Unit 1 Flashcards
Absolute Distance
A distance that can be measured with a standard unit of length, such as a mile or a kilometer
Absolute location
The exact position of an object or place, measured within spatial coordinates of a grid system
Accessibility
The relative ease with which a destination may be reached from some other place
Aggregation
To come together into a mass, sum, or whole
Anthropogenic
Human-induced changes on the natural environment
Azimuthal Projection
A map projection in which the plane is the most developable surface
Breaking Point
The outer edge of a city’s sphere of influence, used in the law of retail gravitation to describe the area of a city’s hinterlands that depend on that city for its retail supplies
Cartograms
A type of thematic map that transforms a space such that the political unit with the greatest value for some type of data is represented by the largest relative area
Cartography
The theory and practice of making visual representations of Earth’s surface in the form of maps
Choropleth Map
A thematic map that uses tones or colors to represent spatial data as average values per unit area
Cognitive Map
An image of a portion of Earth’s surface that an individual creates in his or her mind. Cognitive Maps can include knowledge of actual locations and relationships among locations as well as personal perceptions and preferences of particular places.
Complementarity
The actual or potential relationship between two places, usually referring to economic interactions
Connectivity
The degree of economic, social, cultural, or political connection between` two places
Contagious Diffusion
The spread of a disease, an innovation, or cultural traits through direct contact with another person or another place
Coordinate system
A standard grid, composed of lines of latitude and longitude, used to determine the absolute location of any object, place, or feature on Earth’s surface
Cultural Ecology
Also called Nature-Society Geography, the study of the interactions between societies and the natural environments in which the live
Cultural Landscape
The human-modified natural landscape specifically containing the imprint of a particular culture or society
Distance decay effect
The decrease in interaction between two phenomena, places, or people as the distance between them increases
Dot maps
Thematic maps that use points to show the precise locations of specific observations or occurrences, such as crimes, car accidents, or births
Earth system science
A systematic approach to the physical geography that looks at the interaction between Earth’s physical systems and processes on a global scale
Environmental geography
The intersection between human and physical geography, which explores the spatial impacts humans have on the physical environment and vice versa
Expansion diffusion
The spread of ideas, innovations, fashion, or other phenomena to surrounding areas through contact and exchange
Formal region
Definition of regions based on common themes such as similarities in language, climate, land use, etc
Friction of distance
A measure of how much absolute distance affects the interaction between to places
Fuller projection
A type of map projection that maintains the accurate size and shape of landmasses but completely rearranges direction such that the four cardinal direction— north, south, east, and west— no longer have any meaning
Functional region
Definition of regions based on common interaction (or function), for example, a boundary line drawn around the circulation of a particular newspaper
Geographic Information Systems(GIS)
A set of computer tools used to capture, store, transform, analyze, and display geographic data
Geographic scale
The scale at which a geographer analyzes a particular phenomenon—for example, global, national, census tract, neighborhood, etc. Generally, the finer the scale of analysis, the richer the level of detail in the findings
Geoid
The actual shape of Earth, which is rough and oblate, or slightly squashed. Earth’s diameter is longer around the equator than along the north-south meridians
Global positioning system(GPS)
A set of satellites used to help determine location anywhere on Earth’s surface with a portable electronic device
Gravity Model
A mathematical formula that describes the level of interaction between two places, based on the size of their populations and their distance from each other
Hierarchical diffusion
A type of diffusion in which something is transmitted between places because of a physical or cultural community between those places