Vocab Words 1
The management and modification of natural environments or wilderness into built environments such as cities, farms, and industrial areas.
What is Land Use?
The ways in which humans modify, adapt to, and depend on their natural surroundings
What is Human-Environment Interaction?
The study of how human societies adapt to and modify their environment
What is Cultural Ecology?
The physical landscape or environment that has not been altered by humans
What is Natural Landscape?
The ability to use Earth's resources in ways that ensure their availability for future generations.
What is Sustainability?
An area with one or more shared characteristics that make it distinct from surrounding areas.
What is a Region?
A scale that focuses on countries, examining trends or patterns between countries.
What is a National Scale Analysis?
A natural event (such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, or wildfires) that has the potential to cause harm to humans and their environment
What is Natural Hazard?
The level at which data is examined—global, regional, national, or local—to identify spatial patterns and relationships.
What is Scale of Analysis?
The elements of culture such as language, religion, food, and customs that help define the identity of a group.
What are Cultural Traits?
A border or region where different groups disagree over where the boundary lies or who controls it.
What is a Contested Boundary?
The dividing line between regions; can be clear (like state lines) or blurry (like cultural regions)
What is a Regional Boundary?
The human-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, including buildings, roads, parks, and other infrastructure.
What is Built Environment?
A measure of how much land and water area an individual, population, or activity requires to produce the resources it consumes and absorb its waste.
What is Ecological Footprint?
A territorially bound system consisting of the interaction between humans and the environment.
What is Ecosystem?
Materials or substances that occur in nature and are used by humans, such as water, minerals, forests, and fossil fuels
What are Natural Resources?
A region organized around a central point (node) and connected by movement, communication, or economic activity.
What is a Functional Region?
A scale of analysis that examines patterns, trends, or processes across the entire world, often generalizing broad patterns.
What is a Global Scale?
The process by which certain gases (such as carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor) trap heat in Earth's atmosphere, leading to an increase in global temperatures.
What is Greenhouse Effect?
A theory that argues that physical geography, particularly climate and landforms, shapes human cultures, behaviors, and societal development
What is Environmental Determinism?
The increasing percentage of a population that lives in cities and urban areas, often impacting land use and natural resources
What is Urbanization?
Natural resources that can be replenished naturally over time, such as solar energy, wind power, and forests when managed sustainably.
What are Renewable Resources?
Describes the level at which you analyze geographic data; changing the scale can reveal or hide patterns.
What is a Relative Scale?
A detailed scale that focuses on small geographic units such as a neighborhood, city, or community.
What is a Local Scale Analysis?
Natural resources that exist in a finite amount and cannot be replenished within a human lifespan, such as fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) and minerals
What are Nonrenewable Resources?
The idea that humans can make choices and overcome environmental constraints through technology and innovation
What is Possibilism?
The process of maintaining, distributing, and conserving water resources to meet human and ecological needs.
What is Water Management?
An area defined by natural features like climate, landforms, and ecosystems rather than political or cultural boundaries.
What is Bioregion?
The theory that while the physical environment can limit human actions, people have the ability to adjust, adapt, and choose from many possible courses of action
What is Environmental Possibilism?
The visible imprint of human activity on the natural environment, including structures, agriculture, and other modifications.
What is Cultural Landscape?
A region defined by one or more measurable, shared traits (like climate, language, or political boundaries)
What is a Formal Region?
The focal point of a functional region, where activities like trade, communication, or transportation are centered.
What is a Node?
A region defined by people’s beliefs, emotions, or attitudes rather than by data or official boundaries.
What is a Perceptual/Vernacular Region?
An area where a single language or related group of languages is spoken by the majority of people.
What is a Linguistic Region?
The size of the geographic unit being analyzed (e.g., country, city, neighborhood); affects the detail and interpretation of data.
What is Level of Aggregation?
A scale that looks at an area larger than a city but smaller than the world, often several countries or parts of a country
What is a Regional Scale Analysis?