Geography Concepts

• Geography differs from history by encompassing both social and natural sciences.
• Geographers can explore different locations, unlike historians who cannot travel to the past.

Geographers vs Historians

• Geographers identify the location of important places.
• Geographers explain why a human activity is found near another.
• Geographers ask "where" and "why".
• Geographers organize material spatially.
• Geographers recognize that an action at one location can affect conditions elsewhere.
• Historians identify the dates of important events.
• Historians explain why one human activity follows another chronologically.
• Historians ask "when" and "why".
• Historians organize material chronologically.
• Historians recognize that an action at one point in time can be a reaction to the past and affect the future.

Key Concepts

• A place is a specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular characteristic, occupying a unique location.
• A region is an area of Earth defined by one or more distinctive characteristics.
• Scale represents the relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole.
• Space refers to the physical gap between two objects, with geographers observing object distribution across space.
• Connection signifies relationships among people and objects across space, concerning human activities and the physical environment.

Historical Facts/Entities

• Pythagoras first suggested the Earth was a sphere.
• Aristotle later proved the Earth was round with evidence.
• Ptolemy codified the basic principles of map making.
• Map making changed during the Age of Exploration as maps became reference tools.
• Explorers required accurate maps and cartographers used collected information to create more exact maps.
• Alfred Wegener first suggested that the continents were once joined together.

Technology

• GIS stands for Geographic Information Science.
• Remote sensing is acquiring data about Earth's surface from orbiting satellites or long-distance methods.
• GPS is the Global Positioning System.
• Geotagging records locations using mapping applications, identifying information by latitude and longitude coordinates.
• Mental maps identify a perceptual region based on a person's impressions of a place.
• Participatory GIS (PGIS) is community-based mapping where citizens collect and share local knowledge electronically.

Map Scales and Projections

• Map scale is the relationship of a feature's size on a map to its actual size on Earth.
• Ratio scales show a numerical relationship between distances on the map and Earth's surface.
• Written scales describe the relationship between map and Earth distances in words.
• Graphic scales use a bar line to represent distance on Earth's surface.
• Projection transfers locations on Earth's surface to a flat map.
• Projections can distort the shape, distance, relative size, and direction of areas.

Map Distortions

• Mercator projections have little shape distortion but distort size, especially near the poles.
• Gall-Peters projections distort shape but not size.

Latitude and Longitude

• Latitude and longitude form a grid system to determine time zones.
• Parallels are circles drawn around the globe parallel to the equator, indicating latitude.
• Meridians are arcs drawn between the North and South poles, indicating longitude.
• The equator is the reference point for latitude (0 degrees).
• The arc between the North and South Poles is the reference for longitude.
• Longitude is the basis for calculating time, with Earth divided into 360° of longitude.
• UTC is Coordinated Universal Time.
• GMT is Greenwich Mean Time.
• The International Date Line follows 180° longitude, deviating to avoid dividing land areas.
• Crossing the Date Line east loses a day, while crossing west gains a day.
• Scale and projection are necessary to measure longitude accurately.

Toponym, Site and Situation

• A toponym is the name given to a place.
• Site characteristics include climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation.
• Situation helps locate an unfamiliar place by comparing it to a familiar one and understand its importance due to accessibility.

Cultural Landscape and Regions

• A region gains uniqueness from a cultural landscape that combines cultural, economic, and physical features.
• A formal (uniform) region shares one or more distinctive characteristics.
• A functional region is dominated by a feature at a central node, tied by transportation, communications, or economic associations.
• Vernacular regions emerge from people's informal sense of place.

Globalization

• Transnational corporations have led globalization.
• These corporations conduct research, operate factories, and sell products in many countries.
• Developed regions have higher per capita income, education, and life expectancy than developing regions.
• Visual standardization by fast-food restaurants threatens local cultural uniqueness.
• The communications revolution promotes globalization.
• TV with distribution of programming allows people to choose from an infinite number of programs in many languages.
• Spatial association occurs if the distribution of one feature is related to another, e.g., poverty rates and access to healthcare or fast-food density and obesity rates.

Distribution

• Distribution describes how features are arranged across Earth.
• Density measures feature frequency in space.
• Concentration measures the spread of a feature.
• Pattern is the geometric arrangement of objects in space.
• The UN found no country where women's average income exceeds men's.
• Unequal access to media makes geography relevant.
• Wealth around the world has led to uneven development.

Diffusion

• Expansive diffusion spreads an innovation from one place to another, including:
  • Hierarchical diffusion spreads from authority figures to others.
  • Contagious diffusion spreads rapidly throughout a population.
  • Stimulus diffusion spreads an innovation with only its underlying principles intact.
• Relocation diffusion spreads an innovation through the movement of people.

Culture

• Connections between cultural groups result in assimilation, acculturation, and syncretism.
• Networks are chains of communication that interconnect people, things, and places.
• Distance decay is the diminishing importance of a phenomenon.
• Space-time compression reduces the time it takes to reach another place.

Sustainability and Environment

• Sustainability uses Earth's resources in ways that ensure their future availability.
• The Environmental Pillar utilizes resources and practices conservation.
• The Social Pillar utilizes resources based on human needs and consumers support sustainability.
• The Economic Pillar recognizes the monetary value of natural resources in the marketplace.
• Biotic components are living organisms, while abiotic components are nonliving matter.
• The atmosphere is the layer of gases, the hydrosphere is water, and the lithosphere is Earth's crust.
• The biosphere includes all living organisms on Earth.
• An ecosystem is a group of living organisms and abiotic spheres. Ecology is the study of ecosystems.
• Environmental determinism claimed the physical environment caused social development.
• Possibilism says the physical environment may limit human actions, but people can adjust.
• Rising sea levels present the biggest challenge to California's ecosystem sustainability.

Test your knowledge of geography concepts, including time zones and the International Date Line. Also, review cultural landscapes and regional classifications. Practice geography with this quiz.