Textbook: Spatial Concepts and Geographic Analysis | AP Human Geography - Grade 9 PDF Download

 Page 1


30 CHAPTER 2: SPATIAL CONCEPTS AND GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 2
Spatial Concepts and 
Geographic Analysis
Topics 1.4–1.7
Topic 1.4 Spatial Concepts
Learning Objective: Define the major geographic concepts that illustrate spatial 
relationships. (PSO-1.A)
Topic 1.5 Human-Environmental Interaction
Learning Objective: Explain how major geographic concepts illustrate spatial 
relationships. (PSO-1.B)
Topic 1.6 Scales of Analysis
Learning Objectives:  Define scales of analysis used by geographers. (PSO-1.C) 
Explain what scales of analysis reveal. (PSO-1.D)
Topic 1.7 Regional Analysis
Learning Objective: Define different ways that geographers define regions. 
(SPS-1.A)
A lot of these regional boundaries are porous and messy, allowing 
for a rich diversity of cultural flow. But knowing how we interact 
as part of a complex society, instead of only looking at political 
borders, can explain a lot more than we might have imagined.
—Samuel Arbesman, Bloomberg.com, 2012
Source: Getty Images
Much of the Netherlands has been reclaimed from the sea. Wind turbines were built on polders 
along highway A6 of the country’s west coast, and are one of the most recognizable elements of the 
built environment. (See Topic 1.5 for more on how humans interact with the environment.)
Page 2


30 CHAPTER 2: SPATIAL CONCEPTS AND GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 2
Spatial Concepts and 
Geographic Analysis
Topics 1.4–1.7
Topic 1.4 Spatial Concepts
Learning Objective: Define the major geographic concepts that illustrate spatial 
relationships. (PSO-1.A)
Topic 1.5 Human-Environmental Interaction
Learning Objective: Explain how major geographic concepts illustrate spatial 
relationships. (PSO-1.B)
Topic 1.6 Scales of Analysis
Learning Objectives:  Define scales of analysis used by geographers. (PSO-1.C) 
Explain what scales of analysis reveal. (PSO-1.D)
Topic 1.7 Regional Analysis
Learning Objective: Define different ways that geographers define regions. 
(SPS-1.A)
A lot of these regional boundaries are porous and messy, allowing 
for a rich diversity of cultural flow. But knowing how we interact 
as part of a complex society, instead of only looking at political 
borders, can explain a lot more than we might have imagined.
—Samuel Arbesman, Bloomberg.com, 2012
Source: Getty Images
Much of the Netherlands has been reclaimed from the sea. Wind turbines were built on polders 
along highway A6 of the country’s west coast, and are one of the most recognizable elements of the 
built environment. (See Topic 1.5 for more on how humans interact with the environment.)
1.4: SPATIAL CONCEPTS 31
1.4
Spatial Concepts
Essential Question: What are the major geographic concepts that 
illustrate spatial relationships and patterns?
A spatial approach considers the arrangement of the phenomena being 
studied across the surface of the earth. This approach focuses on things such as 
location, distance, direction, orientation, flow, pattern, and interconnection. A 
spatial approach also looks at elements such as the movements of people and 
things, changes in places over time, and even human perceptions of space and 
place. Using Four-Level Analysis from Unit 1 Overview, geographers ask and 
attempt to answer questions about spatial distributions such as these:
• Why are things where they are?
• How did things become distributed as they are?
• What is changing the pattern of distribution?
• What are the implications of the spatial distribution for people?
Major Geographic Spatial Concepts
Historians look through the lens of time to understand the past. Similarly, 
geographers look through the lens of space to understand place. Space is 
the area between two or more phenomena or things. Space is at the heart of 
geography and geographers are intensely interested in how space is arranged, 
used, and reflected in people’s attitudes and beliefs. 
Location
Location is an important spatial concept to geographers. (See Topic 1.1.) 
