Download CHAP 1 BC Vocab Blitzkrieg WS KEY

VOCABULARY MATCHING
Chapter 1: BASIC CONCEPTS
Task: 1) Match the terms below with their definitions. 2) Underline any definitions, key takeaways, or notes you consider important. 3) Highlight all examples
provided with a colored highlighter. 4) Give yourself a score in the space provided above based on how much time and effort you put into studying these
terms, their definitions, and the explanations and examples provided.
Key Issue 1: How Do
Geographers Describe Where
Things Are?
○ analytic scale (aka “scale of
observation”)
○ cartography
○ geography
○ GIS
○ GPS
○ human geography
○ map scale (aka cartographic
scale)
○ physical geography
○ place
○ projection
○ region
○ remote sensing
Key Issue 2: Why Is Each Point
on Earth Unique?
○ absolute location (aka
mathematical location)
○ cultural ecology
○ cultural landscape
○ culture
○ environmental determinism
○ formal region(aka uniform or
homogeneous region)
○ functional region (aka nodal
region)
○ location
○ meridians (aka lines of
longitude)
○ parallels (aka lines of latitude)
COVER UP TERM
WHEN STUDYING!
Term
Definition
○ perceptual region (aka
vernacular region, aka
mental map)
○ possibilism
○ site
○ situation
○ toponym
○ Township and Range System
Key Issue 3: Why Are Different
Places Similar?
○ agricultural density
○ arithmetic density
○ concentration
○ contagious diffusion
○ density
○ diffusion
○ distance decay (aka friction of
distance)
○ (spatial) distribution
○ globalization
○ hearth
○ hierarchical diffusion
○ pattern
○ physiological density
○ relocation diffusion
○ space-time compression
○ stimulus diffusion
○ uneven development
Other:
○ spatial analysis
○ spatial data
○ spatial perspective
○ Five Map Types:
(Ch/DD/PS/I/C)
○ The Four Questions of Human
Geography
Key Takeaways/ Notes/Examples
Key Issue 1: How Do Geographers Describe Where Things Are?
1. geography
From the Greek for
“world/earth writing” (from
Eratosthenes), the study of
where things are on the
earth’s surface and reasons
for their locations.
History of Geography: 1) Greeks: G. as describing strange new lands 2) Muslims: G. as
gathering information and making maps in support of trade 3) Germans (Humboldt and Kant
“Father of G.”): G. as all encompassing discipline like history that synthesises information from
many fields. 4) Determinists: Environment explains culture 5) Possibilists: No, environment
sets limits BUT humans adapt big time 6) Quantitative revolution: G. must predict stuff with
mathematical precision 7) Moderns: No, G. serves humanity/solves problems
• Review here the four questions of human
geography: What? Where? Why there? So
What?
2. human geography
The study of where human activities such as religion, agriculture, industry
or cities are located and why they are located there. In short, the “why of
where”.
3. physical geography
The study of where and why natural forces such
as climates, landforms, and vegetation, occur as
they do.
4. cartography
The science of mapmaking.
5. place
A specific point on Earth distinguished by a distinctive combinations of cultural and physical features
6. region
a specific area of Earth
distinguished by a distinctive
combination of cultural and
physical features
• Example: Sahel: both physical (transition zone between Sahara desert and equatorial
jungles and cultural region (nomadism, ranching and associated cultural traits: herding,
trading meat for grain, Fulani)
7. map scale (aka
cartographic scale)
the mathematical relationship
between a feature's size on a map
and its actual size on earth.
• Three ways scale is presented on a map: written, graphic, RF (ration).
• Large scale maps show small areas in large detail. Small scale maps show large area but
with less detail.
the spatial level at which a
8. analytic scale (aka
phenomenon is observed or
scale of observation) analyzed.
• Includes climate, topography, geomorphology, soils, species
distribution, hydrology (water), oceanography, landscape ecology
(plants and animals)
• Good geographers jump scales because…
• … different spatial patterns and different interrelationships are revealed at different
scales.
• Different projections better for different purposes.
• Necessarily introduces distortion. Choice of projection betrays preferences or cultural
prejudices of cartographer.
9. projection
The scientific method of
transferring locations on Earth's
surface to a flat map
10. GPS
A system that determines the precise position of something on earth
through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers.
11. GIS
A computer system that stores, organizes,
analyzes, and maps geographic data in layers
so that relationships, patterns and trends are
easily observable.
