Geography, Its Nature and Perspectives Vocab
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57 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Absolute Location | Position of an object on the global grid; latiitude and longitude |
| Anglocentric | Focused on English Culture |
| Azimuthal Profection | Map that maintains direction but distorts other properties; flat-plane-constructed map of each hemisphere; direction is accurate, and great-circle routes are apparent. |
| Cardinal Directions | North, South, East, and West |
| Cartogram | Map that uses proportionally (i.e., space on the map) to show a particular variable. |
| Cartography | process of mapmaking |
| Choropleth thematc map | map that shows a pattern of a variable, such as population density or voting patterns, by using various colors or degrees of shading. |
| Cognative (or mental) map | Map drawn from memory |
| Conformal (or orthomerphic) projection | Map that maintans shape but distorts other properties. |
| Cultural Ecology | Study of human-evironment interaction |
| Data Aggregation | Size of geographic units being represented on a map |
| Distance Decay | pattern in which the interaction between two places declines as the distance between the two places increases |
| Distortion | Necessary error resulting from trying to represent the round, nearly spherical earth on a flat plane, or map |
| Dot Density Map | Thematic map that uses dots to represent the frequency of a variable in a given area |
| Equal-Area (or equivalent) projection | Map tat maintains area but distorts other properties |
| Equidistant Projection | Map that maintains distance but distorts other properties. |
| Formal Region | Region composed of area that have common (or uniform) cultural of physical feature; sometimes referred to as uniforn regions |
| Four main properties of a map | Shap, size (area), distance, and direction. Shape refers to the geometric shapes of the objects on the map. Size (area) refers to the relative amount of space taken up on the map by the landforms or objects on the map. Distance refers to the represented distance between objects on the map. Direction refers to the degree of accuracy representing the cardinal and intermediate directions. |
| Friction of Distance | Degree to which distance interferes with some interaction |
| Functional region | Group of places linked together by some funtion's influence on them after diffusing from a central node; sometimes referred to as a nodal region |
| Geographical information system (GIS) | Computer program that stores geographic data and produces maps to show the data |
| Geographic model | Simplified version of what exists on the earth or what might exist in the future; helps a geographer search for answers to why patterns exist on the earth as they do |
| Global Positioning system (GPS) | System of satellites used to determine an exact location on the global grid |
| Great Circles | circles formed on the surface of the earth by a plane that passes through the center fo the earth. The equator and every line of longitude paired with its twin on the opposite side of the earth form great circles. Any arc of a great circle shows the shrotest distance between two points on the earth's surface |
| Greenwich mean Time (GMT) | Baseline for time zones around the qorld, centered on the prime meridian; sometimes called Universal time |
| Human-Environment interaction | One theme of geography through which geographers analyze human's impact on their environment and their environment's impact on them. |
| Human Geography | Branch of geography primarily concerned with analyzing and structures, processes, and location of human creatings and interactions with the earth |
| Intermediate Direction | Northwest, southwest, northeast, and southeast |
| Isoline thematic map | Map displaying lines that connect points of equal value; for example, a map showing elevation levels. |
| Lines of latitude | Measurd in degrees north and south from the equator, which is 0 degrees latitude. the north pole is 90 degreed north latitude, and the south pole is 90 degrees south latitude. Lines of latitude never intersect, so geographers often call lines of latitude parallels |
| lines of longitude | Measured in degreen east and west of one line of longitude known as the prim meridian, the line of longitude that runs through England's Greenwich Observatory.The prime meridian represents 0 degrees longitude. |
| Map | Two dimensional model of the earth or a portion of its surface |
| map scal | Relationship between distance on the map and the actual measurement in the real world |
| Mercator Projection | Map showing the shapes of the continents and landforms accurately but drastically distorting the size (area) of the contintents. For example, Greenland appears almost as large as africa |
| Movement | Theme in Geography involving the movement occuring in a space; movement of information, people, goods, and oter phenomena |
| node | place form which a diffusing phenomenon spreads to other places (its origination point) |
| Perceptual (or vernacualr) region | Region whose boundaries are determined by people's beliefs, not a scientifically measurable process |
| Gall-Peters Projection | Map created by a geographer to show the relative sizes of the earth's continents accurately (equal area). However, it distorts shape, so it is not conformal |
| Physical Geography | Branch of geography concerned with spatial analysis of the structures, processes, and locations of the earth's natural phenomena, like soil, climate, plants, and topography. |
| Place | Theme in geography that involves the unique combination of physical and cultural attricutes that give each location on the earth its individual "stamp" |
| Primary Data | Data directly collected by the geographer making the map or conducting the study |
| Proportion-sumbol thematic map | map that uses some symbol to display the frequency of a variable. The larger the symbol on the mpa, the higher the frequency of the variable found in that region |
| Reference map | Map showing common features like boundaries, roads, highways, mountains, and cities |
| Region | Theme in geograpy involving a spatial unit that has many places sharing similar charcteristics |
| Relative Direction | Directions commonly given by people, such as right, left, up, and down, among many others |
| Relative location | Location of a place or object described in relation to places or objects around it |
| Remote sensing | Technique of obtaining information about objects through the study of data collected by special intruments that are not in physical contact with the objects being analyzed |
| Robinson Projection | Map showing the world with slight distorions to all four properties, rather that habing one property correct and the other three drastically distorted |
| Secondary Data | Data used by a geographer but collected by another source that previously conducted a study and made the data available for future use. |
| Sense of place | Person's perception of the human and physical attributes of a location that give it a unique identity in that person's mind |
| Simplification | Cartographer's process of eliminating unnecessary details focusing on the information that needs to be displayed in the map |
| Site | Internal physicaland cultural charactertics of a place, such as its terrain and dominan religions, among others |
| Situation | Location (or context) of a place relative to the physical and cultural characteristics around it. The more interconnected a place is to other pwerful places, the better its situation |
| Space-time Compressing | Increasing sense of accessibility and connectivity that seems to be bringing humans in distance places close together. |
| Spatial Interaction | Process in which goods, Ideas, Information, and people move among places |
| Spacial Perspective | Outlook through which geograpers identify, explain, and predict the human and physical patterns in sace and the interconnectedness of different spaces |
| thematic map | Map that zeroes in on one feature such as climate, popuation, or voting patterns |
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