AP Human Geography Vocab: Basic Concepts – Flashcards
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Built Landscape
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Represented by those features and patterns reflecting human occupation and use of natural resources. Ex: Housing, religion, and facilities.
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Sequent Occupance
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The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape
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Cultural Landscape
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The visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape. The layers of buildings, forms, and artifacts sequentially imprinted on the landscape by the activities of various human occupants.
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Arithmetic (Population) Density
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The population of a country or region expressed as an average per unit area. The figure is derived by dividing the population of the areal unit by the number of square kilometers or miles that make up the unit.
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Physiological (Population) Density
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The number of people per unit area of arable land.
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Hearth
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The region from which innovative ideas originate. (Ideas spreading from one place to another).
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Relocation Diffusion
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Sequential diffusion process in which the items being diffused are transmitted by their carrier agents as they evacuate the old areas and relovate to new ones. The most common form of relocation diffusion includes the spreading of innovations by a migrating population.
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Expansion Diffusion
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The spread of an innovation or an idea through a population in an area in such a way that the number of those influenced grows continuosly larger, resulting in an expanding area of dissemination.
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Hierarchical Diffusion
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A form of diffusion in which an idea or innovation spreads by passing first among the most connected places or peoples. An urban hierarchy is usually involved, encouraging the leapfrogging of innovations over the wide areas, with geographic distance a less important influence.
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Contagious Diffusion
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The distance-controlled spreading of an idea, innovation, or some other item through a local population by contact from person to person- analogous to the communication of a contagious illness.
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Stimulus Diffusion
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A form of diffusion in which a cultural adaptation is created as a result of the introduction of a cultural trait from another place.
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Absolute Direction
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Where you are exactly located.
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Relative Direction
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Where you are relative to other things such as rivers, cities, houses etc.
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Dispersed
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To drive or send off in various directions.
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Scattered
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Distributed or occuring at widely spaced and usually irregular locations.
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Clustered/ Agglomerated
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When things are close togetheror put together in a concentrated area. (Shows how things relate in certain areas.)
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Absolute Distance
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Exact measurement of the physical space between two places.
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Relative Distance
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Approxamite measurement of the physical space between two places.
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Distribution
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The arrangement of something across Earth's surface.
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Enviromental Determinism
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Geography is the study of how the physical enviroment caused human activities. (Says that humans do things because of their enviroment).
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Absolute Location
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The position on the Earth's surface using the coordinate system of latitude and longitude. (Helps find out where things are exactly on Earth.)
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Relative Location
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The position on the Earth's surface relative to other features. (Shows where things are by comparing their location to something else. Ex: North of the lake.)
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Site
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The physical character of place (What is found at that location and why is it important.)
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Situation
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The location of a place relative to other places. (Shows where a place is compared to where other places are.)
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Place name (Toponym)
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The name given to a certain place on Earth. (Helps determine a place by naming it.)
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Linear Patterns
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Pattens that occur in a linear fashion.
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Centralized Patterns
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Patterns that are located in one specific area of a region.
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Random Patterns
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Patterns that appear in several different areas with different cultures and physical features.
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Natural Landscape
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The landscape that has not been changed by humans and has stayed that way over time.
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Possibilism
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The physical enviroment may limit some human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to their enviroment.
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Formal Region (Uniform)
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An area within which everyone shares in common one or more characteristics. The shared feature could be a cultural value such as a common language, or an enviromental climate.
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Functional Region (Nodal)
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Area organized around a node or focal point. The characteristic chosen to define a functional region dominates at a central focus or node and diminishes in importance outward. This region is tied to the central point by transportation or communication systems or by economic or functional associations.
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Perceptual Region (Veracular)
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A region that people believe to exist as part of their cultural identity. (Shows areas that have similar cultural characteristics such as language, ethnicity, and religion.)
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Scale
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Relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole. (Shows the relationship between the size of something on a map and the actual size of something on the Earth's surface.)
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Size
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The estimation or determination of extent.
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Accessibility
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The degree of ease with which it is possible to reach certain location from other locations. Accessibility varies from place to place and can be measured.
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Connectivity
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The relationship among people and objects across the barrier of space. Geographers are concerned with various means by which connections occur.
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Network
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A system of interrelated buildings, offices, stations, ect. especially over a large area or throughout a country, territory, region. (Helps to show how things are connected to one another in different areas.)
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Distance Decay
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The diminishing of importance and eventual disapperance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from it's origin. (Helps explain why things are less important the further away they are from where they start.
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Friction of Distance
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Spatial interactions will take place more frequently over shorter distances. (Shows that over longer distances, spatial interactions will take place less and less.)
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Time-Space Compression
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Increases the speed at which we can receive information and reduces the significance. (The faster we learn certain information, the less valuable it is.)
