ap human Geo vocab units 1-7

Flashcards for Geography Exam Review

Human Geography

The study of the spatial organization of human activity and of people's relationships with their environment.

Physical Geography

The study of natural features on Earth's surface.

Geographic Scale

The level of detail at which a phenomenon is studied (e.g., global, regional, national, local).

Map Scale

The ratio between the distance on a map and the corresponding distance on the ground.

Map Projection

A method for representing the Earth's curved surface on a flat plane.

Distribution

The arrangement of something across Earth's surface.

Density

The frequency with which something exists within a given unit of area.

Concentration

The extent of a feature's spread over space.

Pattern

The geometric arrangement of objects in space.

Relative location

The position of a place relative to other places.

Absolute location

The exact position of a place on the Earth's surface.

Absolute distance

The measurement of the physical space between two places.

Relative distance

Approximate measurement of the physical space between two places.

Time-space convergence

The reduction in the time it takes to travel between places due to improved transportation and communication technologies.

Diffusion

The process by which a feature spreads across space from one place to another over time.

Hearth

The region from which innovative ideas originate.

Time-distance decay/Distance decay effect

The declining degree of acceptance of an idea or innovation with increasing time and distance from its point of origin or source.

Cultural Landscape

The visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape.

Place

A specific point on Earth distinguished by a particular characteristic.

Site

The physical character of a place.

Situation

The location of a place relative to other places.

Cultural ecology

The study of human adaptations to social and physical environments.

Possibilism

The theory that the physical environment may set limits on human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to the environment.

Environmental determinism

The study of how the physical environment predisposes societies and states towards particular development trajectories.

Globalization

Actions or processes that involve the entire world.

Local Diversity

The existence of difference subcultures.

Absolute Direction

Direction with respect to fixed cardinal points (e.g., North, South, East, West).

Relative Direction

Direction with respect to a point or place (e.g., out west, back east).

Sustainability

The ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Land Use

The function or activity taking place on a piece of land.

Sequent Occupance

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

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)

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

Natural Increase Rate (NIR)

The percentage growth of a population in a year, computed as the crude birth rate minus the crude death rate.

Doubling Time

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

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

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

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)

The annual number of deaths of infants under one year of age, compared with total live births.

Life Expectancy

The average number of years an individual can be expected to live, given current social, economic, and medical conditions.

Dependency Ratio

The number of people who are too young or too old to work, compared to the number of people in their productive years.

Sex Ratio

The number of males per 100 females in the population.

Shifting cultivation

A form of agriculture in which an area of ground is cleared of vegetation and cultivated for a few years and then abandoned for a new area until its fertility has been naturally restored.

Intensive subsistence

A form of subsistence agriculture characterized by high inputs of labor and/or capital (fertilizers, pesticides, etc.) per unit area of land.

Pastoral Nomadism

A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding domesticated animals.

Mixed Crop and Livestock

Commercial farming characterized by integration of crops and livestock; most of the crops are fed to animals rather than consumed directly by humans.

Dairy Farming

A form of commercial agriculture that specializes in the production of milk and other dairy products.

Grain Farming

Commercial farming specializing in large-scale production of cereal grains, such as wheat, barley, and rice.

Livestock Ranching

A form of commercial agriculture in which livestock graze over an extensive area.

Mediterranean Farming

Agriculture practiced in regions with a Mediterranean climate; primarily horticulture.

Commercial Gardening

The intensive production of non-tropical crops such as tomatoes, lettuce, and other vegetables for sale in nearby urban markets.

Plantation Farming

Commercial agriculture specializing in the production of one or two crops, often for sale to a more developed country.

Urbanization

The process of population movement from rural to urban areas, resulting in the growth of cities.

Central Business District

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

Concentric Zone Model

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

Zone in Transition

An area of mixed commercial and residential land uses surrounding the CBD.

Sector Model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a series of sectors, or wedges, radiating out from the CBD.

Multiple Nuclei Model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes of activities.

Census Tract

An area delineated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for which statistics are published.

Quantitative Data

Data that is expressed numerically.

Qualitative Data

Data that is expressed through observations, interviews, or written documents.

Social Area Analysis

Statistical analysis used to identify where people of similar living standards, ethnic background, and lifestyle live within an urban area.

Squatter Settlements

An area of undeveloped land on the periphery of a city, which develops informally and without legal authority.

Forward Capital

A symbolically relocated capital city, usually because of either economic or strategic reasons.

Zones of Abandonment

Areas within a city that have been deserted or left unused by their owners or former tenants.

Service

Any activity that fulfills a human want or need and returns money to those who provide it.

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.

Market Area (hinterland)

The area surrounding a service from which customers are attracted.

Range

The maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service.

Threshold

The minimum number of people needed to support a service.

Gravity Model

A model that predicts the interaction between places on the basis of their population size and distance between them.

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.

Primate City Rule

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

Urban Infilling

The process of building on vacant or underdeveloped land within existing urban areas.

World Cities

A city that functions as a control center of the global economy.

Disamenity Zones

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

Inclusionary Zoning

Zoning regulations that create incentives or requirements for affordable housing development in new projects.

Suburbanization

The process of population movement from cities to the surrounding suburbs.

Exurb

Small communities lying beyond the suburbs of a city.

Boomburb

A rapidly growing suburban city with a population between 100,000 and 500,000.

Bid Rent Theory

A geographical economic theory that describes how the price and demand on real estate changes as the distance towards the Central Business District (CBD) increases.

Greenbelts

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

Slow-growth cities

Cities that have implemented policies to consciously resist development and suburban sprawl.

Mixed-use development

Development that combines housing, retail, and other commercial activities in a single building or neighborhood.

Redlining

A process by which banks draw lines on a map and refuse to lend money to purchase or improve property within the boundaries.

Gentrification

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

White Flight

The emigration of whites from an area in anticipation of blacks immigrating into the area.

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.

Underclass

A group in society prevented from participating in the material benefits of a more developed society because of a variety of social and economic characteristics.

Annexation

The process of legally adding land area to a city.

City

An urban settlement that has been legally incorporated into an independent administrative unit.

Central City

The urban area that is not suburban; generally, the older or original city that is surrounded by suburbs.

Urbanized Area

A continuously built-up area with a population of 50,000 or more.

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)

In the United States, a central city of at least 50,000 population, the county within which the city is located, and adjacent counties meeting one of several tests indicating a functional connection to the central city.

Micropolitan Statistical Area (uSA)

An urban core with at least 10,000 inhabitants, but less than 50,000, together with adjacent territory that has a high degree of social and economic integration with the core.

Megalopolis

Several, metropolitan areas that join together to form a single, continuous, urban complex.

The Peripheral Model (Galactic City 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.

Edge City

A large node of office and retail activities on the edge of an urban area.

Urban Sprawl

The unplanned and uncontrolled spread of urban development into surrounding areas.

Zoning Ordinances

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

Smart Growth

Legislation and regulations to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland.

New Urbanism

A planning and development approach based on the principles of walkability and mixed-use development.