AP Human Geo Models and Theories

Concentric Zone Model

Concentric Zone Model

Burgess' concentric zone model is a description of the process of urban growth that views the city as a series of circular areas or zones, each characterized by a different type of land use that developed from a central core. There are five different zones: 1.Central Business District 2.Wholesale and Light Manufacturing 3.Low-Class Residential 4. Medium-Class Residential 5. High-Class Residential. Example: Chicago

Gravity Model

A fraction that predicts the interaction between places on the basis of their population size and distance between them (Population 1 x Population 2 ÷ Distance) The greatest distance will have the least spatial interaction.

Latin American City Model

Griffin-Ford model. Developed by Ernst Griffin and Larry Ford. Blends traditional Latin American culture with the forces of globalization. The CBD is dominant; it is divided into a market sector and a modern high-rise sector. The elite residential sector is on the extension of the CBD in the "spine". The end of the spine of elite residency is the "mall" with high-priced residencies. The further out, less wealthy it gets. The poorest are on the outer edge.

Multiple Nuclei Model

Created by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman in the 1940s, it's a model that suggests that the CBD is losing its dominant position. A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes of activities. There are nine different zones: 1. CBD 2. Wholesale, Light Manufacturing 3. Low-Class Residential 4. Medium-Class Residential 5. High-Class Residential 6. Heavy Manufacturing 7. Outlying BD 8. Residential Suburb 9. Industrial Suburb.

Peripheral Model

A model of North American urban areas, created by Chauncey Harris, consisting of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road. There are eight different zones: 1. Central City 2. Suburban Residential 3. Shopping Mall 4. Industrial District 5. Office Park 6. Service Center 7. Airport Complex 7. Combined Employment & Shopping Center

Sector Model

Focuses on residential patterns explaining where the wealthy in a city choose to live. Hoyt argued that the city grows outward from the center, so a low-rent area could extend all the way from the CBD to the city's outer edge, creating zones which are shaped like pieces of a pie. There are five different zones: 1. CBD 2. Transportation & Industry 3. Low-Class Residential 4. Middle-Class Residential 5. High-Class Residential

Demographic Transition Model

Hypothesis that countries, as they become industrialized, have declines in death rates followed by declines in birth rates

Rostow's Stages of Growth

model that postulates that economic modernization of countries occurs in five basic stages between agricultural and service-based economies: Traditional society, Preconditions for take-off , Take-off, Drive to maturity, Age of High mass consumption

Central Place Theory

A theory that explains the distribution of services, based on the fact that settlements serve as centers of market areas for services; larger settlements are fewer and farther apart than smaller settlements and provide services for a larger number of people who are willing to travel farther determined by analysis of range and threshold.

Domino Theory

A theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control.

Core Periphery Model

based on the notion that as one region or state expands in economic prosperity, it must engulf regions nearby to ensure ongoing economic and political success. The area of high growth becomes known as the core, and the neighboring area is the periphery. Cores and peripheries may be towns, cities, states, or nations.

Von Thunen Agricultural Model

It explains agricultural land use patterns by varying transportation cost. The pattern predicts more-intensive rural land is closer to the marketplace, and more extensive rural land is farther from the market place. These rural land use zones are divided into concentric rings.

Epidemiologic Transition Model

A shift in the disease pattern of a population as mortality fell during the first stages of the demographic transition. Acute infectious diseases were reduced, whereas chronic, degenerative diseases increased. It also meant a gradual upward shift in the age distribution of deaths.

Weber's Least Cost Theory

theory that described the optimal location of a manufacturing firm in relation to the cost of transportation, labor, and advantages through agglomeration

Heartland Theory

A geopolitical hypothesis that any political power based in the heart of Eurasia could gain sufficient strength to eventually dominate the world. Mackinder further proposed that since Eastern Europe controlled access to the Eurasian interior, its ruler would command the vast "heartland" to the east

Rimland Theory

Nicholas Spykman's theory that the domination of the coastal fringes of Eurasia would provided the base for world conquest.

Malthus' Principles of Population

belief that there will always be poverty because food production can't keep up with the rising population, Based on the idea that all poverty comes from a lack of food, and there will never be enough food to support the growing population, and therefore there will always be poverty.

Neo-Malthusians

a belief that the world is characterized by scarcity and competition in which too many people fight for few resources. Pessimists who warn of the global ecopolitical dangers of uncontrolled population growth

Boserup Hypothesis

Based on the observation that explains how population increase necessitates increased inputs of labor and technology to compensate for reductions in the natural yields of swidden farming.

Rank Size Rule

In a model urban hierarchy, the idea that the population of a city or town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the hierarchy, such that the nth largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement.

Bid-Rent Theory

geographical economic theory that refers to how the price and demand on real estate changes as the distance from the Central Business District (CBD) increases.

World Systems Theory

Wallerstein's theory of the core, semi-periphery, periphery, and external areas. The core benefited the most from the development of a capitalist world economy. THe semi-perihpery was the buffer between the core and periphery. The periphery are states that lack strong central governments or are controlled by other states. External areas are states that maintained their own economic system and for the most part, remained outside of the capitalist world economy

Sustainable Development

A way of using natural resources without depleting them, and of providing for human needs without causing long term environmental harm

Modernization Theory

A version of market-oriented development theory that argues that low-income societies develop economically only if they give up their traditional ways and adopt modern economic institutions, technologies, and cultural values that emphasize savings and productive investment.

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

Stage 2 of Rostow

Preconditions for takeoff

Stage 3 of Rostow

Takeoff

Stage 4 of Rostow

Drive to maturity

Stage 5 of Rostow

Mass consumption

Migration Transition Model

Migration trends follow demographic transition stages. People become increasingly mobile as industrialization develops. More international migration is seen in stage 2 as migrants search for more space and opportunities in countries in stages 3 and 4. Stage-4 countries show less emigration and more intraregional migration