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AP Human Geography - Chapter 1: What Is Human Geography? Flashcards

AP Human Geography Barron's book vocabulary for Chapter 1: What Is Human Geography?

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1500382584CartographyTheory and practice of making visual representations of the earth's surface in the form of maps.1
1500382585PtolemyRoman geographer-astronomer and author of Guide to Geography which included maps containing a grid system of latitude and longitude.2
1500382586EratosthenesThe head librarian at Alexandria during the third century B.C.; he was one of the first cartographers. Performed a remarkably accurate computation of the earth's circumference by measuring the sun's angle at the summer solstice and the distance between the two Egyptian cities of Alexandria and Syene. He is also credited with coining the term "geography."3
1500382587George Perkins MarshInventor, diplomat, politician, and scholar; his classic work, Man and Nature, or Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, provided the first description to the extent to which natural systems had been impacted by human actions.4
1500382588Fertile CrescentName given to crescent-shaped area of fertile land stretching from the lower Nile valley, along the east Mediterranean coast, and into Syria and present-day Iraq where agriculture and early civilization first began about 8000 B.C.; one of the first areas of sedentary agriculture and urban society.5
1500382589Carl SauerGeographer who defined the concept of cultural landscape as the fundamental unit of geographical analysis; argued that virtually no landscape has escaped alteration by human activities.6
1500382590Cultural landscapeThe human-modified natural landscape specifically containing the imprint of a particular culture or society.7
1500382591Natural landscapeThe physical landscape or environment that has not been affected by human activities.8
1500382592Environmental geographyThe intersection between human and physical geography, which explores the spatial impacts humans have on the physical environment and vice versa.9
1500382593Cultural ecologyThe study of the interactions between societies and the natural environments they live in.10
1500382594Quantitative revolutionA period in human geography associated with the widespread adoption of mathematical models, statistical techniques, empirical measurements, the use of hypothesis testing, and the use of computer programs to explain geographic patterns.11
1500382595Remote sensingObservation and mathematical measurement of the earth's surface using aircraft and satellites; the sensors include photographic images, thermal images, multispectral scanners, and radar images.12
1500382596Global Positioning System (GPS)A set of satellites used to help determine location anywhere on the earth's surface with a portable electronic device.13
1500382597Geographical Information Systems (GIS)A set of computer tools used to capture, transform, analyze, and display geographic data.14
1500382598Thematic layersIndividual maps of specific features that are overlaid on one-another in a Geographical Information System to understand and analyze a spatial relationship.15
1500382599Physical geographyThe realm of geography that studies the structures, processes, distributions, and change through time of the natural phenomena of the earth's surface.16
1500382600Earth system scienceSystematic approach to physical geography that looks at the interaction between the earth's physical systems and processes on a global scale.17
1500382601Systematic geographyThe study of the earth's integrated systems as a whole, instead of focusing on particular phenomena in a single place.18
1500382602AnthropogenicHuman-induced changes on the natural environment.19
1500382603SustainabilityThe concept of using the earth's resources in such a way that they provide for people's needs in the present without diminishing the earth's ability to provide for future generations.20
1500382604W.D. PattisonClaimed that geography drew from four distinct traditions: the earth-science tradition (physical geography), the culture-environment tradition (environmental geography), the locational tradition (analysis of spatial data through cartography), and the area-analysis tradition (regional geography).21
1500382605Spatial perspectiveAn intellectual framework that looks at the particular location of specific phenomena, how and why that phenomena is where it is, and how it is spatially related to phenomena in other places.22
1500382606RegionA territory that encompasses many places that share similar attributes (may be physical, cultural, or both) in comparison with the attributes of places everywhere.23
1500382607Regional geographyThe study of geographic regions.24
1500382608Sense of placeFeelings evoked by people as a result of certain experiences and memories associated with a particular place; an attachment to "home."25
1500382609Qualitative dataData associated with a more humanistic approach to geography, often collected through interviews, empirical observations, or the interpretation of texts, artwork, old maps, and other archives; often associated with cultural or regional geography.26
1500382610Quantitative dataData associated with mathematical models and statistical techniques used to analyze spatial location and association; often associated with economic, political, and population geography.27
1500382611IdiographicPertaining to the unique facts or characteristics of a particular place.28
1500382612NomotheticConcepts or rules that can be applied universally.29

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