Thinking Geographically (unit 1) Flashcards
What is location?
Location is the position that something, such as a human settlement occupies on Earth surface
What are the elements of location?
- Toponym (place name)
- Site (physical location)
- Situation (relative location)
- Mathematical location (latitude, longitude)
What is place?
Place is the characteristics of a location, physical and cultural. Place is more subjective than location
Parallels
horizontal lines that determine latitude (north-south orientation)
Meridians
Vertical lines that determine longitude (east-west orientation)
What are regions?
Regions are large areas that are connected by common characteristics or patterns of activity.
What are some ways regions may be defined?
For a particular purpose (conquest, assistance) or by a characteristic (religion, climate, political affiliation)
Formal (uniform) regions
- clearly defined boundaries
- share a commonly understood characteristic
(NY State, Great Lakes Basin)
Functional (nodal) region
- somewhat defined
- organized around a certain point
- based on availability to a service or connection to a central place
(Weather Forecasts)
Vernacular (perceptual) region
- least clearly defined
- based on perceptions
- borders may be different depending on the source
(Maps based on data, ex. religion maps)
What is a map?
A two-dimensional model of an area
What is cartography?
The map making process
Reference maps
Show standard geographic features used for location and orientation
Physical Reference maps
show natural geographic features such as waterways and mountain ranges
Political reference maps
show borders of cities, states, and countries
Thematic Maps
show data on special topics like rainfall, vegetation, or major languages. They often exclude data shown on reference maps.
What is a Choropleth?
Maps using color to identify characteristics
What are cartograms?
A map that shows statistical information in diagrammatic form
Topographic maps
shows elevation or relief, usually using contour lines
Nautical Charts
used in marine navigation. Shows water depth, seabed features, tides and currents, local details of the earth’s magnetic field
Why are all maps “wrong”?
It is impossible to represent the features of a sphere exactly in a two-dimensional model. The globe is the most accurate representation of earth
Map properties
Shape (angle), size (area), distance, and direction ( a map can preserve 3 of these at once)
Conformal projections
- Accurately represents shape
- Size is distorted
Equal area projection
- Preserves size
- Shape is distorted
Equidistant projection
Distance and direction are accurate from the center point only (ex. azimuthal projection)
Compromise map projections
- doesn’t preserve any particular property
- balance the distortions of each property to have a balanced image
Map scale
Scale is the relationship between the map size and the actual size. It’s expressed as a ratio
What is GIS?
A computer system that can capture. analyze, and display geographic data
Thematic layer
each slice of features in a GIS-produced map
What is GPS?
(Global Positioning System) System used to determine location.
What GPS include?
- 24 satellites placed in orbit by the US government
- Tracking stations on the
Spatial Interaction
the ways that places interact with each other
Friction of Distance
the degree to which distance interferes or reduces the amount of interaction between places
Distance Decay
the intensity of some phenomenon decreases as distance from it increases
What is Space-Time Compression?
the sense that the world is “becoming smaller”. Humans have increased communication with far away places
What is culture?
The beliefs, traits, and social forms that are common to a people
What is the cultural landscape?
combination of cultural, economic, and physical features of a region
Anthropogenic features
human created features
Environmental Determinism
the theory that cultures are largely shapes by their environments
Environmental possibilism
the theory that cultures are often shaped by their environments, but humans often overcome these limitations by altering their environments or relocating
