the scale at which a geographer analyzes a particular phenomenon, for example: global, national, census tract, neighborhood, etc.

the relative ease with which a destination may be reached from some other place.

to come together into a mass, sum, or whole.

human-induced changes on the natural environment.

a map projection in which the plane is the most developable surface.

the outer edge of a city's sphere of influence, used in the law of retail gravitation to describe the area of a city's hinterlands that depend on that city for its retail supplies.

a type of thematic map that transforms space such that the political unit with the greatest value for some type of data is represented by the largest relative area.

a thematic map that uses tones or colors to represent spatial data as average values per unit area.

an image of a portion of the Earth's surface that an individual creates in his or her mind. Cognitive maps can include knowledge of actual locations and relationships among locations as well as personal perceptions and preferences of particular places.

the actual or potential relationship between two places, usually referring to economic interactions.

the degree of economic, social, cultural, or political connection between two phases.

the spread of a disease, an innovation, or cultural traits through direct contact with another person or another place.

a standard grid, comprised of lines of latitude, and longitude, used to determine the absolute location of any object, place, or feature on Earth's surface.

also called nature-society geography, the study of the interactions between societies and the natural environments in which they leave.

the human-modified natural landscape specifically containing the imprint of a particular culture or society.

the decrease in interaction between two phenomena, places, or people as the distance between them increases.

thematic maps that use points to show the precise locations of specific observations or occurrences, such as crimes, car accidents, or births.

a systematic approach to physical geography that looks at the interaction between Earth's physical systems and processes on a global scale.

the intersection between human and physical geography, which explores the spatial impacts humans have on the physical environment and vice versa.

the head librarian at Alexandria during the third century B.C.E.; one of the first cartographers. Performed a remarkably accurate computation of the Earth's circumference. He is also credited with coining the term geography.

the spread of ideas, innovations, fashion, or other phenomena to surrounding areas through contact and exchange

the name given to the 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 8,000 B.C.E.

definition of regions based on common themes such as similarities in language, climate, land use, etc.

a measure of how much absolute distance affects the interactions between two places.

a type of map projection that maintains the accurate size and shape of landmasses but completely rearranges direction such that the four cardinal directions-north, south, east and west- no longer have any meaning

definition of regions based on common interaction (or function), for example, a boundary line drawn around the circulation of a particular newspaper.

A set of computer tools used to capture, store, transform, analyze, and display geographic data.

the scale at which a geographer analyzes a particular phenomenon, for example: global, national, census tract, neighborhood, etc.

the actual shape of the Earth, which is rough and oblate, or slightly squashed. Earth's diameter is longer around the Equator than along the north-south meridians.

a set of satellites used to help determine location anywhere on Earth's surface with a portable electronic device.

a mathematical formula that describes the level of interaction between two places, based on the size of their populations and their distance from each other.

a type of diffusion in which something is transmitted between places because of a physical or cultural community between those places.

the study of special variation in the patterns and processes related to human activity.

pertaining to the unique facts of characteristics of a particular place.

the line of longitude that marks where each new day begins, centered on the 180th meridian.

if one place has a demand for some goods or service and two placed have a supply of equal price and quality, the supplier close to the buyer will represent an intervening opportunity, thereby blocking the third from being able to share its supply of goods or services. Intervening opportunities are frequently used because transportation costs usually decrease with proximity.

a map line that connects points of equal or very similar values.

a relatively small ratio between map units and ground units. Large scale maps usually have higher resolution and cover much smaller regions than small-scale maps.

the angular distance north or south of the equator, defined by lines of latitude or parallels.

the angular distance east or west of the Prime Meridian, defined by lines of longitude, or meridians.

a mathematical method that involves transferring Earth's sphere onto a flat surface. This term can be used to describe the type of map that results from the process of projecting. All map projections have distortions in area, direction, distance, or shape.

an inventor, diplomat, politician, and scholar, his classic work" Man and Nature, or Physical Geography a Modifies by Human Action" provided the first description of the extent to which natural systems had been impacted by human actions.

