Unit 1: Geographic Perspectives Vocab(Felipe Chiara)

Distortion

Definition: A Distortion is the change to a object, form or thing. GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) It is a system to manage, store , and analyse data, and associated attributes that related to the earth. Example: Map projections

Cartogram

Definition: A cartogram is a map in which some thematic mapping variable - such as travel time, population, or GNP - is substituted for land area or distance. Example: The area cartogram to the right displays the current world population of 7.2 billion people.

Choropleth Map

Definition: A choropleth map is a type of thematic map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to a statistical variable that represents an aggregate summary of a geographic characteristic within each area. Example: population density or per-capita income.

Dot Distribution Map

Definition: A dot distribution map, or dot density map, is a map type that uses a dot symbol to show the presence of a feature or a phenomenon. Dot maps rely on a visual scatter to show spatial pattern Example: The amount of McDonald's around the world.

Compass Rose

Definition: A figure on a compass, map, nautical chart, or monument used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions (north, east, south, and west) and their intermediate points. Example: A compass used for navigation.

Formal Region

Definition: A formal region is an area that has officially recognized boundaries defining it. As such, formal regions are often made up of the boundaries for cities, counties, states, and countries. These regions are often regarded as common knowledge and their boundaries set by local or national governments. Example: Europe, Asia, Belgium, United States

Hearth

Definition: A hearth is a point of origin. Cultural hearths are the areas where civilizations first began. They radiated the customs, innovations, and ideologies that transformed the world. Example: The hearth of the Minoan Civilization

Legend/Key

Definition: A map legend or key is a visual explanation of the symbols used on the map. Example: A church symbol with a square means that the church has a tower, while a circle means the church has a spire.

Mental Map

Definition: A mental map is a person's point-of-view perception of their area of interaction Example: The difference between mental maps of people who live on the countryside or in a city

Agricultural Density

Definition: Agricultural density is defined as the number of farmers per unit area of farmland. Example: The population density measured as the number of farmers per unit area of arable land

Density

Definition: Density is the number of things—which could be people, animals, plants, or objects—in a certain area. Example: The density of people of people in India is 382 per sq km

Expansion Diffusion

Definition: Expansion diffusion is when innovations spread to new places while staying strong in their original locations. Example: Islam has spread throughout the world, yet stayed strong in the Middle East, where it was founded.

Functional Region/Nodal Region

Definition: Is a region organized around a node or focal point. ... The region is tied to the central point by transportation, communication systems or by economic or functional associations Example: The area of Tampa that receives the Tampa Tribune

Arithmetic Density

Definition: Is very simply the total number of people divided by the total land area. Physiological density is the number of people per unit area of arable land. Example: The US' arithmetic density is 80 per square mile.

Isoline maps

Definition: Isoline maps help the reader to recognise patterns and relationships between the geography of an area and data that might have been collected on the ground. Example: Temperature, air pressure, precipitation heights or ground elevations

Projection

Definition: Map projection is a way to flatten a globe's surface into a plane in order to make a map. Example: The Mercador.

Contagious Diffusion

Definition: Occurs when numerous places or people near the point of origin become adopters (or infected, in the case of a disease) Example: Hinduism spreading throughout the Indian subcontinent.

Hierarchical Diffusion

Definition: Occurs when the diffusion innovation or concept spreads from a place or person of power or high susceptibility to another in a leveled pattern Example: The way a few religions spread. Missionaries often sought Kings, nobles, and other influential people in order to convert them.

Stimulus Diffusion

Definition: Occurs when the innovative idea diffuses from its hearth outward, but the original idea is changed by the new adopters and other cultures. Example: Fast Food Restaurant's spread to vegetarian countries like India; however Indian Hindus do not eat beef.

reference maps

Definition: Reference maps are maps that show where something is in space. Their purpose is to display geographical data and political data for their own sake. Example: Landforms, coastlines, waterways, political boundaries, settlements, transportation networks, etc.

Region

Definition: Regions are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics, human impact characteristics, and the interaction of humanity and the environment. Example: The Balkans.

Relative Location

Definition: Relative location refers to the position of a place or entity based on its location with respect to other locations. Example: For example, the location of the US Capitol is located about 38 miles southwest of Baltimore.

