AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

Chapter 1:

the Basics

with Jack Ronnie, Sebastian So, and Amalia Zeinemann

Introduction: Basic Concepts

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• Geography: the study of the land, features, and inhabitants of the Earth.

How do geographers operate and what tools do they use?

How are various places and regions of the Earth defined?

How does geography appear in various scales?

How does humanity interact with its environment?

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Key issue 1: How Do Geographers Describe Where Things Are?

• Maps
• History
• Projection
• Geographic Grid
• Tools
• GPS
• GIS

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Maps - What are they even good for?

• Reference tool
• Where physical places are found/how they relate to each other
• Communication tool
• Depicts distribution of human activity

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Early mapmaking

• Eratosthenes (276? - 194?)
• First person of record to use the word geography, prepared one of the earliest maps of the known world.
• Ptolemy (A.D. 100? - 170?)
• Produced maps that were not improved upon for more than 1,000 years.
• Pei Xiu (A.D. 267)
• The “father of Chinese cartography”
• Muhammad al-Idrisi (1100 - 1165?)
• Finally built upon Ptolemy’s work, prepared a world map and geography text in 1154.
• Martin Waldseemuller (1470? - 1520)
• German cartographer, produced first map with the label “America”.
• Abraham Ortelius (1527 - 1598)
• Flemish cartographer, created the first modern atlas.

World map by Eratosthenes (194ish B.C.)

World map by Ptolemy

World Map by Waldseemuller

Map scale

Map scale - the relationship of a feature’s size on a map to its actual size on earth.

• Ratio OR fraction
• shows the numerical ratio between distances on the map and Earth’s surface.
• EX. 1:24,000 means that 1 unit (inch, cm, foot) on the map represents 24,000 of the same unit (inch, cm, foot) on the ground.
• Written Scale
• describes the relationship between map and Earth distances in words.
• EX. the statement, “1 inch equals 1 mile” on a map means that 1 inch on the map represents 1 mile on Earth’s surface.
• Graphic Scale
• usually consists of a bar line marked to show distance on Earth’s surface.
• To use a bar line: 1. Determine with a ruler the distance on the map in in/cm. 2. Hold the ruler against the bar line and read the number on the line opposite the map distance on the ruler. 3. The number on the bar line is equivalent distance on Earth’s surface.

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ratio scale

written scale

graphic scale

Projections

Projection - the scientific method of transferring locations on Earth’s surface to a flat map.

• Issues with distortion
• Shape - appears more elongated or squat than in reality
• Distance - between two points may become increased or decreased
• Relative size - may be altered so that one area may appear larger than another on a map but is in reality smaller.
• Direction - from one place to another can be distorted.

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Mercator Projection -

Advantages: Shape is distorted very little, direction is consistent, and the map is rectangular.

Disadvantages: Relative size is grossly distorted toward the poles, making high-latitude places look much larger.

Goode Homolosine Projection -

Advantages: Shows true shape of landmasses.

Disadvantages: Distances are distorted.

Robinson Projection -

Advantages: displaying information across the oceans.

Disadvantages: by allocating space to the oceans, the land areas are much smaller than on interrupted maps of the same size.

Geographic grid

Meridian - an arc drawn between the North and South poles.

Longitude - the numbering system

Prime meridian - the meridian that passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England, is 0 degree longitude.

Parallel - is a circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and at right angles to the meridians.

Latitude - the numbering system to indicate the location of a parallel.

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) - master reference time for all points on Earth.

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Contemporary tools

Geographic information science (GIScience) - the development and analysis of data about Earth acquired through satellite and other electronic information technologies.

remote sensing - the acquisition of data about Earth’s surface from a satellite orbiting Earth or from other long-distance methods.

Global Positioning System (GPS) - the system that accurately determines the precise position of something on Earth.

Geographic information system (GIS) - a computer system that captures, stores, queries, analyzes, and displays geographic data.

