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Introduction to Maps

• Reference Maps: Designed for general information about places.
  • Political: Shows governmental boundaries.
  • Physical: Shows natural features.
• Thematic Maps: Used to communicate information about human activities.
  • Cartogram: Distorts the size of geographic areas to represent statistical data.
  • Choropleth: Uses different shades or colors to represent statistical data.
  • Dot Density: Uses dots to represent the density of a phenomenon.
  • Isoline: Connects points of equal value.
  • Proportional Symbol: Uses symbols of different sizes to represent data.
• Spatial Patterns:
  • Absolute distance: Exact measurement between two points.
  • Relative distance: Distance in relation to other factors (time, cost).
  • Clustering: Grouped or bunched together.
  • Dispersal: Distributed over a wide area.
  • Elevation: Height above sea level.
• Map Projections:
  • Mercator: Shape and direction are accurate, but areas are distorted near the poles.
  • Robinson: Distorts everything slightly.
  • Goode: Accurate continent sizes but distorts directions and distances.
  • Gall-Peters: Distorts shapes, especially near the equator.

Geographic Data

• Geospatial Data: Information about physical features and human activities.
• Geographic Information System (GIS): Computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to Earth's surface positions.
• Geographic Positioning System (GPS): Uses satellites to pinpoint location.
• Remote Sensing: Taking pictures of Earth's surface from satellites or airplanes.
• Spatial information from written accounts: Field observations, media reports, travel narratives, policy documents, personal interviews, landscape analysis, and photographic interpretation.

Power of Geographic Data

• Geospatial Data: Information about physical features and human activities.
• Census data: Official count of a population every 10 years in the USA.

Spatial Concepts

• Absolute Location: Precise location.
• Relative Location: Location in relation to other things.
• Space: Extent of an area.
• Place: Human and physical characteristics of a location.
• Distance Decay: The effect of distance on cultural or spatial interactions.
• Time-Space Compression: Increased connectivity bringing people closer together.
• Pattern: Geometric arrangement of something in an area.

Human-Environmental Interaction

• Sustainability: Reaching equilibrium with the environment.
• Natural Resources: Physical materials people need and value.
• Environmental Determinism: The physical environment causes social development.
• Possibilism: People can adjust to their environment despite limitations.

Scales of Analysis

• Scale: Relationship between distance on a map and on the ground. Also, the level of geographic detail being studied (Global, Regional, National, State, and Local).

Regional Analysis

• Region: An area grouped together by common features.
  • Formal Region: Based on quantitative data.
    • Example: Government areas like Wisconsin.
  • Functional Region: Based around a node or focal point.
    • Example: Radio station broadcast area.
  • Vernacular (Perceptual) Region: Based on qualitative characteristics.
    • Example: The Midwest.

Population patterns

• Ecumene: Term for where people are settled.
• Physical Factors Affecting Population Distribution
  • Avoidance of areas too dry, wet, cold, or high in elevation.
• Cultural Factors Affecting Population Distribution
  • Concentration in areas with access to education, healthcare, and entertainment.
• Historical Factors Affecting Population Distribution
  • Areas where human life could be sustained.

Population Density Calculations

• Arithmetic Density: Total number of objects in an area.
• Physiological Density: Number of people supported by a unit area of arable land.
• Agricultural Density: Ratio of farmers to arable land.
• Agricultural density reflects how developed a country is
• Physiological density reveals if a country is overpopulated.
• Arithmetic density is a calculation and not terribly meaningful on its own.

Consequences of Population Distribution

• Larger populations have greater political, economic, and social power.
  • Political - greater control over laws and larger influence
  • Economic - concentration of jobs, areas make more revenue
  • Social - greater access to healthcare, better educational opportunities, greater cultural diversity
• Population growth alters the environment.
• Carrying Capacity: Maximum population size an environment can sustain.
• Overpopulation: Not enough resources to support the population.

