AP human geographer Semester 2 Vocab, Unit 5-7

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

17 goals, examples: no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well being, quality education

Just-in-time delivery

Shipment of parts and materials to arrive at a factory moments before they are needed

economies of scale

the property whereby long-run average total cost falls as the quantity of output increases

Export-Processing Zones (EPZs)

Small areas of a country with exceptional investment and trading conditions that are created by its government to stimulate and attract foreign investors and business

Special Economic Zones (SEZs)

specific area within a country in which tax incentives and less stringent environmental regulations are implemented to attract foreign business and investment

primary sector

portion of a country's economy employed in extracting natural resources

secondary sector

portion of a country's economy employed in processing natural resources

tertiary sector

the service sector; consists of providing services to people and businesses

quaternary sector

the knowledge-based sector that includes research and development, business consulting, financial services, education, public administration, and software development

quinary sector

highest levels of decision-making and includes the top officials the top officials in various levels of government and business

Alfred Weber/Least Cost Theory

explains the key decisions made by businesses about where to locate factories; attempts to predict the location of a manufacturing site relative to the location of the resources needed to produce the product and where the final product will be sold (market)

agglomeration

the spatial grouping of businesses in order to share costs, as when several factories share the cost of building an access road to connect with a public highway

outsourcing

contracting work out to non-company employees or other countries

newly industrialized counties (NICs)

country whose national economy has transitioned from being primarily based in agriculture to being primarily based in goods-producing industries, such as manufacturing, construction, and mining

maquiladoras

a type of export processing zone (physical spaces within a country where special regulations benefit foreign-controlled business) located specifically in Mexico

Gross National Income (GNI)

the dollar value of a country's final income in a year, divided by its population; it reflects the average income of a country's citizens

Gender Inequality Index (GII)

a composite index for measurement of gender disparity, which affects a country's development

human development index (HDI)

combines one economic measurement (GNI) with several social measures, such as life expectancy and the average education level

Walt W. Rostow/Stages of Economic Development

postulates that economic growth occurs in five basic stages, of varying length

Immanuel Wallerstein/World Systems Theory (Core-Periphery Model)

a dependency model that postulates that countries do not exist in isolation but are apart of an intertwined world system in which all countries are dependent on each other.

core countries

includes the economically advantaged area of the world and the center of world businesses and finances

semi-periphery countries

includes middle income countries that provide services for core countries

periphery countries

includes the least-developed countries that have a high percentage of jobs in low-skill, labor intensive production

Commodity Dependency

Heavy reliance on export of primary commodities

sustainable development

any economic development that serves the current needs of people without making it harder for people in the future to live well

ecotourism

tourism that attempts to protect local ecosystems and to educate visitors about them

free trade zones (FTZs)

tax-free area where goods can be landed and 'value added', through handling and manufacturing, and re-exported without the intervention of customs

growth poles

the concentration of high-value economic development attracts even more economic development; example - Silicon Valley

European Union (EU)

organization formed to promote development within the member states through economic and political cooperation; essentially eliminated tariffs among member nations and has fostered economic growth.

deindustrialization

process by which companies move industrial jobs to other regions with cheaper labor, leaving the newly deindustralized region to switch to a service economy and to work through a period of high unemployment

indicators of development

sectoral structure of the economy, literacy rates, birth and death rates, access to healthcare, infant mortality rates, gender equality, gross national income, etc.

OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)

a permanent intergovernmental organization of 13 oil-exporting developing nations that coordinates and unifies the petroleum policies of its Member Countries.

comparative advantage

a situation in which a country, individual, company, or region can produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than a competitor

complementarity

the degree to which one place can supply something that another place demands

microlending

The practice of loaning small amounts of money to help people in less developed countries start small businesses.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

an international organization that acts as a lender of last resort, providing loans to troubled nations.

tariffs

A tax on imported goods

World Trade Organization (WTO)

a permanent global institution to promote international trade and to settle international trade disputes

free trade

international trade left to its natural course without tariffs, quotas, or other restrictions.

Dependency Theory

a model of economic and social development that explains global inequality in terms of the historical exploitation of poor nations by rich ones

Microloans

Small-business loans often used to buy equipment or operate a business

Gross National Product (GNP)

The total value of all goods and services produced by a country's economy in a given year.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The total output of all economic activity in the nation, including goods and services.

Break-of-bulk point

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 and trucks.

Ecumene

The proportion of the earth inhabited by humans.

Suburbs

residential areas surrounding a city

Settlement

A permanent collection of buildings and inhabitants.

