Geography Key Terms

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Alexander Van Humboldt

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German geographer wrote "Kosmos" a comprehensive description of the earth.

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Eratosthenes

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Greek geographer. Measured the earth's circumference.

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Herodotus

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Greek father of geography. Wrote Historia which placed historical events in their geographic settings.

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Aristotle

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Greek who wrote Meteorologica, which discussed physical characteristics of the earth.Also divided the earth into zones.

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Ptolemy

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Greek astronomer who created a map of the world

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Strabo

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Greek compiler who wrote Geographica which was a description of the known world

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Prince Henry the Navigator

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Portuguese who sponsored exploratory routes

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Karl Ritter

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Studied geography as a basis for History

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Spatial tradition

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concerned with distance, geometry, and movement

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man-land tradition

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concerned with the relationship of human health with the surrounding environment

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area studies tradition

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concerned with the nature of places and the "where" of places

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earth science tradition

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the study of the earth and its environments

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Physical Geography

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Study of the environment from the viewpoint of distribution and process.

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Human Geography

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Study of aspects of human occupancy of the earth

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Systemic (topical) Geography

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study of specific subjects

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Historical Geography

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study past landscapes and the changes that have taken place

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sequential occupancy

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Historical Geography concept that describes the geography of an area over sequential periods

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Regional Geography

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analysis of environmental and human patterns in a specific geographical area

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Geographic Information System

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Digital representation of the earths surface

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Holistic Discipline

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A discipline that synthesizes knowledge from many fields

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Chronological Framework

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Study of an issue or area over time

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chorologic

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place

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Geography

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the study of location

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Deforestation

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The clearing of large land areas of woody vegetation

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LDC

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Less developed country

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Third World

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Countries viewed as "less developed" or economically distressed

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OIC

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Old Industrialized Country

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NIC

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Newly Industrialized Country

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Friction of distance

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difficulty of moving from place to place

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Agricultural Revolution

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point where more produce was produced than could be consumed. Both domestication and mid 17th century appled science

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Industrial Revolution

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Mid 18th century change to producing goods with machines

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Information Revolution

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20th century period of increased access to information

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Population Distribution

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Spatial arrangement of people

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Population Density

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number of people per unit area

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Physiologic Density

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number of people per square mile of arable land

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Population Growth Rate

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Percentage of change in a population

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demographic transformation

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theory of four population stages (1. agrarian - stable 2. Rise of industrialism - Growing 3. Urbanization - slowing 4. Urbanized - slow or stopped)

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Malthusian theory

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Thomas Malthus 1798 - Theory that human population can grow geometrically but production is arithmetically

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Neo-Malthuseans

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Modern Malthusean theory advocates who believe disaster is just delayed

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Globalization

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Growing integration and interdependence of world communities

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Transnational Corporations

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Companies with facilities in multiple nations

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Land degradation

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Product of human actions that lowers a lands biological productivity or diminish its usefulness

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Genius Loci principle

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Land use systems that maintain long term sustainability due to local familiarity with natural variation

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Creative Destruction

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Deliberate alteration of a land area to make it meet human needs

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Sacrifice Zones

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Areas destroyed to create sustainable livelihoods (dams for instance)

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Precautionary Principle

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Implementation of land use policy must proceed slowly with checks on impact