Chapter 1 Flashcards
Concentration
The spread of something over a given area
Cartography
The science of map making.
Contagious diffusion
The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population
Cultural ecology
A geographic approach that emphasizes human-enviroment relationships.
Cultural landscape
The fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group
Culture
The body of customary beliefs, social forms and material traits that together constitute a group’s distinct tradition.
Density
The frequency with which someone exists within a given unit of area.
Diffusion
The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another overtime
Distance decay
The diminishing and the importance and the eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin.
Distribution
The arrangement of something across earths surface
Environmental determinism
A 19th and early 20th century approach to the study of geography which argued that the general laws stop by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences. Geography was there for the study of how the physical environment caused human activities.
Expansion diffusion
The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in an additive process.
Formal region(or uniform or homogenous
In area in which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics.
Functional region(or nodal region)
In the area organized around a notice of focal point.
GIScience (geographic information science)
The development and analysis of data about Earth acquired through satellite and other electronic information technologies.
GIS(geographic information system)
A computer system that stores, organizes, analyzes, and displays geographic data.
GPS(global positioning system)
A system that determines the precise position of something on earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers.
Globalization
Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope.
Greenwhich mean time
The time in the zone encompassing the prime meridian, or 0° longitude
Hearth
The region in which innovative ideas originate
Hieracheal diffusion
The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places.
International date line
180° longitude: although it deviates in several places to avoid dividing land areas, when you cross the international dateline (heading east) the clock moves back 24 hours or one entire day.
Lattitude
The numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the equator 0°.
Location
The position of anything on Earth’s surface.
Longitude
The numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians drawn on a globe and measuring distances east and west of the prime meridian 0°.
Map
A two-dimensional, or flat, representation of Earth’s surface or a portion of it
Map scale
The relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on Earth’s surface
Network
A chain of communication that connects places
Pattern
The geometric or regular arrangements of something in a study area.
Place
A specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular characteristic
Polder
Land created by the Dutch by draining water from an area
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
Region
An area distinguished by a unique combination of trends and features
Relocation diffusion
The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another
Renewable resource
Something produced in nature more rapidly then it is consumed by humans
Nonrenewable resource
Something produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans
Resource
A substance in the environment that is useful to people, is economically and technologically feasible to access, and is socially acceptable to use
Scale
Generally, the relationship between the portion of the earth being studied and earth as a whole
Site
The physical character of the place
Situation
The location of a place relative to another place
Space
The physical gap or interval between two objects
Space-time compression
The reduction in the time it takes to defuse something to a distant place as a result of improved communications and transportation systems
Stimulus diffision
The spread of an underlying principle even though a specific characteristic is rejected
Sustainability
The use of Earth’s renewable and nonrenewable natural resources in ways that do not constrain resource use in the future
Toponym
The name given to a portion of Earth’s surface
Transational corporation
A company that conducts research, operates factories, and sells products and many countries, not just words headquarters or shareholders are located.
Uneven development
The Increasing gap and economic conditions between cooler and peripheral regions as a result of the globalization of the economy
Vernacular region or perceptual region
An area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity
