AP Human Geography Vocabulary with Definitions

Unit 1: Thinking Geographically

Scale: The level of representation, experience, or organization of geographical events and processes (e.g., local, regional, global).
Map projection: A method for representing the surface of the Earth on a flat map.
Latitude/Longitude: Coordinate system used to determine absolute location; latitude is horizontal, longitude is vertical.
Spatial patterns: The arrangement of objects in space.
Absolute location: A precise point (e.g., coordinates).
Relative location: Describes a location in relation to other places.
Distance decay: The decreasing interaction between places as distance increases.
Time-space compression: The reduction in time it takes to diffuse something due to improved transportation and communication.
Environmental determinism: Theory that sees the environment as a controlling factor on human activity.
Possibilism: Theory that sees humans as having agency in how the environment influences them.
Site: Refers to the physical characteristics of a place.
Situation: Refers to a place's location relative to others.
Choropleth map: A thematic map that uses differences in shading, coloring, or the placing of symbols within predefined areas to indicate the average values of a property or quantity in those areas.
Dot distribution map: A map type that uses a dot symbol to show the presence of a feature or phenomenon.
Isoline map: A map with continuous lines joining points of the same value.
Cartogram: A map in which the geometry of regions is distorted in order to convey the information of an alternate variable.

Unit 2: Population and Migration

Population density: Number of people per unit of area.
- Arithmetic: The total number of people divided by the total land area.
- Physiological: The number of people per unit area of arable land.
- Agricultural: The ratio of the number of farmers to the amount of arable land.
Carrying capacity: Maximum population size an environment can sustain.
Crude birth rate (CBR): Number of births per 1,000 people per year.
Crude death rate (CDR): Number of deaths per 1,000 people per year.
Natural increase rate (NIR): CBR minus CDR, the rate at which a population is increasing.
- $NIR = CBR - CDR$
Total fertility rate (TFR): Average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime.
Infant mortality rate (IMR): Number of deaths of infants under 1 year per 1,000 live births.
Demographic Transition Model (DTM): Explains population growth in terms of economic development (5 stages).
Epidemiological Transition: The shift in causes of death from infectious to chronic diseases as a country develops.
Push factors: Conditions that drive people away from a place.
Pull factors: Conditions that attract people to a place.
Intervening obstacle: A barrier that alters the path of migration.
Intervening opportunity: A factor that causes migrants to voluntarily cease traveling to their intended destination.
Forced migration: Migration involving coercion (e.g., conflict).
Voluntary migration: Migration by choice.
Refugees: People forced to flee homes who cross borders.
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs): People forced to flee homes who stay within their country.
Chain migration: Migration following previous migrants (e.g., relatives).
Step migration: Migration in a series of shorter moves.
Guest workers: Temporary migrants for labor.

Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes

Culture: Shared beliefs, practices, and material traits.
Cultural landscape: The visible imprint of human activity.
Folk culture: Traditional and local culture.
Popular culture: Widespread culture that changes quickly.
Cultural hearth: Area where a cultural trait originates.
Cultural diffusion: Spread of cultural elements.
- Relocation diffusion: The physical spread of a cultural trait by the migration of people.
- Expansion diffusion: The spread of a feature from one place to another in a snowballing process.
- Hierarchical diffusion: The spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places.
- Contagious diffusion: The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or trend throughout a population.
- Stimulus diffusion: The spread of an underlying principle, even though a specific characteristic is rejected.
Language family: A group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor.
Language branch: A collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed several thousand years ago.
Language group: A collection of languages within a branch that share a relatively recent common origin.
Lingua franca: A common trade language.
Pidgin: A simplified mix of languages.
Creole: A stable language resulting from the mixing of languages.
Ethnic religion: A religion tied to a group or place.
Universalizing religion: A religion that seeks converts.
Acculturation: Cultural change resulting from interaction.
Assimilation: Full integration into a new culture.
Syncretism: The blending of cultural traits.
Ethnocentrism: Judging another culture by one's own standards.
Cultural relativism: Understanding a culture by its own context.

