World Regional Geography Key Terms – Chapter 1 – Flashcards
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agriculture
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The practice of producing food through animal husbandry, or raising of animals, and the cultivation of those animals.
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Authoritarianism
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A political system based on the power of the state or of elitist regional and local leaders.
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Biosphere
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The global ecological system which integrates all living things and their relationships.
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Birth Rate
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The number of births per 1000 people in a given population, per unit of time, usually per year.
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Capitalism
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Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods, driven by profit motive and characterized by a competitive market place.
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Carrying Capacity
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Maximum number of people that a given territory can support sustainably with food, water, and other essential resources.
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Cash Economy
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Cash Economy is an economic system in which the necessities of life are purchased with monetary currency.
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Civil Society
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The elements such as freedom of speech, and independent judiciary etc. which makeup a democratic society.
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Climate Change
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A long term change in the earth's climate , especially a change do to the average atmospheric temperature.
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Climate
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Weather conditions of a region; such as temperature, air pressure ,humidity, precipitation, sunshine ,cloudiness, and winds.
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Development
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Used to describe economic changes like greater productivity of agriculture and industry that lead to better standards of living or simply to increased mass consumption.
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Free Trade
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Refers to the unrestricted international exchange of goods, services, and capitals
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GDP Per Capita PPP
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The market value of all goods and services produced by modern workers and capital within a particular country's borders and within a given year, divided by the number of people in the country and adjusted for purchasing power parity.
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Gender
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It indicates how a particular social group defines the differences between sexes.
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Gender Roles
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The public image of being male or female that a person presents to others.
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Genetic Modification
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The practice of splicing together genes from widely divergent species to achieve particular characteristics.
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Genocide
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To remove or kill all members of a particular ethnic or religious group
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Geographic Information Science
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The meaning of the body of science that underwrites multiple spatial analysis technologies and keeps them at the cutting edge.
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Geopolitics
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The strategies that countries use to ensure that their own interests are served in relations with other countries.
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Global Economy
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The parts of any country's economy such as mined minerals, agricultural commodities, manufactured goods, money, people, and their ideas.
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Global Scale
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The level of geography that encompasses the entire world as a single unified area.
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Global Warming
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The predicted warming of the earths climate as atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases increase.
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Globalization
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The growth of interregional and worldwide linkages and the changes these linkages are bringing about.
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Green Revolution
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Increases in food production brought about through the use of new seeds, fertilizers, mechanized equipment, irrigation, pesticides, and herbicides.
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Greenhouse Gases
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Gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, released into the atmosphere by human and natural actions
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Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
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The market value of all goods and services produced by workers and capital within a particular country's borders and within a given year, which is divided amongst a number of people in the economy.
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Human Geography
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The study of various aspects of human life that create the distinctive landscapes and regions of the world.
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Human Well-being
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Various measures of the extent to which people are able to obtain a healthy life in a community of their choosing.
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Informal Economy
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All aspects of the economy that take place outside official channels.
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Interregional Linkages
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Economic, political, or social connections between regions, whether contiguous or widely separated.
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Kyoto Protocol
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An amendment to a United Nations treaty on global warming, the Protocol is an international agreement, adopted in 1997 and in force in 2005, that sets binding targets for industrialized countries for the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases.
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Landforms
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Physical features of the earth's surface, such as mountain ranges, river valleys, basins, and cliffs.
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Lines of Latitude
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The distance in degrees north or south of the equator; lines of latitude run parallel to the equator, and are also called parallels.
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Lines of Longitude
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Distance in degrees east and west of Greenwich, England; lines of longitude, also called meridians; run from pole to pole (the line of longitude at Greenwich is 0° and is known as the prime meridian).
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Living Wages
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Minimum wages high enough to support a healthy life.
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Local Scale
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The level of geography that describes the space where an individual lives or works; a city, town, or rural area.
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Map Projections
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The various ways of showing the spherical earth on a flat surface.
