AP Human Geography Midterm Review

• The main types of urbanization are rural-urban migration, suburbanization, and urban sprawl.
• Human Geography


  The study of where and why human activities are located where they are
• Location


  The position of something on the Earth's surface
• Absolute/site location


  The exact location of something (longitude/latitude, street address)
• Relative/situation location


  The location of a place in relation to another place- China is south of Mongolia- Pakistan is west of India
• Place


  The physical and human characteristics that make up an area and make it unique- the Ravenel Bridge is a human characteristic of Charleston- the Wando River is a physical characteristic of Charleston
• Density


  The frequency in which something occurs in an area
• Arithmetic density

  The total number of people divided by the total land area.
• Agricultural density


  Number of farmers per unit of arable land
• Physiological density


  The number of people per unit area of arable land
• Human-Environment Interaction


  How people interact with their environment
• Environmental Determinism


  the idea that the environment controls how people live their lives - not as applicable today- going around the mountain
• Environmental Possibilism


  The idea that humans can control the environment around them and change it according to their needs.- going through the mountain- building bridges
• Distance Decay


  The idea that the further away you are from something the less interest you will have in it.- a new store opened, but you live far away from it- a hurricane is headed towards florida, but you live in california
• Time-Space Compression


  the idea that the world is figuratively shrinking (meaning that it takes shorter amount of time to get from one place to another with the technology we have today) - traveling takes less time- texting/communication is faster
• Sustainability

  use of natural resources in such a way that they will not be irreversibly depletedmeets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs - solar power - avoiding plastic
• Map Scale


  the fraction comparing the area of the part of the world that a map is showing to the actual part of the world- a map of mount pleasant has a scale of 1:1000
• Regions


  area of Earth's surface that has certain characteristics that make it distinct from other regions
• Formal/Uniform region


  areas with well defined boundaries and a lot in common - US- Australia
• Functional/nodal region


  a centralized hub with surrounding areas and structures that all relate to the same activity - Harris Teeters in Charleston
• Vernacular/perceptual region


  reflects peoples' feelings and attitudes towards a place
• Globalization


  the worldwide expansion of economic, cultural, and political processes; the spread of ideas and quick development across the world
• Word Systems Theory

  a view of the world in which countries are placed into different economic classes to explain their economic relationships with one another (core, semi-periphery, periphery)America is coreBrazil is semi-peripheryAfghanistan is periphery
• Geo-Inquiry process


  to use a geographic perspective, offering a unique lens to analyze space, place, and the interconnections between both the human and natural world
• Quantitative


  specific data measured by numbers - US census
• Qualitative


  thoughts and opinions, interpretations of data- surveys
• US Census


  an official source of data in which counts every resident in the US every 10 years
• Latitude


  aka parallels, measures north and south
• Longitude


  aka meridians, measures east and west
• Time Zones


  a range of longitudes in which a certain time is used
• Geographic Information Systems


  captures, stores, organizes, and displays geographic data that can be used that can be used to configure both simple and complex maps. can show different layers of the Earth
• Global Positioning System (GPS)


  integrated network of at least 31 satellites in the US system that transmit location data to handheld receivers
• Map Projections


  creating a 2-dimensional model (map) out of a 3-dimensional model (globe)
• Mercator Projection


  cylindrical, used for navigation, distorts near poles

  
• Gall-Peters Projection


  rectangular, equal map, shows true direction, area is okay, continents appear elongated

  
• Robinson Projection


  looks like a globe, distortion at the poles, imprecise measurements

  
• Azimuthal Projection

  preserves direction, no country is the center from the poles, and only shows half the world

  
• Goode Equal Area Projection


  size and proportion is correct, distance and direction is inaccurate

  
• Reference map


  Shows boundary names and other unique identifiers of places or regions

  
• Thematic map


  Focused on a topic or theme