AP Human Geo-Unit 5&6

Urban area

A city and its surrounding suburbs

Metropolitan area

A city and the surrounding areas that are influenced economically and culturally by city

Site (for cities)

The physical characteristics of the land where a city is located. (Climate, Water sources, landforms etc)

Situation (for cities)

The location of a city in relation to other places and its surrounding connections. (Nearby cities, trade routes, transportation networks)

Fall Line

boundary between upland and coastal plain where rivers create waterfalls or rapids

Urban sprawl

The unrestricted low-density outward expansion of cities into rural land. Chaotic urban growth

Edge cities

A type of community located on the outskirts of a larger city

Boomburb

A suburb that has grown rapidly into a large and sprawling city with more than 100,00 residents

Exurb

Typically a fast growing community outside or of an edge of a metropolitan area where residents and community are closely connected to the central city and suburbs

Infill

Redevelopment that identifies and develops vacant parcels of land within previously built areas.

Gravity Model

Used to explain the relationship between cities of various sizes and how they interact. Larger cities will interact more with each other than smaller cities, and larger cities will draw interaction from smaller cities nearby.

Rank-size Rule

IN a developed urban system, the nth largest city is 1/n the size of the largest city

Primate City Rule

A city that far exceeds in population size and influence, the country's next largest city.

Central Place Theory

Describes a central place as a settlement that provides goods and services for the surrounding area.

Threshold

Number of people needed to support a certain good or service

Range

Distance that someone is willing to travel for a good or service.

Megacity

Population > 10m

Metacity

Population >20m

World Cities

Sometimes called global cities, have influenced not only their country/region but globally

Bid-Rent Theory

Land price and demand decrease as distance from the Central business district (CBD) increases.

Concentric-Zone Model

A city grows outward from its CBD in a series of concentric rings. Most economic activity occurs in the center, and as you expand further out it starts to shift from Urban to rural.

Hoyt Sector Model

As cities develop, wedge shaped sectors and divisions emanate from the CBD and emerge generally along transit routes. The city center remains the location of many commercial functions, and as the city expands, each division will extend outward in a sector.

Harris and Ullman Multiple Nuclei Model

Modern cities do not develop around a single CBD but rather multiple specialized nodes (i.e. airports, universities, industrial parks)

Nodes

Multiple focal points of a functional region

Galactic City Model/Peripheral model

A city growing outward from the center, with multiple edge cities forming around the edges, connected by highways rather than focused on one downtown

Latin American City Model

A city with a strong CBD, a wealthy area extending outward (often along a main road), and poorer neighborhoods located on the outer edges.

Agriculture

The purposeful cultivation of plants or raising of animals to produce goods for survival.

Climate

long term weather patterns

Elevation

each increase of 1000 feet above sea level

Soil

the biologically active coating of Earth's surface

Soil Topography

An area's land feature including the slope of that land which affects the ability of the soil to stay in place and retain water

Climate Regions

areas that have similar climate patterns generally based on their latitude and their locations on coasts or continental interiors.

Mediterranean Agriculture

Consists of growing hardy trees, shrubs, and raising sheep and goats.

Subsistence Agriculture

Farming system where farmers grow crops and raise livestock to feed themselves and their family.

Commercial Agriculture

Farming system where farmers grow crops and raise livestock for profit to sell to customers.

Intensive Agriculture

Farmers expend a lot of effort to produce as much yield as possible from an area of land.

Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

A farming system where farmers use a lot of labor and effort on small plots of land to produce enough food to feed themselves and their families

Intensive Commercial Agriculture

A farming system where large amounts of labor, technology and capital are used on land to produce crops or livestock for sale.

Clustered settlement

Most common form of settlement, residents live in close proximity.

Dispersed settlements

Houses and buildings are isolated from one another and all the homes in a settlement are distributed over a relatively large area.

Linear settlement

Houses and buildings extended in a long line that usually follow a land feature (riverfront coast, hill or a transportation route)

Monocropping

The cultivation of one or two crops that are rotated seasonally

Monoculture

Refers to the agricultural system of planting one crop or raising one type of animal annually.

Crop rotation

The varying of crops from year to year allows the restoration of valuable nutrients and continuing productivity of the soil.

Plantation agriculture

Large scale commercial farming of one particular crop grown for markets often distant from the plantation

Market gardening

Farming that produces fruits, vegetables, and flowers that typically serves a specific market or urban area where farmers can sell to local stores etc.

Mixed crop and livestock systems

Both crops and livestock are raised for profit.

Extensive agriculture

Farming that uses a lot of land but fewer workers, less machinery and lower inputs per area.

Extensive subsistence agriculture

Where people use large areas of land to grow food mainly for their own survival.

Shifting cultivation

Practice of growing crops or grazing animals on a piece of land for a year or two, then move to a new plot so the old land can recover

Slash and burn

A type of shifting cultivation, farmers cut down trees and plants and then burn the area to prepare the land for agriculture

Nomadic herding

A type of extensive subsistence farming. When people move their animals seasonally or as needed to allow the best grazing

Transhumance

The movement of herds between pastures at cooler, higher elevations during the summer and lower elevations during the winter.

Extensive commercial agriculture

Large areas of land are used to grow crops or raise animals mainly to sell for profit.

Domestication

The deliberate effort to grow plants and raise animals, making plants and animals adapt to human demands

Foragers

Small nomadic groups who had primarily plant based diets and ate small animals for fish for protein

Agricultural hearth

An area where different groups began to domesticate plants and animals

Fertile Crescent

The first agricultural hearth in Southwest Asia near Syria, Iraq and Western parts of Iran

Diffusion of agriculture

The spread of farming practices, crops and domesticated animals from their original hearths to other areas.

Columbian Exchange

The exchange of goods and ideas between the Americas, Europe and Africa. Began after 1492

First agricultural revolution

Occurred about 11,000 years ago, marked the shift from foraging to farming.

Second agricultural revolution

Occurred in early 1700s, when discovery of new practices and tools led to an increase in crop yields

Enclosure system

Farms owned by individuals and use of the land was restricted to the owner of tenants who rented the land from the owner

Norfolk four-fold system

Farming method that rotated four different crops each year to keep soil fertile and increase food production.

Third agricultural revolution

Began early 20th century-ongoing. Led to the rise of Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as well as Mechanization and fertilizers and pesticides.

Genetically-modified organisms (gmos)

Crops altered to be more resistant against disease and droughts or to have more nutritional impact

Green Revolution

An offshoot of the third agricultural revolution, scientists used increased knowledge of genetics to develop new high yield strains of grain crops;

infrastructure

The basic facilities that are needed to support commercial agriculture.

Dual agricultural economy

Refers to two agricultural sectors in the same country or region that have different levels of technology and different patterns of demand.

Agribusiness

The large scale system that includes the production, processing and distribution of agricultural products and equipment.

Hybrid grains, fruits, vegetables

These grains, fruits and vegetables are crops that are bred by combining different types of plants to create plants with better traits like disease resistance.

Vertical integration

When a company controls more than one stage of the production process

Commodity chains

A complex network that connects places of production with distribution to consumers

Farm subsidies

Low cost loans, insurance and payments provided by the US federal government to help farmers and agribusinesses.

Tariffs

A tax or duty to be paid on a particular import or export.

Von Thunen model

The theory that the perishability of the product, transportation, and cost of transporting it to the market factor into a farmer's agricultural practices.

Global supply chains

Same as commodity chains but on a global scale, enable the delivery of a product between two different countries.

Cash crops

A crop that is produced for its commercial value.

Fair trade

A global campaign to fix unfair wage practices and protect the ability of farmers to earn a living.