AP Human Geography Models & Theories

Flashcards of key vocabulary words and concepts

Time Space Compression

Technology has decreased the “size” of the world.

Demographic Transition Model (DTM)

Population patterns follow a predictable pattern with birth rate and death rate

Malthus Theory

Population grows exponentially; Food grows arithmetically; A point of crisis will occur

Von Thunen Model

A person will locate their farming in the place where they can make a profit

Modernization Theory (Also known as Rostow’s Stages of Development)

A model of change from a pre-modern or traditional society to a modern society

Core-Periphery Model (Also known as Wallerstein’s World System Model)

If you want to understand how some countries develop and others do not, you need to look at how they interact with each other

Kuznets’s Curve

Measures the relationship of pollution and economic development. As a country industrializes, pollution increases. As the country enters post-industrial, more money is available and people become more concerned with the environment. Therefore, pollution levels decrease.

Bid Rent Theory

Focuses on how price and demand for land changes as the distance from the central business district increases.

Weber’s Least Cost

A industry wants to make money. So, they will put their business in the location where profit will be high. So, they try to minimize the cost of three main types of costs

Gravity Model

Used to predict the level of interaction between two places. States the size and influence of a place increases or decreases the interaction.

Rank-Size Model

Attempts to measure how dominant large cities are in a country. If all the cities in a country are placed in order from greatest to smallest, each one will have a population half the size of the preceding city

Primate Cities

One major city that works as the financial, political, and population center of a country and doesn’t have any city that compares with it

Burgess Concentric Zone Model

Explains how land is used in cities

Sector Model

Assumes the CBD is in the center but states transportation also interacts with where people live.

Multi-Nuclei Model

A city might have begun with a CBD, but other smaller CBDs have developed on the outskirts of the city

Edge Cities (Galactic City Model)

Area has a lot of office space, retail stores and people go to the city for work

Distance Decay

Interaction between two places decreases as distance increases

Borchert’s Epochs of Urban Transportation Development

Analyzes how transportation and communication changes movement to cities