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Chapter 4
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| transition zone | An area of spatial change where the peripheries of two adjacent realms or regions join; marked by a gradual shift (rather than a sharp break) in the characteristics that distinguish these neighboring geographic entities from one another. |
| geographic information system | A form of spatial analysis that integrates computer hardware, mapping software, and such specialized tools as models and algorithms. A versatile technique that is constantly being expanded in its applications |
| digital elevation model | A representation of a unit of terrain obtained from remote sensing imagery |
| land hemisphere | The half of the globe containing the greatest amount of land surface, centered on western Europe. |
| city-state | An independent political entity consisting of a single city with (and sometimes without) an immediate hinterland. |
| local function specialization | A hallmark of Europe’s economic geography that later spread to many other parts of the world, whereby particular people in particular places concentrate on the production of particular goods and services. |
| industrial revolution | The term applied to the social and economic changes in agriculture, commerce, and especially manufacturing and urbanization that resulted from technological innovations and greater specialization in late-eighteenth-century Europe. |
| sovereignty | Controlling power and influence over a territory, especially by the government of an autonomous state over the people it rules. |
| nation-state | A country whose population possesses a substantial degree of cultural homogeneity and unity. The ideal form to which most nations and states aspire—a political unit wherein the territorial state coincides with the area settled by a certain national group |
| nation | Legally a term encompassing all the citizens of a state, it also has other connotations. Most definitions now tend to refer to a group of tightly knit people possessing bonds of language, ethnicity, religion, and other shared cultural attributes. Such hom |
| indo-european language family | The major world language family that dominates the European geographic realm. This language family is also the most widely dispersed globally (Fig. G-8), and about half of humankind speaks one of its languages. |
| complementary | Exists when two regions, through an exchange of raw materials and/or finished products, can specifically satisfy each other’s demands. |
| transferability | The capacity to move a good from one place to another at a bearable cost; the ease with which a commodity may be transported. |
| central business district | The downtown heart of a central city; marked by high land values, a concentration of business and commerce, and the clustering of the tallest buildings. |
| centrifugal forces | A term employed to designate forces that tend to divide a country—such as internal religious, linguistic, ethnic, or ideological differences. |
| centripetal forces | Forces that unite and bind a country together—such as a strong national culture, shared ideological objectives, and a common faith |
| supranationalism | A venture involving three or more states—political, economic, and/or cultural cooperation to promote shared objectives. |
| euro zone | The 19 countries (as of mid-2016) whose official currency is the euro |
| schengen area | The territory constituted by most of Europe’s countries within which people are free to cross international boundaries without formal border checks. Certain EU members do not fully participate: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, and Romania. |
| four motors of europe | Rhône-Alpes (France), Baden-Württemberg (Germany), Catalonia (Spain), and Lombardy (Italy). Each is a high-technology-driven region marked by exceptional industrial vitality and economic success not only within Europe but on the global scene as well. |
| devolution | The process whereby regions within a state demand and gain political strength and growing autonomy at the expense of the central government. |
| asylum | Legally protected residency status; usually granted by a host country to immigrants fleeing political oppression in their former homeland. |
| microstate | A sovereign state that contains a minuscule land area and population. They do not have the attributes of “complete” states, but are on the map as tiny yet independent entities nonetheless. |
| urban system | A hierarchical network or grouping of urban areas within a finite geographic area, such as a country. |
| primate city | A country’s largest city—ranking atop its urban hierarchy—most expressive of the national culture and usually (but not in every case) the capital city as well. |
| site | The internal locational attributes of an urban center, including its local spatial organization and physical setting. |
| situation | The external locational attributes of an urban center; its relative location or regional position with reference to other non-local places. |
| estuary | The widening mouth of a river as it reaches the sea; land subsidence or a rise in sea level has overcome the tendency to form a delta. |
| conurbation | General term used to identify a large multimetropolitan complex formed by the coalescence of two or more major urban areas. |
| landlocked location | An interior state wholly surrounded by land. Without coasts, a country is disadvantaged in terms of accessibility to international trade routes, and in the scramble for possession of areas of the continental shelf and control the exclusive economic zone |
| world-city | A large city with particularly significant international (economic) linkages that also has a high ranking in the global urban system. Leading world-cities include London, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Paris. |
| metropolis | Urban agglomeration consisting of a (central) city and its suburban ring. See also urban (metropolitan) area. |
| break-of-bulk | A location along a transport route where goods must be transferred from one carrier to another. In a port, the cargoes of oceangoing ships are unloaded and put on trains, trucks, or perhaps smaller river boats for inland distribution. An entrepôt. |
| entrepot | A place, usually a port city, where goods are imported, stored, and transshipped; a break-of-bulk point. |
| shatter belt | Region caught between stronger, colliding external cultural-political forces, under persistent stress, and often fragmented by aggressive rivals. Eastern Europe is a classic example. |
| balkanization | The fragmentation of a region into smaller, often hostile political units. Named after the historically contentious Balkan Peninsula of southeastern Europe. |
| irredentism | A policy of cultural extension and potential political expansion by a state aimed at a community of its nationals living in a neighboring state. |
| exclave | A bounded (non-island) piece of territory that is part of a particular state but lies separated from it by the territory of another state. |
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ksenia.karpushkina
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