Unit 1: Geographic Perspectives Vocab(Matthew Bushee)

Relative Location

Definition: A description of where something is in relation to other things. Example: The Washington Memorial is in between the Capitol building and the Lincoln Memorial.

Robinson Projection

Definition: A general use map with no major distortion because every aspect is a little distorted. The map is also oval shaped, which appears more like a globe. Example: A map shaped like an oval where everything is distorted a little.

Region

Definition: A group of places in the same area that share a characteristic form a region. Example: Nevada and Utah are in the Intermountain region.

Mercator Projection

Definition: A map projection intended for navigational use. Directions are the preserved and latitude-longitude lines intersect at a right angle. Example: A map with latitude and longitude lines coming together at 90 degrees and direction preserved

Peters Projection

Definition: A map projection where the sizes of landmasses are accurate, but the shapes of the landmasses are inaccurate. Example: A map where Africa for example, is more elongated, but the shape is distorted.

conic projection

Definition: A map that is generally used in midlatitude countries where the lines of longitude converge and the lines of latitude are curved. The size and shape are close to reality. Example: A kind of top down view of the Earth and the continents are on a semicircle. The latitude lines are visibly curved.

Mental Map

Definition: A map that people create in their minds based on their own experience and knowledge. Mental maps evolve over time. Example: The mental map of a child entering kindergarten for the first day of class might be a door, a classroom and a playground. As time goes on, the child will have a much fuller mental map of the area.

Toponym

Definition: A toponym is a place name. Some place names provide insight into the physical geography Example: Miami beach, Pensacola Beach are all places on the beach with the word 'Beach' in their name.

Vernacular Region

Definition: Also known are perpetual regions, they differ form formal and functional regions in that they are defined by the informal sense of place that people ascribe to them. The boundaries of perpetual regions vary widely because people have a different sense of what defines and unites these regions. Example: The American "South," the Middle East, and "Upstate" New York are examples. While all of these regions exist, their exact boundaries depend upon the person who is defining them.

Distortion

Definition: An error that occurs when trying to project the almost spherical earth onto a 2d surface. Example: The Peters Projection makes all landmasses their relative sizes, but distorts the shape of the landmasses.

Space Time Compression

Definition: As a result of the Industrial revolution, improvements in transportation and communication have shortened the time required for movement made or other forms of interaction between two places. Example: A freight shipment from Cincinnati needed 52 days to reach New York City. By 1850, because of canals and railroads, it took half that long. And by 1852, it took only 7 days. Today, an airplane flight takes only a few hours, and digital information takes seconds or less.

GIS

Definition: Computer system that can store, analyze, and display information from multiple digital maps or geospatial data sets. Example: Analyzing transportation/travel time is something that GIS would do.

Legend/Key

Definition: Explanatory list of symbols in a map. Usually appears in a box in a bottom corner. Example: A box in which a triangle is a mountain and a square is a house.

Functional Region/Nodal Region

Definition: Functional regions are organized around a focal point are defined by an activity that occurs across the region. These regions are often united by networks of communication and transportation that are centered on a node. For this reason they are also known as nodal regions. Example: Pizza delivery areas are functional regions; the pizza shop is the node.

GPS

Definition: GPS receivers on the earth's surface use the locations of multiple satellites ti determine and record a receivers exact location. Example: When driving to a job, you know how to get there because GPS is telling you where you are and how to get to your job.

Globalization

Definition: Globalization is the process of intensified interaction among peoples, governments, and companies of different countries around the globe. More specifically, globalization usually refers to the increased integration of the world economy since the 1970s. Example: Outsourcing parts needed to make something to another country is a good example of how globalization connects the world.

Concentration

Definition: How clustered or dispersed something is. Example: In urban areas, there is usually a higher concentration of people than in the more rural areas.

isoline maps

Definition: Isoline maps, also called isometric maps, use lines that connect points of equal value to depict variations in data across space. When lines are close together, whatever the map depicts is changing rapidly; where the lines are farther apart, the phenomenon is relatively the same. Example: A common type of an isoline map is a topographic map, which is popular among hikers.

Stimulus Diffusion

Definition: Occurs when people in a culture adopt an underlying idea or process from another culture, but modify it because they reject one trait of it. Example: Hindus in India adopted the practice of eating fast food, but they rejected eating beef because doing so would violate their Hindu beliefs. So, they adapted the custom by making vegetarian and other non-beef types of burgers.

Relocation Diffusion

Definition: Relocation diffusion is the spread of a cultural trait by people who migrate and carry their cultural traits with them. Example:A small scale example is the spread of pizza, which Italian immigrants brought to the United States in the late 19th century.

thematic maps

Definition: Show spacial aspects of information or of a phenomenon. There are 4 common types of thematic maps. Example: A Choropleth map is an example of a thematic map, it shows data through different colors or different shades of color.