Location identifies where specific phenomena are located either on a grid 
system or relative to another location. The concepts of absolute and relative 
location are essential to define the amount of space and relative or absolute 
distance between locations. Additionally, geographers use the concepts of place, 
site, and situation to further develop an understanding of a specific location.
Place
Place refers to the specific human and physical characteristics of a location. A 
group of places in the same area that share a characteristic form a region. (See 
Topic 1.7 for more about regions.)
Two ways to refer to place are its site and situation. Site can be described 
as the characteristics at the immediate location—for example, the soil type, 
climate, labor force, and human structures. In contrast, situation refers to the 
Page 3


30 CHAPTER 2: SPATIAL CONCEPTS AND GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 2
Spatial Concepts and 
Geographic Analysis
Topics 1.4–1.7
Topic 1.4 Spatial Concepts
Learning Objective: Define the major geographic concepts that illustrate spatial 
relationships. (PSO-1.A)
Topic 1.5 Human-Environmental Interaction
Learning Objective: Explain how major geographic concepts illustrate spatial 
relationships. (PSO-1.B)
Topic 1.6 Scales of Analysis
Learning Objectives:  Define scales of analysis used by geographers. (PSO-1.C) 
Explain what scales of analysis reveal. (PSO-1.D)
Topic 1.7 Regional Analysis
Learning Objective: Define different ways that geographers define regions. 
(SPS-1.A)
A lot of these regional boundaries are porous and messy, allowing 
for a rich diversity of cultural flow. But knowing how we interact 
as part of a complex society, instead of only looking at political 
borders, can explain a lot more than we might have imagined.
—Samuel Arbesman, Bloomberg.com, 2012
Source: Getty Images
Much of the Netherlands has been reclaimed from the sea. Wind turbines were built on polders 
along highway A6 of the country’s west coast, and are one of the most recognizable elements of the 
built environment. (See Topic 1.5 for more on how humans interact with the environment.)
1.4: SPATIAL CONCEPTS 31
1.4
Spatial Concepts
Essential Question: What are the major geographic concepts that 
illustrate spatial relationships and patterns?
A spatial approach considers the arrangement of the phenomena being 
studied across the surface of the earth. This approach focuses on things such as 
location, distance, direction, orientation, flow, pattern, and interconnection. A 
spatial approach also looks at elements such as the movements of people and 
things, changes in places over time, and even human perceptions of space and 
place. Using Four-Level Analysis from Unit 1 Overview, geographers ask and 
attempt to answer questions about spatial distributions such as these:
• Why are things where they are?
• How did things become distributed as they are?
• What is changing the pattern of distribution?
• What are the implications of the spatial distribution for people?
Major Geographic Spatial Concepts
Historians look through the lens of time to understand the past. Similarly, 
geographers look through the lens of space to understand place. Space is 
the area between two or more phenomena or things. Space is at the heart of 
geography and geographers are intensely interested in how space is arranged, 
used, and reflected in people’s attitudes and beliefs. 
Location
Location is an important spatial concept to geographers. (See Topic 1.1.) 
Location identifies where specific phenomena are located either on a grid 
system or relative to another location. The concepts of absolute and relative 
location are essential to define the amount of space and relative or absolute 
distance between locations. Additionally, geographers use the concepts of place, 
site, and situation to further develop an understanding of a specific location.
Place
Place refers to the specific human and physical characteristics of a location. A 
group of places in the same area that share a characteristic form a region. (See 
Topic 1.7 for more about regions.)
Two ways to refer to place are its site and situation. Site can be described 
as the characteristics at the immediate location—for example, the soil type, 
climate, labor force, and human structures. In contrast, situation refers to the 
32 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: AP
®
 EDITION
location of a place relative to its surroundings and its connectivity to other 
places.
