5 - Geography - Geographic Literacy and Human Environment Interaction Flashcards
This deck covers fundamental geographic concepts, including map types, projections, and spatial analysis. It explores regions, locations, and the interplay between humans and the environment. You'll learn to use GIS, GPS, and other tools to identify patterns and understand the impact of human activities on Earth's physical systems.
Identify:
What are tools that geographers use?
- Maps
- GPS (Global Positioning System)
- GIS (Geographic Information Systems)
- Theodolites
- Remote sensors
Identify:
region
- Specific area that shares common features.
- Can be natural or human-made.
Examples: Formal Regions, Functional Regions, Perceptual Regions
Identify:
formal region
Well-defined boundaries and are characterized by specific, measurable traits like climate, language, or economic activity.
Examples: countries, states, and climate zones.
Identify:
functional region
Defined by interactions and connections centered around a central point or node.
Examples: transportation networks, market areas, and metropolitan areas.
Identify:
perceptual region
- Based on people’s feelings, attitudes, and beliefs about a place.
- Often shaped by cultural, historical, or personal experiences.
Examples: the American South, the Middle East.
Identify:
relative location
- Describes a place’s position in relation to other places.
- More subjective way of pinpointing a location, often used in everyday conversations and directions.
Identify:
absolute location
- The exact location of a place on Earth, usually expressed as latitude and longitude coordinates.
- Geographic term that describes a place’s position in a way that’s always the same, regardless of the observer’s location.
Identify:
Physical characteristics of place.
- Landforms: Mountains, valleys, plains, plateaus, and other natural land formations.
- Bodies of Water: Oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, and streams.
- Climate: Weather patterns, temperature, and precipitation.
- Soil: Type, fertility, and composition.
- Vegetation: Plant life, including forests, grasslands, and deserts.
- Animal Life: Wildlife and biodiversity.
Identify:
Human characteristics of place.
- Culture: Language, religion, customs, and traditions.
- Economy: Industries, agriculture, and trade.
- Government: Political systems and laws.
- Population: Size, density, and distribution.
- Infrastructure: Transportation, communication, and utilities.
- Land Use: How land is used, such as for agriculture, industry, or housing.
- Architecture: Buildings and structures.
Identify:
scale
Refers to the relationship between a distance on a map and the corresponding distance on Earth’s surface.
Large-Scale Maps: Show smaller areas in greater detail.
Small-Scale Maps: Show larger areas with less detail.
Identify:
2 data sources used by geographers to discover patterns in geography.
- Census Bureau
- Remote Sensing
Explain:
How do geographers use Census Bureau data?
- Analyze population demographics, housing trends, economic indicators, and social characteristics.
- Collect data on population density, age distribution, income levels, education attainment, employment rates, and housing types.
- Identify urban growth patterns, demographic shifts, and socioeconomic disparities.
Explain:
How do geographers use remote sensing data?
- Monitor land use changes, natural disasters, and environmental impacts.
- Examine land cover, vegetation health, water bodies, urban expansion, and deforestation.
- Track urban sprawl, identifying deforestation hotspots, and assessing the impact of climate change.
Explain:
Significance of GPS in geography.
Global Positioning System
- Provides accurate latitude, longitude, and altitude data, essential for mapping, navigation, and GIS.
- Enables real-time tracking of objects and people, useful for wildlife tracking, emergency response, and logistics.
- GPS data integrated with GIS allows for analyzing spatial patterns and relationships, aiding in understanding geographic phenomena like urban growth and climate change impacts.
Explain:
Significance of GIS in geography.
Geographic Information System
- Allows geographers to analyze spatial patterns, relationships, and trends.
- Enables the creation of maps and visualizations that communicate complex spatial information effectively.
Example: urban planners can use GIS to optimize land use, emergency responders can use it to allocate resources efficiently, and environmental scientists can use it to monitor climate change.
Explain:
What does a world region map show?
- Divides Earth’s surface into distinct geographical areas.
- Each area is characterized by shared physical, cultural, or political attributes.
