What Is Geography Flashcards
(18 cards)
Why is geography a spatial discipline?
Geographers are concerned with three main questions, where, why there, and what are the consequences of it being there.
Geography is the study of the earth’s surface including which major aspects?
Climate, topography, vegetation and population
Why is geography considered to be the science of space and place?
Geography sees the world as location and space and looks for patterns of place or interactions between places and people.
What is the spatial perspective?
A way of identifying, explaining, and predicting the human and physical patterns in space and the interconnectedness of various spaces.
What are the four main branches of geography?
Human geography
Physical geography
Regional geography
Topical/Systemic geography
What are the five themes of geography?
Location Places Human/Environmental Interaction Movement Regions
What is absolute location?
A location is absolute when it has only one possible reference point, typically found using latitude and longitude by those who study geography and by address in everyday common usage.
What is relative location?
This is a description of a place in relation to other places.
What is the geographical theme of place?
Place is a unique combination of physical and human characteristics that give each location on earth its individual stamp.
Define the geographical theme of human/environmental interaction.
The positive and negative effects that result from human interaction with the environment: how they rely on it, alter it and adapt to it - and how the environment may limit what people are able to do.
Define the geographical theme of movement.
It explains how and why places, people, and things are connected to and dependent upon one another and examines how relationships are shaped by the movement of transportation, flow of people, and ideas and resources over time within a geographical area.
What is cultural diffusion?
How ideas, innovation, and ideology spread from one area to another.
What is spatial interaction?
How places interact through movement.
What is the friction of distance?
The degree to which distance interferes with some interaction.
Define space-time compression.
The increasing sense of accessibility and connectivity between places.
Define distance decay.
Where the interaction between two places declines as the distance between the two places increases.
What is the geographical theme of regions?
Regions have unifying characteristics that may be physical,cultural, or human based.
What are the three basic types of regions?
Formal regions - also known as uniform regions, are areas that have common cultural or physical features and are often defined by governmental or administrative boundaries.
Functional regions - also known as nodal regions, they are linked together by some function’s influence on them.
Vernacular regions - are regions loosely defined by people’s perceptions.
