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AP Human Geography Location (Student Notes) Name: ___________________________ P: ____ The location of places is the starting point of all geographic study because descriptions of location are basic to describing what makes places unique. Geographers describe location with help of the following terms: Location Toponyms s Absolute or Mathematical Location and Site Relative Location or Situation I. Toponym: a place name a. What's in a Name? Place names give geographers insights into the history, politics, priorities, and cultural practices of a place. b. Toponyms sometimes change: Leningrad > St. Petersburg, Bombay > Mumbai, etc. c. Types of Toponyms: i. Historical: The location is named for an event in history or a historical location. ii. Commemorative: The location is named after a person. iii. Descriptive: The name describes the physical landscape of the location. iv. Functional: The name describes some activity occurring at that location. v. Value: The name describes something people there value or are proud of. II. Absolute/mathematical location: the identification of a place by some precise and accepted system of coordinates. a. Global Latitude/Longitude System b. Global Universal Transverse Mercator System (UTM) c. U.S. Township and Range System d. County level property survey systems e. Street addresses (fixes absolute location within local area) III. Site: the combination of physical characteristics that give a place its unique character. a. Site factors: absolute location, elevation, climate, vegetation, landforms (mountains, plains), water resources (rivers, lakes, ocean), soil. b. Includes but goes beyond absolute location by telling you more about the physical features of a location. c. Settlements are often chosen based on site factors (hilltop for defense, river crossings for trade and communication) d. Site generally does not change over time (with rare exceptions: Lower Manhattan, Boston, Tokyo) IV. Relative Location/Situation: the position of a place RELATIVE TO other places or activities; the geographic context of a place. a. The situation of a place tells why a place is important by describing its roll (economically, politically, or culturally) in the larger region of which it is a part. b. Whereas a place's site rarely changes, the situation of a place can change over both long or short time frames. V. Examples Toponym New Orleans Type of Toponym Historical (named after Orléans, a city located on the Loire River in Centre, France Descriptive (means simply Istanbul "the city" (formerly because it was Constantinople) only major city in the vicinity) Singapore Historical (means "lion city": founder of city saw what he thought was a lion there) Absolute Location 29.9728° N, 90.0590° W Site Situation Low lying area behind a natural levee between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. Close to mouth of Mississippi River which drains 41% of continental U.S. and connects New Orleans with major industrial and agricultural regions via the Ohio, Missouri, and Tennessee River systems. Cultural center of southern Louisiana. A hilly site adjacent to a 664290.18 E deep harbor on both sides 4541646.23 N of Bosporus Strait (UTM connecting Mediterranean coordinates) and Black Seas Turkey and Europe's largest city, important commercial center and transportation hub straddling Europe and Asia. 1.3667° N, 103.7500° E Major internationally connected port city and center of trade in SE Asia on Strait of Malacca through which 50,000 vessels pass each year. Small swampy island near the tip of Malay Peninsula