a true conformal cylindrical map projection, the Mercator projection is particularly useful for navigation since it maintains accurate direction. Mercator projections are famous for their distribution in area that makes landmasses at the poles appear oversized.

a line of longitude the runs north-south. All lines of longitude are equal in length and intersect the poles.

the physical landscape or environment that has not been affected by human activities.

concepts or rules that can be applied universally.

an east-west line of latitude that runs parallel to the equator and that marks distance north or south of the equator.

he claimed that geography drew from four distinct traditions; the earth science tradition, the culture-environment tradition, the locational tradition, and the area-analysis tradition.

highly individualized definition of regions based on perceived commonalities in culture and landscapes.

an equal-area projection purposely centered on Africa in an attempt to treat all regions of the Earth equally.

the realm of geography that studies the structures, processes, distributions, and changes through time of the natural phenomena of Earth's surface.

a map that displays individual preferences for certain places.

an imaginary line passing through the Royal Observatory in Greenwhich, England that marks the 0 degree line of longitude.

the system used to transfer locations from Earth's surface to a flat map.

a thematic map in which the size of the chosen symbol-such as a circle or triangle- indicates the relative magnitude of some statistical value for a given geographic region.

Roman geographer-astronomer, author of "Guide to Geography" which included maps containing a grid system of latitude and longitude.

data associated with a more humanistic approach to geography often collected through interviews, empirical observations, or the interpretation of texts, artwork, old pays, and other archives.

data associated with mathematical models and statistical techniques used to analyze spatial location and association.

a period in human geography associated with the widespread adoption of mathematical models and statistical techniques.

a map type that shows reference information for a particular place, making it useful for finding landmarks and for navigation.

a territory that encompasses many places that share similar physical and or cultural attributes.

the study of geographic regions.

a measure of distance that includes the costs of overcoming the friction of absolute distance separating two places. Relative distance often describes the amount of social, cultural, or economic connectivity between two places.

the position of a place relative to the places around it.

the diffusion of ideas, innovations, behaviors, and so on from one place to another through migration.

the observation and mathematical measurement of Earth's surface using aircraft and satellites. The sensors include photographic images, thermal images, multispectral, and radar images.

a map's smallest discernable unit. If, for example, an objective has to be one kilometer long in order to show up on a map, that map's resolution is one kilometer.

a projection that attempts to balance several possible errors. It does not maintain area, shape, distance, or direction completely accurately, but it minimizes errors in each.

Geographer from the University of California at Berkley who defined the concept of cultural landscape as the fundamental unit of geographical analysis. This landscape results from the interaction between humans and the physical environment. Sauer argued that virtually no landscape has escaped alteration by human activities.

feelings evoked by people as a result of certain experiences and memories associated with a particular place.

the absolute location of a place, described by local relief, landforms, and other cultural or physical characteristics.

the relative location of a place in relation to the physical and cultural characteristics of the surrounding area and the connections and interdependence is within that system; a place's spatial context.

a map scale ratio in which the ratio of units on the map to units on Earth is quite small. Small-scale maps usually depict large areas.

the map in which phenomena such as technological innovations, cultural trends, or even outbreaks of disease, travel over space.

an intellectual framework that looks at the particular locations of a specific phenomenon, how and why that phenomenon is where it is, and finally how it is spatially related to phenomenon in other places.

the concept of using Earth's resources in such a way that they provide for people's needs in the present without diminishing Earth's ability to provide for future generations.

a type of map that displays one or more variables-such as population or income level- within a specific area.

the idea that distance between some places is actually shrinking as technology enables more rapid communication and increased interaction among those places.

maps that use isolines to represent constant elevations. If you took a topographic map out into the field and walked exactly along the path of an isoline on your map, you would always stay at the same elevation.

the amount of connectivity between places regardless of the absolute distance separating them.

the amount of connectivity between places regardless of the absolute distance separating them.

Use of sophisticated software to create dynamic computer maps, some of which are three dimensional or interactive.