Population Composition

• Age/sex ratio: Comparison of males and females of different ages.
• Population structure is unique due to history and conditions.
• Population Pyramid: Graph of population by age and sex; pyramid shape indicates growth.

Population Dynamics

• Demography: Study of population.
• Crude Birth Rate (CBR): Number of live births per 1,000 people.
• Crude Death Rate (CDR): Number of deaths per 1,000 people.
• Doubling Time: Time for a population to double.
• Fertility: Number of live births in a population.
• Infant Mortality Rate (IMR): Number of deaths of children under one year old per 1,000 live births.
• Mortality: Number of deaths in a population.
• Infant Mortality Rate – number of babies that die during the first year per 1,000 live births
• Rate of Natural Increase (RNI) / Natural Increase Rate (NIR): \frac{(birth \ rate - death \ rate)}{10}
  • Positive RNI means growth; negative means shrinking.
• Total Fertility Rate (TFR): Average number of children a woman is predicted to have.
• Social, cultural, governmental, and economic factors affect fertility, mortality, and migration.

Demographic Transition Model

• Explains population growth and decline over time.
• Epidemiological Model
  • Explains causes of death as societies develop.
  • Stage 1: Pestilence and Famine (High CDR)
    • Infectious diseases are a main cause of death.
  • Stage 2: Receding Pandemics
    • Pandemic: Epidemic over a wide area.
    • Improved sanitation, medicine, and nutrition.
  • Stage 3: Degenerative and Human-Created Diseases
    • Decrease in infectious diseases; increase in chronic disorders.
    • Heart disease and cancer.
  • Stage 4: Delayed Degenerative
    • Extended life expectancy through medicine.
    • Better life choices.
    • Consumption of non-nutritious foods and less exercise contribute to obesity

Malthusian Theory

• Population increases geometrically, while food supply increases arithmetically.
• Neo-Malthusian Theory
  • Earth's resources can only support a finite population.
  • Pressure on resources leads to famine and war.
  • Advocate for contraception and family planning.

Population Policies

• Antinatalist policies: Incentives to have fewer children.
• Pronatalist policies: Incentives to have more children.
• Immigration policies: Regulations on immigration.

Women and Demographic Change

• Contraception methods of preventing pregnancy
• Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration
  1. The majority of migrants go only a short distance
  2. Migration proceeds step by step (Step Migration)
  3. Migrants going long distances generally go to large economic centers
  4. Each migration stream produces a compensating counter- stream
  5. Natives of towns are less migratory than those of rural areas - people who live in urban areas are less likely to migrate
  6. Females are more migratory within their area of birth, but males migrate more frequently internationally
  7. Most migrants are young adults, families rarely migrate out of their country
  8. Large towns (Urban areas) grow more as a result of migration than natural increases (Births)
  9. As infrastructure improves (business, roads, industries) migration increases with it
  10. The major directions of migration is from the rural (agricultural) to urban (centers of industry and commerce)
  11. The major causes of migration are economic (seeking jobs and opportunity

Aging Populations

• Dependency Ratio: Ratio of non-workers to workers.
• Life Expectancy: Average number of years a person is expected to live.

Causes of Migration

• Push Factors: Drive people away (e.g., no jobs, slavery).
• Pull Factors: Draw people in (e.g., jobs, family).
• Intervening opportunity: Nearer opportunity diminishes attractiveness of sites farther away
• Intervening Obstacle: Limits migration (e.g., borders, laws).

Forced and Voluntary Migration

• Asylum Seeker: Seeks residence in another country fleeing persecution.
• Chain Migration: Migration within a group starting with one person.
• Step-Migration: Migration in stages.
• Forced Migration: Migration due to no other choice.
• Guest Worker: Legal immigrant allowed to work temporarily.
• Internally Displaced Person: Forced to flee home but remains in the same country.
• Refugee: Flees home country unable to return.
• Transhumance: Moving herds to highlands in summer, lowlands in winter.
• Transnational Migration: Moving across a border.
• Voluntary Migration: Choosing to migrate.