• Stands for Geographic Information Systems
• Allows making complex maps more easily involves layers (called "mash ups”)
• A good GIS generated map will reveal whether a spatial relationship is
significant or coincidental.
12. remote sensing
The science of obtaining information about
objects or areas from a distance, typically
from aircraft or satellites.
• These photographs are increasingly accurate and increasingly useful in
providing data to geographers. (Example: infrared satellite photographs of
crop conditions, climate change measurements, etc.)
• Stands for Global Position System.
Key Issue 2: Why Is Each Point on Earth Unique?
13. location
The position of anything on Earth's
surface.
• Geographers study location through the concepts of toponyms, site (including
mathematical or absolute location), and situation.
• Most straightforward way of describe location (because most places already have been named!)
• Toponyms can give geographers clues to the history, activities, and values of a location. For example,
a look at the toponyms in the Canadian province of Quebec yields clues to the boundary of linguistics
divisions between the French and English speakers in that region.
14. toponym
A name given to a
portion of the
earth’s surface.
15. site
The physical characteristics of a
place, including a place’s
absolute/mathematical location (e.g.
longitude and latitude), as well as its
climate, topography (land forms),
water sources, soil, and vegetation.
16. absolute (aka mathematical)
location
• The combination of physical (site) characteristics give each place its distinctive
character.
• Settlements are often chosen based on site characteristics (proximity of a river or
coastline for fresh water, power, or transportation, a hilltop for defense, etc.)
• Although humans are increasingly able to alter them, site characteristics tend to be
static since they are based on physical characteristics that change very slowly.
The identification of a place by some
precise and accepted system of coordinates.
• Examples: GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude or UTM),
Township and Range, street addresses
17. parallels
Also known as lines of latitude, these are
circles drawn around the globe parallel to
the equator and at right angles to the
meridians.
• Parallels run north to south but describe your east to west position.
• Parallels are labeled either north (N) or south (S) and with a number from 0 to
90.
• Parallels are based on actual physical (astronomical) features of the earth.
18. meridians
Also known as lines of longitude, these are
half circles or arcs drawn between the
north and south poles.
• Meridians run east to west but describe our north to south position.
• Meridians are labeled with east (E) or west (W) and with a number from 0 to
180.
• Meridians are NOT based on any physical properties of the earth. They are a
human invention.
19. Township and
Range System
A rectangular survey system designed by
Thomas Jefferson as part of the Land
Ordinance of 1758 after the American
Revolution as a way of facilitating sale of
Western land to settlers. Basic unit of
this system is a six by six mile grid called
a Township.
• An example of a system of absolute location.
• Explains the dispersed rural settlements and checkerboard pattern in interior
rural U.S.
• Drawn without reference to terrain, resulting in regular, uniform parcels of land.
• The pattern of farms on the landscape in the interior of the United States
reflects the township-and-range system, with farms spaced by sections, half
sections, or quarter sections.
20. situation
The location of a place relative to other
places, a way of describing the location
of a place by describing that place’s
political, cultural (social), and economic
connections and interactions with other
places.
• We use a place’s situation (how its location is related to some other familiar
place) when giving directions.
• Situation descriptions of a place are crucial in appreciating a place’s importance.
For example, Singapore’s situation at the Strait of Malacca almost guaranteed
that it would become a major center for shipping and trade in SE Asia.
• Situation is fluid as political, cultural and economic connections are based on
human activity which change over time.
• Formal regions help geographer identify global or local patterns
but watch out: they always involve generalizations in that they
suggest a characteristic is uniform or homogenous within the
region, which is almost never the case.
21. formal region
An area defined by well-defined boundaries within which
some characteristic is dominant or universal and beyond
which that characteristic (chosen and defined by the
geographer) does not apply.
22. functional region
An area or region organized around a node or focal point so that
some characteristic dominates at the node and declines in
strength or importance the farther one moves away from the
node. For example, the area a pizza restaurant delivers to would
be a functional region because the farther one moves from the
restaurant the fewer people would be likely to call for a pizza to
be delivered from that restaurant..
23. perceptual (aka
vernacular) region
An area or region that people believe
to exist as part of their cultural
identity. These regions emerge from
an individual’s informal sense of
place rather than scientific data.
24. culture
Body of beliefs, social forms, material
traits that together constitute the
distinct tradition of a group of people
• Another way of subdividing this incredibly broad concept: artifacts (physical
evidence of culture), mentifacts (beliefs, ideas, taboos, etc.) and sociofacts
(institutions like families, tribes, chiefs, corporations, etc.)
