Geography Concepts and Terms Quiz

Geography - Nature & Perspectives

• Sequent occupance: Successive societies leave cultural imprints on a place, accumulating cultural landscapes.
• Cultural landscape: A cultural group's modification of a natural landscape.
• Arithmetic density: Total population divided by total land area.
• Physiological density: Population per unit of arable land.
• Hearth: Origin of innovative ideas.
• Diffusion: Spread of a feature or trend from one place to another.
• Relocation diffusion: Spread through physical movement of people.
• Expansion diffusion: Spread of a feature from one place through various processes.
  • Hierarchical diffusion: Spread from nodes of authority to other places.
  • Contagious diffusion: Rapid, widespread spread through population.
  • Stimulus diffusion: Spread of an underlying principle, even if a specific characteristic doesn't spread.
• Absolute distance: Exact measurement between places.
• Relative distance: Approximate measurement between places.
• Distribution: Arrangement of something across Earth's surface.
• Environmental determinism: 19th and early 20th-century geography approach arguing physical environment caused human activity.
• Absolute location: Position on Earth using longitude and latitude.
• Relative location: Position of a place in relation to other places.
• Site: Physical characteristics at a location and why it's significant.
• Situation: Location of a place relative to other places.

Population – Migration & Dispersion

• Age distribution: (population pyramid) displays male and female population by five-year age groups.
• Carry capacity: Population supportable by available resources.
• Cohort: Population of a particular age group at a given time.
• Demographic equation: Formula calculating population change (births - deaths + net migration).
• Demographic momentum: Continued population growth after fertility decline due to young age distribution.
• Demographic regions: Areas categorized by stages of demographic transition.
• Demographic Transition model: (5 stages): Low Growth, High Growth, Moderate Growth, Low Growth, Zero Growth -negative growth.
• Dependency ratio: Ratio of dependents (young and old) to those of working age.
• Diffusion of fertility control: Spread of methods controlling fertility across the world.
• Disease diffusion: Spread of diseases, either contagiously (through high population areas) or hierarchically (through authorities.)
• Doubling time: Number of years for population to double if natural increase rate stays constant.
• Ecumene: Portion of Earth's surface with permanent human settlement.
• Epidemiological transition model: Distinct cause of death in each stage of the demographic transition.
• Infant mortality rate (IMR): Annual deaths of infants under one year per 1000 live births.

Cultural Patterns & Processes

• Acculturation: Adopting certain customs of a more dominant culture.
• Assimilation: Dominant culture absorbs less dominant cultures, resulting in loss of unique aspects of the lesser dominant culture.
• Cultural Adaptation:
• Cultural core/periphery: Core areas have higher economic power than outlying peripheral areas.
• Cultural Ecology: Study of human environmental interaction
• Cultural Identity: Sense of belonging to a specific cultural group.
• Cultural Landscape: Visible imprint of human activity on the landscape.
• Cultural Realm: Large geographical area with shared cultural traits.
• Culture: Shared beliefs, customs, and traditions of a group of people.
• Culture Region: Area with shared cultural traits.
  • Formal (Uniform): Area where everyone shares the same characteristics
  • Functional (Nodal): Area organized around a node or center point
  • Vernacular: Area with a shared perception among people that it exists as part of their common cultural identity
• Diffusion: Spread of a culture/ trait/ technology.
  • Expansion: Spread through hierarchical or contagious relationships
  • Relocation: Spread by migration
• Innovation Adoption: Study of how quickly new technologies are adopted.
• Maladaptive diffusion: Diffusion of a harmful practice or concept.
• Sequence Occupancy: Successive societies' impacts on cultural landscapes.
• Religion: Organized system of beliefs, faith and practices.
  • Animism: Belief that objects, natural events, have spirits.
  • Monotheism/polytheism: Belief in one/many gods.

