113 terms

Geography 5 study cards (UCSB)

by Max (a sexy blonde guy) P.S. I'm really high
earth-writing; study of earth as home of humanity
physical (natural) geography
One of the two major divisions of systematic geography; the spacial analysis of the structure, process, and location of the Earth's natural phenomena such as climate, soil, plants, animals, and topography.
human geography
geographic techniques
Tools used by geographers to help obtain, display, and/or analyze data they have collected - Mapping and Cartography, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing, Statistics
areal differentiation
the geographic description and explanation of spatial differences on Earth's surface; this includes physical as well as human patterns
early history of geography
Old areal maps, Ptolemy's book "Geographica"
Three scholarly traditions
Literary, Cartographic, Mathematical
regional (General) approach
descriptions of specific places
systematic (specific) approach
Analysis of specific topics across regions
geographic features
Surrounding landforms (mountains, rivers, forests, etc), human landscapes
discrete, sharp boundaries, can be conceived as empty
continuous, vague boundaries, exhaustively cover space
Graytone Value
changes to patterns of features over time;
past processes explain current patterns of natural human features
absolute; latitude-longitude reading
relative: dependant on other features
measure of what it takes to overcome seperation between places
Cardinal - compass
Relative - right, left, etc.
phenomenon (scale)
spatial and/or temporal extent
at which a phenomenon occurs
analysis (scale)
scale at which phenomena will be studied
cartographic (scale)
relationship between the size
of an object on a map and the size of the
actual feature on the earth's surface
the process of formulating general concepts by abstracting common properties of instances
spatial association
covariation of 2 phenomena
Two or more phenomena vary together. Expressed through measures of relations commonly referred to as correlations or associations
An area distinguished by a unique
combination of trends or features (internal
uniformity) as compared to surrounding areas;
defined by size, location, boundaries
administrative (region)
politically determined, hierarchical organization, uniform membership, precise boundaries
thematic, or "formal" (region)
1 or more variable or theme, membership strength varies, imprecise boundaries
functional (region)
interconnectedness, nodal (highly centralized), vague boundaries
cognitive, or "perceptual" (region)
how people informally organize places in their minds, shared between culturally similar people, imprecise, vague, and variable boundaries
Line on a map that connects points of the same age. (iso-same, chronos-time) frack yeah latin!
Earth's size and shape
8000 miles diameter oblate spheroid
Earth composition (land and water)
71% water, 29% land
latitude and longitude grid
meridians and parallels
upways and sideways
prime meridian
line of the global grid running from the North Pole to the South Pole through Greenwich, England; starting point for measuring degrees of east and west longitude
remote sensing
multispectral scanner
a satellite launched into orbit around earth which takes readings
the ability to distinguish stuff in some spectrum or other
reference maps
thematic maps
Maps that tell stories, typically showing the degree of some attribute of the movement of a geographic phenomenon.
chloropleth maps
maps showing the distribution of a phenomenon by graded shading to indicate the density per unit area
A type of thematic map that transforms space such that the political unit with the greatest value for some type of data is repsented by the largest relative area.
isoline (map)
map with lines that connects points of equal or very similar values
proportional area symbol maps
size of symbols represent the value of the attribute on the map
conformal projection
shapes ok, but the area is distorted (mercator projection)
power of maps
facilitates perception of spatial relationships; convenient scale and perspective; highlight relevant properties
selective presentation
averaging details until homogenization
graphical clarity
exaggeration of features
distortion leads to false sense of reality
can be misleading
T-O maps
mideval european maps. t=water. o=land forms.
Distance decay
amount of something versus the distance it has to go. shape = left half of parabola, starting from d=0 (y=x^-2)
1st Law of Geography (Tobler's law)
"Everything is related to everything else, but near
things are more related than distant things."
GIS (geographical info system)
raster data format
in a raster data format, a lake is stored as a
collection of points. If the point is colored blue,
then it is part of the lake.
vector data format
in a vector data format, a lake is stored as a
polygon, which is made of several line segments
representing the boundary.
The process of generating a new data plane by matching two or more existing data planes of the same area.
critical distance
the distance beyond which cost, effort, and/or means play a determining role in the willingness of the people to travel
intervening opportunity
movement bias
patterns of movement of people and stuff
barriers to interaction
Distance, Costs, Psychological, Political, and Cultural
principle of parsimony
The simplest explanation is the most reasonable without strong evidence against it (parse these things down)
individuals in a network
connect nodes
node hierarchies
vary in importance; some places attract more interaction, and thus have bigger nodes
social gravity
likeliness of places to interact; I=(kP1P2)/d^B
B is usually 2
huff model
An analysis used to determine the probability a customer has of shopping at a particular retailer. Based on size of store and location.
Reilly's law of retail gravitation
larger cities have larger spheres of influence than smaller ones.
behavioral (disaggregate) approach to human geography
geography + psychology; study of human spatial behavior
two motivations for behavioral/cognitive geography
improves models of spatial behavior and interaction, and its a geographical thingy in its own right
Activity Space
where you go in a typical day or week
home range
activity space near home
criminal range
range from a crime?
Time Geography
space-time paths - showing where you at certain times.
Space-Time Prisms
Space-time paths actually exist within prisms, it's complicated
Space-time budgets
budget influences how fast you can travel
total displacement migration
between continents, nations, regions
external (international) vs internal (intra-national)
completely new
partial displacement migration
local moves, overlapping activity space
channelized migration
greater migration flow between two places than expected due to reasons
counter migration
migrations streams often move in both directions
people who flee their country because of persecution or danger
place perception
attitudes about places, regions, and landscapes;
self identification and definition based on place - I'm from SoCal
Boundary polarization
enmity and competition between neighbors
Socially Shared and Transmitted Patterns of
Beliefs, Behaviors, and Material Artifacts
beliefs and knowledge: creation stories, language, ethical systems (mentifacts)
material objects and techniques for use: tools,
farming and cooking practices, weapons,
architecture (artifacts)
social patterns and rituals: kinship and mating
systems, politics, social hierarchy (sociofacts)
culture ecology
the study of the relationship, between a culture group and the natural environment in occupies
in situ
in the original or natural place or site
culture hearth
cultural convergence
cultural syncretism
The blending of elements of cultures; also refered to as hybridization or acculturation.
# of languages
~5000 worldwide
language family
lingua franca
different forms of the same language that have unique words, meanings, and pronounciations
standard language
language used in education, formal language
pidgins, creoles
Languages that form when different societies need to devise a system of communication with each other; mixed languages
the branch of lexicology that studies the place names of a region or a language
The belief in material things instead of religious things. This was a shift away from Medieval thinking.
Universalizing religion
meant for all, diffuse by expansion, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism
ethnic religion
meant for specific cultures, diffuse by diasporas, Hinduism, Judaism
Traditional (Tribal)
small local religion with close, animistic ties to nature, shrinking, ex. Shinto (japanese)
trying to convert someone else to your religion
Hagerwhatever's model thing
mostly random, with some distance decay thrown in.