AP Human Geography

• Absolute direction


  Corresponds to the direction of a compass; indicates the direction of the compass
• Absolute distance


  The distance that can be measured with a standard unit of length, such as a foot, yard, mile, or kilometer
• Absolute location


  A precise position on Earth's surface (latitude and longitude)
• Activity space


  Where a person goes and what they do on a day-to-day basis
• Aerial photography


  Remote-sensing photography that produces fine-grained, high-resolution, highly detailed images
• Border zone


  A region where cultural markers overlap and blend into a recognizable border culture
• Cartogram


  A map that distorts the geographic shape of an area in order to show the size of a specific variable
• Cartographer


  A person who makes maps
• Census


  An official count or survey of a population, typically recording various details about individuals such as age, sex, or race
• Choropleth map


  A thematic map showing data aggregated for a specific geographic area, often using colours to represent different values
• Compass rose


  Shows the map's orientation and the four cardinal directions (NSEW)
• Contagious diffusion


  The wavelikespread of ideas (like a forest fire) moving throughout space without regard for hierarchy
• Contested boundaries


  Boundaries that are disputed for religious, political, or cultural reasons
• Cultural ecology


  The study of the interactions between societies and their local environments
• Cultural landscape


  The built forms that cultural groups create in inhabiting Earth and the meanings, values, representations and experiences associated with those forms
• Data aggregation


  Process of collecting and organizing large amounts of information
• Diffusion


  The pattern by which a phenomenon such as the movement of people, or their ideas, technologies, or preferences, spreads from a particular location through space and time
• Dot density/dot distribution map


  A map that uses dots to represent objects or counts
• Ecology


  A biological science concerned with studying the complex relationships among living organisms and their physical environments
• Ecosystem


  A territorially bounded system consisting of the interaction between humans and the environment
• Elevation


  The distance above sea level
• Environmental determinism


  The belief that the physical environment is the dominant force shaping cultures and that humanity is a passive product of its physical surroundings
• Environmental perception


  The mental images that comprise humans’ perception of nature; environmental perception may be accurate or inaccurate
• Expansion diffusion


  Occurs when ideas or practices spread throughout a population, from area to area, in a snowballing process, so that the total number of knowers or users and the areas of occurrence increase
• Fieldwork


  Learning and doing research involving first-hand experience
• Formal region


  A geographical area inhabited by people who have one or more traits in common
• Fricton of distance


  The inhibiting effect of distance on the intensity and volume of most forms of human interaction; time-space compression diminishes friction of distance
• Functional (nodal) region


  A geographic area that has been organized to function politically, socially, culturally, or economically as one unit
• Geographic information system (GIS)


  A software application for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth’s surface; allows the rapid manipulation of geospatial data for problem-solving and research
• Geographic processes

  The physical and human forces that work together to form and transform the world
• Global positioning system (GPS)

  A system of 24 satellites that orbit Earth twice daily and transmit radio signals Earthward; the basis for many map-based apps that provide directions on how to get from one place to another
• Global scale


  Geographic scale that looks at geographic phenomena across the entire world
• Glocal perspective


  Geographic perspective that acknowledges the two-way relationship between local communities and global patterns, emphasizing that the forces of globalization need to take into account local scale cultural, economic, and environmental conditions
• Goode homolosine projection


  A map projection that avoids shape distortion and the restrictions of a rectangular map by creating interruptions in the map’s continuity
• Greenhouse effect

  The global warming trend caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide
• Greenhouse gases

  Compounds in the atmosphere from fossil-fuel combustion, such as carbon dioxide, that absorb and trap what energy close to Earth’s surface
• Hierarchical diffusion


  Occurs when ideas leapfrog from one important person, community, or city to another, bypassing other persons, communities, or rural areas
• Independent invention


  Occurs when the same or a very similar innovation is developed at the same time in different places by different people working independently
• Interdependence


  The ties established between regions and countries that over time collectively create a global economic system that is not necessarily based on equality
• Isoline

  Connects or links different places that share a common or equal elevation value