Chapter 1 Vocabulary Flashcards
Cartography
The science of mapmaking.
Place
Specific point on Earth, distinguished by a particular characteristic.
Region
Area distinguished by a unique combination of trends or features.
Scale
Generally, the relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole.
Ecosystem
Group of living organisms and the abiotic spheres with which they interact.
Parallel
Circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and at right angles to the meridians.
Participatory GIS (PGIS)
Community-based mapping, representing local knowledge and information.
Latitude
The numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the equator.
Hydrosphere
All of the water on or near the Earth’s surface.
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Computer system that stores, organizes, analyzes, and displays geographic data.
Global Positioning System (GPS)
System that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers.
Prime Meridian
Meridian designated as 0 degrees longitude, passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England.
Humanistic Geography
The study of different ways that individuals form ideas about place and give those places symbolic meanings.
Polder
Land that the Dutch have created by draining water from an area.
Toponym
Name given to a portion of Earth’s surface.
Site
Physical characteristics of a place.
Situation
Location of a place relative to another place.
Formal or Uniform Region
Area within which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristic.
Functional or Nodal Region
Organized around a node or focal point.
Vernacular or Perceptual Region
Area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity.
Globalization
Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope.
Transnational Corporation
Company that conducts research, operates factories, sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters or shareholders are located.
Distribution
Arrangement of something across Earth’s surface.
Density
Frequency with which something exists within a given unit of area.
Concentration
The spread of something over a given area.
Diffusion
Process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another.
Hearth
The region from which innovative ideas originate.
Relocation Diffusion
Spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another.
Expansion Diffusion
Spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in an additive process.
Hierarchical Diffusion
Spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places.
Contagious Diffusion
Rapid widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population.
Stimulus Diffusion
Spread of an underlying principle even though a specific characteristic is rejected.
Distance Decay
Diminished importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin.
Space Time Compression
Reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place as a result of improved communications and transportation systems.
Sustainability
The use of Earth’s renewable and nonrenewable natural resources in ways that do not constrain resource use in the future.
Renewable Resource
Something that is produced in nature more rapidly than it is consumed by humans.
Nonrenewable Resource
Something produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans.
Environmental Determinism
9th and early 20th century approach to the study of geography which argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences. Geography was therefore the study of how the physical environment caused human activities.
Possibilism
Theory that the physical environment may limit on human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to the physical environment and choose a course of action from many alternatives.
Climate
The long-term average weather condition at a particular location.
Ecology
The scientific study of ecosystems.
Citizen Science
Scientific research by amateur scientists.
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
Time in the zone encompassing the prime meridian or 0 degrees longitude.
International Date Line
An arc that for the most part follows 180 degrees longitude.
Poststructuralist Geography
Study of space as the product of ideologies or value systems of ruling elites.
Geotagging
Identification and storage of a piece of information by its precise latitude and longitude coordinates.
Abiootic
Composed of nonliving or inorganic.
Acculturation
`The process of changes in culture that result from the meeting of two groups, each of which retains distinct culture features.
Assimilation
The process by which a group’s cultural features are altered to resemble those of another more dominant group.
Atmosphere
The thin layer of gases surrounding Earth.
Behavioral Geography
The study of the psychological basis for individual human actions in space.
Biosphere
All living organisms on Earth, including plants and animals, as well as microorganisms.
Biotic
Composed of living organisms.
Connection
Relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.
Conservation
The sustainable management of a natural resource.
Cultural Ecology
A geographic approach that emphasizes human-environmental relationships.
Cultural Landscape
An approach to geography that emphasizes the relationships among social and physical phenomena in a particular study area
Culture
The body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits that together constitute a group’s distinct tradition.
Geographic Information Science (GIScience)
Development and analysis of data about Earth acquired through satellite and other electronic information technologies.
Lithosphere
Earth’s crust and a portion of upper mantle directly below the crust.
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 distance east and west of the prime meridian.
Map
A two-dimensional, or flat, representation of Earth’s surface or a portion of it.
Mashup
A map that overlays data from one source on top of a map provided by a mapping service.
Map Scale
The relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on Earth’s surface.
Mental Map
A representation of a portion on 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.
Meridian
An arc drawn on a map between the North and South poles.
Spatial Association
Relationship between the distribution of one feature and the distribution of another feature.
Network
A chain of communication that connects places.
Pattern
The geometric or regular arrangement of something in a particular area.
Preservation
Maintenance of resources in their present condition, with as little human impact as possible.
Remote Sensing
Acquisition of data about Earth’s surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or from other long-distance methods.
Projection
System used to transfer locations from Earth’s surface to a flat map.
Resource
Substance in the environment that is useful to people, is economically and technologically feasible to access, and is socially acceptable to use.
Space
Physical gap or interval between two objects.
Syncretism
Combining of elements of two groups into a new cultural feature.
Uneven Development
Increasing gap in economic conditions between core and peripheral regions as a result of the globalization of the economy.
Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI)
Creation and dissemination of geographic data contributed voluntarily and for free individuals.
