Geography Flashcards
Absolute Location
Exact whereabouts of a place, person or thing.
-latitude & longitude
Relative Location
Relationship of a place between and among other places.
Most Common
Geography
Spatial discipline
- Where?
- Why There?
- Consequences of being there?
- Science of Space and Place*
Spatial Perspective
Identifying, explaining and predicting the human and physical patterns in space and the interconnectedness of various spaces.
4 branches of geography
- human
- physical
- regional
- topical/systematic
Human geography
- Humans & culture
- population geography
- economic geography
- political geography
- activities relate to environment politically, culturally, historically and socially
Physical Geography
Physical environment
- water (hydrosphere) - air (atmosphere) - animals (biosphere) - land (lithosphere)
Land formation, water, weather & climate, geomorphology, biogeography, environmental
Regional geography
Areas that have some degree of similarity.
Broken up into REALMS
Topical/Systemic Geography
Climate, landforms, economics and culture
Population Geography
Deals with relationships between geography and population patterns.
- birth rates - death rates
Political Geography
Effect of geography on politics especially on national boundaries and relations between states
Economic Geography
Interaction between Earth’s landscape and economic activity of human population
5 themes of geography
1) Location
2) Places
3) Human/Environment Interaction
4) Movement
5) Regions
Place
Unique combination of physical and cultural attributes that give each location on the Earth its individual “stamp”
Physical Characteristics
Geological, hydrological, atmospheric & biological processes.
- mountains -flora - rivers -fauna - beaches -resources - topography. -landforms - bodies of water -climate - soils -Natural vegetation
Human Characteristics
Change to environment caused by human ideas and actions
- man made designs
- religion
- architecture
- food
- transportation & communication networks
Human-Environmental Interaction
- How humans rely on it, alter it and adapt to it.
- How environment may limit what people can do.
- changes quickly and sometime temporarily.
Cultural Diffusion
How ideas, innovation and ideology spreads from one area to another.
Spatial interaction
How places interact through movement
-Depends on distance
Friction of Distance
The degree to which distance interferes with some interaction
Space-Time Compression
Increasing sense of accessibility and connectivity.
- Reducing perceived distance - Distance thought by humans not actual land.
Distance Decay
Interaction between 2 places declines as distance increases.
*Reduced by technology
Regions
3 types
- More manageable units
- unifying characteristics
- physical (landforms, climate, soil, vegetation)
- cultural
- human based (language, economic, social, political)
- Types*
- Formal
- Functional
- Vernacular
Formal Regions
“Uniform Regions”
- Areas with common/uniform cultural and physical features.
- Defined by government or administrative boundaries.
includes climate region
Functional Regions
“Nodal Regions”
- Linked by functions influence
- If function ceases to exist so does region.
- disease
- pizza delivery routes
- Defined by places affected by movement
Vernacular Regions
- People’s Perception
- South
- Middle East
- Determined by people’s beliefs, not by scientific measurement.
4 physical processes
- Air (atmospheric): climate & meteorology
- Land (lithospheric): plate tectonics, erosion, soil formation
- Water (hydrospheric): Circulation of oceans, hydrologic cycle
- Animals (biosphere): plant & animal communities, ecosystems
7 main processes that shaped Earth’s landforms & physical systems & features
1) plate tectonics
2) weathering
3) transportation
4) erosion
5) freezing & thawing
6) gravity
7) deposition
Weathering
Physical & chemical breakdown of rocks at or near the Earth’s surface
Erosion
Rocks crack, fragment & crumble due to physical, chemical & biological interactions and become soil.
- Soil is loosened and carried away
- waves
- streams
- wind
- mass movement
- glaciers (glacier moraines, drumlins, finger lakes, I.e. Ice Age)
Plate Tetonics
-Movement in the
Earth and forces that produce movement.
-volcanoes
-earthquakes
Cultural ecology
Interaction of people’s culture and earth
Environmental Determinism
-Environment can overpower people and determine their culture and amount and direction of development
- CONSIDERED “NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT”*
- “Higher the civilization, higher the latitude”
Human-Cultural Determinism
Culture overpowers and shapes the environment.
-Environmentalist viewpoint.
Human-environment Interaction
Cycle of interaction between humans and the environment that is complex and tautological.
ENVIRONMENT SHAPES PEOPLE/PEOPLE SHAPE ENVIRONMENT
Political Ecology
Multi-disciplinary
How social & environmental change occurs in the context of power relations, social structures, economic issues, and human-environment interactions.
Maps
2D model of earth or a portion of the surface
Cartography
Process of mapmaking
Types of Maps
Political- political boundaries, states, cities, capitals, countries.
Physical- landforms & bodies of water
Thematic- climate, vegetation, population, density, historical trends, etc
Map properties
4 of them
Shape- geometric shapes of objects on map.
Size (area)- amount of space taken up by landforms or objects on map.
Distance- represented distance between objects.
Direction- degree of accuracy representing cardinal directions.
6 parts of a map
1) Title- Map’s subject
2) Compass- Orient the map
3) Scale- Size chart
4) Labels- Explain map features
5) Key/Legend- What symbols mean
6) Contour lines- Elevation (closer together = steeper)
Latitude & Longitude
Latitude- (Parallel to equator)
Longitude- Up down (perpendicular to equator)