Effects of Migration

• Political Impact: Brain drain.
• Cultural Impact: Loss of culture or introduction of new language.
• Economic Impact: Loss or gain of income.

Introduction to Culture

• Culture: Materials, beliefs, and social forms of a group.
• Material Culture: Tools, housing, clothing, etc.
• Nonmaterial Culture: Beliefs, traditions, values, etc.
• Cultural Relativism: Judging cultures based on their own standards.
• Ethnocentrism: Judging other cultures based on one's own.
• Taboo: Something forbidden by a culture or religion.

Cultural Landscapes

• Cultural landscapes: Forms superimposed on the physical environment by human activities.
  • Example: Street lights, rice fields, churches, cemeteries, etc
• Ethnic Neighborhoods: Areas retaining some cultural distinction.
• Indigenous People: Original inhabitants of a territory.
• Indigenous Community: Indigenous people living together, preserving culture.

Cultural Patterns

• Sense of Place: Strong feeling of identity.
• Language: Mutually intelligible sounds and symbols for communication.
  • Example: Soda vs Pop
• Religion: Belief in a superhuman power.
  • Example: Church and Mosque
• Ethnicity: Belonging to a social group with common culture.
  • Example: China Town
• Gender: Cultural differences in how men and women are treated.

Types of Diffusion

• Relocation Diffusion: Ideas transmitted by migrants.
• Expansion Diffusion: Spread of an idea through a population.
  • Contagious: Through close contact (e.g., diseases).
  • Hierarchical: From connected individuals/cities.
  • Reverse Hierarchical: Diffusion up a hierarchy, such as from a little city to a big one.
  • Stimulus: Spreading of an underlying principle of an idea.

Historical Causes of Diffusion

• Creole or Creolized language: A language that began as a combination of two other languages
• Lingua Franca: Commonly used language by people with different native languages.
• Colonialism: Establishing settlements and imposing political, economic, and cultural principles.
• Imperialism: Extending influence through military force.

Contemporary Causes of Diffusion

• Globalization: World interaction and integration.
  • Media, technological changes, politics, economics, social relationships, Exposure.
• Time-Space Convergence: Decline in travel time.
• Cultural Convergence: Cultures becoming more similar.
• Cultural Divergence: Cultures becoming dissimilar.

Diffusion of Religion and Language

• Indigenous language: Native To a region.
• Language extinction: A language no longer spoken.
• Dialect: Different forms of the same language.
• Language Family: Languages descended from an original language.
  • Indo-European Family
    • Nomadic Warrior Theory: Language diffused through nomadic Movement/conquest (hierarchical diffusion)
    • Sedentary Farmer Theory: Language diffused Through farmers relocating (relocation diffusion)
• Ethnic religion: Focused on a single ethnic group (relocation diffusion).
  • Example: Hinduism and Judaism.
• Universalizing religion: Attempts to appeal to all people (hierarchical and relocation diffusion).
  • Example: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Sikhism.
• Pilgrimage: Journey for religious purposes.

Effects of Diffusion

• Acculturation: Adoption of cultural traits.
• Assimilation: Losing cultural traits.
• Multiculturalism: Coexistence of ethnic groups.
• Syncretism: Blending traits from different cultures.

Introduction to Political Geography

• State: Political unit with a permanent population, boundaries, and recognized sovereignty.
  • Example: United States, Ghana, Australia, etc
• Nation: People sharing a sense of culture and history.
  • Example: French, German, Indian
• Nation-State: State with a single nation.
  • Example: Japan, Iceland, Armenia
• Stateless Nation: Nation without its own state.
  • Example: Palestinians, Kurds, Hmong
• Multinational State: State with two or more nations.
  • Example: France, USA, Mexico, China, Russia
• Multistate Nations: A nation living across states
• Autonomous Region: Area governing itself but not independent.
  • Examples: Greenland , Hong Kong
• Semi-Autonomous Region: Area governing itself in certain areas, but does not have complete power to govern
  • Examples: Nunavut in Canada, Indian Reservations in US

Political Processes

• Sovereignty: Authority over a territory.
• Self-determination: Country determines its own statehood and forms its own allegiances
• Independence Movements: Areas believing they should be their own country
• Devolution: Transfer of power to a lower level.