Unit 4: Political Patterns and Processes

State: A politically organized territory with a permanent population, a defined territory, and a government.
Nation: A group of people with a shared culture and history who desire political autonomy.
Nation-state: A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality.
Stateless nation: A nation that does not have a state.
Sovereignty: Authority of a state to govern itself.
Centripetal forces: Forces that unify a state.
Centrifugal forces: Forces that divide a state.
Colonialism: Control over territory by a foreign power, often involving settlement.
Imperialism: Influence over territory without settlement.
Devolution: Transfer of power to lower levels of government.
Geometric boundary: A political boundary defined and delimited as a straight line or arc.
Physical boundary: A political boundary that coincides with a significant feature of the natural landscape, such as deserts, mountains, or water bodies.
Cultural boundary: A political boundary that separates different cultures.
Boundary disputes: Disagreement over the location, management, or resources of a boundary.
Gerrymandering: Manipulating political boundaries to favor a party.
Unitary state: A state in which power is concentrated in the central government.
Federal state: A state in which power is shared between the central government and regional governments.
Supranational organizations: Groups of states cooperating for common goals (e.g., UN, EU).

Unit 5: Agriculture and Rural Land Use

Subsistence agriculture: Agriculture for self-consumption.
Commercial agriculture: Agriculture for profit.
Intensive agriculture: High input per land area.
Extensive agriculture: Low input per land area.
Shifting cultivation: Rotating fields.
Pastoral nomadism: Herding animals.
Green Revolution: Introduction of high-yield crops and technology in agriculture.
Von Thünen Model: A model that explains the location of agricultural activities in a commercial economy. A process of spatial competition allocates various farming activities into rings around a central market city, with profit-earning capability the determining force in how far a crop locates from the market.
Plantation: A large-scale farm specializing in one or two crops.
Agribusiness: Industrialized farming.
Desertification: Land degradation in dry areas.
Deforestation: Clearing of forests.

Unit 6: Cities and Urban Land Use

Urbanization: Growth of cities.
Suburbanization: Moving from cities to suburbs.
Counterurbanization: Moving from urban to rural areas.
Central Business District (CBD): Downtown core of a city.
Urban sprawl: Uncontrolled expansion of urban areas.
Edge city: Suburban business centers.
Megacity: A city with 10+ million residents.
Metacity: A city with 20+ million residents.
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: The largest settlement in a country, if it has more than twice as many people as the second-ranking settlement.
Burgess Model (Concentric Zone Model): A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings.
Hoyt Model (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 central business district (CBD).
Harris-Ullman Model (Multiple Nuclei Model): A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes of activities.
Zoning: Designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another.
Gentrification: The process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste.
Redlining: A discriminatory real estate practice in North America in which members of minority groups are prevented from obtaining money to purchase homes or property in predominantly white neighborhoods.

Unit 7: Industrial and Economic Development

Primary sector: Extracts raw materials from the earth (e.g., agriculture, mining).
Secondary sector: Manufacturing and processing raw materials.
Tertiary sector: Provides services (e.g., retail, banking).
Quaternary sector: Information-based services (e.g., research, IT).
Quinary sector: High-level decision-making (e.g., government, executives).
Bulk-reducing industry: An industry in which the inputs weigh more than the final product.
Bulk-gaining industry: An industry in which the final product weighs more than the inputs.
Outsourcing: Delegating work to a third party.
Offshoring: Moving work abroad.
Fordism: Mass production.
Post-Fordism: Flexible, specialized production.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): The value of the total number of goods and services produced in a country during one year.
Gross National Income (GNI): The value of the output of goods and services produced in a country in a year, including money that leaves and enters the country.
Purchasing Power Parity (PPP): An adjustment made to the gross domestic product (GDP) to account for differences among countries in the cost of goods.
Human Development Index (HDI): A composite measure of well-being (income, education, life expectancy).
Core: Developed areas.
Periphery: Developing areas.
Semi-periphery: Intermediate areas.
Wallerstein's World Systems Theory: Global system of economic inequality.
Rostow's Stages of Development: A model describing economic growth in 5 stages.