AP Human Geography Models

AP Human Geography Models Notes

Agriculture Models

Von Thunen Agricultural Model
  - Description/Importance:
    - Explains the connection between different agricultural practices and the location of the market.
    - Accounts for land needed and transportation costs associated with agricultural products.

Cultural Theories

Carl Sauer
  - Proposed the idea of the Cultural Landscape, which states that human activity superimposes itself on the physical landscape.
  - Each cultural group leaves its own unique imprints on the landscape.
  - This concept serves as the basis for studying Human Geography.

Development Theories

Brandt Line
- Theorized in 1980; it divides the world into the developed North and the less developed South.
Human Development Index (HDI)
  - Categorizes countries into four levels of human development:
    1. Very High Human Development
    2. High Human Development
    3. Medium Human Development
    4. Low Human Development
  - Measures factors such as:
    - Life Expectancy
    - Education (Mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling)
    - Gross National Income (GNI) adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).
Losch Model of Profitability
- Manufacturing plants choose locations where they can maximize profits based on market access and production efficiency.
Rostow's Stages of Economic Development
  - Describes five stages of economic development:
    1. Traditional Society
    2. Pre-conditions to Take-off (Primary Sector)
    3. Take-off (Industrialization)
    4. Maturity
    5. High Mass Consumption
Wallerstein's World Systems Theory
  - Theorizes the world as a unified economic system where countries occupy different roles and are interdependent.
  - Divides the world into:
    - Core: Wealthy, developed nations
    - Periphery: Less developed, often exploited nations
    - Semi-periphery: Intermediate nations that exhibit characteristics of both core and periphery.

Industrial and Service Sector Models

Clark's Industrial Sectors
  - Divides the economy into five sectors:
    1. Primary: Extractive of resources (e.g., agriculture, mining)
    2. Secondary: Manufacturing and industry
    3. Tertiary: Services (e.g., retail, healthcare)
    4. Quaternary: Information processing and knowledge-based sectors
    5. Quinary: Managerial activities or decision-making roles in large corporations or high government levels.
Weber's Least Cost Model
- Explains the relationship between the cost of transporting materials and the nature of industries.
- Differentiates between bulk-gaining industries (which are heavier at the end product) and bulk-reducing industries (which lose weight in production).

Migration Laws

Ravenstein's Laws of Migration
  1. Most migration is over short distances.
  2. Migration occurs in steps or stages.
  3. Long-range migrants typically move to urban areas.
  4. Each migration generates a return movement in the opposite direction.
  5. Rural residents are more migratory than urban residents.
  6. Within their own country, females are more migratory than males, but males display higher migration rates over long distances.
  7. Most migrants are adults.
  8. Large towns experience growth primarily through migration rather than natural increase.
  9. Migration rates increase with economic development.
  10. Economic factors are the primary drivers of migration.

Political Geography Models

Evolution of Boundaries (Proposed by Richard Hartshorne)
  1. Antecedent: Boundaries drawn before the area is populated.
  2. Superimposed: Boundaries that do not consider existing ethnic or cultural groups.
  3. Subsequent: Boundaries drawn after the area has been populated, considering existing groups.
  4. Relict: Boundaries that have ceased to function but still hold significance.
Territorial Morphology
  - Divides states into five categories based on shape and internal distribution:
    1. Compact: Geographically small and centralized.
    2. Prorupt: Extended or elongated state with a protruding section.
    3. Elongated: Long and narrow state.
    4. Fragmented: Composed of several discontinuous pieces.
    5. Perforated: A state that completely surrounds another state.

Population Models

Demographic Transition Model
- Explains the relationship between development and changes in Birth Rate, Death Rate, and Population growth.
Malthusian Theory
  1. Food production increases arithmetically (linearly).
  2. Population growth increases exponentially.
  3. Recognizes population checks:
     - Positive Checks: Famine, war, disease that increase mortality.
     - Negative Checks: Birth control, late marriage that reduce fertility.
  - Provides insights into the impacts of population growth on societal resources.

Urbanization Models

African Model of Cities
- Structured similarly to the concentric zone model, featuring rings extending from the commercial center with peripheral slum-like settlements.
Central Place Theory
  - Explains the spatial distribution of businesses relative to population centers.
  - Important principles include:
    - Administrative Principle: Issues in sharing central places. Lower order centers entirely located within higher order centers' hexagons.
    - Marketing Principle: There are more lower order cities, but they have smaller market areas.
    - Transportation Principle: Cities are arranged to connect important locations as directly and economically as possible; lower order centers are situated along edges, not corners.
Concentric Zone Model
- Asserts that the Central Business District (CBD) is the center of a city, while home values and rents tend to increase along distance from this center.
Eastern European Model of Cities
- Characterized by a historic center that remains relatively unchanged.
- Elite residential and industrial zones expand around the city periphery, with retail centers near the historic core enhancing the city's status as a tourist destination.
Galactic City Model
- Identifies multiple edge cities connected by highways or beltways, demonstrating suburban sprawl.
Gravity Model
- Calculates urban center interactions based on size and distance.
- Larger cities possess greater attraction power, with interaction decreasing as the size and distance from the urban center increase.
Latin America Model of Cities
- Urban development centered around a historic core with sectors radiating outward.
- Features a juxtaposition of middle-class housing and slums, highlighting peripheral growth patterns, including modern industrial parks.
Multiple Nuclei Model
- Considers the significance of automobiles and commutes, resulting in the development of various nuclei that support each other.
Peripheral Model
- Describes urban areas comprising an inner city surrounded by sprawling suburban residential and business regions, interconnected by belts or ring roads.
Primate City Rule
- States that the largest city in a country is more than twice as populous and significant as the next largest city, explaining disproportionate urban hierarchies.
Rank-Size Rule
  - Describes a hierarchical distribution of cities where:
    - Rank 1: Largest City
    - Rank 2: Half the population of Rank 1
    - Rank 3: One-third the population of Rank 1
    - Rank 4: One-fourth the population of Rank 1
    - Rank 5: One-fifth the population of Rank 1
  - This rule demonstrates a consistent pattern in urban population distribution.
Sector Model
- Based upon the notion that different activities are attracted to specific areas due to environmental factors, leading to the growth of sectors that extend outward from the CBD in wedge-shaped patterns.
Southeast Model of Cities
- Characterized by a port-centered layout with distinct zones for Chinese, Indian, and Western populations, revealing class divisions between elites, squatter settlements, and new industrial areas.
Western European Model of Cities
- Retains a historic center with relatively little change over the past century, with growth extending to the periphery, particularly around industrial areas.