- Help to visualize the spatial relationships between countries, continents, and regions.
- Highlights differences and similarities in climate, topography, population distribution, and cultural features.
Identify:
7 geographical regions.
- North America
- South America
- Europe
- Africa
- Asia
- Australia and Oceania
- Antarctica
Define:
map projection
Method of representing the ellipsoidal Earth surface on a flat surface.
The characteristics of map projection are area, shape, distance, and direction.
Identify:
Types of map projections.
- Mercator Projection
- Robinson Projection
- Goode’s Homolosine Projection
- Azimuthal Projection
- Mollweide Projection
- Lambert Conformal Conic Projection
- Peters Projection
Identify:
When to use Mercator Projection.
- Standard projection for nautical charts.
- Many online maps use a modified version of the Mercator projection, known as the Web Mercator projection, to display geographic information on screens.
Identify:
When to use Robinson Projection.
- Produces a visually pleasing map of the entire world.
- Minimizes distortion in area, shape, distance, and direction, making it suitable for general reference.
- Provides a good sense of the relative sizes and shapes of continents and oceans.
Identify:
When to use Goode’s Homolosine Projection.
- Shows global patterns and distributions, such as population density, climate, or economic indicators.
- Provides a balanced view of the world’s continents and oceans, minimizing distortion in area.
Identify:
When to use Azimuthal Projection.
- Provides a clear and undistorted view of the polar areas.
- Useful for planning flight paths, as they accurately show the shortest distance between two points on the globe.
- Can help visualize the range and direction of radio signals.
- Military applications.
Identify:
When to use Mollweide Projection.
- Visualizing global patterns and distributions, such as population density, climate, or economic indicators.
- Providing a balanced view of the world’s continents and oceans, minimizing distortion in area.
Identify:
When to use Lambert Conformal Conic Projection.
- Accurately represents the shapes of features, especially within the standard parallels.
- Minimizes distortion in area and distance, particularly near the standard parallels.
- Popular projection for topographic maps, nautical charts, and large-scale maps of countries like the United States.
Identify:
When to use Peters Projection.
- Provides a more accurate depiction of the relative size of countries, particularly those in the Global South.
- Challenges the traditional Eurocentric view of the world, which often exaggerates the size of European and North American countries.
- Used to highlight global inequalities and promote a more balanced perspective on world affairs.
Explain:
remote sensing
- Any method of collecting data about an object or location without making physical contact with it.
- Main purpose is to determine information about an object or phenomenon that can’t be assessed through physical contact or that requires additional research.
Identify:
3 remote sensing tools.
- Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR)
- Sound navigation ranging (Sonar)
- Spectrometers
Explain:
How does a sun-synchronous orbit work?
It is an orbit a satellite takes around the Earth where the movement and orbit of the satellite always appear the same from the perspective of the Sun.
This means that the satellite is orbiting the Earth in such a way that it is always visible to the Sun, and orbits around the boundary between the daytime and nighttime side of Earth.
Explain:
What are geostationary orbits and what are they used for?
- Orbits undergone by satellites in which the satellite orbits directly over the Earth’s equator and completes a single orbital period at the same rate the Earth rotates.
- This amounts to the satellite remaining in the same position in the sky throughout the whole day.
- These orbits are used by spy satellites, communication satellites, and military defense satellites.
Identify:
5 themes of geography.
- Location
- Place
- Human environment interaction
- Movement
- Region
Location - which includes both absolute and relative location.
Place - revolves around the physical and human characteristics of a place.
Human Environment Interaction - is the study of the how humans interact and adapt to the environment.
Movement - is a look at how people move themselves, goods, and information around the globe.
Region - seeks to divide the earth in manageable regions for study based on formal, functional and vernacular regions.
Explain:
How is the scientific method used in geography?
- Used to investigate and acquire new knowledge or improve upon previous knowledge.
- Geographers use it to explain observations and solve puzzles about the world around us.
Geographers rely on hard data to base their conclusions. Without it, their findings would be less reliable, making the scientific method vital in geography.
Identify:
biome
A regional area characterized by the plants, animals, and climate in that area.
