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Chapter 1
North America I think
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Borderland | General term for a linear zone that parallels a political boundary. The most dynamic of these areas, such as those lining the U.S.-Mexico border, are marked by significant cultural and economic interaction across the boundary that separates them. |
| Transition zone | An area of spatial change where the peripheries of two adjacent realms or regions join; marked by a gradual shift (rather than a sharp break) in the characteristics that distinguish these neighboring geographic entities from one another. |
| Physiographic region | A region within which there prevails substantial natural-landscape homogeneity, expressed by a certain degree of uniformity in surface relief, climate, vegetation, and soils. |
| Continentality | The variation of the continental effect on air temperatures in the interior portions of the world’s landmasses. The greater the distance from the moderating influence of an ocean, the greater the extreme in summer and winter temperatures. Continental inte |
| Rain shadow effect | The relative dryness in areas downwind of mountain ranges resulting from orographic precipitation, wherein moist air masses are forced to deposit most of their water content as they cross the highlands. |
| Federation | A country adhering to a political framework wherein a central government represents the various subnational entities within a nation-state where they have common interests—defense, foreign affairs, and the like—yet allows these various entities to retain |
| Aquifer | An underground reservoir of water contained within a porous, water-bearing rock layer. |
| Fossil fuel | The energy resources of coal, natural gas, and petroleum (oil), so named collectively because they were formed by the geologic compression and transformation of tiny plant and animal organisms. |
| Urban system | A hierarchical network or grouping of urban areas within a finite geographic area, such as a country. |
| American Manufacturing Belt | North America’s near-rectangular core area, whose corners are Boston, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Baltimore. |
| Distribution center | A centralized focus of economic activity specializing in the distribution of goods, situated as a major hub on its regional transportation network. Atlanta, Georgia is a classic example. |
| Intermodal connections | Facilities and activities related to the transfer of goods in transit from one transportation mode to another (e.g., the loading of containers from a ship directly onto a truck or railcar). |
| Outer city | The non-central-city portion of the American metropolis; no longer “sub” to the “urb,” this outer ring was transformed into a full-fledged city during the late twentieth century. |
| Deindustrialization | Companies relocate manufacturing jobs to places with cheaper labor. The now deindustrialized region struggles with the effects of increased unemployment and the retraining needs of its workforce while converting to a service economy . |
| Central business district (CBD) | The downtown heart of a central city; marked by high land values, a concentration of business and commerce, and the clustering of the tallest buildings. |
| Information economy | The new, postindustrial economy maturing in the highest advanced countries of North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. Here, traditional industry is being eclipsed by a higher-technology productive complex focused on information-related activities. |
| Global Positioning System (GPS) | The orbiting-satellite-based navigation system that provides locational and time information, anywhere on or near the Earth’s surface where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. |
| Gentrification | The upgrading of an older residential area through private reinvestment. Frequently, this involves the displacement of established lower-income residents, who cannot afford the new living costs. |
| Neighborhood effect | The impact of one’s neighborhood on an individual’s outlook, aspirations, socialization, and life chances. |
| Residential geography | The spatial distribution of a residential population. The term is most often used by urban geographers to describe the clustering of various social groups into the neighborhoods that form the residential fabric of cities and suburbs. |
| Sunbelt | The southern tier of the United States, anchored by California, Texas, and Florida. Its warm climate, recreational opportunities, and other amenities have been attracting large numbers of relocating people and activities since the 1960s. |
| Migration | A change in residence intended to be permanent. |
| Electoral geography | The spatial distribution of political preferences as expressed in voting behavior for political parties and/or candidates. The mapping of election results (see Box 1-8) is the foundation of electoral geography. |
| Melting pot | Traditional characterization of American society as a blend of numerous immigrant ethnic groups that over time were assimilated into a single societal mainstream. |
| First Nations | Name given Canada’s indigenous peoples of American descent, whose U.S. counterparts are called Native Americans. |
| World-City | A large city with particularly significant international (economic) linkages that also has a high ranking in the global urban system. Leading world-cities include London, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Paris. |
| Technopole | A planned techno-industrial complex (such as California’s Silicon Valley) that innovates, promotes, and manufactures the products of the postindustrial information economy. |
| Pacific Rim | A group of nations (extending clockwise on the map from New Zealand to Chile) that face the Pacific Ocean, have relatively high levels of economic development, industrialization, & urbanization, and have trade mainly over Pacific waters. |
| Tar sands | Main source of oil from non-liquid petroleum reserves. The oil is mixed with sand and requires massive open-pit mining as well as a costly, complicated process to extract it. The largest known deposits are located in the northeast of Alberta. |
| Boreal forest | The subarctic, mostly coniferous snowforest that blankets Canada south of the tundra that lines the Arctic shore; known as the taiga in Russia. |
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