Top 100 AP Human Geography Vocab Terms

Choropleth map

A type of map that uses different shades or colors to represent data values in specific areas.

Cultural landscapes

The visible imprint of human activity on the landscape.

Distance decay

The diminishing importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin.

Environmental possibilism

The theory that the environment sets certain constraints or limitations, but culture is otherwise determined by social conditions.

Human

environmental interaction

Perceptual/vernacular region

An area defined by people's perceptions or collective mental maps.

Relative location

The position of a place in relation to other places.

Scale of analysis

The level of detail considered when analyzing a geographic phenomenon, ranging from local to global.

Time

space compression

Acculturation

The process of cultural change and adaptation that occurs when individuals from one culture come into contact with another.

Built Environment

The human

Charter group

A group that has a historical claim to a territory and is often dominant in that area.

Cultural hearth

A location where a cultural trait or innovation originates and spreads.

Diaspora

The dispersion of any people from their original homeland.

Contagious diffusion

The spread of a feature or trend among people from one area to another through direct contact.

Ethnocentrism

The belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group.

Globalization

The process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.

Isogloss

A boundary that separates regions with different linguistic features.

Lingua Franca

A language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different.

Monotheistic

The belief in a single all

Pidgin

A simplified form of language that develops as a means of communication between speakers of different languages.

Placelessness

The loss of uniqueness of place in the cultural landscape so that one place looks like the next.

Sequent occupancy

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

Taboos

Social or cultural prohibitions against certain practices or discussions.

Market

gardening

Subsistence agriculture

Farming that provides for the basic needs of the farmer without surplus for marketing.

Enclosure acts

Laws that consolidated small landholdings into larger farms in England during the 18th century.

Township and range

A system of land surveying in the United States that divides land into townships and ranges.

Monocropping

The agricultural practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land.

Economies of scale

The cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, with cost per unit of output generally decreasing with increasing scale.

Food insecurity

The state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

Extensive farming

A farming system that uses small inputs of labor, fertilizers, and capital relative to the land area being farmed.

Milk shed

The area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied.

Columbian exchange

The widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World.

Bid

rent theory

Crop rotation

The practice of growing different crops in succession on the same land to improve soil health and reduce pests.

Capital intensive

An industry or business that requires large amounts of capital to produce its goods.

Luxury crops

Crops that are not essential for survival but are grown for profit.

Slash and burn (Swidden)

A method of agriculture where vegetation is cut down and burned to create fields.

Value

added farming

Gender inequality

The unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender.

1st (Neolithic) Agricultural revolution

The transition from nomadic hunting and gathering communities to settled agricultural societies.

Carry capacity

The maximum number of individuals of a species that an environment can sustain indefinitely.

Demographic momentum

The tendency for a population to continue to grow even after replacement

Dependency population

The segment of the population that is not in the labor force and is dependent on the working

Gravity model of migration

A model that predicts the interaction between two places based on their population size and distance.

Internal migration

The movement of people within a country.

Intervening obstacles

Barriers that hinder migration, such as physical geography or legal restrictions.

Malthusian theory

The theory that population growth will outpace food production, leading to widespread famine.

Natural increase rate (NIR, RNI, NRI)

The difference between the number of live births and the number of deaths during a specific period.

One child policy

A population control policy of China that was introduced to limit the number of children a family could have.

Arithmetic population density

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

Population Pyramid

A graphical representation of the age and sex distribution of a population.

Push factors

Conditions that drive people to leave their homes.

Remittances

Money sent back home by migrants to support their families.

Step migration

Migration that occurs in stages, often from rural to urban areas.

Transhumance

The seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures.

Antecedent boundary

A boundary that was created before the present

Definitional boundary dispute

A disagreement over the legal language of a boundary.

Autonomous region

An area that has some degree of self

Nation

state

Exclusive economic zone

A sea zone prescribed by the United Nations that extends 200 nautical miles from the coast of a state.

Gerrymandering

The manipulation of electoral district boundaries to favor one party over another.

Balkanization

The fragmentation of a region into smaller, often hostile units.

Colonialism

The practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)

A designated area where military forces are prohibited.

Ethnic Cleansing

The systematic removal of an ethnic or religious group from a given territory.

Irredentism

A political or popular movement that seeks to reclaim and reoccupy a lost homeland.

Sovereignty

The authority of a state to govern itself or another state.

Territoriality

The connection of people, their culture, and their economic systems to the land.

Supranational Organization

An organization composed of multiple countries that work together for a common goal.

Urbanization

The process by which an increasing percentage of a population comes to live in urban areas.

Situation

The location of a place relative to its surroundings and other places.

Urban sprawl

The uncontrolled expansion of urban areas into the surrounding rural land.

Edge city

A term used to describe a new concentration of business, shopping, and entertainment outside a traditional urban area.

Megacity

A city with a population of over 10 million people.

Unincorporated area

A region of land that is not governed by a local municipal corporation.

Smart

growth policies

Redlining

The practice of denying services to residents of certain areas based on their race or ethnicity.

World (Global) City

A city that has significant influence on global affairs through socio

Unitary Government

A system of political organization where most or all of the governing power resides in a centralized government.

Eminent domain

The right of a government to take private property for public use, with compensation.

Brownfield

Previously developed land that is not currently in use and may be contaminated.

High order service

Services that are needed less frequently and are usually located in larger settlements.

Central Business District

The commercial and business center of a city.

Berlin Conference

A meeting in 1884

Tertiary Sector

The segment of the economy that provides services to consumers and businesses.

Break

of

Periphery countries

Nations with underdeveloped economies that are often dependent on core countries.

Assembly line

A manufacturing process in which parts are added to a product in a sequential manner.

Outsourcing

The practice of hiring external firms to handle work that could be done internally.

Least Cost Theory

A theory that explains the optimal location of a manufacturing establishment in relation to the costs of transport and labor.

Footloose

Industries that are not tied to any specific location due to the nature of their operations.

Complementary Advantage

The benefits that arise when two regions or countries work together to produce goods or services.

Substitution principle

The idea that businesses will substitute one factor of production for another to minimize costs.

Commodity dependence

An economy that relies heavily on the export of primary commodities.

Gross domestic product (GDP)

The total monetary value of all goods and services produced within a country's borders in a specific time period.

Agglomeration

The clustering of businesses or industries in a specific area to take advantage of shared resources.

Export Processing Zone (EPZ)

A designated area in a country where goods can be manufactured and exported without the usual tariffs.