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Material Culture
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All the things, living or not, that humans use.
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Migration
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Movement of people from a place or country to another, often for safety or economic reasons.
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Monsoon
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A wind pattern in which in summer months. Warm, wet air coming from the ocean brings copious rainfall, and in winter, cool, dry air moves from the continental interior toward the outside.
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Multinational Corporation
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Business organization which operates extraction, production, and/or distribution facilities in multiple countries.
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Neolithic Revolution
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A period 20,000 to 8000 years ago characterized by the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture, accompanied by the making of polished stone tools. often called the first agricultural revolution.
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Orographic Rainfall
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Rainfall produced when a moving moist air mass encounters a mountain range, rises, cools, and releases condensed moisture that falls as rain.
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Physical Geography
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The study of the earth's physical processes: how they work, how they affect humans, and how they are affected by humans.
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Plate Tectonics
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The scientific theory that the earth's surface is composed of large plates that float on top of an underlying layer of molten rock; the movement and interaction of the plates create many of the large features of the earth's surface, particularly mountains.
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Political Ecologist
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A geographer who studies power allocations in the interactions among development, human well-being, and the environment.
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Population Pyramid
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A graph which depicts the age and gender structures of a country.
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Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)
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The amount that the local currency equivalent of U.S. $1 will purchase in a given country.
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Push/Pull Phenomenon of Urbanization
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Conditions, such as political instability, that encourage (push) people to leave rural areas, and urban factors, such as job opportunities, that encourage (pull) people to move to the urban area.
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Race
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A social or political construct that is based on apparent characteristics such as skin color, hair texture, and face and body shape, but that is of no biological significance.
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Rate of natural increase (RNI)
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The rate of population growth measured as the excess of births over deaths per 1000 individuals per year without regard for the effects of migration.
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Region
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A unit of the earth's surface that contains distinct patterns of physical features and/or of human development.
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Ring of Fire
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Tectonic plate junctures around the edges of the Pacific Ocean; Characterized by volcanoes and earthquakes.
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Multiculturalism
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The state of relating to, reflecting, or being adapted to diverse cultures.
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Scale (of a map)
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The proportion that relates the dimensions of the map to the dimensions of the area it represents; also, variable-sized units of geographical units.
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Sex
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The biological category of male or female.
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Slums
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Densely populated areas characterized by crowding, run-down housing, and poverty.
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Subregions
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Smaller divisions of the world regions delineated to facilitate the study of patterns particular to the areas
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Subsistence Economy
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Circumstances in which a family produces most of its own food, clothing, and shelter.
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Sustainable Agriculture
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Farming that meets human needs without poisoning the environment or using water and soil resources
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Total Fertility Rate
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Representing the number of children that would be born to a woman if she were to live to the end of her childbearing years and bear children in accordance with current age -specific fertility rates.
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United Nations
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An international Organization of countries set up in 1945 in succession to the league of nations to promote international peace .
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United Nations Human Development Index (HDI)
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The ranking of countries based on three indicators of well-being: life expectancy at birth, educational attainment, and income adjusted to purchasing power parity.
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Urbanization
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Urbanization is the movement of people from rural areas to cities.
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Virtual Water
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Virtual Water is the volume of water used to produce all that a person consumes in a year.
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Water Footprint
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Water Footprint is the water used to meet a person's basic needs for a year, added to the person's annual Virtual Water.
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Weathering
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Weathering is the physical or chemical Decomposition of rocks by sun, rain, snow, ice, and the effects of life-forms.
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World Region
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World Region is a part of the globe delineated according to criteria selected to facilitate the study of patterns particular to the area.
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World Trade Organization (WTO)
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World Trade Organization is a global institution made up of member countries whose stated mission is the lowering of trade barriers and the establishment of ground rules for international trade.
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Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)
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Association outside the formal institutions of government in which individuals, often from widely differing backgrounds and locations, share views and activism on political, social, economic, or environmental issues.
