Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives

Absolute Location - 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.
Built landscape - the part of the physical landscape that represents material culture;
the buildings, roads, bridges, and similar structures large and small of the cultural
landscape.
Cartogram - a map that has been simplified to present a single idea ina diagrammatic
way: the base is not normally true to scale.
census - an official enumeration of the population, with details as to age, sex,
occupation, etc. The USA has a census every ten years( 2010, 2020, 2030, etc.)
Choropleth - a thematic map in which ranked classes of some variable are depicted
with shading patterns or colors for predefined zones.
Connectivity - the directness of routes linking pairs of places; an indication of the
degree of internal connection in a transport network; all of the tangible and intangible
means of connection and communication between places.
Contagious - the rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend though out a
population; person to person spread of culture.
Density Arithmetic - the total number of people divided by the total land area.
Diffusion - the process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another
over time.
Distance decay - the diminishing in importance and eventual disappearance of a
phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin.
Distortion - area, distance, direction, shape

Dot - a thematic map in which a dot represents some frequency of the mapped
variable.
Environmental determinism - 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
human activities.
Equator - an imaginary east-west line that encircles the globe halfway between the
North and South Poles.
Formal Region - an area in which everyone shares in one or more distinctive
characteristics (usually cultural).
Friction of distance - a measure of the retarding or restricting effect of distance on
spatial interaction; the greater the distance, the greater the friction and the less the
interaction or exchange, or the greater the cost of achieving the exchange.
Functional Region (Nodal) - an area organized around a node or focal point.
Geographic Information System (GIS) - a computer hardware and software system
that handles geographically referenced data; it uses and produces maps and has the
ability to perform many types of spatial analysis.
geography -the study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of
human activity as it affects and is affected by these, including the distribution of
populations and resources, land use, and industries. Describing the earth.
geospatial - relating to or denoting data that is associated with a particular location.
geospatial technology - refers to equipment used in visualization, measurement, and
analysis of earth's features, typically involving such systems as GPS (global positioning
systems), GIS (geographical information systems), and RS (remote sensing).

Global Positioning System (GPS) - a system that determines the precise position of
something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers.
globalization - the tendency of businesses, technologies, or philosophies to spread
throughout the world, or the process of making this happen.
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 important / large area.
hinterlands - either rural or urban or both, that is closely linked economically with a
nearby town or city.
International Date Line - an arc that fro the most part follows 180 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.
Isoline - a thematic map with lines that connect points of equal value.
Latitude - the numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a
globe and measuring distance north and south of the Equator.
Longitude - the numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians drawn
on a globe and measuring distance east and west of the Prime Meridian.
Map - a two-dimensional, or flat, representation of Earths surface or a portion of it.
Mental Map - (cognitive map) the map like image of the world, country, region, city,
or neighborhood a person carries in mind.

Mercator projection - a projection of a map of the world onto a cylinder in such a

way that all the parallels of latitude have the same length as the equator, used
especially for marine charts and certain climatological maps.
Meridian - line of longitude
Model - a simplified abstraction of reality, structured to clarify causal relationships: e.g.,
Demographic Transition, Gravity Model, etc.
Network - the areal pattern of sets of places and the routes (links) connecting them
along which movement can take place.
Pattern (linear, centralized, random) - understand diagrams for each
Perceptual / Vernacular - an area that people believe to exist as part of their cultural
identity.
Physiological - the number of people per unit of area of arable land, which is land
suitable for agriculture.
place - a specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular characteristic.
Place Name (Toponym)- the name given to a portion of Earths surface.
polar projection - a cartographic projection of the sphere in which the point of sight
is at the center and the plane of projection passes through one of the polar circles
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 form many alternatives.
Prime Meridian - an imaginary line passing through the Royal Observatory at
Greenwich, England, serving by agreement as the 0 line of longitude.
Projection - the system used to transfer locations from Earths surface to a flat map.

Proportional Symbol - a thematic map in which the size of a symbol varies in

proportion to the frequency or intensity of the mapped variable.
Region (formal/uniform, functional / nodal, perceptual / vernacular) - an area
distinguished by a unique combination of trends or features.
regionalism - the expression of a common sense of identity and purpose combined
with the creation and implementation of institutions that express a particular identity
and shape collective action within a geographical region.
Relative Location - the position of a place or activity in relation to other places or
activities; implies spatial relationships and usually suggests the relative advantages or
disadvantages of a location with respect to all competing locations.
Remote sensing - the acquisition of data about Earths surface from a satellite orbiting
the planet or other long-distance methods.
Scale (implied degree of generalization) - the size of an area student, from local to
global.
Sequent occupance - successive habitation of same area over time; builds layer after
layer in the region.
Site - the physical character of a place; the absolute location of a place or activity
described by 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 a part; the
location of a place relative to other places.
Spatial - of or pertaining to space on or near Earths surface. Often a synonym for
geographical and used as an adjective to describe specific geographic concepts or
processes.

Spatial interaction - the movement and flows involving human activity.

Stimulus - the spread of a n underlying principle, even though a specific characteristic
is rejected.
Thematic - a map that demonstrates a particular feature or a single variable. Four
types: dot, isoline, choropleth, and proportional symbol.
Time zone - a geographic region within which the same standard time is used.
Time-spaced 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.