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DEFINITIONS

HOW GEOGRAPHERS USE THEM

GIScience - to create more accurate and complex maps and to measure changes over time.

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remote sensing - to map the changing distribution of a wide variety of features, such as agriculture, drought, and sprawl.

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GPS - coding the precise location of objects collected in fieldwork. (This info can be used as a layer in GIS)

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GIS -

How GIS works

Mashup - terms refers to the practice of overlaying data from one source on top of a map making service.

Key Issue 2: Why is Each Point on Earth Unique?

Places: A Unique Location

A specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular characteristic

Regions: A Unique Area

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An area of Earth defined by one or more distinctive characteristics

Regional Division of the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC)

Old Chinatown, Chicago

Places

• Toponym: The name given to a place on Earth
• Often related to a person (e.g. Washington), religious subject (e.g. St. Paul), or ancient history (e.g. Sparta.)
• An indicator of the origins of the settler
• Board of Geographical Names, of the U.S. Geological Survey, has been finalizing U.S. names since the nineteenth century.
• Site: The physical character of a place
• Climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation, among others.
• Essential for settlement determination.
• Humans have the ability to modify sites (e.g. Boston or Dubai.)
• Situation: Location of a place relative to other places
• Provides details in relation to familiar things
• Details the importance of a location (e.g. Shanghai.)

“People

Things”

Location: the position that something occupies on the Earth

• Regions: An area of Earth defined by distinctive characteristics

• Often in two scales:
• Neighboring countries that share a feature (the UK)
• Localities within a country (e.g. New England states)
• Often based off of Cultural Landscapes: combination of cultural, physical, and economic features.
• Cultural Landscape Approach/Regional Studies
• Method of study created by Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845-1915) and Jean Brunhes (1869-1930) in France.
• Later used by Carl Sauer (1889-1975) and Robert Platt (1880-1950) in America.
• Defined cultural landscape to be the result of culture and nature interaction.
• Geographers have been looking for relationships between the characteristics in regions.

Types of Regions

• Formal/Uniform: At least one common characteristic is shared.
• Can vary from physical to economic to cultural to political to governmental.
• Can be based off predominant rather than universal features.
• Can cause issues when minorities come into play.
• Functional/Nodal: Organization around a focal point.
• Things surround a central focus and loses importance outwards.
• Tied often by communications or economic/functional associations.
• New technologies (internet, satellite) is breaking down these regions.
• Vernacular/Perceptual: Part of a culture’s identity.
• Based off informal thought rather than scientific development.
• Mental Map: internal representation of a portion of Earth’s surface.
• Depicts personal knowledge and opinions of a place.

Click me!

Regions of Culture

• Culture: body of customary beliefs, material traits, and social forms that constitute distinct traditions of a people.
• Geographers study culture in regions to identify distinction:

• 1. What cultures care about.
• Cultural values are derived from:
• Language (Communication)
• Religion (Organization)
• Ethnicity (Physical and cultural traits)
• Aids in the identification of the location of a culture and their distribution.

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• 2. What cultures take care of.
• Production of wealth
• Division into developed and developing countries.
• Variations in economic activities.

Spatial Association: Variations in size and relationships can be confusing. Remember to integrate all available knowledge.

Key Issue 3: Why Are Different Places Similar?

• Scale: From Local to Global
• Space: Distribution of Features
• Connections between Places

Scale: From Local to Global

• Globalization of Economy
• Local places specialize based on their assets. Transnational corporations then choose these places to optimize their production.
• Transnational Corporation
• Products are produced and sold in countries other than where headquarters is located.
• Globalization of Culture
• Retail and Food chains create uniformity.
• People want the same things wherever they are.

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Scale: Relationship between portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole.

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Globalization: A force or process that involves the entire world and results in making something worldwide.

