Barron's Human Geography AP Exam Review

Anthropogenic

Caused or produced by humans

Absolute location

Position on Earth's surface using the coordinate system of longitude (that runs from North to South Pole) and latitude (that runs parallel to the equator).

Relative location

Position on Earth's surface relative to other features. (Ex: My house is east of I-75).

Absolute distance

Exact measurement of the physical space between two places.

Relative distance

Approximate measurement of the physical space between two places.

Site

The physical character of place; what is found at the location and why it is significant.

Situation

The location of a place relative to other places.

Formal Region

area within which everyone shares in common one or mare distinctive characteristics. The shared feature could be a cultural value such as a common language, or an environmental climate.

Functional Region

(nodal) Area organized around a node or focal point. The characteristic chosen to define this kind of region dominates at a central focus or node and diminishes in importance outward. This region is tied to the central point by transportation or communication systems or by economic or functional associations.

Perceptual Region

(vernacular) is a place that people believe exists as a part of their cultural identity. Such regions emerge from peoples informal sense of place rather than from scientific models developed through geographic thought. (Often identified using a mental map- which is an internal representation of a portion of Earths surface)

Environmental perception

a person's idea or image of a place; may often be inaccurate.

Cultural trait

a single element of normal practice in a culture (e.g., wearing a turban)

Culture complex

a combination of related cultural traits (e.g., prevailing modes of dress; nationalism)

Culture hearth

The region from which innovative ideas originate. This relates to the important concept of the spreading of ideas from one area to another (diffusion). Must be viewed in the context of time ...

Ancient culture hearth

Fertile Crescent, Indus Valley, Chang & Yellow River Valley (China), Nile River Valley and Delta, Meso-America (origin of farming developed during the First Agricultural Revolution beginning around 12,000 years ago).

Modern culture hearth

Europe, North America, Japan (origin and focus of the Industrial Revolution beginning in the early 1800s after the onset of the Second Agricultural Revolution).

Cultural landscape

Fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group. This is the essence of how humans interact with nature.

Sequent occupance

The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape. This is an important concept in geography because it symbolizes how humans interact with their surroundings.

Cultural diffusion

The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time.

Relocation diffusion

The spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another.

Migrant diffusion

spread of an idea through people, in which the phenomena weakens or dies out at its previous source ... moves like a "Slinky" (e.g., spread of the Spanish Flu toward the end of World War I).

Expansion diffusion

The spread of a feature from one place to another in a snowballing process...

Hierarchical diffusion

The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places

Contagious diffusion

The rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population. (Ex: ideas placed on the internet)

Stimulus diffusion

the spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse. (Ex: PC & Apple competition, p40)

Acculturation

Process of adopting only certain customs that will be to their advantage

Transculturation

A near equal exchange of culture traits or customs

Assimilation

Process of less dominant cultures losing their culture to a more dominant culture

Environmental determinism

A 19th- and early 20th-century approach to the study of geography that argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences. Geography was therefore the study o f how the physical environment caused human activities (e.g., Jared Diamond - Guns, Germs, and Steel)

Possibilism

The physical environment may limit some human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to their environment.

Cultural Ecology

The geographic study of the multiple interactions of human-environmental relationships

Holocene epoch

current interglaciation period (sustained warming phase between glaciations during an ice age), extending from around 12,000 years ago to the present (some scientists speculate that since humans influence the Earth as no species was able to before, we have recently entered the Anthropocene epoch).

First Agricultural Revolution

beginning around 12,000 years ago; achieved plant domestication (human influence on genetic modification of a plant) and animal domestication (genetic modification of an animal to make it more amenable to human control and use); began permanent settlements along fertile river valleys which moved humans from egalitarian societies (equal) to more stratified societies (unequal).

(Geographic Information Systems) GIS

collection of computer hardware and software permitting spatial data to be collected, recorded, stored, retrieved, used, and displayed.