The site of Riyadh, the capital and most populated city in Saudi Arabia, is a 
desert climate, a large labor force, and a modern Islamic city. The city’ s situation 
includes being located roughly in the center of the Arabian Peninsula. The 
situation of the Arabian Peninsula is between the continents of Africa and Asia 
and Riyadh is connected to the world with a large modern airport. Another 
example of how situation can change relates to when the interstate highway 
system was created in the United States in the 1950s.  The situation of many 
small towns changed dramatically. Towns along old railroad lines became less 
important as centers of trade, while towns along the new interstate suddenly 
became more important.
Sense of Place Related to the concept of place is a sense of place. Humans 
tend to perceive the characteristics of places in different ways based on their 
personal beliefs. For example, the characteristics of Rome, Italy, might be 
described differently by a local resident than by an outsider or by a Catholic 
than by a Hindu. If a place inspires no strong emotional ties in people or lacks 
uniqueness, it has placelessness.
Toponyms Finally, locations can also be designated using toponyms, or 
place names. Some toponyms provide insights into the physical geography, the 
history, or the culture of the location. The entire coast of Florida is dotted with 
communities with “beach” in the name—Fernandina Beach, Miami Beach, 
Pensacola Beach—all of which are on beaches. Iowa is named for a Native 
American tribe. Pikes Peak is named for an explorer, Zebulon Pike. 
Sometimes toponyms get confusing. Greenland is icier than Iceland, while 
Iceland is greener than Greenland. And some toponyms are deceiving. Lake 
City, Iowa, is not on a lake, and few people consider Mount Prospect, Illinois, 
a mountain—at an elevation of only 665 feet above sea level. Toponyms are 
often created to inspire an ideal view of a location, memorialize an event or 
person, or even to express power and ownership and can be full of controversy 
and disagreement. One such controversy involved the debate over the name of 
the tallest mountain in the United States. Should the Alaskan mountain take 
the name Mt. McKinley after the former U.S. President, William McKinley? 
Or Denali, the name from the traditional Native American Koyukon language, 
meaning Great One? In 2015, President Obama restored the mountain’s name 
back to Denali. 
Distance and Time
Distance (see Topic 1.1) can be measured in terms of absolute or relative 
distance. Time-space compression is the shrinking “time-distance, ” or relative 
distance, between locations because of improved methods of transportation 
and communication. New York City and London are separated by an ocean, 
but the development of air travel greatly reduced travel time between them. 
As a result, they feel much closer today than they did in the 19
th
 century even 
though the absolute distance of 3,500 miles has not changed. 
Page 4


30 CHAPTER 2: SPATIAL CONCEPTS AND GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 2
Spatial Concepts and 
Geographic Analysis
Topics 1.4–1.7
Topic 1.4 Spatial Concepts
Learning Objective: Define the major geographic concepts that illustrate spatial 
relationships. (PSO-1.A)
Topic 1.5 Human-Environmental Interaction
Learning Objective: Explain how major geographic concepts illustrate spatial 
relationships. (PSO-1.B)
Topic 1.6 Scales of Analysis
Learning Objectives:  Define scales of analysis used by geographers. (PSO-1.C) 
Explain what scales of analysis reveal. (PSO-1.D)
Topic 1.7 Regional Analysis
Learning Objective: Define different ways that geographers define regions. 
(SPS-1.A)
A lot of these regional boundaries are porous and messy, allowing 
for a rich diversity of cultural flow. But knowing how we interact 
as part of a complex society, instead of only looking at political 
borders, can explain a lot more than we might have imagined.
—Samuel Arbesman, Bloomberg.com, 2012
Source: Getty Images
Much of the Netherlands has been reclaimed from the sea. Wind turbines were built on polders 
along highway A6 of the country’s west coast, and are one of the most recognizable elements of the 
built environment. (See Topic 1.5 for more on how humans interact with the environment.)
1.4: SPATIAL CONCEPTS 31
1.4
Spatial Concepts
Essential Question: What are the major geographic concepts that 
illustrate spatial relationships and patterns?
