation diffusion |
spread of an idea through physical movement from one place to another |
| expansion diffusion |
the spread of an idea from one place to another in a snowballing process |
| hierarchical diffusion |
spread of an idea from nodes/people of authority to other people/places |
| contagious diffusion |
rapid, widespread diffusions of a characteristic throughout a region |
| stimulus diffusion |
spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse |
| direction |
information contained in the relative position of one point with respect to another point without the distance information. |
| absolute direction |
|
| relative direction |
|
| dispersed |
|
| scattered |
|
| clustered |
|
| agglomerated |
|
| distance |
the measurement of the physical space between places |
| absolute distance |
exact measurement of physical space between two places. |
| distribution |
the arrangement of something across earth's surface |
| environmental determinism |
a nineteenth - and early twentieth- century approach to the study of geography that argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences. |
| location |
the position that something occupies on earth's surface |
| absolute location |
The exact position of an object or place, measured within some other place |
| relative location |
Position on Earth’s surface relative to other features. (Ex: My house is west of 394). |
| site |
physical character of a place |
| situation |
is the location of a place relative to other places |
| place name |
a toponym is the name given to a place on earth |
| patterns |
the geometric arrangements of objects in space |
| linear |
|
| centralized |
|
| random |
|
| physical attributes |
|
| natural landscape |
|
| 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 |
| regions |
an area distinguished by a unique combination of features or trends |
| formal/uniform regions |
an area within which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics |
| functional/nodal regions |
an area organized around a node of focal point |
| perceptual/vernacular regions |
a place that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity |
| scale |
refers to the relationship of a feature's size on a map to its actual size on earth |
| spatial interaction |
when places are connected to each other through a network, geographers say there is a spatial interaction between them |
| accessibility |
the degree of ease with which it is possible to reach certain location from other locations. accessibility varies from place to place and can be measured |
| connectivity |
the relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space. geographers are concerned with the various means by which connections occur |
| network |
chains of communication that connect people |
| distance decay |
contact between two groups diminishing with increasing distance and eventually disappearing |
| friction of distance |
is bases on the notion that distance usually requires some amount of effort. interactions will tend to take place more often over shorter distances; quantity of interaction will decline with distance. |
| time-space compression |
the reduction in the time it takes for something to reach another place |
| distortion |
|
| GIS |
(geographic information system)- a computer system that can capture, store, query, analyze, and display geographic data |
| GPS |
a system that accurately finds precise position of something on earth |
| north pole/ south pole |
north- 90 degrees north latitude south- 90 degrees south latitude |
| latitudes |
numbering system that indicates the location of a parallel |
| parallel |
a circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and at right angles to the meridians |
| equator |
0 degrees latitude |
| longitude |
numbering system that identifies the location of each meridian on earth's surface |
| meridian |
is an arc drawn between the north and south poles |
| international date line |
for the most part follows the 180 degree longitude- turn the clock back 24 hours if heading east, ahead 24 hours if heading west when crossing it. |
| thematic maps |
A type of map that displays one or more variables -such as population or income level - within a specific area |
| statistical maps |
|
| cartogram |
A type of thematic map that transforms such space such that the political unit with the greatest value for some type of data is represented by the largest relative area |
| dot maps |
Thematic maps that use points to show the precise locations of specific observations or occurrences, such as crimes, car accidents or births. |
| choropleth maps |
A thematic map that uses tones or colors to represent spatial data as average values per unit area |
| isoline maps |
Map line that connects points of equal or very similar values |
| mental maps |
an internal representation of earths surface |
| map scale |
presented in three ways: fraction (1/24,000), ratio (1:24,000), or written ("1 inch equals 1 mile") |
| models |
A simplified abstraction of reality, structured to clarify casual relationships and to help geographers explain patterms , make decisions and predict future behaviors |
| projection |
the scientific method of transferring locations on earths surface to a flat map |
| remote sensing |
the acquisition of data about earth's surface from a satellite orbiting earth or from other long-distance methods |