Unit 1 Flashcards
Absolute location
The exact position of a place in the world, often given in latitude and longitude.
Relative location
A place, stated in relation to another place.
Site
Description of the place where the settlement is located.
Situation
Description of a place relative to its surroundings and other places.
Place
The physical and human characteristics of a location.
Sense of place
Sense of place is a feeling felt by visitors and inhabitants of the place’s identity
Placelessness
The loss of uniqueness in a place, so that it looks the same as the next
Toponym
The general name of a place, often derived from topographical features of the place
Human geography
The branch of geography dealing with how human activity affects or is influenced by the environment
Space-time compression
The increasing sense of connectivity that seems to be bringing people closer together despite their distance apart remaining the same
Spatial distribution
How resources, activities, and human demographic features of landscapes are arranged across the Earth
Spatial relationships and interaction
A dynamic flow process from one location to another, often referring to the movement of people
Spacial thinking
Thinking that finds meaning in the shape, size, orientation, location, direction or trajectory, of objects, processes or phenomena, or the relative positions in space of multiple objects, processes or phenomena
Distance decay
The effects of distance on interaction, generally the greater the distance the less interaction
Cartography
The science or practice of drawing maps
Landscape analysis
The process of describing and interpreting the landscape ecology of an area
Environmental possibilism
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
Environmental determinism
A theory that claims that cultural traits are formed and controlled by environmental conditions
Field observations / fieldwork
Practical work done by a researcher in the natural world, instead of a laboratory or office
Physical site characteristics
Physical features of a certain location
Built environment / cultural landscape
The human-made features and surroundings of a certain location
Scale
The scale of a map is the ratio of a distance on the map to the corresponding distance on the ground
Cartogram map
A map in which the shape or size is distorted in order to demonstrate a variable such as travel, population or economic production
Choropleth map
A thematic map that uses tones or colors to represent spatial data as average values per unit area
