Allie Maurillo

August 2011
AP Human Geography
Unit 1: Vocabulary List

Accessibility: The degree of ease with which it is possible to reach certain location
from other locations.
Activity Space: The area that you normally cover in a day.
Biome: An area on Earths surface that has a certain set of characteristics.
Core: The center, the heart, the focus (or whatever it is you are measuring).
Cultural Ecology: Geographic approach that emphasizes human-environmental
relationship.
o George Perkins Marsh (mid 1800s): First American environmentalist. The
idea that man isnt very careful with the environment.
Cultural Landscape: Human imprint upon the nature; what we do we the
landscape, buildings, farms, roads, etc.
o Carl Sauer: Wrote the paper, The Morphology of Landscape most influential
in developing ideas on cultural landscapes.
Density: The frequency, which something occurs in space.
o Arithmetic: The total number of objects in an area, used to compare
distribution of populations of different countries.
o Physiological: The number of people per unit of area suitable for
agriculture.
o Agricultural: The number of farmers per unit of farmland.
Diffusion: The spreading of a feature or trend from one place to another over time.
o Relocation: The spread of an idea when people relocate. Culture is taken
with them.
o Expansion: The spread of a feature from one place to another in a
snowballing process.
Hierarchical: The spread of an idea from people of authority to other
people or places. Spread of ideas from political leaders.
Contagious: The rapid diffusion of characteristic throughout the
population.
Stimulus: The spread of an underlying principle, even though a
characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse.
Distance
o Absolute: Exact measurement of the physical space between two places.
o Relative: Approximate measurement of the physical space between two
places.
Distance Decay: As distance between two places increases, you would expect less
traffic between the two, because there is more work involved in the process.
Distribution: The arrangement of something across Earths surface.
Earth System Science:
Environmental Determinism: An idea that the environment limits societys ability
to develop. This is a dated theory, not followed anymore.
Environmental Geography:
o W.D. Pattison (Uni of Chicago, 1964):
Eratosthenes: He calculated the circumference of the Earth.
Fertile Crescent: A location on the planet, that is in the Middle East, that is the
home of agriculture. There are big rivers and had all the ingredients needed in
order to begin agriculture.
Friction of Distance: Your brain tells you that it will be more of a hassle to go further
away. You would rather go to the shorter option than the further one.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Geography Information System--
computer system that can capture, store, query, analyze and display geographic
data.
Global Positioning System (GPS): (Global Positioning System) is a system that
determines the precise location of something on Earth.
Globalization
Gravity Model: If you have two places of great size, if they are big they will attract
business between them. The size of the population of two places plays a part in the
attraction between the two cities and so does the distance between them.
Hearth: The place where innovation occurs.
o Cultural Hearth: The region where innovative ideas originate.
Intervening Opportunities: Something in between that causes you to stop short
and realizes you can achieve the same thing where you stopped over.
Koppen, Vladimir:
Landscape
o Natural: Landscape that is untouched by man.
o Built / Urban / Man-made: Land that is touched by man.
Latitude
o Parallels: A circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and at right
angles to the meridians.
o Equator: 0 degrees latitude.
o Impact of latitude on climate
Location
o Absolute Location: Position on Earths surface using the coordinate system of
longitude (that runs from North to South Pole) and latitude (that runs
parallel to the equator).
o Relative Location: Position on Earths surface relative to other features.
Longitude
o Prime Meridian / Greenwich Mean Time: PM--This passes from Greenwich,
England at 0 degrees longitude. GMT-- Also called Universal Time. Master
reference for all time on Earth.
o International Dateline = 180 degrees:
o Time Zones: The world divided into 24 time zones each represents 15
degrees of longitude. East you LOSE time, west you GAIN time.
15 degrees: Each has an hour of time.
Maps
o Cartography: This is the science of mapmaking; three are two important
decisions in reacting maps, which are scales and projection.
Ptolemy: He was an early Roman that produced some of the earliest
maps. His maps were basic principals and the numerous maps were
in use over 1000 years.
o Cartogram: Map which some mapping variable is substituted for land area.
o Choropleth Map: Map which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to
the measurement of the variable being displayed (ex: population density).
o Dot Map: One dot represents a certain number of things (population).
o Isoline map (e.g. contour map): A map containing lines that joins all places
of identical value. Example: Flight Plans.
o Mental map / Cognitive Map: An internal representation of Earths surface.
o Topographic map (natural features):
Map Projections: Scientific method of transferring locations to a flat map. They are a
2D attempt to explain something that is 3D. There will be errors in these
projections.
o Azimuthal Projection: Directions from a central point are preserved; usually
these projections also have radial symmetry.
o Mercator Projection: Less distortion and more condition.
o Robinson Projection: Good for the oceans, more accurate for them.
o Fuller Projection: Remains proportional, flattened to form a 2D map.
Map Scale: Ratio of the distance on he map o the corresponding distance to the real
distance (1:100 one inch on the map to 100 inches on the Earth).
Node: The headquarters in a functional region.
Periphery: An area with a low percentage of what youre measuring. Opposite of
core.
Place: Specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular characteristic.
Placelessness: The concept that places loose their individuality and become more
similar, a result of globalization.
Possibilism: The natural environment might control a societys ability to fully
develop, but technology might come to our aid. The technology may over come the
environments challenges.
Qualitative data: Data that described characteristics of whats being measured.
Quantitative data: Data that uses numbers to describe data.
Quantitative revolution:
Regions: An area of Earth distinguished by a combination of cultural and physical
features.
o Formal: At least one common characteristic among the people in that area.
o Functional / Nodal: Within the region there are one or more headquarters
(nodes). The people in the area are connected to the node by activity.
o Vernacular / Perceptual: No one can agree on where it begins and where it
ends. The core area is agreed upon. Some areas of it are grey.
Remote Sensing: Getting data about Earths surface from a satellite or other long-
distance methods.
Scale: The relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a
whole.
o Macro:
o Meso:
o Micro:
Sense of Place: Each place has its own sense of individuality and own character.
Site: Physical characteristic of a place (water sources, topography, and soil).
Situation: The location of a place relative to other places.
Space: The physical gap or interval between two objects.
Spatial Perspective: Understanding the changing spatial organization and material
character of Earths surface.
Sustainability: Doing something at a rate that you can do something forever. You
are looking after your needs for the moment, and you relatives could do it in the
future.
Temperate ClimateA band of latitude where the temperature is moderate. It is
equal distance away from both the equator and the poles.
Time-Space Compression: Due to technology the time it takes to get from point A
to point B has decreased. Therefore, the technology has made the distance seem
less. This often refers to technologies that accelerate or remove spatial distances.
Toponym: The name given to a place on Earth.
TNCs (Trans-national corporations = multi-national corporations): Any corporation
that is registered and operates in more than one country at a time.