Many of the plants and animals located in these areas are endemic to the biome. This means they are unique to that biome and only found in that specific part of the world.
Each biome has different temperatures, climates, and vegetation that define its characteristics.
Identify:
5 basic types of biomes.
- Grasslands
- Desert
- Forest
- Aquatic
- Tundra
Explain:
What is biodiversity and why is it important?
It is the measurement of variety within living systems. It is important because ecosystems with high diversity are more resistant to disturbances and rebound faster.
Identify:
3 types of biodiversity.
- Species diversity
- Genetic diversity
- Ecological diversity
Explain:
How are ecosystems, habitat, and niche related?
- Ecosystems are the dynamic interaction between the biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) factors in a geographic area.
- The habitat is a place suitable for a particular organism to live.
- The niche of an organism is the unique and specific role it plays in its ecosystem.
Identify:
Density-dependent and density-independent factors that affect population density.
- Density-dependent factors (biotic) - disease, predation, competition for resources.
- Density-independent factors (abiotic) - weather, climate, pollution, amount of oxygen.
The population density, or numbers of individuals of a population within a certain sized area, will change as conditions change.
Identify:
3 types of ecology.
- Population ecology
- Community ecology
- Ecosystem ecology
Population Ecology: It studies the organisms of one species and how they interact with each other and their environment.
Community ecology: It studies all the species in an area and the surrounding environment.
Ecosystem ecology: It looks at all the living organisms (biotic factors) and the abiotic factors in an area and how they interact.
Identify:
food chain
In an ecosystem, it is a representation of the feeding relationships between a specific group of organisms that describes who eats whom in a linear fashion.
Identify:
5 trophic levels of food chain.
- Producers - create their own food.
- Primary Consumers - feed on producers for energy.
- Secondary Consumers - feed on primary consumers for energy.
- Tertiary Consumer - feed on secondary consumers for energy.
- Quaternary Consumers - feed on tertiary consumers for energy.
Explain:
phosphorus cycle
Represents the flow of phosphorus from inorganic to organic sources.
Phosphorus is an essential element for living organisms and is found in DNA, RNA, and cell membranes.
Identify:
3 steps in the phosphorus cycle.
- Weathering releases phosphates from rocks and sediments.
- Plants and animals absorb these phosphates.
- The decomposition of living organisms returns phosphates back to the environment.
Explain:
What are the primary drivers of climate change and how do they impact global ecosystems and human societies?
- The primary drivers of climate change include greenhouse gas emissions from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial processes.
- These drivers lead to rising global temperatures, resulting in severe weather events, sea-level rise, and disruptions to ecosystems and human societies.
Describe:
primary and secondary succession
- Primary succession: An example is the recovery of an ecosystem after lava covers the ground or a glacier retreats.
- Secondary succession: An example would be the recovery of a forest after a forest fire. Grasses, followed by shrubs and a variety of tree species, would eventually grow after some time.
Primary ecological succession occurs when an area experiences a disturbance so severe that none of the original species survive.
Secondary ecological succession is the type of succession that occurs when an area experiences a disturbance that alters the existing ecosystem but does not destroy all of the original species.
What influences where people live?
- Living by flood plains (rivers) for agriculture.
- Living by natural resources such as wood, stone, and metal ores for trade.
- A warm, pleasant, and temprate climate can be attractive to live. Places prone to natural disasters can be less attractive to live.
Identify:
Types and functions of human settlements.
Types:
1. Rural
2. Urban
3. Suburban
Functions:
1. Protection
2. Pooling economics
3. Sharing natural resources
4. Socioemotional connection
Explain:
Characteristics of a central business district.
- It is the geographic and commercial center of a city.
- There is a concentration of retail and office buildings, few residential buildings, and that they often contain skyscrapers.
- Rents are high in a CBD, and retail stores are willing to pay the most in rent, followed by office buildings, followed by residential renters.
Describe:
Characteristics of an inner city.
- It is a place where the neighborhood is immediately surrounding the central business district.