Relocation Diffusion

Definition: Relocation diffusion is the spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another. Example: Languages like French and English, and Religions like Buddhism and Christianity

Remote Sensing

Definition: Remote sensing refers to the process of taking pictures of the Earth's surface from satellites (or, earlier, airplanes) to provide a greater understanding of the Earth's geography over large distances. Example: Realistic Maps

GPS

Definition: Satellite-based system for determining the absolute location of places or geograpic features. Example: GPS in your car or phone

Site

Definition: Site is the exact location of a city, you can find it on a map. The situation of a city relates to its surrounding features, both human-made and natural. The site of a city has features that are inherent to its location. The situation of the city includes characteristics that are external to the settlement. Example: San Francisco was built in a tectonic plate division, making earthquakes something that happens all of the time

Space Time Compression

Definition: Space time compression is the increasing sense of connectivity that seems to be bringing people closer together even thought their distances are the same. Example: Social networks, blogs, websites (The internet in general)

Peters Projection

Definition: The Gall-Peters projection is a rectangular map projection that maps all areas such that they have the correct sizes relative to each other. Example: It's scale is correct

Mercator Projection

Definition: The Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection presented by Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. Example: It was extensively used in navigation

Robinson Projection

Definition: The Robinson projection is a map projection of a world map which shows the entire world at once. It was specifically created in an attempt to find a good compromise to the problem of readily showing the whole globe as a flat image. Example: it is proportionally correct

Pattern

Definition: The geometric or regular arrangement of something in an area. Linear Pattern- Straight pattern such as houses on a street. Example: houses along a street.

Globalization

Definition: The increase of communication, connection, and reliance between people, countries, and businesses. Explained what has allowed globalization to become a trend in understanding modern human interaction. Example: modern day digital technology and rapid transportation.

Physiological Density

Definition: The physiological density or real population density is the number of people per unit area of arable land. A higher physiological density suggests that the available agricultural land is being used by more and may reach its output limit sooner than a country that has a lower physiological density. Example: The population density of the irrigated farmland in Egypt would be an example of physiological population density. The physiological density of a population is the total population in proportion to the area of arable land.

Absolute Location

Definition: The precise spot where something is according to a specific system Example: the Empire State Building is at 40.7484° N, 73.9857° W cordinates

Scale

Definition: The ratio between the size of an area on a map and he actual size of that same area on the earth's surface Example: The scale of a world map is on average 1:100,000,000

Cartography

Definition: The science or practice of drawing maps. Example: The Map of Russia

Situation

Definition: The situation of a city relates to its surrounding features, both human-made and natural. The site of a city has features that are inherent to its location. The situation of the city includes characteristics that are external to the settlement. Example: such as San Francisco's situation being a port of entry on the Pacific coast, adjacent to California's productive agricultural lands.

Concentration

Definition: The spread of a feature over a certain space. Example: The concentration of Mountains

conic projection

Definition: When you place a cone on the Earth and unwrap it, this results in a conic projection. Some of the popular conic projections Albers Equal Area Example: A Lambert conformal conic projection is a conic map projection used for aeronautical charts, portions of the State Plane Coordinate System, and many national and regional mapping systems.

Toponym

Definition: a place name, especially one derived from a topographical feature. Example: Australia, New York, France

GIS

Definition: computer data collected by satellites that show land use—the location of farms, towns, and forests. Remote sensing provides another tool that can be integrated into a GIS. Example: Common uses of GIS include inventory and management of resources, crime mapping, establishing and monitoring routes, managing networks, monitoring and managing vehicles, managing properties, locating and targeting customers, locating properties that match specific criteria and managing agricultural crop data

Vernacular Region

Definition: it's a place that people exists as part of their cultural identity. Perceptual regions vary from person to person. Example: The American South

Thematic Maps

Definition: maps that tell a story about a place. Thematic maps display the same geographical or political data shown on general maps as a base layer but then map some physical, economic, or cultural phenomenon or top of that base layer. Example: Dot Distribution Map, Graduated Symbol Map, Heat Maps, Cartogram, Bivariate Choropleth.

Diffusion

Definition: the term diffusion refers to the spread of people, things, ideas, cultural practices, disease, technology, weather, and other factors from place to place. Example: the Bubonic Plague