Unit 6 Huge Defenitions

1. Agglomeration: The clustering of industries or businesses in the same geographic area to benefit from economies of scale, shared services, or resources.

2. Assembly Line: A production method where a product is assembled step-by-step as it moves along a conveyor belt, with workers specializing in a specific task at each station.

3. Bulk-Gaining Industry: Industries that produce products that gain weight or volume during the manufacturing process (e.g., soft drink production, cars).

4. Bulk-Reducing Industry: Industries that produce products that lose weight or volume during the manufacturing process (e.g., mining, steel production).

5. Capital: Financial resources or assets used for investment, machinery, or labor in the production of goods and services.

6. Consumptive Water Usage: The use of water that is not returned to the water supply after being used, typically for irrigation, industrial cooling, or consumption.

7. Cottage Industry: A small-scale, home-based manufacturing industry, often producing handmade or artisanal goods.

8. Deindustrialization: The decline or reduction of industrial activity in a region, often accompanied by the rise of a service-based economy.

9. Export Processing Zone (EPZ): A designated area where goods can be imported and manufactured for export, usually with reduced taxes or duties.

10. Footloose Industry: Industries that are not tied to a specific location due to their low transportation costs or flexibility in choosing sites (e.g., high-tech firms, consulting).

11. Fossil Fuel: Energy sources derived from ancient organic matter, such as coal, oil, and natural gas.

12. Post-Fordism: A flexible approach to industrial production that focuses on customization, innovation, and high-tech production methods, differing from Fordist mass production.

13. Geothermal Energy: Energy derived from the heat of the Earth, often used in power plants or for heating purposes.

14. Greenhouse Effect: The trapping of heat in the Earth's atmosphere by greenhouse gases (e.g., CO2, methane), leading to global warming.

15. Just-in-Time Delivery: A production strategy where materials or goods are delivered exactly when needed, minimizing inventory costs.

16. Industrial Revolution: A period of rapid industrial growth in the 18th and 19th centuries that transformed economies from agrarian to industrial, involving innovations like machinery and factory systems.

17. Infrastructure: The physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, such as transportation, communication, and energy systems.

18. International Division of Labor: The global distribution of labor where different regions or countries specialize in different stages of production, often based on comparative advantage.

19. Labor-Intensive Industry: Industries that require a large amount of labor relative to capital investment (e.g., textiles, agriculture).

20. Weber’s Least-Cost Theory: A theory that explains the location of industries based on minimizing transportation, labor, and agglomeration costs.

21. Maquiladora: A factory in Mexico that assembles imported materials or components into products for export, usually located near the U.S.-Mexico border.

22. Mass Production: The large-scale manufacturing of goods using standardized methods and assembly lines, typically aimed at reducing costs.

23. Nonpoint Source Pollution: Pollution that comes from multiple diffuse sources, such as runoff from agricultural fields or urban areas, rather than a single identifiable point.

24. Outsourcing: The practice of obtaining goods or services from an external supplier, often in a different country, to reduce costs.

25. Primary Industry: Industries involved in extracting or harvesting natural resources, such as agriculture, mining, and forestry.

26. Post-Fordist Production: A more flexible, decentralized approach to production in contrast to Fordism, often involving customization and small-batch production.

27. Potential vs. Proven Reserve:

• Potential Reserve: Resources that are thought to exist but have not been discovered or fully developed.

• Proven Reserve: Resources that are known to exist and are commercially viable to extract.

28. Recycling: The process of converting waste materials into new products to reduce resource consumption and waste.

29. Renewable Energy: Energy derived from sources that are naturally replenished, such as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal power.

30. Right-to-Work Laws: Legislation that allows employees to work without being required to join a union or pay union dues.

31. Secondary Industry: Industries involved in manufacturing and processing raw materials into finished products, such as factories and construction.

32. Special Economic Zone (SEZ): A region within a country that has economic and business regulations that differ from the rest of the country, often with tax incentives to encourage investment.

Urban Geography and Settlement Terms:

1. Business Services: Services that support other businesses, such as finance, marketing, and consulting.

2. Central Place Theory: A theory by Walter Christaller that explains the size, number, and distribution of cities and towns based on the services they provide and their distance from each other.

3. Clustered Rural Settlement: A rural settlement pattern where buildings are closely packed together, often with farms surrounding the village or town.

4. Consumer Services: Services that are provided to individual consumers, such as retail, education, healthcare, and entertainment.

5. Dispersed Rural Settlement: A rural settlement pattern where houses and farms are spread out over a large area.

6. Enclosure Movement: The historical process in which common lands in England were consolidated into individual farms, leading to more efficient farming but also displacing rural populations.

7. Gravity Model: A model that explains the interaction between two places based on their population sizes and the distance between them, similar to the concept of gravitational pull.

8. Hierarchy of Settlements: The ranking of settlements based on their size, services, and functions, where larger settlements provide more services and attract more people.

9. Hinterland or Market Area: The area surrounding a central place that is served by that place, where people from the surrounding region come to buy goods and services.

10. Long-Lot Settlement: A type of rural settlement pattern where land is divided into narrow, elongated parcels, often along rivers or roads.

11. Non-Basic Business: Businesses that serve the local population and do not export goods or services outside the region (e.g., local restaurants, dry cleaners).

12. Periodic Market: A market that is held at regular intervals (daily, weekly, monthly) where vendors sell goods in temporary locations.

13. Primate City: The largest city in a country or region, typically much larger than the second-largest city, and often the center of political, economic, and cultural activity.

14. Public Services: Services provided by the government for the benefit of the general population, such as police, fire, education, and public health.

15. Range: The maximum distance people are willing to travel to purchase a good or service.

16. Rank-Size Rule: A pattern where the population of a city is inversely proportional to its rank in the urban hierarchy, with the second-largest city being half the size of the largest, the third-largest being a third, and so on.

17. Settlement: A community or group of buildings where people live and interact.

18. Service: The provision of intangible goods or activities to meet the needs or desires of individuals or businesses.

19. Threshold: The minimum number of people needed to support a service or business.

20. Township-and-Range Survey: A land survey system used in the United States, especially in the Midwest and West, to divide land into rectangular parcels based on a grid system.

21. Urbanization: The process by which more people move into cities and towns, leading to the growth of urban areas.

22. World City: A city that is a global center for finance, culture, and trade, and often has significant influence on global affairs (e.g., New York, London, Tokyo).