Qualitative Data

Data that describes something using words, not numbers, focusing on qualities and characteristics.

Quantitative Data

Data that uses numbers and measurements to quantify and describe phenomena.

Site

The physical characteristics of a place, including its climate, topography, and natural resources.

Situation

The location of a place relative to other places and its surrounding environment.

Toponym

The name given to a place.

Environmental Determinism

The theory that the environment solely controls human actions and development.

Possibilism

The theory that humans and the environment interact and influence each other.

Functional Regions

Uniform regions based on a shared set of characteristics.

GPS (Global Positioning System)

A system that provides exact location data using satellites.

Remote Sensing

The process of collecting data and images about Earth from satellites or other remote means.

GIS (Geographic Information System)

A system that stores, compiles, and analyzes geographic data, often in layered interfaces.

Overpopulated

A state where resources cannot adequately support the population.

Demographic Equation

Population change = (births - deaths) + (immigration - emigration)

Step Migration

Moving in smaller stages toward a final destination.

Chain Migration

Migration that occurs along established routes, often following those who migrated before.

Arithmetic Density

The number of people living in an area overall.

Physiological Density

The number of people living per unit of arable land.

Agricultural Density

The number of farmers working on each unit of farmable land.

Malthusian Catastrophe

An event where population growth outpaces food production, leading to widespread famine and death.

Immigrant

When a person enters a new country.

Emigrant

When a person leaves their country.

Centrifugal Forces (Push Factors)

Factors that cause people to leave a place.

Centripetal Forces (Pull Factors)

Factors that attract people to a new place.

Intervening Opportunity

A chance occurrence or opportunity that alters migration patterns.

Activity Space

The area where people regularly travel as part of their daily routine.

Relocation Diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend through bodily movement of people from one place to another.

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another in a snowballing process.

Contagious Diffusion

Spreads rapidly and widely like a virus.

Hierarchical Diffusion

Spreads from a authority or power to others.

Stimulus Diffusion

The underlying idea spreads, but the specific form changes.

Cultural Landscape

The visible / physical imprint of human activity on the land, this is buildings, roads, signs, and other modifications that reflect a a culture’s values and practices

Acculturation

When a group or individual adopts some traits of another culture while still keeping parts of the original culture

Assimilation

When a group or individual fully adopts a new culture and loses their original cultural identity

Ethnocentrism

Judging other cultures based on one's own cultural standards

Cultural Relativism

Understanding and appreciating other cultures’ practices within their own cultural context.

Cultural Trait

One specific cultural thing (food, custom)

Cultural Complex

A group of related cultural traits (sports, rules, equipment, fans)

Cultural System

A bigger combination of cultural complexes ( the entire culture of a country or region)

Cultural Region

A geographical area where people share similar cultural systems and complexes ( middle east or latin america)

Folk Culture

Rooted in tradition, customs and practices unique to specific communities

Pop Culture

Spreads quickly across the world, often amking cultures more similar and vice versa

Lingua Franca

A language used as a common means of communication between people who speak different natives (swahili, arabic, english)

Dialect

A variation of a language that includes differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, usually based on region or social groups

Isogloss

A geographic boundary that separates areas with different linguistic features, such as word usage, pronunciation, or grammar

Universalizing Religions

Religions that seek to appeal to people worldwide, not just those in a specific culture or ethnic group.

Ethnic Religions

Religions that are closely tied to a specific cultural group geographic area and generally do not seek new followers outside that group

Race

Based on physical characteristics, such as skin color.

Ethnicity

Based on cultural identity, like language, tradition, ancestry, religion, etc…

Blockbusting

A practice where real estate agents convinced white homeowners to sell their homes cheaply out of fear that Black Families would move in, which they though would cause property values to go down. The homes were then resold at higher prices to Black families, leading to racial segregation and formation of racially divided neighborhoods.

Centripetal Force (Political Geography)

A force that can unify a country.

Centrifugal Force (Political Geography)

A force that can break apart a country.

