AP Human Geography Vocabulary Review (Units 2, 4, and 6)

Comprehensive practice flashcards covering vocabulary from Unit 6 (Urbanization), Unit 4 (Political Patterns), and Unit 2 (Population and Migration) for AP Human Geography.

Site

The physical character of a place, including its absolute location and physical characteristics such as climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, and elevation.

Situation

The location of a place relative to other places and its surroundings, emphasizing its connectivity and role within a larger region.

Urbanization

The process by which the percentage of people living in urban settlements increases, often involving the physical growth of urban areas.

Megacities

Cities with a total population in excess of $10,000,000$ people.

Metacities

Large-scale functional urban regions with a total population in excess of $20,000,000$ people.

Periphery

Countries or regions that have a lower level of economic productivity, a lower standard of living, and are often dependent on more developed core countries.

Semi-periphery

Countries or regions that are industrializing and have features of both core and periphery nations.

Suburbanization

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

Urban sprawl

The unrestricted growth in many urban areas of housing, commercial development, and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for urban planning.

Edge city

A relatively large urban area situated on the outskirts of a city, typically beside a major road, characterized by business, entertainment, and shopping outside a traditional downtown.

Exurb

A semi-rural district located beyond the suburbs that is often inhabited by well-to-do families.

Boomburb

A rapidly growing, sprawling city of $100,000$ or more residents on the edge of a major metropolitan area that retains a suburban character.

World city

A city that is a significant node in the global economic network and exerts influence far beyond its national boundaries (e.g., New York, London, Tokyo).

Rank-size rule

A pattern of settlements in a country such that the $n^{th}$ largest settlement is $rac{1}{n}$ the population of the largest settlement.

Primate city

A city that is the largest settlement in a country and has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement.

Gravity model

A mathematical model stating that the potential use of a service at a particular location is directly related to the number of people in a location and inversely related to the distance people must travel.

Christaller's 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.

Burgess concentric-zone model

An urban land-use model that describes a city as a series of five rings expanding outward from a central business district.

Hoyt sector model

A model of urban structure that proposes cities develop in sectors or wedges, often following transportation routes, rather than rings.

Harris and Ullman multiple nuclei model

An urban model stating that a city is a complex structure that includes more than one center around which activities revolve.

Galactic city model

A model representing a post-industrial city with a decentralized business district surrounded by large suburban residential and service nodes tied together by a beltway.

Infilling

The process of developing vacant or under-used parcels within existing urban areas that are already largely developed.

Smart-growth policies

Urban planning and transportation theories that concentrate growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl.

New Urbanism

An urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighborhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types.

Redlining

A discriminatory practice by which banks or insurers refuse or limit loans within specific geographic areas, especially those with high minority populations.

Blockbusting

A process by which real estate agents convince white property owners to sell their houses at low prices because of fear that persons of color will soon move into the neighborhood.

Gentrification

The process of converting an urban neighborhood from a predominantly low-income, renter-occupied area to a predominantly middle-class, owner-occupied area.

state

An area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government that has control over its internal and foreign affairs.

nation

A large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.

nation-state

A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality.

stateless nation

A group of people with a common culture and identity who do not have a politically recognized territory of their own.

sovereignty

Ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states.

self-determinism

The concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves.

devolution

The transfer of certain powers from the central government to lower levels of government, such as regions or cities.

neocolonialism

Indirect control of one nation by another through economic or cultural influence rather than direct military or political control.

shatterbelt

A region caught between stronger colliding external cultural-political forces, under persistent stress, and often fragmented by aggressive rivals.

choke point

A strategic narrow route, such as a strait or canal, providing passage through or to another region and which can be easily blocked.

relic boundary

A former boundary line that is no longer used for political purposes but is still discernible on the landscape.

superimposed boundary

A boundary drawn by outside powers that ignores existing cultural or ethnic patterns.

subsequent boundary

A boundary that is established after the settlement of an area and changes as the cultural landscape changes.

antecedent boundary

A boundary that existed before the cultural landscape emerged and stayed in place while people moved in to occupy the surrounding area.

exclusive economic zone

A zone of up to $200$ nautical miles from a country's coastline in which that country has exclusive rights to the exploration and use of marine resources.

gerrymandering

The process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power.

supranationalism

An alliance involving three or more countries for their mutual benefit such as economic, cultural, or military reasons.

agricultural density

The ratio of the number of farmers to the total amount of land suitable for agriculture ($ext{arable land}$).

arable land

Land that is suitable for agriculture.

arithmetic (crude) density

The total number of people divided by the total land area.

physiological density

The number of people per unit of area of arable land, which is land suitable for agriculture.

carrying capacity

The maximum population size of a species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the food, habitat, water, and other available resources.

total fertility rate (TFR)

The average number of children a woman will have throughout her childbearing years.

dependency ratio

The number of people under age $15$ and over age $64$ compared to the number of people active in the labor force.

crude birth rate (CBR)

The total number of live births in a year for every $1,000$ people alive in the society.

crude death rate (CDR) or mortality rate

The total number of deaths in a year for every $1,000$ people alive in the society.

rate of natural increase (RNI)

The percentage growth of a population in a year, computed as $ext{CBR} - ext{CDR}$ and converted to a percentage (excluding migration).

doubling time

The number of years needed to double a population, assuming a constant rate of natural increase.

rule of 70

A method for estimating the doubling time of a population by dividing $70$ by the annual growth rate (percentage).

demographic transition model (DTM)

A sequence of stages in population growth that a country moves through as it develops, categorized by changes in birth and death rates.

Malthusian

Relating to the theory that population growth will inexorably outstrip food supply, leading to catastrophe.

step migration

Migration to a distant destination that occurs in stages, such as from farm to nearby village and later to a town and city.

internally displaced persons

Someone who is forced to flee their home but remains within their country's borders.

refugees

People who are forced to migrate from their home country and cannot return for fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion.

chain migration

Migration of people to a specific location because relatives or members of the same nationality previously migrated there.

remittances

Money that migrants send back to their family and friends in their home countries, forming an important part of the economy in many developing nations.

brain drain

The large-scale emigration of talented or highly skilled people from a particular country.