Cartogram

Definition: Sizes of countries (or states, counties, or another areal unit) are shown according to some specific statistics. Example: The cartogram of world population shows Canada and Morocco as roughly the same size because they have similar populations, even though Canada is more than 20 times larger in area.

Formal Region

Definition: Sometimes called uniform regions or homogenous regions, are united by physical, cultural and economic traits. Example: Southwestern Nigeria is a formal region because most of the people speak Yoruba.

Hierarchical Diffusion

Definition: Spread of culture outward from the most interconnected places or from centers of wealth and importance. Cultural traits spread first from one important person, city or powerful class to another important person, city or social class. Example: When cellular phones first appeared on the market in the 1980s, they were expensive and commonly owned by wealthy people in large cities in more developed countries. As cell phone networks grew and cell phones became mass-produced, they eventually spread to a wider market.

Compass Rose

Definition: Symbol that represents the orientation of cardinal directions on a map. Example: A compass rose shows you which way is North, South, East, and West on a map.

Agricultural Density

Definition: The Agricultural density compares the number of farmers to the area of arable land. The value gives an indication of the efficiency of the region's farmers. Example: The more economically developed Netherlands had a low agricultural density of 31/sq. mile, indicating that Dutch farmers could afford technology and produce food more efficiently than farmers in Bangladesh, which had an agricultural population density of 431/sq. mile.

Hearth

Definition: The area where a unique culture or a specific trait develops. Example: Classical Greece was a culture hearth for democracy more then 2,000 years ago.

Site

Definition: The characteristics at the immediate location Example: The soil type, climate, labor force, and human structures are all examples of a site.

Pattern

Definition: The geometric arrangement of objects in a space. Example: Neighborhoods are typically arranged according to a pattern that will allow them to fit the most houses in an area.

Situation

Definition: The location of a place relative to its surroundings and other places. Example: The situation of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is roughly in the center of the Arabian peninsula; the situation of the Arabian Peninsula is between the continents of Africa and Asia.

Density

Definition: The number of something in a specifically defined area Example: Population density is the number of people per square mile.

Absolute Location

Definition: The precise spot where something is according to some system. Example: Latitude and longitude lines are a system used in Absolute Location,so Florida's absolute location is at 27°N and 81°W

Projection

Definition: The process of showing a curved surface on a flat map. Example: Cartographers decide on a map projection by determining whether they want to preserve area, shape, distance, or direction on their map accurately, knowing that other elements will be less accurate.

Scale

Definition: The ratio between the size of things in the real world and the size of those same things on the map. There are three different types of scale: cartographic scale, geographic scale, and the scale of the data represented on the map. Example: "One inch is 10 miles" is an example of a scale used on a map.

Expansion Diffusion

Definition: The spread of cultural traits through direct or indirect exchange without migration. Example: The Islamic religion has spread throughout the world, yet stayed strong in the Middle East, where it was founded.

Diffusion

Definition: The spreading of information, ideas, behaviors and other aspects of culture over wider areas is known as diffusion. Example: Disco music evolved in the United States in the 1970s, but remained popular in Egypt long after it faded in the United States.

Remote Sensing

Definition: The use of cameras or other sensors mounted on aircraft or satellites to collect digital images of the earth's surface Example: Using a satellite to monitor the weather.

Arithmetic Density

Definition: This is calculated by dividing a region's population by its total area. Example: In July 2015, the United States had a population of approximately 321,368,864 in a total area of 3,841,999 square miles, so its arithmetic population density was 83.6 people per square mile.

Physiological Density

Definition: This is calculated by dividing population by the amount of arable land, or land suitable for growing crops. Example:In a recent year, the physiological density for Egypt (with 2.8% arable land) was 8,078/sq. mile compared to an arithmetic density of 266/sq. mile.

Choropleth Map

Definition: This type of map uses various colors, shades of one color, or patterns to show the location and distribution of spatial data. They often show rates or other quantitative data in defined areas. Example: The maps showing the population density of Australia are choropleth maps. As demonstrated, the scale of the data influences how the map looks.

Dot Distribution Map

Definition: This type of thematic map is used to show the specific location and distribution of something across the territory of the map. Each dot represents a specified quantity. Any kind of symbol can be used in place of dots. Example: A dot distribution map is one of many maps being used to track Coronavirus infections.

Contagious Diffusion

Definition: When a cultural trait spreads continuously outward from its hearth through contact among people. Example: As musicians outside of the South heard the music, they began to play it themselves. Blues slowly spread northward and reached major cities like Saint Louis, Chicago and New York.

reference maps

Definition: reference maps are designed for people to refer to for general information about places Example: An example of a reference map is a road map, which shows and labels highways, streets, and alleys.

Cartography

Definition: the art and science of mapmaking, closely associated with geography. Example: Many geographers are also cartographers and vice versa.