Political Organization of Space

• Annexation: Incorporation of territory into another political entity.
• Antarctica: Continent with no permanent residents or claim by any country
• Apartheid: System of racial segregation in South Africa
• Balkanization: The breakdown of a region or state into smaller political units.
• Border Landscape: physical boundary between countries.
  • Exclusionary: aimed to keep people out
  • Inclusionary: facilitate trade, travel, etc
• Boundary disputes: Conflicts over boundaries.
• Boundary origin: Boundaries form through various processes.
• Boundary process: Methods of creating boundaries.
• Boundary type: Categorization of boundaries (natural, political, etc)
• Buffer state: A country lying between two hostile countries, created to avoid conflict.
• Capital: A city serving as the governing center.
• Centrifugal Forces: Factors causing disunity or division within a country
• Centripetal Forces: Factors uniting people and promoting national unity.
• City-state: Independent city with sovereign power
• Colonialism: Establishment of settlements and control by a foreign power.
• Confederation: Group of states with some degree of unity.
• Conference of Berlin: Meeting that divided African land up for European powers.

Agricultural & Rural Land Use

• Adaptive strategies: How people adapt to their environmental circumstances for farming.
• Agrarian: Those involved in farming.
• Agribusiness: Large-scale commercial farming organized for profit.
• Agricultural Industrialization: Application of technology to farming.
• Agricultural landscape: Land that farms choose to cultivate for specific purposes.
• Agricultural location model: Models that predict ideal location of farming activities.
• Agricultural Origins: Origination points/ development of agriculture.
• Agriculture: Deliberate modification of the land to cultivate crops or raise livestock.
• Animal domestication: Process of taming and raising animals.
• Aquaculture: Cultivating aquatic organisms.
• Biorevolution: Biotechnological advancements in agriculture.
• Biotechnology: Use of living organisms to create, improve, and develop products/process
• Collective farm: Large-scale farms owned/operated by the government in Communist countries.
• Commercial agriculture: Agriculture for the purpose of selling products
• Crop rotation: Rotating which crops are grown in a field each year to prevent soil depletion.
• Core/Periphery: Relationships between highly developed (Core) and less developed countries (periphery.) countries.
• Extensive subsistence agriculture: Farming method that uses large plots and produces minimal surplus.
• Intensive subsistence agriculture: Farming method that uses smaller plots efficiently to produce large surpluses
• Livestock ranching: Raising animals for sale.
• Market gardening: Small-scale farming focused on selling produce directly to consumers.
• Mediterranean agriculture: Farming in Mediterranean regions, primarily focused on fruits, vegetables, and livestock.
• Mineral fuels: Non-renewable energy sources used in different industries.
• Mining: Extraction of minerals and other natural resources.
• Nomadic herding: Moving livestock from one place to another based on seasonal availability of feed.
• Planned economies: Economic systems where the government controls production, distribution of goods and services and sets prices.

Industrialization & Development

• Agricultural labor force: Number of people employed in agriculture.
• Calorie consumption: Amount of calories consumed daily
• Core/periphery model: Illustrates the relationship between developed (core) and developing (periphery) nations.
• Cultural convergence: Similar cultures forming due to interaction.
• Dependency theory: Countries are kept in a state of underdevelopment by more powerful countries that exploit them.
• Development: Improvement in living standards and material conditions.
• Deindustrialization: Decline of manufacturing in an area that was once a manufacturing hub
• Foreign Direct Investment: Investment by foreign companies in another country’s economy, either directly or through a branch.
• Gross domestic product (GDP): Total value of goods and services produced in a country annually.
• Gross national product (GNP): Similar to GDP but also includes income earned abroad

Cities & Urban Land Use

• Agglomeration: Concentration of people and businesses in a specific area
• Agglomeration economies: Benefits accruing from concentration
• Air pollution: Harmful substances in the air
• Barrios: Neighborhoods and slums, primarily in Latin America
• Barriadas: Lower class neighborhoods in Latin American cities
• Bid-rent theory: Land values decline as distance from city center increases
• Blockbusting: Real estate practice used to create racial segregation
• CBD: Central business district, the commercial center of a city
• Centralization: Clustering of activities in the central city
• Christaller, Walter: Creator of the Central Place Theory
• City: A populated area with a specific political and administrative organization
• Cityscapes: Visual appearance of a city
• Colonial city: City established during colonial period with specific architectural and cultural characteristics
• Commercialization: Transformation of an area/city into a commercial zone
• Concentric zone model: Urban model with radiating zones from city center

Test your knowledge on key geographical concepts and terms. This quiz covers various topics including diffusion types, demographic transitions, and cultural landscapes. Ideal for students studying geography or related fields.