Urbanization

Movement of people from rural areas to cities

Suburbanization

The process of population movement from within towns and cities to the rural-urban fringe.

zoning ordinances

A law that limits the permitted uses of land and maximum density of development in a community.

Site

The physical character of a place

Situation

the location of a place relative to other places

City-state

a city that with its surrounding territory forms an independent state.

Urban hearth

An area like Mesopotamia, China, India, or the Nile Valley where large cities first existed.

Urban area

A central city and its surrounding built-up suburbs

Metropolitan statistical area (MSA)

Contains a core area containing a large population nucleus, together with adjacent communities that have a high degree of economic and social integration with that core.

Time-space compression

the rapid innovation of communication and transportation technologies associated with globalization that transforms the way people think about space and time

Central business district (CBD)

The area of a city where retail and office activities are clustered.

Counter-urbanization (deurbanization)

the net loss of population from cities to smaller towns and rural areas.

Megacities

cities with more than 10 million people

Megalopolis

a very large, heavily populated city or urban complex.

Conurbation

an extended urban area, typically consisting of several towns merging with the suburbs of one or more cities.

World city (global city)

Centers of economic, culture, and political activity that are strongly interconnected and together control the global systems of finance and commerce.

Urban hierarchy

A ranking of settlements according to their size and economic functions.

Gravity model

A mathematical formula that describes the level of interaction between two places, based on the size of their populations and their distance from each other.

Central place theory (Christaller)

explains the spatial organization of settlements and hinterlands, their relative location, and size.

Higher-order services

a good or service usually expensive, that people only buy occasionally, these are usually located in larger towns and cities with a large market area accessible to a large number of people

Lower-order services

provided by small centers, a good or service, usually inexpensive items that people buy often a regular, often daily basis

Primate city

The largest settlement in a country, if it has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement.

Residential zones

the areas of a city devoted to where people live rather than to commercial or industrial functions

Concentric zone model (Burgess)

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings.

Sector model (Hoyt)

A model that shows cities develop in a series of sectors radiating out from a CBD

Multi-nuclei model (Harris and Ullman)

a model of urban land use developed by C.D. Harris and E.L. Ullman based on separated & specialized multiple nuclei

Peripheral model

A model of North American urban areas consisting of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road.

Zoning ordinances

A law that limits the permitted uses of land and maximum density of development in a community.

boomburbs

rapidly growing city that remains essentially suburban in character even as it reaches populations more typical of a large city

disamenity zone

The very poorest parts of cities that in extreme cases are not connected to regular city services and are controlled by gangs and drug lords.

Squatter Settlement

An area within a city in a less developed country in which people illegally establish residences on land they do not own or rent and erect homemade structures.

Greenbelts

A ring of land maintained as parks, agriculture, or other types of open space to limit the sprawl of an urban area.

Smart Growth Policies

Legislation and regulations to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland.

Rank-Size Rule

A pattern of settlements in a country, such that the nth largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement.

Metacity

A city with a population over 20 million

Edge City

cities that are located on the outskirts of larger cities and serve many of the same functions of urban areas, but in a sprawling, decentralized suburban environment

Informal Economy Zone

Economic activity that thrives with curbside, car-side, and stall based businesses that often hire people temporarily and do not follow all regulations; part of the economy that is not taxed

Von Thunen Model

A model that explains the location of agricultural activities in a commercial, profit-making economy.

Mediterranean climate

Weather pattern characterized by mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers

tropical climate

hot humid climate that produces certain plants, such as cassava, banana, sugar cane, sweet potato, papaya, rice, maize

subsistence agriculture

The production of food primarily for consumption by the farmer's family.

commercial agriculture

Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm.

intensive agriculture

expenditure of much labor and capital on a piece of land to increase its productivity. high input / small area

extensive agriculture

An agricultural system characterized by low inputs of labor and capital per unit land area. Low input / big area

pastoral nomadism

A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals.

shifting cultivation

A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period.

plantation (agriculture)

Production system based on a large estate owned by an individual, family, or corporation and organized to produce a cash crop.

mixed crop and livestock farming

Commercial farming characterized by integration of crops and livestock.

market gardening

The small scale production of fruits, vegetables, and flowers as cash crops sold directly to local consumers.

Livestock ranching

An extensive commercial agricultural activity that involves the raising of livestock over vast geographic spaces.

Mediterranean agriculture

specialized farming that occurs only in areas where the dry-summer Mediterranean climate prevails

transhumance

The seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures.

clustered settlements

A rural settlement in which the houses and farm buildings of each family are situated close to each other and fields surround the settlement.