Chapter 1 Flashcards
Geography
The study of where things are found on Earth’s surface and the reasons for the locations.
Place
A specific point on Earth, distinguished by a particular characteristic. Every place occupies a unique location, or position, on Earth’s surface.
Region
An area of Earth defined by one or more distinctive characteristics. Ex: North America
Scale
The relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole.
Space
The physical gap or interval between two objects.
Connection
Relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.
Map
A two-dimensional or flat-scale model of Earth’s surface, or a portion of it.
Cartography
The science of mapmaking
Global Positioning System (GPS)
A system that determines the precise position of something on earth using predetermined satellites, tracking stations that monitor said satellites, and a receiver that locates those satellites and uses that information to pinpoint its own location.
Geotagging
The identification and storage of a piece of information by its precise latitude and longitude coordinates.
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Captures, stores, queries, and displays geographic data and produces maps that are more accurate and attractive than those drawn by hand.
Remote Sensing
Long distance methods such as satellites that get data about Earth’s surface.
Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI)
The creation and dissemination of geographic data contributed voluntarily and for free by individuals.
Citizen science
Scientific research by amateur scientists
Participatory GIS (PGIS)
Community-based mapping.
Mashup
A map that overlays data from one source on top of a map provided by a mapping service (Google Earth or Google Maps.)
Projection
The scientific method of transferring locations on Earth’s surface to a flat map.
Meridian
An arc drawn between the North and South poles.
Longitude
The location of each meridian according to a numbering system.
Parallel
A circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and at right angles to the meridians.
Latitude
The numbering system to indicate the location of a parallel.
Prime Meridian
Passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich England at a longitude of 0.
Location
The position that something occupies on Earth’s surface.
Toponym
The name given a place on Earth.
Site
The physical character of a place.
Situation
The location of a place relative to other places.
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.
Formal (Uniform) Region
An area within which everyone shares in common one of more distinctive characteristics.
Functional (Nodal) Region
An area organized around a node or focal point
Vernacular (Perceptual) Region
An area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity.
Spacial Association
Occurs within a region if the distribution of one feature is related to the distribution of another feature.
Culture
The body of customary beliefs, material traits, and social forms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group of people.
Globalization
A force or process that involves the entire world and results in making something worldwide in scope.
Transnational Corporation
Conducts research, operates factories, and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters and principal shareholders are located.
Distribution
The arrangement of a feature in space.
Density
The frequency with which something occurs in space.
Concentration
The extent of a feature’s spread over space.
Pattern
The geometric arrangement of objects in space.
Poststructuralist geography
Examines how the powerful in a society dominate or seek to control less powerful groups, how the dominated groups occupy space, and the confrontations that result from the domination.
Humanistic geography
Emphasizes the different ways that individuals form ideas about place and give those places symbolic meanings.
Behavioral geography
Emphasizes the importance of understanding the psychological basis for individual human actions in space.
Uneven development
The increasing gap in economic conditions between regions that results from the globalization of the economy.
Assimilation
The process by which a group’s cultural features are altered to resemble those of another group.
Acculturation
The process of changes in culture that result from the meeting of two groups.
Syncretism
The combination of elements of two groups into a new cultural feature.
Diffusion
The process by which feature spreads across space from one place to another over time.
Hearth
A place from which an innovation originates.
Relocation Diffusion
The spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another.
Expansion Diffusion
The spread of a feature from one place to another in an additive process.
Hierarchial diffusion
The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places.
Contagious diffusion
The rapid widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population.
Stimulus diffusion
The spread of an underlying principle even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse.
Network
A chain of communication that connects places.
Distance decay
The farther away someone is from another, the less likely the two are to interact.
Space-time compression
Distance decay is much less severe in the contemporary world because connection between places takes much less time; this is the reduction in the time it takes for something to reach another place.
Resource
A substance in the environment that is useful to people, economically and technologically feasible to access, and socially acceptable to use.
Sustainability
The use of Earth’s resources in ways that ensure their availability in the future.
Renewable resource
Produced in nature more rapidly than it is consumed by humans.
Nonrenewable resource
Produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans.
Conservation
The sustainable use and management of Earth’s natural resources to meet human needs such as food, medicine, and recreation.
Preservation
The maintenance of resources in their present condition, with as little human impact as possible.
Biotic
Composed of living organisms.
Abiotic
Composed of nonliving or inorganic matter.
Atmosphere
A thin layer of gasses surrounding Earth.
Hydrosphere
All of the water on and near Earth’s surface.
Lithosphere
Earth’s crust and a portion of the upper mantle directly below the crust.
Biosphere
All living organisms on Earth, including plants and animals, as well as microorganisms.
Climate
The long-term average weather condition at a particular location.
Ecosystem
A group of living organisms and the abiotic spheres with which they interact.
Ecology
The scientific study of ecosystems.
Erosion
Occurs when soil washes away in rain or blows away in the wind.
Depletion of nutrients
Soil contains necessary nutrients; when plants withdraw more nutrients than natural processes can replace, this leads to depletion.
Cultural ecology
The geographic study of human-environment relationships.
Environmental determinism
Invented by nineteenth-century German geographers Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Ritter, who believed that the physical environment caused social development.
Possiblism
The physical environment may limit some human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to their environment.
Polder
A piece of land that is created by draining water from an area.
