Mini Test 1 Flashcards
Absolute Location
Description of the position of a place in a way that never changes, such as geographic coordinates of latitude and longitude.
Acculturation
The process of changes in culture that result from the meeting of two groups, each of which retains distinct cultural features.
Assimilation
The process by which a group’s cultural features are altered to resemble those of another group.
Place
A specific point on Earth, distinguished by a particular characteristic.
Region
An area distinguished by one or more distinctive characteristics
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
The relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.
Map
A two-dimensional, or flat, representation of Earth’s surface or a portion of it.
Cartography
the science of making maps
Geographic information science
Analysis of data about Earth acquired through satellite and other electronic information technologies.
remote sensing
The acquisition of data about Earth’s surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or from other long-distance methods.
Global Positions System
A system that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers.
Geotagging
Identification and storage of a piece of information by its precise latitude and longitude coordinates.
Volunteered geographic information
Creation and dissemination of geographic data contributed voluntarily and for free by individuals.
citizen science
scientific research by amateur science
participatory GIS
Community-based mapping, representing local knowledge and information.
Eratosthenses
Inventor of word geography
Meridian
an arc drawn on a map between the North and South poles
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
°
.
Parallel
A circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and at right angles to the meridians.
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
°
.
Coordinated Universal Time
Informally Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The time in the zone encompassing the prime meridian, or
0
°
longitude.
prime merdian
The meridian, designated as
0
°
longitude, that passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England.
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 24 hours, or one entire day. When it is crossed heading west (toward Asia), the calendar moves ahead one day
graduated symbol map
A map that displays symbols that change in size according to the value of the variable.
choropleth map
A map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the variable.
isoline map
A map that connects places of a particular value by lines.
dot distribution map
A map that depicts data that consists of discrete observations. Each dot represents a predetermined number of observations, which could be one or many.
cartogram
A map in which the size of an area is proportional to the value of the variable.
Location
The position of anything on Earth’s surface.
Projection
A system used to transfer locations from Earth’s surface to a flat map.
Toponym
The name given to a portion of Earth’s surface
Site
The physical character of a place.
Situation or relative location
The location of a place relative to another place
absolute location
Description of the position of a place in a way that never changes, such as geographic coordinates of latitude and longitude.
cultural landscape
An approach to geography that emphasizes the relationships among social and physical phenomena in a particular study area.
formal region, uniform region
An area in which everyone shares in at least one distinctive characteristic
functional region, nodal region
An area organized around a node or focal point.
vernacular region, perceptual region
An area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity
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.
culture
The body of material possessions, customary beliefs, and social norms that together constitutes the distinct tradition of a group of people.
Post-structuralist geography
Geographic approach that examines how the powerful in a society dominate, or seek to control, less powerful groups, how the dominated groups occupy space, and confrontations that result from the domination.
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, each of which retains distinct cultural features.
Syncretism
The combining of elements of two groups into a new cultural feature.
Distribution
The arrangement of something across Earth’s surface.
Density
The frequency with which something exists within a given unit of area
Concentration
The extent of a feature’s spread over a given area
Pattern
The geometric or regular arrangement of something in a particular area.
Transnational corporation
A company that conducts research, operates factories, and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters or shareholders are located.
Uneven development
The increasing gap in economic conditions between core and peripheral regions as a result of the globalization of the economy
social construction
An idea or a meaning that is widely accepted as natural by a society but may not represent a reality shared by those outside the society.
humanistic geography
An approach to human geography that emphasizes the different ways that individuals form ideas about place and give those places symbolic meanings.
behavioral geography
An approach to human geography that emphasizes the importance of understanding the psychological basis for individual human actions in space
Diffusion
The process by which a feature spreads from one place to another over time
hearth
A place from which an innovation originates
relocation diffusion
The spread of a feature or trend through physical movement of people from one place to another
expansion diffusion
The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in an additive process.
hierarchal diffusion
The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places.
contagious diffusion
The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population.
stimulus diffusion
The spread of an underlying principle.
distance decay
The diminished importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin.
network
A chain of communication that connects places.
spatial association
The relationship between the distribution of one feature and the distribution of another feature.
atmosphere
The thin layer of gases surrounding Earth.
climate
The long-term average weather condition at a particular location
hydrosphere
All of the water on and near Earth’s surface.
lithosphere
Earth’s crust and a portion of upper mantle directly below the crust.
biosphere
All living organisms on Earth, including plants and animals, as well as microorganisms.
ecosystem
A group of living organisms and the abiotic spheres with which they interact.
ecology
The scientific study of ecosystems.
sustainability
The use of Earth’s renewable and nonrenewable natural resources in ways that do not constrain resource use in the future
conservation
The sustainable management of a natural resource to meet human needs.
3 pillars of sustainabilty
social, environment, economic
polder
Land that is created by draining water from an area.
cultural ecology
A geographic approach that emphasizes human-environment relationships.
environmental determinism
A nineteenth- and early twentieth-century approach to the study of geography that 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
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.
