Vocabulary List 1 Flashcards
Absolute Loction
The exact position of an object or place stated in spatial coordinates or a grid system designed for locational purposes, e.g., latitude and longitude
Spatial
Of or pertaining to space on or near Earth’s surface. Often a synonym for geographical and used as an adjective to describe specific geographic concepts or processes.
Relative Location
The position of a place of activity in relation to other places or activities; implies spatial relationships an usually suggests the relative advantages or disadvantages of a location with respect to all competing locations
Site
The physical character of a place; the absolute location of a place or activity described by a local relief, landform, and other physical characteristics
Situation
The relative location of a place or activity in relation to the physical and cultural characteristics of the larger regional or spatial system of which it is part; the location of a place relative to other places
Place name (Toponym)
The name given to a portion of Earth’s surface
Scale (implied degree of generalization)
The size of an area student, from local to global
Physical attributes
Natural landscape
Cultural Attributes
Cultural landscape
Built landscape
The part of the physical landscape that represents material culture; the buildings, roads, bridges, and similar structures large and small of the culture landscape
Sequent Occupance
Successive habitation of same area over time; builds layer after layer in the region
Environmental Determination
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; physical environment caused by 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
Spatial Interaction
The movement an flow involving human activity
Accessiblity
The opportunity for contact or interaction from a given point or location, in relation to other locations
Connectivity
The directness of routes linking pairs of places; an indication if the degree of internal connection in a transport network; all of the tangible and intangible means of connection and communication between places
Network
The areal patten of sets of places and the routes (links) connecting them along which movement can take place
Distance decay
The diminishing in importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance form it’s origin
Friction of Distance
A measure of the retarding or restricting effect of distance on spatial interaction; the greater the distance, the greater the “friction” an the less the interaction or exchange, or the greater the cost of achieving the exchange
Time-space Compression
An influence on the rate of expansion diffusion of an idea, observing that the spread or acceptance of an idea is usually delayed as distance from the source of the innovation increases
Diffusion
The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time
Hearth
The region from which innovative ideas originate
Relocation
The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another
Expansion
The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in a snowballing process
Hierarchical
The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places; spread of culture from one important/large area to another
Contagious
The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population; person to person spread of culture
Stimulus
The spread of an underlying principal, even though a specific characteristic is rejected
Distribution
The arrangement of something across earths surface
Density Arithmetic
The total number of people divided by the total land area
Physiological
The number of people per unit of area of arable land, which is land suitable for agriculture
Dispersed/scattered
A rural settlement pattern characterized by isolated farms rather than clustered villages
Clustered/ agglomerated
A rural settlement in which the houses and farm buildings of each family are situated close to each other and fields surround the settlement
Pattern
Linear, centralized, random
Region
An area distinguished by a unique combination of trends or features
Formal region
An area in which everyone shares one or more distinctive characteristics
Functional region (nodal)
An area organized around a node or focal point
Perceptual/vernacular
An area that people believe to exist as part of their cultural identity
Map
A two-dimensional, or flat, representation of Earth’s surface or a portion of it
Map Scale
Distance on a map relative to distance on earth
Distortion
Area, distance, direction, shape
Projection
The system used to transfer locations from earths surface to a flat map
Latitude
Numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the equator
Longitude
Numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians drawn on a globe and measuring distance east and west of the Prime Meridian
Equator
Imaginary east-west line that encircles the globe halfway between the North and South Poles
Meridian
Line of longitude
Prime Meridian
Imaginary line passing through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England, serving by agreement as the 0 degree line of longitude
International date line
An arc that for the most part follows 180 degree longitude, although it deviates in several place to avoid dividing land areas. When you cross it heading east, the clock moves back 24 hours, and when you cross it going west the calendar moves ahead one day
Thematic
A map that demonstrates a particular feature or a single variable
Dot
A thematic map in which a dot represents some frequency of a mapped variable
Chloropleth
A thematic map in which ranked classes of some variable are depicted with shading patterns or colours for predefined zones
Isoline
A thematic map with lines that connect points of equal value
Cartogram
A map that has been simplified to present a single idea in a diagrammatic way: the base is not normally true to scale
Proportional Symbol
Thematic map in which the size of a symbol varies in proportion to the frequency or intensity of a mapped variable
Mental map
Cognitive map; the map like image of the world, country, region, city, or neighborhood a person carries in mind
Time Zone
A geographic region within which the same standard time is used
Geographic Information System
A computers hardware and software system that handles geographically referenced data; it uses and produces maps and has the ability to preform many types of spatial analysis
Global Positioning System
A system that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series if satellites, tracking stations, and receivers
Remote Sensing
The acquisition of data about Earth’s surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or other long-distance methods
Model
A simplified abstraction of reality, structured to clarify casual relationships
