What are Spatial Concepts? (College Board AP® Human Geography): Study Guide

What are spatial concepts?

Spatial patterns

• Spatial patterns refer to the general arrangement of people, objects, and phenomena being studied across the earth’s surface

• Geographers study spatial patterns to discover trends in data across different locations

• Geographers use specific terminology to discuss spatial patterns:

  • Clustered patterns occur when people, objects, or phenomena are located closely together

  • Dispersed patterns occur when people or objects are spread out across an area with significant space between them

  • Grid patterns present a geometric arrangement of people or objects, usually in straight lines at right angles

    • City blocks are an example of a grid pattern

  • Linear patterns arrange people or objects in a straight line

    • Homes built along a river or railroad track are examples of linear patterns

• Spatial association occurs when two or more phenomena have similar spatial patterns

  • For example, the distribution of malaria closely matches the distribution of the mosquitoes that carry it, which are found mainly in warm, wet tropical regions

  • A spatial association suggests the phenomena may be linked, but it does not prove that one causes the other

Site and situation

• Site and situation are two different ways to describe the location of a place 

  • Site refers to the physical characteristics of a place, such as climate, soil type, or location near water

    • For example, the site of New York City would include the fact that it is a coastal city on the Hudson River

  • Situation refers to the circumstances of a place, including its accessibility and connection to other places

    • For example, the situation of New York City includes its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern seaboard of the United States, making it a prime location for travel and trade

Absolute and relative location

• Absolute location is the exact position of a place on the earth’s surface

  • It is usually given using latitude and longitude

  • Absolute location does not change

• Relative location describes where a place is in relation to other places

  • For example, Chicago is on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan

  • Relative location can change as connections to other places change, for example when a new highway or airport is built

• Location, direction and distance are covered in more detail in Spatial Patterns & Information Selection

Place

• Place refers to the unique characteristics of a given location

• These characteristics may be physical, cultural, or human-made

  • “Sense of place” refers to the perception of a particular location, often based on personal or cultural beliefs

  • The phrase 'sense of place' was coined by Edward Relph

  • It is a place that is not unique or that has few or no special characteristics and is said to have placelessness

Space

• Space refers to the area between places and objects on the earth’s surface

• Geographers study how people, objects and phenomena are arranged across space, and how that arrangement creates spatial patterns

Flows

• Flows are the movements of people, goods, money, information and ideas between places

  • Examples include migration, international trade, investment, and data sent over the internet

• Flows link places together into networks, so what happens in one place can affect places far away

• Flows are usually strongest between places that are close together or well connected

Distance decay

• Distance decay is the idea that interaction between two places declines as the distance between them increases

  • For example, people shop, visit and communicate more often with nearby places than with distant ones

• Friction of distance is the time, cost and effort needed to overcome distance, and it is the reason distance decay happens

• Accessibility is how easy a place is to reach

  • Accessible places tend to have more interaction with other places

  • Remote places, far from transportation and communication links, tend to have less

Time-space compression

• Time-space compression is the reduction in the time it takes to move people, goods and information between places, due to improvements in transportation and communication technology

• Jet aircraft, container shipping, and the internet make distant places feel closer together

• Time-space compression reduces the friction of distance and weakens the effects of distance decay, which speeds up globalization

• Time-space compression and distance decay are also covered, with a diagram, in Spatial Patterns & Information Selection