A spatial approach considers the arrangement of the phenomena being 
studied across the surface of the earth. This approach focuses on things such as 
location, distance, direction, orientation, flow, pattern, and interconnection. A 
spatial approach also looks at elements such as the movements of people and 
things, changes in places over time, and even human perceptions of space and 
place. Using Four-Level Analysis from Unit 1 Overview, geographers ask and 
attempt to answer questions about spatial distributions such as these:
• Why are things where they are?
• How did things become distributed as they are?
• What is changing the pattern of distribution?
• What are the implications of the spatial distribution for people?
Major Geographic Spatial Concepts
Historians look through the lens of time to understand the past. Similarly, 
geographers look through the lens of space to understand place. Space is 
the area between two or more phenomena or things. Space is at the heart of 
geography and geographers are intensely interested in how space is arranged, 
used, and reflected in people’s attitudes and beliefs. 
Location
Location is an important spatial concept to geographers. (See Topic 1.1.) 
Location identifies where specific phenomena are located either on a grid 
system or relative to another location. The concepts of absolute and relative 
location are essential to define the amount of space and relative or absolute 
distance between locations. Additionally, geographers use the concepts of place, 
site, and situation to further develop an understanding of a specific location.
Place
Place refers to the specific human and physical characteristics of a location. A 
group of places in the same area that share a characteristic form a region. (See 
Topic 1.7 for more about regions.)
Two ways to refer to place are its site and situation. Site can be described 
as the characteristics at the immediate location—for example, the soil type, 
climate, labor force, and human structures. In contrast, situation refers to the 
32 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: AP
®
 EDITION
location of a place relative to its surroundings and its connectivity to other 
places.
The site of Riyadh, the capital and most populated city in Saudi Arabia, is a 
desert climate, a large labor force, and a modern Islamic city. The city’ s situation 
includes being located roughly in the center of the Arabian Peninsula. The 
situation of the Arabian Peninsula is between the continents of Africa and Asia 
and Riyadh is connected to the world with a large modern airport. Another 
example of how situation can change relates to when the interstate highway 
system was created in the United States in the 1950s.  The situation of many 
small towns changed dramatically. Towns along old railroad lines became less 
important as centers of trade, while towns along the new interstate suddenly 
became more important.
Sense of Place Related to the concept of place is a sense of place. Humans 
tend to perceive the characteristics of places in different ways based on their 
personal beliefs. For example, the characteristics of Rome, Italy, might be 
described differently by a local resident than by an outsider or by a Catholic 
than by a Hindu. If a place inspires no strong emotional ties in people or lacks 
uniqueness, it has placelessness.
Toponyms Finally, locations can also be designated using toponyms, or 
place names. Some toponyms provide insights into the physical geography, the 
history, or the culture of the location. The entire coast of Florida is dotted with 
communities with “beach” in the name—Fernandina Beach, Miami Beach, 
Pensacola Beach—all of which are on beaches. Iowa is named for a Native 
American tribe. Pikes Peak is named for an explorer, Zebulon Pike. 
Sometimes toponyms get confusing. Greenland is icier than Iceland, while 
Iceland is greener than Greenland. And some toponyms are deceiving. Lake 
City, Iowa, is not on a lake, and few people consider Mount Prospect, Illinois, 
a mountain—at an elevation of only 665 feet above sea level. Toponyms are 
often created to inspire an ideal view of a location, memorialize an event or 
person, or even to express power and ownership and can be full of controversy 
and disagreement. One such controversy involved the debate over the name of 
the tallest mountain in the United States. Should the Alaskan mountain take 
the name Mt. McKinley after the former U.S. President, William McKinley? 
Or Denali, the name from the traditional Native American Koyukon language, 
meaning Great One? In 2015, President Obama restored the mountain’s name 
back to Denali. 
Distance and Time
Distance (see Topic 1.1) can be measured in terms of absolute or relative 
distance. Time-space compression is the shrinking “time-distance, ” or relative 
distance, between locations because of improved methods of transportation 
and communication. New York City and London are separated by an ocean, 
but the development of air travel greatly reduced travel time between them. 