(Global Positioning System) GPS

satellite-based system for determining the absolute location of places.

Remote sensing

method of collecting data or information through the use of instruments (e.g., satellites) that are physically distant from the area or object of study.

Qualitative data

described in terms of its quality (that is, informal or relative characteristics such as culture, language, religion, ...).

Quantitative data

precisely describes data using numbers and measures (population, political, economic, ...).

Map projection

an image of the earth put onto a 2 dimensional object

Azimuthal

directions from a central point are preserved; usually these projections also have radial symmetry

Mercator

straight meridians and parallels that intersect at right angles, used for marine navigation

Peters

equal-area cylindrical, areas of equal size on the globe are also equally sized on the map

Robinson

distorts shape, area, scale, and distance in an attempt to balance the errors of projection properties

Fuller

using the surface of a polyhedron, it is unfolded to a net in many different ways and flattened to form a two-dimensional map which retains most of the globe's relative proportional integrity

dot

represents a certain number of phenomena (e.g., population)

thematic

made to reflect a particular topic about a geographic area (e.g., geographic, topographic, political, ...)

choropleth

thematic map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the statistical variable being displayed (e.g., population density)

reference

generalized map type designed to show general spatial properties of features (e.g., world maps, road maps, atlas maps)

proportional symbol

type of thematic map in which the areas of symbols are varied in proportion to the value of an attribute (e.g., city population)

preference

map demonstrating progressively more desirable options

cartogram

map in which some thematic mapping variable is substituted for land area (e.g., GDP)

latitude

Parallel lines that run horizontally across Earth (Equator, Tropic of Cancer & Capricorn, Arctic & Antarctic Circles)

meridian

line of longitude (ex: International Date Line)

TODALSIG

acronym for assessing the validity and reliability of any map

Scale

representation of a real-world phenomenon at a certain level of reduction or generalization

location

position; situation of people and things (5 themes)

human/environmental interaction

reciprocal relationship b/w humans & env. (5 themes)

region

area on Earth's surface marked by a degree of homogeneity (uniformity) of some phenomenon (5 themes)

place

uniqueness of a location (or similarity of two or more locales); phenomena within an area (5 themes)

movement

mobility of people, goods and ideas; phenomena between areas (5 themes)

Ecumene

The proportion of earth's surface occupied by permanent human settlement. This is important because it tells how much of the land has been built upon and how much land is left for us to build on.

Population densities

the frequency with which something occurs in space is density...

Arithmetic density

The total number of people divided by the total land area. This is what most people think of as density; how many people per area of land.

Physiological density

The number of people per unit of area of arable land, which is land suitable for agriculture. This is important because it relates to how much land is being used by how many people.

Agricultural density

the number of farmers per unit of area of farmland. May mean a country has inefficient agriculture.

Carrying capacity

This is the population level that can be supported, given the quantity of food, habitat, water and other life infrastructure present. This is important because it tells how many people an area will be able to support.

Sustainability

providing the best outcomes for human and natural environments both in the present and for the future

Distribution

The arrangement of something across Earth's surface (space).

Population distributions

the arrangement of a feature in space is distribution. Geographers identify the three main properties as density, concentration, and pattern (Used to describe how things and people are distributed)

East Asia

largest concentration; China, Japan, North and South Korea (>1.5 billion people). Ribbon-like extensions of dense population (clustered near rivers; majority of people are farmers)

South Asia

second major concentration; India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka (1.5 billion). Also ribbon (finger)-like extensions of dense population (e.g. Ganges River in India), majority are farmers as well.

Europe

third major concentration; Britain to Russia, including Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Netherlands, Belgium, parts of France, northern Italy (700 million). Ribbon-like extension deep into Russia (follow Europe's coal deposits, not fertile river valleys). Ribbons are concentrated along numerous cities & towns (due to the Industrial Revolution; Germany - 85% urban, UK - >90%).

