AP Human Geo Unit 1 Vocab

A special kind of map that distorts the shapes and sizes of countries or other political regions to present economic or other kinds of data for comparison.

The science of mapmaking

The group of government geographers that investigate the populations throughout the United States.

A thematic map that uses tones or colors to represent spatial data as average values per unit area.

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population.

Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people.

The geographic study of human-environment relationships

The measurement of how many objects are in a given area

The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time

The diminishing in importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin.

The arrangement of something across Earth's surface.

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. Geography was therefore the study of how the physical environment caused human activities.

The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in a snowballing process.

An area within which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics.

A measure of how much absolute distance affects the interaction between two places.

An area organized around a node or focal point

A computer system that stores, organizes, analyzes, and displays geographic data.

A system that determines the precise position of something on Earth through a series of satellites, tracking stations, and receivers.

Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope.

The region from which innovative ideas originate

The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places

Pertaining to the unique facts or characteristics of a particular place

An environmental or cultural feature of the landscape that helps migration.

A thematic map with lines that connect points of equal value.

A country that is at a relatively early stage in the process of economic development

The numbering system used to indicate the location of parallels drawn on a globe and measuring distance north and south of the equator.

A law that divided much of the United States into a system of townships to facilitate the sale of land to settlers.

The numbering system used to indicate the location of meridians drawn on a globe and measuring distance east and west of the prime meridian

A representation of a portion of Earth's surface based on what an individual knows about a place, containing personal impressions of what is in a place and where places are located.

A true conformal cylindrical map projection, the Mercator projection is particularly useful for navigation because it maintains accurate direction. Mercator projections are famous for their distortion in area that makes land masses at the poles appear oversized.

A country that has progressed relatively far along a continuum of development.

Materials or substances such as minerals, forests, water, and fertile land that occur in nature and can be used for economic gain/ accessible to living organisms

A feature that is universally applicable across many regions

The geometric or regular arrangement of something in a study area.

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 from many alternatives.

Data associated with a more humanistic approach to geography, describes the data using characteristics, approximations, descriptions, and is based on opinion.

Data associated with mathematical models and statistical techniques used to analyze spatial location and association.

The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another.

The acquisition of data about Earth's surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or other long-distance methods.

Diffusion up a hierarchy, such as from a small town to large cities

Rural areas are small in size, have low density, and have socially homogeneous populations. Urban areas are large in size, have high density, and have socially heterogeneous populations.

The relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole, specifically the relationship between the size of an object on a map and the size of the actual feature on Earth's surface.

The physical character of a place

The location of a place relative to other places

The reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place, as a result of improved communications and transportation systems

The spread of an underlying principle, even though a specific characteristic is rejected.

The use of Earth's renewable and nonrenewable natural resources in ways that do not constrain resource use in the future.

The name given to a portion of Earth's surface.

An area that people believe to exist as part of their cultural identity.

An invisible line that marks the extent of a state's territory

Fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group.

The study of how living things interact with each other and their environment

A system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment

Fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, as transportation and communication systems, power plants, and schools

Any natural process that is a potential threat to human life and property

Something produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans

Something produced in nature more rapidly than it is consumed by humans

Map projection centered on Earth's north or south pole

An area of Earth distinguished by a distinctive combination of cultural and physical features