Political Power and Territoriality

• Choke Point: Strategic narrow route.
  • Example: Panama Canal, Strait of Gibraltar.
• Neocolonialism: Indirect control through economic/cultural pressure.
• Shatterbelt: Region caught between colliding forces.
  • Example: Israel/Palestine.
• Territoriality: Connection of people, culture, and economics to land.

Defining Political Boundaries

• Boundary: Line determining state jurisdiction.
• Relic: Boundary that no longer exists but remnants remain.
  • Example: Berlin Wall.
• Superimposed: Boundary drawn by outsiders.
  • Example: Africa.
• Subsequent: Boundary evolving with the cultural landscape.
  • Example: Ireland and Northern Ireland, Sudan and South Sudan
• Antecedent: Boundary existing before cultural landscape.
  • Example: Mountains between Spain and France.
• Geometric: Boundary following a straight line or arc.
  • Example: US and Canada - 49th parallel, North and South Korea 38th parallel.
• Consequent: Boundaries that coincide with cultural groups.
  • Example: India (Hinduism) and Pakistan (Islam)

Function of Political Boundaries

• Boundary Creation Stages:
  1. Definition: Boundary is negotiated and legally described.
  2. Delimitation: Boundary is drawn on a map.
  3. Demarcation: Markers are placed on the ground.
  4. Administration: Boundary is maintained.
• Demilitarized zones: An area previously in conflict from which weapons and military forces have been removed
• The Berlin conference was a meeting held in Berlin in 1884 and 1885 with the purpose of the European nations dividing Africa among them for colonization purposes with the intent of preventing conflict over the process.
• The superimposed boundaries of Africa remained in place after independence, which has led to much of the current conflict and lack of ability to establish effective leadership
• Maritime boundary: the extensions of a country's territory that extend into the oceans around them
• UNCLOS: established rights and responsibilities of states concerning ownership/usage of the seas and their resources
• Territorial Sea: zone of water adjacent to a state’s coast (12 miles) in which a state has sovereignty
• Median-Line Principle: an approach to dividing and creating boundaries at the midpoint between two place
• Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ): zone of water adjacent to the Contiguous Zone (200 miles) in which the state has a right to explore, exploit, conserve, and manage resources
• South China Seas - China has built military installations on some disputed islands in the SCS

Internal Boundaries

• Voting District: Subdivision for electing members to a legislative body.
• Redistricting: Redrawing voting districts due to population changes.
• Gerrymandering: Redrawing voting districts to give

Forms of Governance

• Democracy: Government with power resting in the people.
• Unitary State: Strong national government, weak regional governments.
• Federal State: Strong national and regional governments share power.

Defining Devolutionary Factors

• Devolution: Transfer of decision-making power from a central government to a lower level.
• Physical Geography: physical boundaries can cause devolution as it was historically hard for resources for states to maintain autonomy over difficult physical regions (Belgium and Basque)
• Ethnic Separatism: Differences based on ethnicity, religion, language.
  • Example: Quebec.
• Ethnic Cleansing: Mass expulsion or killing of an ethnic/religious group.
• Terrorism: Violence against civilians for political reasons.
• Economic and Social Problems: Economic or social strife can lead to the devolution and altering of states
• Irredentism: State wants to annex territory with a similar population.
  • Example: Russia with Crimea.

Challenges to Sovereignty

• States fragmenting into autonomous regions.
  • Eritrea: broke from Ethiopia in 1991
  • South Sudan: broke from Sudan in 2011
  • East Timor: broke from Indonesia in 2002
  • Soviet Union: dissolved in 1991
• Democratization: introducing democratic systems or principles.
• Supranationalism: Political and/or economic alliance of three or more states formed for mutual benefit.
  • Example: United Nations.
• Economies of Scale: Cost advantages with increased production.
• Trade Agreements: Treaty on trade, tariffs, and taxes.
  • Example: NAFTA.
• Military Alliance: Agreement on mutual protection.
  • Example: NATO.