North America

a far fourth in concentration; east-central US and southeastern Canada (<200 million). Like Europe, much is concentrated in major cities.

Linear growth

arithmetic growth; increases at a constant amount per unit time (1, 2, 3, 4, ...)

Exponential growth

geometric growth; doubles each population (2, 4, 8, 16, ...)

Doubling time

The number of years needed to double a population, assuming a constant rate of natural increase. This is important because it can help project countries' population increase over the years and when its population will double. It is a projection and not meant to be an accurate predictor of the future.

Population explosion

a sudden increase or burst in the population in either a certain geographical area or worldwide

Population structure (composition or distribution)

is two back-to-back bar graphs, one showing the number of males and one showing females in a particular population in five-year age groups. This is important because you can tell from the age distribution important characteristic of a country, whether high guest worker population, they just had a war or a deadly disease and more.

Population pyramid

population displayed by age and gender on a bar graph

Cohort

Population of various age categories in an age-sex population pyramids. This is important because this can tell what state this country it is whether in Stage 3 or Stage 5 in the demographic transition model.

Demography

geographic study of population

Natural increase

births minus deaths in a given population.

(Crude birth rate) CBR (or natality)

number of live births per year per 1,000 people

(Crude death rate) CDR

number of deaths per year per 1,000 people

Mortality

There are two useful ways to measure this term. One way is measuring how many children die. The other is to measure how long the children live.

Rate of natural increase

the percentage by which a population grows in a year.

NIR (excludes migration)

CBR-CDR=

(Total fertility rate) TFR

average number of children born to a woman during her childbearing years (expressed as children per woman). In the U.S it's below 2.1 in much of Africa it is above 4, if South America is between 2 and 3, in Europe it is below 2.1, in China and Russia it is below 2.1, and in much of the Middle East it is above 4. This is important because its shows how many kids a mother is having

(Infant mortality rate) IMR

The annual number of deaths of infants under one year of age, compared with total live births. Its is expressed as the annual number of deaths among infants among infants per 1000 births rather than a percentage. This is important because it tell how developed a country is, if they have a high IMR they are an LDC and if it is low they are an MDC.

Child mortality rate

annual number of deaths of children under the age of 5, compared with total live births (also calculated as number of deaths per 1,000 births).

Maternal mortality rate

annual number of deaths of women during childbirth per 1,000 women.

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. This is important because this tells how many people each worker supports. For example the larger population of dependents, the greater financial burden on those who are working to support those who cannot.

Demographic equation

The formula that calculates population change. The formula finds the increase (or decrease) in a population. The formula is found by doing births minus deaths plus (or minus) net migration. This is important because it helps to determine which stage in the demographic transition model a country is in.

Demographic Transition model

Has 4 steps. Stage 1 is low growth (low stationary), Stage 2 is High Growth (early expanding), Stage 3 is Moderate Growth (late expanding), and Stage 4 is Low Growth (low stationary), and Stage 5 although not officially a stage is a possible stage that includes zero or negative population growth. This is important because this is the way our country and others countries around the world are transformed from a less developed country to a more developed country.

Demographic momentum

this is the tendency for growing population to continue growing after a fertility decline because of their young age distribution. This is important because once this happens a country moves to a different stage in the demographic transition model.

Demographic regions

Cape Verde is in Stage 2 (High Growth), Chile is in Stage 3 (Moderate Growth), and Denmark is in Stage 4 (Low Growth). This is important because it shows how different parts of the world are in different stages of the demographic transition.

J-curve

This kind of graph is when the projection population show exponential growth. This is important because if the population grows exponential our resource use will go up exponential and so will our use as well as a greater demand for food and more.

S-curve

traces the cyclical movement upwards and then flat in a graph.

Overpopulation

relationship between the number of people on Earth, and the availability of resources

Underpopulation

it is the opposition to overpopulation and refers to a sharp drop or decrease in a region's population