1.9: Key Terms Defined
Diffusion – spread of ideas, objects, inventions, and other practices from place to place.
Environmental determinism – the idea that the natural or physical environment shapes and creates cultures; in other words, the environment essentially dictates culture.
Expansion diffusion – the type of diffusion involves the spread outward from a core area that contains the idea, cultural practice, etc. and can occur from person-to- person contact (as with a contagious disease) or through a hierarchy.
Formal region – a region defined by homogeneity in one or a number of different characteristics.
Functional region – a region that is define by a central node or focal point to which other places in the region are connected.
Geographic information systems – combines computer hardware and software in a system that stores, analyzes and displays geographic data with a “computer mapping” capability in a system of data layers.
Geography – literally, writing about the Earth; the study of the physical and environmental aspects of the world, from a spatial perspective.
International Date Line – roughly follows 180 o longitude.
Latitude – the numbering system for parallels.
Longitude – the numbering system for meridians.
Meridian – half circles that connect the North and South poles.
Parallel – circles that encompass the Earth and are parallel to the equator.
Possibilism – the theory people can adapt to their environmental conditions and choose from many alternatives (possibilities), despite the limitations that the environment pose.
Prime Meridian – 0 o longitude, passes through Greenwich, England.
Projection – the process of transferring locations from the Earth’s curved surface to a flat map.
Region – an area that shares some sort of common characteristic that binds the area into a whole.
Relocation diffusion – the diffusion process in which people migrate or move to a new area, and bring their ideas, objects, and the like with them.
Remote sensing – acquisition of data about the Earth’s surface from aerial platforms such as satellites, airplanes, or drones.
Scale – ratio of the length or distance on the map versus the length or distance on the Earth or ground (actual); can also refer to the spatial extent of some phenomenon.
Site – a way to describe a location; refers to the physical characteristics, such as the topography, vegetative cover, climatic conditions, etc.
Situation – a way to describe a location by referring to the area surrounding the place, and is sometimes referred to as relative location.