25. cultural landscape
The visible imprint of a culture on the
natural landscape.
• Culture is the agent (the thing making the imprint), the natural area is the medium
(the thing receiving the imprint), and the cultural landscape is the result.
26. cultural ecology
The study of human environment
relationships and interactions. In other
words, this is the study of how different
human cultures have adapted in order to
survive and prosper in various physical
environments around the world.
Examples of cultural ecology:
• The Adobe style houses of the native Americans in the American Southwest
were an adaptation to the hot, dry climate of the region (cool during the day,
radiate heat at night, flat roof to catch rainfall)
• The prohibition against killing cows in India is thought to have been an
adaptation that ensured the milk was always available during times of famine.
27. environmental
determinism
A nineteenth- and early twentiethcentury 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
(determined) human activities.
• An early and classic of environmental determinism used to justify European
colonialism: peoples of the tropics are not as industrious or inventive as people
in mid latitudes because their mild climate doesn’t require them to work as hard
or as creatively to survive (they can just pick fruits off trees while Europeans had
to develop technologies to deal with harsh winters, etc.)
• Functional regions are also called nodal regions.
• Functional regions often have a city at their node and
depict transportation, communication or especially
economic connections between that city and outlying
areas.
• Other examples: airline hub regions, TV station
reception maps, store market areas.
• Having a person describe a mental map of a region (i.e. the AGHS campus) will
define a vernacular region for that person.
• Because vernacular regions are based on an individual's cultural identity, different
people will likely define the borders of the same vernacular region differently.
• Examples: Middle East, The South, “home”, The Rust Belt, The Sun Belt, Cajun
Country, Lakers Nation
28. possibilism
• Example 1: climate may set limits on what crops may grow well in certain regions, but
humans may choose among those crops that will grow well in a region based on cultural
preferences or even alter the environment so that almost any crop can be grown anywhere.
• Example 2: The carrying capacity of a region may limit how many humans a region can
support. But humans may adapt to limited resources by altering the physical landscape to
produce more food, finding alternative food sources, migrating, or intentionally limiting
their numbers.
• Possibilism was a response to and is currently favored over environmental determinism.
The theory that the physical
environment may set limits
on human actions, BUT that
people have the ability to
adjust to the physical
environment and choose a
course of action from many
alternatives.
Key Issue 3: Why Are Different Places Similar?
The arrangement of
29. (spatial) distribution something across Earth's
surface.
•
•
•
•
Geographer’s study the arrangement (distribution) of phenomenon in three ways:
the number of things (density),
how spread out they are (concentration) and
any geometric patterns they observe (pattern).
30. density
The frequency with which something exists within a given unit of area.
31. arithmetic density
Total number of people
divided by total land
area, a statistic used to
compare the distribution
of population in different
countries or regions.
32. physiological
density
The number of people per
unit of arable land (land
suitable for agriculture).
33. agricultural density
The ratio of the number of farmers to
the total amount of land suitable for
agriculture. In effect, this is a measure
of the efficiency and level of
modernization of a country or region’s
agricultural sector.
34. concentration
The extent to which something is spread out over a
given area. If some phenomenon is widely spread
out it is said by geographers to be dispersed; if it is
not spread out it is said to be clustered.
35. pattern
The geometric or regular arrangement of something in a study area.
• A large population does not mean high arithmetic density. (China has the highest total
population but by no means the highest population density because it is so large.)
• A high density does not mean a country is necessarily poor (Netherlands (rich): 400 people /km2,
Mali (poor): 10 people/km2.
• Sample arithmetic densities: Canada, Australia: 3 people/km2, U.S.: 33 people/km2, Bangladesh:
1,200 people/km2, Singapore: 1,700 people/km2.
• Egypt is a classic example of a country with a low arithmetic density (total population
divided by total land area) but a high physiological density (total population divided by total
arable land). What does this tell you about Egypt?
• A country with a high agricultural density has a lot of farmers working that
country’s farmland meaning that it may lack the modern farming machinery or
techniques to farm efficiently.
• Conversely, a country with a low agricultural density only needs a few farmers to
farm a large amount of farmland efficiently, probably because those farmers have
access to modern farm machinery and techniques.
• Concentration is not the same as density. For example, two counties
could have the same population density (persons/ km2 or person/
mi2) and yet in counties those people could be clustered (grouped
together) another dispersed (spread out).
• You should know the difference between and examples of relocation diffusion,
contagious diffusion, and hierarchical diffusion.
36. diffusion
The process by which a characteristic
spreads across space.