As a result, they feel much closer today than they did in the 19
th
 century even 
though the absolute distance of 3,500 miles has not changed. 
33 1.4: SPATIAL CONCEPTS
One result of time-space compression is that global forces are influencing 
culture everywhere and reducing local diversity more than ever before. In the 
19
th
 century, the mountainous regions of southeastern Europe were famous for 
the local variations in their music. Today, because of radio, Internet, and other 
changes, people in southeastern Europe listen to the same music as everyone 
else in the world.
The Impact of Distance The increasing connection between places is 
reflected in the growth of spatial interaction . Spatial interaction refers to the 
contact, movement, and flow of things between locations. Connections might 
be physical, such as through roads. Or they can be through information, such 
as through radios or Internet service. Places with more connections will have 
increased spatial interaction. Flow refers to the patterns and movement of 
ideas, people, products, and other phenomena. You will learn about specific 
flows in every unit and apply Four-Level Analysis to better understand the 
flows of culture, migration, and trade in the world.   
The friction of distance indicates that when things are farther apart, they 
tend to be less connected. This inverse relationship between distance and 
connection is a concept called distance decay. A clear illustration of this concept 
is the weakening of a radio signal as it travels across space away from a radio 
tower. Friction of distance causes the decay, or weakening, of the signal. Natural 
characteristics like waves, earthquakes, and 
storm systems exhibit the distance-decay 
function. Human characteristics also exhibit 
distance decay, although the key issue is 
more accurately described as connectedness 
than distance. When a new pet store opens, 
its influence is strongest in the area closest to 
the store but only among the pet owners who 
have a connection to the store. Improvements 
to infrastructure, such as transportation and 
communication, have reduced the friction 
of distance between places as they have 
increased the spatial interaction.
Declining Influence of Distance Concepts such as accessibility and 
remoteness are changing. The world is more spatially connected than ever 
before in history. The Internet can be used to illustrate several of these concepts. 
It allows a person living in El Paso, Texas, to shop at a store in New York City 
(via its website) and receive a product shipped from a warehouse in Atlanta, 
Georgia. Distance decay is less influential than it once was.
Patterns and Distribution
Patterns (see Topic 1.1) refer to the general arrangement of things being 
studied, and geographers must be able to describe patterns accurately and 
with precision. Geographers often use the concept of distribution , the way a 
phenomenon is spread out or arranged over an area to describe patterns. 
Strength of Interaction
Distance 0
0
Page 5


30 CHAPTER 2: SPATIAL CONCEPTS AND GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 2
Spatial Concepts and 
Geographic Analysis
Topics 1.4–1.7
Topic 1.4 Spatial Concepts
Learning Objective: Define the major geographic concepts that illustrate spatial 
relationships. (PSO-1.A)
Topic 1.5 Human-Environmental Interaction
Learning Objective: Explain how major geographic concepts illustrate spatial 
relationships. (PSO-1.B)
Topic 1.6 Scales of Analysis
Learning Objectives:  Define scales of analysis used by geographers. (PSO-1.C) 
Explain what scales of analysis reveal. (PSO-1.D)
Topic 1.7 Regional Analysis
Learning Objective: Define different ways that geographers define regions. 
(SPS-1.A)
A lot of these regional boundaries are porous and messy, allowing 
for a rich diversity of cultural flow. But knowing how we interact 
as part of a complex society, instead of only looking at political 
borders, can explain a lot more than we might have imagined.
—Samuel Arbesman, Bloomberg.com, 2012
Source: Getty Images
Much of the Netherlands has been reclaimed from the sea. Wind turbines were built on polders 
along highway A6 of the country’s west coast, and are one of the most recognizable elements of the 
built environment. (See Topic 1.5 for more on how humans interact with the environment.)