Consequences of Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces

• Centripetal Force: Unifies people and enhances support for the state.
  • Political - national identity, 4th of July
  • Economic - equitable infrastructure development
  • Cultural - linguistic, religious, and ethnic similarities
• Centrifugal Force: Divides the state
  • Political - majority/minority relationships, armed conflicts
  • Economic - uneven development
  • Cultural - stateless nations, ethnic movements

Introduction to Agriculture

• Agriculture: Modifying the environment to raise plants or animals for food.
• Mediterranean climate: hot/dry-summer climate, mild winter and a defined rainy season that produces certain fruits, vegetables, and grains such as grapes, olives, figs, dates, tomatoes, zucchini, wheat and barley. It prevails along the shores of the Mediterranean, in parts of California and Oregon, in central Chile, South Africa’s Cape, and in parts of Australia
• Tropical climate: hot, humid climate that produces certain plants, such as cassava, banana, sugar cane, sweet potato, papaya, rice, maize
• Extensive agriculture: Agriculture using small amounts of labor on a large area.
• Intensive agriculture: Agriculture using much labor on a small area.

Settlement Patterns and Survey Methods

• Clustered: Houses and farm buildings close together.
• Dispersed: People living far apart on their farms.
• Linear Settlement: Long, narrow settlement along a river or road.
• Surveying: Examining and measuring the Earth's surface.
• Metes and bounds: A system of describing parcels of land where the metes are the lines (including angle and distance that surround the property) and bound describes features such as a river or public road
• Long Lot: Land divided into long, narrow strips along a waterway or road.
• Township and Range: System of dividing large parcels of where the townships describe how far north or south from the center point

Agricultural Origins and Diffusions

• Fertile Crescent: Area in Southwest Asia where settled farming began.
• Columbian exchange: Widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations, communicable diseases, and ideas between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres that was launched by Columbus's voyages
• First Agricultural Revolution: People first domesticating plants and animals.
• Domestication: Taming plants or animals for human use.
• Agricultural Hearths: Locations where plant and animal domestication began.
• Fertile soil in river valleys, availability of water, moderate climates, and collective societal structures, these are the Commonalities among Agricultural Hearths:

Second Agricultural Revolution

• Coincides with the Industrial Revolution.
• Effects: New technology, increased food production, better diet, and longer life.
• New technology, Led to increased food production, Better diet, longer life, and more people available for work in factories, Shifting demographics (moving to cities, less farmers) are Effects of the Second Agricultural Revolution
• Enclosure Movement: Landowners purchasing and enclosing land which enabled and led to the: Emergence of commercial agriculture, Fewer and larger farms - > decrease in farm owners - > improvements in farming techniques - > decrease in agricultural laborers
• Urbanization: Mass migration to cities.

Green Revolution

• Spread of new technologies (high yield seeds and chemical fertilizers) to the developing world in the 1960s-70s.
• Positive ⊳ Able to grow more crops on same amount of land which decreases food prices
• Negative ⊳ Destroying local land and traditional modes of agricultural production, Decreasing biodiversity (hybrid seeds diminish local
  plant diversity), Impact of chemical Biotechnology: is the application of scientific techniques to modify and improve plants, animals, and microorganisms to enhance their value.

Agricultural Production Regions

• Subsistence Agriculture: Growing enough food to survive.
• Commercial Agriculture: Production for sale and profit.
• Monoculture: Growing one crop at a time.
• Mono-Cropping: Growing the same crop year after year.
• Bid-rent theory: a geographic theory that states the price and demand for real estate change as the distance from the central business district (CBD) increases

Spatial Organization of Agriculture

• Commodity Chain: Activities in creating a product from design to distribution.
• Agribusiness: System linking various industries to the farm.
• Economies of Scale: Cost advantages from producing a large amount.