Balkanization

The breakup of a state into smaller, often hostile units, usually due to ethnic, cultural, or religious differences

Shatterbelt

A region where tensions wer so high that they got caught between stronger external forces, often experiencing conflict, instability and pressure, to divide, this is likely to experience balkanization

Devolution

When a central government peacefully gives power to regional groups, often to prevent or respond to potential balkanization or unrest in a shatterbelt

Forward-Thrust Capital

A capital city built inland to promote development and integrate the country.

Hegemony

When one country dominates other politically, economically, or culturally (the US post-WWII)

Buffer State

A country lying between two rival or potentially hostile greater powers.

Exclave

A part of a country separated from the main area, like Alaska

Enclave

A part of a country completely surrounded by another country, like Lesotho within South Africa

Territoriality

The effort by a country or group to control and defend a specific geographic area.

Microstate

A very small state.

Elongated State

States benefit from having a diverse range of climates (because they are so long!)

Compact State

Compact states benefit from being easily accessible to governing as they can just create a central node in the center, expanding equally out

Fragmented State

Fragmented states like Indonesia can control scattered resources but face unity challenges

Prorupted State

Prorupted states like Thailand gain access to important areas like coasts or buffer zones through extensions

Federal State

Share power between national and regional governments

Unitary State

Centralize their power in one main government with little local autonomy.

Packing (Gerrymandering)

Puts many opposition voters into one district to reduce their power elsewhere.

Cracking (Gerrymandering)

Spreads opposition voters thinly across districts to prevent them from winning any.

EU (European Union)

A politcal and economical union of European countries that promotes cooperation, trade, and peace

NAFTA/USMCA

Created to eliminate trade barriers and increase economic ties between the US, Canada, and Mexico

Supranational Organizations

Support globalization by encouraging cooperation but can reduce member countries’ full sovereignty

Irredentism

The belief that a country should reclaim territory based on ethnic or historical ties, like Russia in Crimea

Primary Activity

Fishing, involves the extraction of natural resource directly from the Earth

Secondary Activity

Manufacturing, turning raw materials (like timber) into finished products (like furniture)

Tertiary Activity

Teaching, providing services to other rather than producing goods

Quaternary Activity

Research and Development, activities related to knowledge based services, such as scientific research

Subsistence Agriculture

growing food primarily for consumption by the farmer and theirfamily

Pastoral Nomadism

Herding livestock like cattle, sheep, or goats over large areas of land for food and resources.

Shifting Cultivation

Clearing forested areas by cutting and burning vegetation to create fields for crops, with periodic movement to new land

Agribusiness

Refers to the business activities involved in the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products.

Transhumance

The seasonal movement of livestock between feixed summer and winter pastures.

Swidden

A form of shifting cultivatio where vegetation is cut, burned, and ucltivated fora few years before the area is abandoned to recover (slash and burn)

Hamlet

very small, few services

Village

small, limited services

Town

larger, more services and infrastructure

City

dense population significant services and governance

Metropolis

major urban center, often with surrounding suburbs

Megalopolis

a chain of connected metropolitan areas

Rank Size Rule

The population of a city is inversely proportion to its rank in the urban hierarchy (every city is halved in population in proportion to the next lower one)

Primary City Rule

The largest city is disproportionately larger and more significant than the ones after it

Range

The maximum distance people are willing ot travel to use a good or service

Threshold

THe minimum number of people needed to support a service

Squatter Settlements

informal housing areas built by people who occupy land illegally, often lacking basic services like clean water, electricity, and sanitation

Annexation

the legal process by which a city adds land to its jurisdiction, often incorporating surrounding unincorporated areas to extend services or increase tax revenue

Counter-Urbanization

people moving away from the CBD into suburban or rural areas

Concentric Zone Model

by Ernest Burgress, descripts outward growth in concentric rings from CBD

Sector Model

Sectors of influence from CBD, wedges, certain sectors do specific things, advantages, explains why some ares are weather or more industrial than others, even at the same distance from CBD

Multi-Nuclei Model

developed by harris, desripts a city has multiple centers or activity, not just CBD, reflects high complexity of places

HDI (Human Development Index)

The human development index measures a country’s overall level of development and quality of life. It’s used to compare social and economic progress between countries