Maps & Projections
This type of map displays general geographic locations such as roads, cities, rivers, and political boundaries.
What is a reference map?
This technology uses layers of geographic information to analyze relationships between locations.
What is GIS?
The exact location of a place using coordinates such as 40° N, 74° W is its ______ location.
What is absolute location?
Water, forests, minerals, and fossil fuels are examples of these environmental features that humans use.
What are natural resources?
A region defined by a measurable, shared characteristic—such as language, climate, or income—is called this.
What is a formal region?
A map that uses colors or shading to show the average income of each county is an example of this type of map.
What is a thematic map?
This system uses satellites to determine the precise location of a receiver on Earth.
What is GPS?
The location of a place described in relation to other places is called its ______ location.
What is relative location?
This approach argues that the physical environment creates opportunities and limitations, but humans make choices about how to use them.
What is possibilism?
A region organized around a central node or focal point, such as a city and its commuter area, is called this.
What is a functional region?
This map projection preserves direction and local shape but greatly exaggerates the size of landmasses near the poles.
What is the Mercator projection?
Satellite images and aerial photographs are examples of data collected through this method.
What is remote sensing?
The physical characteristics of a location, such as climate, elevation, and access to water, describe its ______.
What is space?
The belief that the physical environment directly determines human behavior and cultural development is called this.
What is environmental determinism?
The “South,” “the Midwest,” or “the Middle East” are examples of regions based on people’s perceptions.
What is a perceptual or vernacular region?
A map that resizes countries according to population, GDP, or another variable rather than land area is called this.
What is a cartogram?
A researcher who interviews residents about how they perceive neighborhood safety is collecting this type of data.
What is qualitative data?
The importance of a location because of its connections to other places, such as highways, ports, or nearby markets, describes its ______.
What is place?
Meeting present needs without preventing future generations from meeting their needs is the basic idea behind this concept.
What is sustainability?
A region based on a central hospital and the patients who travel to it is this type of region.
Answer: What is a functional region?
Every flat map of Earth necessarily distorts at least one of these properties: shape, area, distance, or direction.
What are map properties/parts?
A city combines census data, traffic patterns, land-use maps, and flood-risk maps to decide where to build a hospital. This illustrates this use of geographic data.
What is spatial analysis?
As physical distance increases, interaction between two places generally decreases. This concept is called ______.
What is distance decay?
The diversion of rivers for irrigation can increase agricultural production but may also cause soil salinization, habitat loss, or shrinking water bodies. This illustrates what major geographic theme?
What is human–environment interaction?
Explain why regional boundaries are often transitional rather than sharply defined.
Cultural, economic, linguistic, and environmental characteristics often change gradually across space rather than stopping at an exact boundary.