- It is also often used to refer to an impoverished neighborhood, with high housing density and few green spaces, a decline in industry and jobs, and a lack of services like grocery stores and banks.
Explain:
Difference between rural, urban, and suburban areas.
- Rural areas have lots of open space and consist of small towns separated by a large distance of unpopulated countryside.
- An urban area is a very densely populated area, often with lots of tall buildings and very little green space. Many people live close and work close together, with many people sharing dwellings in buildings and businesses.
- The suburbs are very populated with very little, if any, open countryside. They are less dense, and most people live in single family homes. There is more green space, and businesses often have their own separate buildings.
Identify:
What does IPAT stand for?
- I = Environmental Impact
- P = Population
- A = Affluence
- T = Technology
The equation is a framework that evaluates environmental impact.
Identify:
Causes and effects of deforestation.
Causes:
- Natural events like parasitic infections of trees
- Forest fires
- Human activities (e.g., logging, agriculture, urbanization)
Effects:
- Loss of biodiversity
- Soil impairment
- Greenhouse gas emissions
Describe:
pollution
- Introduction of harmful substances or contaminants into the environment, which can cause adverse effects on ecosystems, human health, and the natural world.
- Pollution can affect the air, water, and soil, and is often caused by human activities such as industrial production, transportation, agriculture, and waste disposal.
Explain:
Why is the greenhouse effect significant?
- Traps heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, which keeps the planet warm enough to sustain life.
- An enhanced greenhouse effect due to human activities can lead to global warming and climate change, disrupting natural systems.
Identify:
6 main greenhouse gases.
- Carbon dioxide
- Methane
- Water vapor
- Nitrous oxide
- Ozone
- Fluorinated carbons
Describe:
Impacts of mining.
- Extraction of minerals for everyday use
- Production of household products, jewelry, and energy for cars and buildings
- Erosion
- Air and water pollution
- Land destruction
- Harm to mine workers
Identify:
Surface and subsurface mining.
- Surface mining removes ore deposits that are close to the surface.
- Subsurface mining removes minerals that are deep underground.
Explain:
Difference between renewable and non-renewable resources.
- Renewable resources are energy sources that can be replenished on a continuous basis.
- Non-renewable resources are energy sources that take millions of years to be replaced.
Oil is non-renewable because it is created by the decomposition of organisms deep under Earth’s oceans. It takes millions of years to be created from these organisms, which is impossible for humans to recreate.
Identfy:
7 types of renewable resources.
- Wind energy
- Solar energy
- Geothermal energy
- Biomass energy
- Hydropower
- Hydrogen power
- Ocean energy
Explain:
Importance of agriculture.
- It allowed humans to live in a permanent location without having to hunt and gather food.
- It has allowed civilizations to come into existence and flourish and has made a great impact on economic growth for many countries.
Identify:
2 types of agriculture.
- Industrialized agriculture
- Subsistence agriculture
Industrialized agriculture is farming for the purpose of mass production and economic growth.
Subsistence agriculture is farming to feed the family that works the farm.
Explain:
History of agriculture and impact of technology.
- Most food in America was produced on family farms, supporting 25% of Americans.
- Mechanization began the decline of family farms.
- Today, large-scale agribusinesses and smart farming techniques dominate, using advanced technology to produce and process food.
Define:
biotechnology
The utilization of biological processes for industrial or commercial purposes.
Identify:
4 industry sectors biotechnology is used for.
- Healthcare
- Agriculture
- Industrial
- Environmental
Healthcare: Production of antibiotics from mold.
Agriculture: Hybridization of plants.
Industrial: Use of crops and other products for biofuels.
Environmental: Wetlands restoration.
Explain:
Genetically modified foods and their use.
- Genetically modified foods are foods derived from organisms whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques to introduce desirable traits, such as resistance to pests, improved nutritional content, or enhanced shelf life.
- They are used in agriculture to increase crop yields, reduce the need for chemical pesticides, and improve food quality and sustainability.
Livestock can also be genetically modified to grow faster, grow larger, and have more protein and nutrients.
