APHUG Notes

Unit 1: Thinking Geographically

Maps and Spatial Data
- Types of Maps
  - Reference Maps: Show locations of places and geographic features.
    - Examples: road maps, atlases.
  - Thematic Maps: Tell a story about the degree of an attribute, the pattern of its distribution, or its movement. Show spatial data.
    - Examples: choropleth maps, dot maps, isoline maps, cartograms.
- Map Projections
  - All maps are distorted in terms of:
    - Shape
    - Area
    - Distance
    - Direction
  - Common Projections:
    - Mercator: Preserves shape and direction but distorts area (especially near the poles).
    - Gall-Peters: Preserves area but distorts shape.
    - Robinson: Compromise between shape, area, distance, and direction; used for general-purpose world maps.
- Spatial Data
  - Geographic Information System (GIS): Computer system that stores, analyzes, and displays geographic data.
    - Used for mapping, urban planning, resource

Population and Migration Patterns and Processes
- Population Distribution
  - Factors influencing population distribution:
    - Physical factors: climate, topography, access to water
    - Human factors: economic opportunities, cultural factors, political situations
  - Population density: arithmetic, physiological, agricultural
    - Arithmetic: total number of people / total land area
    - Physiological: total population / total area of arable land
    - Agricultural: total number of farmers / total amount of arable land
- Population Composition
  - Age-sex pyramids: visual representation of age and sex structure of a population
  - Demographic indicators: life expectancy, infant mortality rate, fertility rate
- Population Growth and Decline
  - Demographic Transition Model: stages of population growth based on birth and death rates
    - Stage 1: High birth and death rates, low population growth
    - Stage 2: High birth rates, declining death rates, high population growth
    - Stage 3: Declining birth rates, low death rates, moderate population growth
    - Stage 4: Low birth and death rates, zero population growth
    - Stage 5: Death rates higher than birth rates, declining population
  - Malthusian Theory: population growth will outpace food production
  - Factors influencing birth rates and death rates: healthcare, education, economic development, cultural norms
- Migration
  - Types of migration: international, internal, voluntary, forced
  - Push and pull factors: reasons for migration
    - Push factors: negative aspects of the origin (e.g., poverty, war)
    - Pull factors: attractive aspects of the destination (e.g., economic opportunities, political stability)
  - Ravenstein's Laws of Migration: patterns and reasons for migration
  - Consequences of migration: demographic, economic, social, cultural
Cultural Patterns and Processes
- Elements of Culture
  - Traits: dress, diet
  - Customs: habits or practices
  - Beliefs: faith; principles
- Cultural Hearths
  - Definition: the origin of culture
- Language
  - Language Families: a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language
  - Dialects: a regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation
  - Lingua Franca: a language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages
- Religion
  - Types: universalizing, ethnic
    - Universalizing: global religions that seek converts (e.g., Christianity, Islam, Buddhism)
    - Ethnic: Religions associated with a particular group of people (e.g., Judaism, Hinduism)
  - Influence on culture and landscape
- Cultural Landscape
  - Definition: forms superimposed on the physical environment by the activities of humans
  - Placemaking: how people make a space their own
- Cultural Diffusion
  - Types: relocation, expansion (hierarchical, contagious, stimulus)
    - Relocation diffusion: spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another
    - Expansion diffusion: spread of an idea from one place to another in a snowballing process
    - Hierarchical diffusion: 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
    - Stimulus diffusion: spread of an underlying principle even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse
  - Cultural barriers: obstacles to diffusion
- Globalization and Culture
  - Effects on cultural diversity
Political Patterns and Processes
- State
  - Defined territory
  - Permanent population
  - Defined sovereignty
  - Recognized by other states
- Nations
  - A group of people with a shared culture and history who desire to govern themselves
  - Nation-state: a state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality
- Political Boundaries
  - Types: defined, delimited, demarcated
  - Boundary disputes: definitional, locational, operational, allocational
- Forms of Governance
  - Unitary: power is located centrally
  - Federal: power is shared between a central authority and constituent political units
- Electoral Geography
  - Gerrymandering: redrawing legislative boundaries to benefit a particular party
  - Spatial organization of elections
- Supranational Organizations
  - Examples: United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), World Trade Organization (WTO)
  - Purpose and impact on state sovereignty
Economic Patterns and Processes
- Economic Systems
  - Capitalism, socialism, communism, mixed economies
- Sectors of the Economy
  - Primary: extracting raw materials (e.g., agriculture, mining)
  - Secondary: manufacturing
  - Tertiary: providing services (e.g., retail, healthcare)
  - Quaternary: information and research
  - Quinary: high-level decision-making
- Measures of Development
  - Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
    - The total value of goods produced and services provided in a country during one year
  - Gross National Income (GNI)
    - The total value of goods and services produced within a country, together with the balance of income from or to other countries
  - Human Development Index (HDI)
    - A summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and having a decent standard of living.
  - Gender Inequality Index (GII)
    - An inequality index that measures gender-based disadvantage in three important aspects of human development—reproductive health, empowerment, and the labor market
- Theories of Development
  - Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth: a linear theory of development
    - Traditional society
    - Preconditions for take-off
    - Take-off
    - Drive to maturity
    - Age of high mass consumption
  - Dependency Theory: core, periphery, and the semi-periphery
  - Wallerstein's World Systems Theory
- Globalization and Trade
  - Free trade agreements: North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), European Union (EU)
  - World Trade Organization (WTO)
- Industrialization
  - Factors influencing industrial location: access to raw materials, labor, transportation, markets
  - Weber's Least Cost Theory: transportation, labor, and agglomeration
  - Outsourcing and the New International Division of Labor
Agriculture and Rural Land-Use Patterns and Processes
- Agricultural Practices
  - Intensive and extensive agriculture
    - Intensive: high inputs of labor and/or capital; high yields
    - Extensive: low inputs of labor and/or capital; low yields
  - Types: subsistence, commercial
    - Subsistence: agriculture designed primarily to provide food for direct consumption by the farmer and the farmer’s family
    - Commercial: agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm
- Agricultural Regions
  - Von Thunen Model: explains and predicts agricultural land use patterns
- The Green Revolution
  - Increased agricultural production through the use of