Von Thünen Model

• Explains rural land use based on transportation costs and distance from market.
• Von Thünen’s rings distribute various farming activities into concentric rings around a central market city.
  • Dairy and gardening is close to the center because it is a perishable good, where the farmer can maximize the profit, intensive agriculture
  • Forests are close to the market, because people need it for fuel and This needed to be close and is expensive to transport
  • Extensive agriculture (grains, field crops) do not perish as quickly as vegetables and milk and need plenty space to grow
  • Livestock and ranching further from the market for cheap land (need more of it and transportation is cheap)

Global System of Agriculture

• Global Supply Chain: Worldwide network to maximize profits.
• Export Commodity: Goods sent to another country for sale.

Consequences of Agricultural Practices

• Pollution: Contamination by chemicals.
• Land Cover Change: Agricultural areas lost to development.
• Conservation: Protection of wildlife and resources.
• Deforestation: Loss of trees.
• Desertification: Dry area becoming drier.
• Irrigation: Moving water to where it's needed.
• Draining Wetlands: Used drainage for agricultural practices
• Pastoral Nomadism: Herding animals without permanent pasture.
• Soil Salinization: Buildup of salt in soil.
• Terrace Farming: Farming on hillsides with man-made steps.
• Changing Diets: MDCs continue their demand for meat, LDCs see an increase in their demand for meat, as well as convenient, processed food.

Challenges of Contemporary Agriculture

• Agricultural Biotechnology: the use of scientific tools and techniques to modify plants and animals (Pesticide resistant crops, Antibiotics, Biofuels)
• GMO: Genetically modified plants or animals.
• Aquaculture: raising of fish and shellfish in ponds and controlled saltwater hatcheries raising of fish and shellfish in ponds and controlled saltwater hatcheries
• Value Added Foods: foods that have increased in value due to alterations in production, size, shape, appearance, location, and/or convenience
• Organic Farming: Without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers.
• Fair Trade: Fair prices paid to producers in LDCs.
• Community-supported agriculture (CSA): individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that growers and consumers provide mutual support
• Urban Farming: Integrating crops or animals into an urban ecosystem.
• Dietary Shifts: movement from processed foods, meat, and sugars towards one more based in fruits and vegetables
• Food Insecurity: Without reliable access to food.
• Food Desert: Limited access to nutritious food.
• Weather: agricultural production is affected by high temperatures, drought, flooding, storms, freezes

Women in Agriculture

• Women are frequently denied loans or financial support, cannot afford tuition or fees; or rural communities lack funding to provide schools
• Women may be unable to obtain or access inputs to improve productivity (e.g., land, animals, equipment, seeds, fertilizer, or infrastructure)
• Women practicing subsistence agriculture may not be able to generate a surplus
• Impacts of exposure to environmental hazards (agricultural pollution, chemicals, groundwater pollution) that cause health problems for women and children which have an economic impact (household, local, or national scale)
• In many societies women hold agricultural knowledge and skills passed down to daughters
• Laws and government policies preventing women from acquiring land tenure, owning, or inheriting land
• Women may lack access to political processes (voting), and institutions (representative government); or females lack political
  power to improve law and policy affecting women’s issues.
• Empowering and investing in rural women has been shown to significantly: ▪ Increase productivity, ▪ Reduce hunger and malnutrition, ▪ Improve rural livelihoods

