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Glossary

Distribution: the arrangement of items over a specified area (synonymous with spatial distributions).

Geographic tool: a device used to compile, organize, manipulate, store, report, or display geographic information, including maps, globes, graphs, diagrams, aerial and other photographs, satellite-produced images, geographic information systems, and computer databases as well as other software.

Human characteristics: features and patters of features on Earth's surface created by humans.

Human system: a collection of human entities that are linked and interrelated, such as a city, an airport or a transportation network.

Interdependence: people relying on each other in different places or in the same place for ideas, goods, and services.

Physical characteristics: features and patterns of features on Earth's surface caused by physical or natural processes, such as landforms, vegetation, and atmospheric phenomena.

Physical/natural system: climates, landforms, and soils are examples of natural or physical systems. 

Region: an area with one or more common characteristics or features, which give it a measure of homogeneity and make it different from surrounding areas.

Resource: an aspect of the physical environment that people value and use to meet a need for fuel, food, industrial product, or something else of value.

Social process: a course or method of operation that produces, maintains, or alters human systems on Earth, such as migration or diffusion.

All Standards and Glossary definitions were taken from the approved Standards documents available from the Colorado Department of Education's web site http://www.cde.state.co.us.