Space: Distribution of Features

• Three Properties of distribution across space
• Density
• frequency with which something occurs in space.
• e.g. People per sq. mile
• Concentration
• Extent of a feature’s spread over space
• Pattern
• The geometric arrangement of objects in space.
• Movement across space
• By gender
• Traditional roles influence how people move across space.
• By ethnicity
• Ethnic groups tend to group in neighborhoods.

Space: The physical gap or interval between two objects.

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Distribution: The arrangement of a feature in space.

Connections between Places

• Relocation Diffusion
• Spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another.
• e.g Multiple languages spoken in a country.
• Expansion Diffusion ( 3 processes)
• Spread of a feature from one place to another in an additive process.
• Hierarchical diffusion
• Spread from authority down.
• e.g. Fashion trends
• Contagious diffusion
• Rapid diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population.
• e.g. Diseases
• Stimulus diffusion
• Spread of an underlying principle.
• e.g. Apple features to Android

Hearth: A place from which an innovation originates. Diffusion: Process by which a characteristic spreads across space from one place to another.

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Distance Decay: Contact diminishes with increase distance and eventually disappears.

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Space-time Compression: Reduction in time it takes for something to reach another place.

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• Unequal Access
• Technology centered around North America, Europe, and Japan.
• Africa, Asia, and Latin America have 3/4 of world's population, but the least technology.
• Uneven Development
• Gap in economic conditions between regions in the core and periphery that results from the globalization of the economy.

Key Issue 4: Why Are Some Human Actions not Sustainable?

• Sustainability and Resources
• Earth’s Physical Systems
• Human-Environment Relationships

Sustainability and Resources

• Three Pillars of Sustainability
• Environment Pillar
• Conservation of natural resources.
• Preservation=Nature is not a resource for humans.
• Economy Pillar
• Supply and Demand.
• Society Pillar
• Consumer choice.
• Natural/Recycled Material vs. Petroleum Products.
• Sustainability’s Critics
• It’s too late…
• World Wildlife Fund says the amount of land populated by humans passed the amount of land capable of dealing with waste generated.
• Everything is fine…
• Since Earth’s capacity and amount of resources are continuously changing, there is no need to worry.

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Definition of Sustainability; The use of Earth’s renewable and nonrenewable natural resources in ways that ensure availability in the future.

Earth’s Physical Systems

• Atmosphere (abiotic)
• Layer of gases 300 miles up.
• 79% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 0.9% Argon
• Climate (Köppen System)
• Tropical, Dry, Warm Mid-Latitude, Cold Mid Latitude, Polar
• Modified Köppen system breaks into subtypes.
• Hydrosphere (abiotic)
• 97% Oceans. 3% Rivers, Lakes, Groundwater
• Regulates Temperatures
• Lithosphere (abiotic)
• 45 miles down includes Crust and Mantle.
• Biosphere (biotic)
• All living organisms

Human-Environment Relationships

• Ecosystem (Study of ecosystems=Ecology)
• Living organisms interaction with the three abiotic spheres.
• Lithosphere=Where most live
• Hydrosphere=Drinking water and home for aquatic life
• Atmosphere=Air to breath and protection from Sun.
• Environmental Determinism
• Physical environment causes social development
• e.g. Temperature climate of northwestern Europe produces better human efficiency measured by health conditions, death rates and higher standards of living.
• Possibilism
• Physical environment may limit human actions, but people adjust.
• e.g. Climate of any location influences human activities such as food production.
• Modifying the Environment
• Sustainable modified ecosystem
• e.g. The Netherlands-Polders
• Unsustainable modified ecosystem
• e.g. South Florida-Everglades

Conclusion

• Geography is a spatial science.
• Utilizes tools such as maps and satellite imagery to display the location of objects and extract information about the world.
• Places on Earth are unique.
• Variation in cultural, economic, and physical features distinguish areas.
• The world is connected.
• Globalization and human interactions create connections.
• One can study the development and spread of ideas.
• Humanity won’t last forever.
• Human beings must work with the environment, the economy, and each other in order to sustain the Earth.

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