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all vocab terms

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Term
Definition
Absolute Location   A precise position on the Earth's surface  
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Behavioral geography   The study of the psychological basis for individual human actions in space.  
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Cartography   The science of making maps  
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Climate   The long-term average weather condition at a particular location  
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Clustered   Position close together. Often used interchangeably with "concentration".  
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Complementarity   A measure of how well one country’s export profile matches another country’s import profile.  
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Concentration   The spread of something over a given area versus another area.  
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Connection   The relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.  
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Conservation   The sustainable management of a natural resource.  
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Contagious diffusion*   The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population.  
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Cultural ecology   A geographic approach that emphasizes human–environment relationships.  
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Cultural landscape*   An approach to geography that emphasizes the relationships among social and physical phenomena in a particular study area.  
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Culture*   The body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits that together constitute a group’s distinct tradition.  
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Density *   The frequency with which something exists within a given unit of area.  
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Diffusion *   The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time.  
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Dispersed *   Diffused or spread out over an area.  
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Distance decay *   The diminished importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin.  
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Distribution   The arrangement of something across Earth’s surface.  
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Environmental determinism *   An approach to the study of geography which argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences.  
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Expansion diffusion *   The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in an additive process.  
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Formal region (or uniform region) *   An area in which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics.  
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Friction of distance*   The inhibiting effect of distance on the intensity and volume of forms of interaction. Note: time-space compression decreases friction of distance.  
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Functional region (or nodal region) *   An area organized around a node or focal point.  
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Geographic information system (GIS) *   A computer system that stores, organizes, analyzes, and displays geographic data.  
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Geotagging   Identification and storage of a piece of information by its precise latitude and longitude coordinates.  
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Global Positioning System (GPS)   A system that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers.  
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Globalization *   Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope.  
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Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)   The time in the zone encompassing the prime meridian, or 0° longitude.  
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Hearth *   The region from which innovative ideas originate.  
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Hierarchical diffusion *   The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places.  
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Humanistic geography   The study of different ways that individuals form ideas about place and give those places symbolic meanings.  
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International Date Line   An arc that for the most part follows 180° longitude. When the International Date Line is crossed heading east (toward America), the clock moves back a day. When it is crossed heading west (toward Asia), the calendar moves ahead one day.  
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Latitude   The numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the equator (0°).  
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Location *   The position of anything on Earth’s surface.  
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Longitude   The numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians drawn on a globe and measuring distance east and west of the prime meridian (0°).  
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Map   A two-dimensional, or flat, representation of Earth’s surface or a portion of it.  
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Map scale   The relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on Earth’s surface.  
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Mashup   A map that overlays data from one source on top of a map provided by a mapping service.  
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Mental map   A representation of a portion of Earth’s surface based on what an individual knows about a place that contains personal impressions of what is in the place and where the place is located.  
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Meridian   An arc drawn on a map between the North and South poles.  
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Network   A chain of communication that connects places.  
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Nonrenewable resource   Something produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans.  
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Parallel   A circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and at right angles to the meridians.  
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Participatory GIS (PGIS)   Community-based mapping, representing local knowledge and information.  
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Pattern   The geometric or regular arrangement of something in a particular area.  
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Perceptual region (or Vernacular region) *   An area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity.  
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Place *   A specific point on Earth, distinguished by a particular characteristic.  
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Polder   Land that the Dutch have created by draining water from an area.  
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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.  
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Poststructuralist geography   The study of space as the product of ideologies or value systems of ruling elites.  
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Preservation   The maintenance of resources in their present condition, with as little human impact as possible.  
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Prime meridian   The meridian, designated as 0° longitude, passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England.  
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Projection   A system used to transfer locations from Earth’s surface to a flat map.  
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Region *   An area distinguished by a unique combination of trends or features  
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Relative Location *   The position of one place or person in relation to another place or person.  
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Relocation diffusion (also known as Migration diffusion)*   The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another.  
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Remote sensing *   The acquisition of data about Earth’s surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or from other long-distance methods.  
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Renewable resource   Something produced in nature more rapidly than it is consumed by humans.  
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Resource   A substance in the environment that is useful to people, is economically and technologically feasible to access, and is socially acceptable to use.  
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Scale *   Generally, the relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole.  
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Sense of place *   How a person feels about a place and why it is important to them.  
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Site *   The physical character of a place.  
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Situation *   The location of a place relative to another place.  
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Soil depletion *   The erosion, salinization, or degrading of fertile soil.  
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Space   The physical gap or interval between two objects.  
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Space–time compression *   The reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place as a result of improved communications and transportation systems.  
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Spatial association *   The relationship between the distribution of one feature and the distribution of another feature.  
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Spatial diffusion *   A feature spreading across space.  
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Spatial interaction *   The connectivity of people, businesses, or other features across space.  
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Spatial perspective *   A geographic focus that seeks to identify and explain the uses of space.  
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Stimulus diffusion *   The spread of an underlying principle even though a specific characteristic is rejected.  
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Sustainability *   The use of Earth’s renewable and nonrenewable natural resources in ways that do not constrain resource use in the future.  
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Syncretism *   The combining of elements of two groups into a new cultural feature.  
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Thematic map *   A map that emphasizes the spatial patterns of geographic statistics or attributes, and sometimes the relationship between them.  
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Toponym *   The name given to a portion of Earth’s surface.  
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Transnational corporation *   A company that conducts research, operates factories, and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters or shareholders are located.  
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Uneven development   The increasing gap in economic conditions between core and peripheral regions as a result of the globalization of the economy.  
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Volunteered geographic information (VGI)   Creation and dissemination of geographic data contributed voluntarily and for free by individuals.  
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Abiotic   Composed of nonliving or inorganic matter.  
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Atmosphere   The thin layer of gases surrounding Earth.  
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Biosphere   All living organisms on Earth, including plants and animals, as well as microorganisms.  
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Biotic   Composed of living organisms.  
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Ecology   The scientific study of ecosystems.  
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Ecosystem   A group of living organisms and the abiotic spheres with which they interact.  
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Hydrosphere   All of the water on and near Earth’s surface.  
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Lithosphere   Earth’s crust and a portion of the upper mantle directly below the crust.  
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