AP Human Geography Vocabulary Review

Vocabulary flashcards based on key concepts in AP Human Geography.

Sequent occupance

The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.

Cultural landscape

Fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group; essence of how humans interact with nature.

Arithmetic density

The total number of people divided by the total land area; commonly thought of as population density.

Physiological density

The number of people per unit of area of arable land, indicating how much land is utilized for agriculture.

Hearth

The region from which innovative ideas originate.

Diffusion

The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time.

Relocation diffusion

The spread of an idea through the physical movement of people from one place to another.

Expansion diffusion

The spread of a feature from one place to another in a snowballing process.

Hierarchical diffusion

The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places.

Contagious diffusion

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population.

Stimulus diffusion

The spread of an underlying principle even though the characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse.

Absolute distance

Exact measurement of the physical space between two places.

Relative distance

Approximate measurement of the physical space between two places.

Distribution

The arrangement of something across Earth’s surface.

Environmental determinism

A study approach that argues that physical environment causes human activities.

Absolute location

Position on Earth’s surface using the coordinate system of latitude and longitude.

Relative location

Position on Earth’s surface relative to other features.

Site

The physical character of a place; what is found at the location and its significance.

Situation

The location of a place relative to other places.

Space-time compression

The reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place due to improved transportation and communication.

Friction of distance

The notion that distance usually requires effort, money, and/or energy to overcome.

Distance decay

The diminishing in importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin.

Network

A set of interconnected nodes without a center.

Connectivity

The relationships among people and objects across the barrier of space.

Accessibility

The degree of ease with which it is possible to reach certain locations from others.

Space

The physical gap or interval between two objects.

Spatial distribution

Physical location of geographic phenomena across space.

Formal region

An area in which everyone shares in one or more distinctive characteristics.

Functional region

Area organized around a node or focal point.

Vernacular region

A place that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity.

Possibilism

The physical environment may limit some human actions, but people can adjust to their environment.

Maladaptation

An adaptation that has become less helpful and more of a problem over time.

J-curve

A projection depicting exponential growth.

Doubling time

The number of years needed to double a population.

Cohort

A population of various age categories in age-sex population pyramids.

Demographic equation

The formula that calculates population change.

Dependency ratio

The ratio of dependents (people too young or old to work) to the working-age population.

Infant mortality rate (IMR)

The annual number of deaths of infants under one year of age per 1000 live births.

Zero population growth

When the crude birth rate equals the crude death rate.

Cyclic movement

Trends in migration and other processes that have a clear cycle.

Forced migration

People removed from their countries and forced to live elsewhere.

Gravity Model

Predicts that optimal location of a service is directly related to the number of people in the area and inversely related to the distance people must travel.

Internal migration

Permanent movement within a particular country.

Push-pull factors

Factors that induce people to leave their old residence and move to new locations.

Refugee

People forced to migrate from their home country for fear of persecution.

Transhumance

Seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pasture areas.

Cultural adaptation

The process of adjusting to a new culture.

Acculturation

Process of adopting certain customs that benefit a person.

Assimilation

Process of less dominant cultures losing their cultural identity to a more dominant culture.

Cultural ecology

The study of how humans interact with their environment.

Religious toponym

The origin and meaning of the names of religions.

Gentrification

Process in which low-cost neighborhoods are renovated by the middle class.

Urbanization

The increasing number of people that live in urban areas.

Geopolitics

The study that examines the effects of geography on international politics.

Neocolonialism

Economic control by developed countries over developing countries.

World Systems Theory

Theory that describes the world as a complex system of economic exchanges and class struggles.

Sustainable development

Development that meets present needs without compromising future generations' ability to meet their needs.

Cultural realm

The global mosaic of cultural regions.

Economic base

The collection of basic industries that drive a community's economy.

Industrialization

The development of industries in a country or region.

Urban sprawl

The uncontrolled expansion of urban areas.

Segregation

The separation of different racial groups in a community.