Geography - is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of the Earth and planets.
Climate - Average pattern of weather over time
Demography - the science of vital and social statistics
Boundaries - the dividing lines between countries, states, provinces, counties, and cities
Mapping
Economics - the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services
Geography Basics
Five Themes of Geography
Population Density - the number or body of inhabitants in a place belonging to a specific group
Geopolitics - is the study of the effects of Earth's geography on politics and international relations.
Human-Environmental Interaction - how humans adapt to and modify the environment
Movement - the movement and migration across the planet
Place - the human and physical characteristics of a location
Region - the division of the world into many units
Location
Absolute Location - the exact position of a place on earth
Longitude (Meridian) - position on earth east or west of the prime meridian
Latitude (Parallels) - Position on earth north or south of the equator
Relative Location - A location of a place relative to another place
Rate of Natural Increase - the rate of which a country is expected to grow in a year
Birth Rate - the rate of births per 1000 people
GPS - is a satellite-based radio-navigation system
GIS - a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present spatial or geographic data
Map Projections and Distortion - there are many styles of mapping the world onto a flat sheet of paper but all of them are distorted in some way
Climate v. Weather - Climate is the pattern of weather over a long period of time and weather is the pattern of weather over a shorter time span
Five Factors That Affect Climate
Climographs - a graphical representation of a location's basic climate
Orographic Effect - an effect which takes place when mountains are positioned next to a large body of water.
Elevation - air gets less dense the higher the elevation
Large Bodies of Water - water has a large heat capacity
Ocean Currents - ocean currents can circulate temperatures
Latitude - latitude determines how far you are from the sun at a certain time
Physical Geography - the study of processes and patterns in the natural environment
Human Geography - the study of people and their communities, cultures, economies, and interactions with the environment
Death Rate - the rate of deaths per 1000 people
Life Expectancy - the expected amount of years an average person will live to
Total Fertility Rate - the number of babies born compared to the amount of fertile women
Infant Mortality Rate - the rate of infant mortality
Demographic Transition Model - the shift from less developed countries to more developed countries as well as the stages between these two scenarios
Population Pyramids - a graphical illustration that shows the distribution of various age groups in a population
Dependency Ratio - the ratio of dependents to workers
Push/Pull Factors - the causes of migration among people
Sovereignty - the full right and power of a governing body over itself, without any interference from outside sources or bodies
Refugee - displaced person who has been forced to cross national boundaries and who cannot return home safely
Asylum - a place of refugee protection
Ethnoationalism - a form of nationalism wherein the nation is defined in terms of ethnicity
Industrialization - the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society
Sectors of the Economy
Primary Sector - the extraction and collection of natural resources; such as farming, forestry, hunting, fishing and mining
Secondary Sector - industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in construction
Tertiary Sector - the production of services instead of end products
Development
Less Developed - countries that exhibit the lowest indicators of socioeconomic development
More Developed - a sovereign state that has a developed economy and advanced technological infrastructure relative to other less industrialized nations
Human Development Index - the statistic composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators,
Gross Domestic Product - a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced
GDP Per Capita - the measurement of the average income earned per person in a given area
Geographic Causes of Inequality - the geography of a certain location can restrict certain factors, therefore causing inequality among the people
Globalization - the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide
Pros - encourages "free trade" between countries which creates jobs, makes companies more competitive, and lowers prices for consumers, provides poorer countries with infrastructure
Cons - makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, jobs are lost and transferred to lower cost countries, multi-national corporations have the power to exploit other counties
Subsistence Economy - a non-monetary economy which relies on natural resources to provide for basic needs, through hunting, gathering, and subsistence agriculture
Types of Boundaries
State Shape Patterns
Physical/Natural - Political boundary that separates territories according to natural features in the landscape
Ocean - Political boundaries that are defined and determined by oceans
Geometric - Political boundaries that are defined and delimited by straight lines
Elongated State - a state that is long and thin
Fragmented State - a state that is broken up into many different fragments
Perforated State - a state that completely surrounds another
Enclave State - a state that is completely surrounded by another
Prorupted State - an otherwise compacted state with a protrusion
Exclave State - a part of the state that is physically separated from the mainland
Compact State - a state that is small and centralized
UNCLOS Treaty - he international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea
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International Waters - waters where any of the following types of bodies of water transcend international boundaries
Territorial Waters - the area 12 nautical miles of water from the baseline over which a state has complete jurisdiction and sovereignty
Exclusive Economic Zone - the waters 200 nautical miles from the baseline in which the state can control of all economic resources
Contiguous Zone - a band of water up to 24 nautical miles from the baseline in which a state can exert limited control for the purpose of preventing or punishing infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations
Equidistant Principle - a legal concept that a nation's maritime boundaries should conform to a median line that is equidistant from the shores of neighboring nations