37. hearth
The place from which
an innovation
originates and then
diffuses.
38. relocation diffusion
The spread of a feature of trend
through bodily movement of people
from one place to another (i.e.
diffusion via migration).
39. contagious diffusion
The rapid and widespread spread
of a characteristic throughout a
population through direct person
to person contact, analogous to
the spread of a disease.
• Key characteristic of contagious diffusion: PROXIMITY.
• The innovation spreads out uniformly outward from the hearth (no jumping as in
hierarchical diffusion)
• Contagious diffusion doesn’t rely on the relocation of individuals (as w/ relocation
diffusion).
• Think of a "wave" moving through the crowd at a stadium.
40. hierarchical
diffusion
The spread of an idea from
powerful persons or from places
of power (usually large cities) to
other persons or places, jumping
over intervening areas.
• Key characteristic of hierarchical diffusion: JUMPING.
• The normal pattern of hierarchical diffusion is first from one large urban area to
another and then to smaller towns around those large cities.
41. stimulus diffusion
When an innovation is not
adopted in its entirety but
nevertheless stimulates some
experimentation or imitative
behavior in the new community.
• Key characteristic of stimulus diffusion: IMITATION
• Examples: Veggie burger fast food in India, reindeer herding by Inuit, skateboarding
was "inland surfing", gang culture to suburbs.
42. globalization
the process of increasing international
integration and interdependence arising
from the interchange of world views,
products, ideas and other aspects of
culture.
43. uneven
development
The increasing gap in economic conditions
between core and peripheral regions as a result of
the globalization of the economy.
• Hearths require a culture group that has the willingness, the technical ability, and the financial
resources to accept and nurture the innovation.
• There are three cultural and economic hearths in the world today: N. America, Europe, and Japan.
New York, London, and Tokyo are known as economic command centers because economic
commands are issued from these cities.
• Key characteristic of relocation diffusion: GET UP AND GO.
• The person takes the innovation with him to the new place so that if enough people
move, the innovation can fade or even die out at the hearth (this is not true of
contagious or hierarchical diffusion).
• Key drivers of globalization: telecommunications, jet travel, multi-national
corporations, container ships.
• Key issues related to globalization: uneven distribution of wealth, uneven
distribution of political power, loss of local cultures, and loss of cultural
diversity.
• Part of the reason the gap in wealth between the core and periphery is
growing is that education and technologies available to the core (but
not to many in the periphery) are wealth multipliers.
• Basic idea: distance makes it more difficult to do trade, communicate, and maintain cultural
connections.
• Related: Tobler’s so called “First Law of Geography”: "All things are related, but near things
are more related than far things."
• Examples: more short distance than long distance migration, customers less likely to shop at a
store (market area) declines with distance, cultural traits (religion, language, agricultural
innovations) all tend to decrease in influence as one move farther from their hearths.
• Opposing term: Space Time Compression: the idea that instantaneous communication (texts,
email, phone) and rapid means of transportation have reduced the “friction of distance” to
almost zero for some (but by no means all) phenomenon.
44. distance decay (aka
“friction of
distance”)
A term describing the effect
of distance on cultural or
spatial interactions.
Specifically, the diminishing
in importance and eventual
disappearance of a
phenomenon with
increasing distance from its
origin.
45. space-time
compression
The effect of modern communications and transportation in
reducing of the perceived distance between peoples and
cultures even though the actual distance between them remains
the same.
• The idea that the effect of distance on communication,
migration, trade, cultural diffusion, seems less and less
important.
• Opposing term to distance decay and friction of distance.
Other
46. spatial analysis
an approach to a geographic inquiry looking for patterns in the distribution of
human actions, environmental processes across Earths surface.
47. spatial data
Any data that can easily be mapped. The data used to create a map.
48. spatial perspective
The way geographers look at the world, namely, by looking at how things
are organized in space (where they are!), why they are where they are
(including how they got there) and how phenomena in one place are
spatially related to phenomena in other places (interactions).
49. Five Map Types
Choropleth, Dot Distribution, Proportional Symbol, Isoline, Cartograms.
50. Four Questions of APHG
NOTES:
What?, Where? (patterns), Why there? So what?
• Sprinkle this terms liberally on your AP
Exam CRQ’s!
• Sprinkle this terms liberally on your AP Exam CRQ’s!
• Example: Hotelling’s model of industrial location
explains why vendors tend to cluster.
• Sprinkle this terms liberally on your AP Exam
CRQ’s!