Origin of Urbanization and Influences

• Site: the place where the settlement is located. Absolute location of a city Ex. on a hill or in a sheltered valley
• Situation: describes where the settlement is in relation to other settlements and features of the surrounding area. Relative location of a city Ex. the settlement surrounded by forest or next to a large city
• Urbanization: Movement from rural areas to cities.
  • Early humans were nomadic, meaning no permanent home
  • Some decided to stop and stay put in certain areas (settlements originated in Mesopotamia: part of the Fertile Crescent in SW Asia)
  • These areas began to grow in size and became cities as we know them today
  • Early settlements were agricultural villages that formed after humans began growing food and crops
  • Typically located in fertile river valleys (nutrient rich topsoil/silt and water source for crops)
  • Farmers were able to produce surplus crops which could feed larger populations
  • Led to people being able to pursue other occupations and trades
  • Socioeconomic Stratification: differentiation of society into classes based on wealth, power, production or prestige
  • First Urban Revolution: agricultural and socioeconomic innovations that led to the rise of early cities
• Factors Influencing Urbanization:
  • Transportation: Shapes city layout and size.
  • Communication: Allows businesses to grow.
  • Rural-to-Urban Migration: movement of people (typically farmers) from rural settlements to urban centers in search of jobs
  • Redevelopment: set of activities intended to revitalize an area that has fallen on hard times.

Cities Across the World

• Megacities: Over 10 million inhabitants.
  • Example: Cairo, Mumbai, Beijing, Dhaka, Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto
• Metacities: Over 20 million inhabitants.
  • Example: Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, São Paulo, Mexico City
• Micropolitan Area: Population between 10,000 - 50,000 people. Smaller City and Surrounding Towns/Counties.
• Megalopolis: Several large cities growing together.
  • Example: BosNYwash (Boston to New York to Washington DC).
• Metropolitan Statistical Area: Central city of at least 50,000 people and linked urban areas.
• Suburbanization is a population shift from central urban areas into suburbs, resulting in the formation of (sub)urban sprawl
• Sprawl (or urban sprawl): Tendency of cities to grow outward in an unchecked manner
• Edge Cities: Economic activity nodes on the periphery.
• Exurbs: a district outside a city, especially a prosperous area beyond the suburbs. Often found near farmland, beaches or mountains
• Boomburbs: Large, rapidly growing communities.

Cities and Globalization

• World City (or global city): Control center of the global economy.
  • Example: Tokyo, Paris, New York City.
• Urban Hierarchy: Ranking by population size and economic function.

| Type of City | Characteristics | Examples |
| :------------ | :------------------------------------------ | :------------------------------------------------------------ | World City | Dominant City in Terms of Economic Standing | New York, London, Tokyo
| Megalopolis | An extended Conurban Area, Consisting of Several Cities| BosNYwash (the Area from BOSTON to NEW YORK to WASHINGTON DC)
| Alpha City | Primary Regional Nodes in the Global Economy | New York, London, Hong Kong, Sydney
| Beta City | Secondary Regional Nodes in the Global Economy | Washington DC, Dallas, Berlin, Wuhan
| Gamma City | Tertiary Regional Nodes in the Global Economy | Cleveland, St. Petersburg, Austin, St. Louis

Size and Distribution of Cities

• Rank-Size Rule: Nth largest city is 1/N the population of the largest.
• Primate City: Dominates economy, culture, and politics; more than twice the population of the next largest city.
  • Example: London, Paris, Bangkok.
• Christaller’s central place theory: explains how services are distributed and why a regular pattern of settlements exists
  Central place: a settlement that makes certain types of products and services available to consumers,
  Threshold: the # of people required to support businesses
  Range: the distance people will travel to acquire a good
• Low-Order central place functions: are used by consumers on a regular/daily basis and, as a result, people are not willing to travel far to use them (Walgreens, gas station, grocery store)
• High-Order central place functions: are used less frequently by consumers and, as a result, people are willing to travel further for it (baseball games, football games, hospitals)
• Gravity Model: Interaction based on population size and distance.
  • The greater the number of people in an area, the greater the number of potential customers for a service.
  • The farther people are from a particular service, the less likely they are to use it.

Internal Structure of Cities

• Concentric-Zone Model: Divides the city into five concentric zones, defined by their function, centered around the CBD. Based on Chicago.
• Sector Model: Zones expanded outward from the city center along transportation corridors creating a wedge shape.
• Multiple Nuclei Model: The CBD is scattered into several nodes, with transportation hubs near industries and airports.
• Galactic (peripheral) City Model - it consists of an inner city, surrounded by large suburban