1.4: SPATIAL CONCEPTS 31
1.4
Spatial Concepts
Essential Question: What are the major geographic concepts that 
illustrate spatial relationships and patterns?
A spatial approach considers the arrangement of the phenomena being 
studied across the surface of the earth. This approach focuses on things such as 
location, distance, direction, orientation, flow, pattern, and interconnection. A 
spatial approach also looks at elements such as the movements of people and 
things, changes in places over time, and even human perceptions of space and 
place. Using Four-Level Analysis from Unit 1 Overview, geographers ask and 
attempt to answer questions about spatial distributions such as these:
• Why are things where they are?
• How did things become distributed as they are?
• What is changing the pattern of distribution?
• What are the implications of the spatial distribution for people?
Major Geographic Spatial Concepts
Historians look through the lens of time to understand the past. Similarly, 
geographers look through the lens of space to understand place. Space is 
the area between two or more phenomena or things. Space is at the heart of 
geography and geographers are intensely interested in how space is arranged, 
used, and reflected in people’s attitudes and beliefs. 
Location
Location is an important spatial concept to geographers. (See Topic 1.1.) 
Location identifies where specific phenomena are located either on a grid 
system or relative to another location. The concepts of absolute and relative 
location are essential to define the amount of space and relative or absolute 
distance between locations. Additionally, geographers use the concepts of place, 
site, and situation to further develop an understanding of a specific location.
Place
Place refers to the specific human and physical characteristics of a location. A 
group of places in the same area that share a characteristic form a region. (See 
Topic 1.7 for more about regions.)
Two ways to refer to place are its site and situation. Site can be described 
as the characteristics at the immediate location—for example, the soil type, 
climate, labor force, and human structures. In contrast, situation refers to the 
32 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: AP
®
 EDITION
location of a place relative to its surroundings and its connectivity to other 
places.
The site of Riyadh, the capital and most populated city in Saudi Arabia, is a 
desert climate, a large labor force, and a modern Islamic city. The city’ s situation 
includes being located roughly in the center of the Arabian Peninsula. The 
situation of the Arabian Peninsula is between the continents of Africa and Asia 
and Riyadh is connected to the world with a large modern airport. Another 
example of how situation can change relates to when the interstate highway 
system was created in the United States in the 1950s.  The situation of many 
small towns changed dramatically. Towns along old railroad lines became less 
important as centers of trade, while towns along the new interstate suddenly 
became more important.
Sense of Place Related to the concept of place is a sense of place. Humans 
tend to perceive the characteristics of places in different ways based on their 
personal beliefs. For example, the characteristics of Rome, Italy, might be 
described differently by a local resident than by an outsider or by a Catholic 
than by a Hindu. If a place inspires no strong emotional ties in people or lacks 
uniqueness, it has placelessness.
Toponyms Finally, locations can also be designated using toponyms, or 
place names. Some toponyms provide insights into the physical geography, the 
history, or the culture of the location. The entire coast of Florida is dotted with 
communities with “beach” in the name—Fernandina Beach, Miami Beach, 
Pensacola Beach—all of which are on beaches. Iowa is named for a Native 
American tribe. Pikes Peak is named for an explorer, Zebulon Pike. 
Sometimes toponyms get confusing. Greenland is icier than Iceland, while 
Iceland is greener than Greenland. And some toponyms are deceiving. Lake 
City, Iowa, is not on a lake, and few people consider Mount Prospect, Illinois, 
a mountain—at an elevation of only 665 feet above sea level. Toponyms are 
often created to inspire an ideal view of a location, memorialize an event or 
person, or even to express power and ownership and can be full of controversy 
and disagreement. One such controversy involved the debate over the name of 
the tallest mountain in the United States. Should the Alaskan mountain take 
the name Mt. McKinley after the former U.S. President, William McKinley? 
Or Denali, the name from the traditional Native American Koyukon language, 
meaning Great One? In 2015, President Obama restored the mountain’s name 
back to Denali. 
