human geography – The study of the distribution of humans and their activities on the surface of the earth and of the processes that generate these distributions.

physical geography – the realm of geography that studies the structures, processes, distributions and change through time of the natural phenomena of the earth’s surface.

Spatial- pertaining to space on the earth ‘s surface; sometimes used as a synonym for geographic

aggregation - The level of detail for dividing a thematic map into geographic units, ranging from a coarse division (e.g., countries) to a fine division (e.g., zip codes).

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

attribute – A characteristic or quality of a thing

connectivity – the degree of economic, social, cultural, or political connection between two places.

Diffusion: the spatial spreading or dissemination of a cultural element or some other phenomenon

diffusion, contagious – the distance controlled spreading of an idea, innovation or some other item through a local population by contact from person to person – analogous to the communication of contagious illness

diffusion, cultural – the expansion and adoption of a cultural element, from it place or origin to a wider area

diffusion, expansion - A process in which the items being diffused remain and often intensify in the origin area as new areas are being affected, i.e., the items diffuse from person to person

diffusion, hierarchal - Diffusion of a disease, cultural trait, idea, or innovation from larger to smaller places, leaping over nearby but small places in the early stages. Hierarchical diffusion emphasizes the size distribution of urban places (i.e., the urban hierarchy) in explaining the spread of things over time and space

diffusion, relocation - A process in which items being diffused leave the originated areas as they move to new areas, i.e., the items diffuse with people migrating

diffusion, spatial - The spread of some phenomenon over space and through time from a limited number of origins

diffusion, stimulus – form of diffusion in which a cultural adaptation is created as a result of the introduction of a cultural trait from another place

direction, absolute - bearings expressed using compass rose nomenclature (N S E W) may be calculated using a compass

direction, relative - bearings expressed in relation to vectors and axes ( left, right, up, down)

dispersion/concentration - spreading or redistribution of ideas, goods and people/to bring people, goods and ideas toward a common center

distance – measurement of the physical space between two places

distance - friction of – a measure of how much absolute distance affects the interaction between 2 places.

Distortion - to twist or stretch out of the original or normal shape, as in creating a flat map from the spherical shape of the earth

Distribution - the division, sharing and delivery of goods, people, services and ideas.

environmental determinism – the view that the natural environment has a controlling influence over various aspects of human life, including cultural development

Globalization – the expansion of economic, political, and cultural processes to the point that they become global in scale and impact. The process of globalization transcend state boundaries and have outcomes that vary across places and scales

human-environment interaction - The ways in which human society and the natural environment affect each other (the fifth theme of geography).

independent invention – the term for a trait with many cultural hearths that developed independently of each other.

Innovation- a new idea, method or invention for doing something

location - The absolute position of something on the surface of the earth, and also its relative proximity to other related things (the first theme of geography).

location, absolute – the position or place of a certain item on the surface of the earth as expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds of longitude and latitude

location, relative – the regional position or situation of a place relative to the position of other places.

location theory – logical attempt to explain the locational pattern of an economic activity and the manner in which its producing areas are interrelated

movement - The flow of people, goods, money, ideas, or materials between locations near or far (the fourth theme of geography).

linear pattern – distribution along a straight configuration

random pattern - unstructured irregular distributions

perception of place – belief or understanding about a place developed through books, movies or pictures

physiological population density – the number of people per unit of arable land

place -The local human and physical characteristics that uniquely define a place and give it meaning to its inhabitants (the second theme of geography).

political ecology – an approach to studying nature – society relations that is concerned with the ways in which the environmental issues both reflect and are the result of, the political and socioeconomic contexts in which they are found

possibilism- theory that human decision making not the environment is the crucial factor in cultural development, although possibilist contend that the environment provides broad constraints that limits possibilities

realm - the largest logical regions into which we can divide the whole world.

region - An area characterized by similarity or by cohesiveness that sets it apart from other areas (the third theme of geography).

region – formal/uniform - an area of near uniformity (homogeneity) in one or several characteristics

region – functional/nodal - product of interactions, and movement of various kinds, usually characterized by a core and hinterland (e.g. a city and its surrounding suburbs)

region – perceptual/vernacular - a region that only exists as a conceptualization or an idea and not as a physically demarcated entity

rescale – involvement of players at other scales to generate support for a position or an initiative

scale – representation of a real-world phenomena at a certain level of reduction or generalization

size - relative aggregate amount or number

spatial distribution – physical location of phenomena across space

spatial interaction – the contact and relations between 2 or more places

spatial perspective – intellectual framework that looks at the particular locations of specific phenomena, how and why that phenomena is where it is, and, finally, how it is spatially related to phenomena in other places.

syncretism - The fusion of two distinctive cultural traits into a unique new hybrid trait

time zones - is a region of the Earth that has adopted the same standard time, usually referred to as the local time, each ‘zone’ generally represents one hour of time; 24 time zones generally accepted throughout the world

time-distance decay the declining degree of acceptance of an idea or innovation with increasing time and distance from its point of origin or source

time-space compression – David Harvey – social and psychological effect of living in a world in which time-space convergence has reach a high level of intensity

cartogram – 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.

cartography – science of map making

equator - 0º latitude, divides the northern and southern hemispheres

geographic models - representations of the patterns found on the earth both physical and human; may relate to population, location, and other phenomena

grid - network of uniformly spaced horizontal and perpendicular lines (as for locating points on a map)

international date line - an arbitrary line approximately along the 180th meridian designated as the place where each calendar day begins

latitude – imaginary line running parallel to the equator that is used to measure distance in degrees north and south

longitude – An imaginary line encircling the Earth and running through the poles. Used to determine the location of things by measurement of the angular distance in degrees east or west from the Prime Meridian, also called meridians

map - A two- dimensional graphical representati on of the surface of the earth (or of events that occur on the earth

map, choropleth - A thematic map in which ranked classes of some variable are depicted with shading patterns or colors for predefined zones.

map, isoline - A thematic map with lines that connect points of equal value

map, mental – images or picture of the way space is organized as determined by an individual’s perception, impression, and knowledge of that space

maps, reference - A general- purpose map that shows recognizable landmarks, roads, and political units

map projection - A systematic method of transferring a spherical surface to a flat map.

maps, thematic - A map that demonstrates a particular feature or a single variable

meridian – lines of longitude

parallel – lines of latitude

prime meridian – imaginary north-south line of longitude on the earth grid, passing through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich in London defined as having a longitude of zero degrees

geocaching – a hunt for a cache using the GPS coordinates which are placed on the Internet by other geocachers

geographic information systems - A computer hardware and software system that handles geographically referenced data. A GIS uses and produces maps and has the ability to perform many types of spatial analysis.

global positioning system – a set of satellites used to help determine location anywhere on the earth’s surface with a portable electronic device

remote sensing – observation and mathematical measurement of the earth’s surface using aircraft and satellites. The sensors include both photographic images, thermal images, multispectral scanners, and radar images.