Distance and Time
Distance (see Topic 1.1) can be measured in terms of absolute or relative 
distance. Time-space compression is the shrinking “time-distance, ” or relative 
distance, between locations because of improved methods of transportation 
and communication. New York City and London are separated by an ocean, 
but the development of air travel greatly reduced travel time between them. 
As a result, they feel much closer today than they did in the 19
th
 century even 
though the absolute distance of 3,500 miles has not changed. 
33 1.4: SPATIAL CONCEPTS
One result of time-space compression is that global forces are influencing 
culture everywhere and reducing local diversity more than ever before. In the 
19
th
 century, the mountainous regions of southeastern Europe were famous for 
the local variations in their music. Today, because of radio, Internet, and other 
changes, people in southeastern Europe listen to the same music as everyone 
else in the world.
The Impact of Distance The increasing connection between places is 
reflected in the growth of spatial interaction . Spatial interaction refers to the 
contact, movement, and flow of things between locations. Connections might 
be physical, such as through roads. Or they can be through information, such 
as through radios or Internet service. Places with more connections will have 
increased spatial interaction. Flow refers to the patterns and movement of 
ideas, people, products, and other phenomena. You will learn about specific 
flows in every unit and apply Four-Level Analysis to better understand the 
flows of culture, migration, and trade in the world.   
The friction of distance indicates that when things are farther apart, they 
tend to be less connected. This inverse relationship between distance and 
connection is a concept called distance decay. A clear illustration of this concept 
is the weakening of a radio signal as it travels across space away from a radio 
tower. Friction of distance causes the decay, or weakening, of the signal. Natural 
characteristics like waves, earthquakes, and 
storm systems exhibit the distance-decay 
function. Human characteristics also exhibit 
distance decay, although the key issue is 
more accurately described as connectedness 
than distance. When a new pet store opens, 
its influence is strongest in the area closest to 
the store but only among the pet owners who 
have a connection to the store. Improvements 
to infrastructure, such as transportation and 
communication, have reduced the friction 
of distance between places as they have 
increased the spatial interaction.
Declining Influence of Distance Concepts such as accessibility and 
remoteness are changing. The world is more spatially connected than ever 
before in history. The Internet can be used to illustrate several of these concepts. 
It allows a person living in El Paso, Texas, to shop at a store in New York City 
(via its website) and receive a product shipped from a warehouse in Atlanta, 
Georgia. Distance decay is less influential than it once was.
Patterns and Distribution
Patterns (see Topic 1.1) refer to the general arrangement of things being 
studied, and geographers must be able to describe patterns accurately and 
with precision. Geographers often use the concept of distribution , the way a 
phenomenon is spread out or arranged over an area to describe patterns. 
Strength of Interaction
Distance 0
0
34 HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: AP
®
 EDITION
Geographers look for patterns in the distribution of phenomena across 
space that give clues about causes or effects of the distribution. Common 
distribution patterns include but are not limited to the following: clustered, 
linear, dispersed, circular, geometric or random. (See Topic 1.1 for more on 
distribution patterns.)
Matching patterns of distribution is called spatial association and 
indicates that two (or more) phenomena may be related or associated with one 
another. For example, the distribution of malaria matches the distribution of 
the mosquito that carries it. However, just because two distributions have a 
similar pattern does not mean one is necessarily the cause of the other. The 
distribution of bicycle shops in a large city might be similar to the distribution 
of athletic wear stores—but one probably does not cause the other. They both 
might reflect the distribution of active people.
REFLECT ON THE ESSENTIAL QUESTION
Essential Question: What are the major geographic concepts that illustrate spatial 
relationships and patterns?
Geographic Spatial Concepts Use of Concepts
KEY TERMS
spatial approach
space
location
place
region
site
situation
sense of place
toponyms
time-space compression
spatial interaction
flow
friction of distance
distance decay
patterns
distribution
spatial association