AP Human Geography - Vocabulary by Unit with Definitions
Geography – Nature & Perspectives
Sequent Occupance: Different groups of people leave marks on a place over time, showing how humans and nature connect.
Cultural Landscape: Modification of the natural landscape by a cultural group, representing human interaction with nature.
Arithmetic Density: Total population divided by total land area; people per area of land.
Physiological Density: Population per unit of arable land, indicating land use relative to population.
Hearth: Region of origin for innovative ideas, related to the spread of ideas (diffusion).
Diffusion: The process of a feature or trend spreading over time from one place to another.
Relocation Diffusion: Spread of an idea through physical movement of people. Ex: spread of AIDS from New York, California, & Florida.
Expansion Diffusion: Spread of a feature from one place to another, snowballing.
Hierarchical Diffusion: Spread from authority figures or nodes of power to other persons or places (Ex: hip-hop/rap music).
Contagious Diffusion: Rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population (Ex: ideas placed on the internet).
Stimulus Diffusion: Spread of an underlying principle, even if the characteristic fails to diffuse (Ex: PC & Apple competition).
Absolute Distance: Exact measurement of physical space between two places.
Relative Distance: Approximate measurement of physical space between two places.
Distribution: Arrangement of something across Earth’s surface.
Environmental Determinism: 19th/20th-century approach arguing human geographers could find general laws in physical sciences; geography studied how physical environment caused human activities.
Absolute Location: Position on Earth using longitude and latitude coordinates.
Relative Location: Position on Earth relative to other features (Ex: My house is west of 394).
Site: Physical character of a place; what is found there and why it is significant.
Situation: Location of a place relative to other places.
Space-Time Compression: Reduction in time to diffuse something due to improved communication & transportation.
Friction of Distance: Distance requires effort/money/energy to overcome, so spatial interactions occur more over shorter distances.
Distance Decay: Diminishing importance of a phenomenon with increased distance from its origin. Electronic devices reduce these barriers.
Networks: Interconnected nodes without a center (Manuel Castells definition).
Connectivity: Relationships among people/objects across space. Geographers study means of connection.
Accessibility: Ease of reaching certain locations from others; varies by place and can be measured.
Space: Physical gap or interval between two objects.
Spatial Distribution: Physical location of geographic phenomena across space.
Size: Estimation or determination of extent.
Scale: Representation of a real-world phenomenon at a level of reduction/generalization. Map distance to ground distance ratio in cartography.
Formal Region: Area where everyone shares one or more common distinctive characteristics (cultural value, environmental climate).
Functional Region: Area organized around a node or focal point. Characteristic dominates at the center and diminishes outward, tied by transportation, communication, or economic associations.
Vernacular Region: Place people believe exists as part of their cultural identity; emerges from informal sense of place (often identified using a mental map).
Possibilism: Physical environment limits some actions, but people can adjust to it.
Pattern: Arrangement of objects in space. Can be geometric or irregular; may form a linear distribution.
Place Name: Toponym, the name given to a place on Earth.
Population – Migration & Dispersion
Age Distribution: (Population pyramid) Two back-to-back bar graphs showing males and females in 5-year age groups, indicating if there's a high guest worker population, a war, or a deadly disease.
Carry Capacity: Population level that can be supported by available resources (food, water, habitat). Tells how many people an area can support.
Cohort: Population of age categories in age-sex pyramids, indicating a country's stage in the demographic transition model.
Demographic Equation: Formula for population change: . Determines a country's stage in the demographic transition model.
Demographic Momentum: Continued population growth after fertility decline due to a young age distribution, leading to a different stage in the demographic transition model.
Demographic Regions: Cape Verde (Stage 2 - High Growth), Chile (Stage 3 - Moderate Growth), Denmark (Stage 4 - Low Growth), showing different parts of the world in different stages of demographic transition.
Demographic Transition Model: 5 stages: Stage 1 (low growth), Stage 2 (high growth), Stage 3 (moderate growth), Stage 4 (low growth), Stage 5 (possible decline). Describes how countries develop from less to more developed.
Dependency Ratio: Number of dependents (too young/old to work) compared to the working population, indicating the financial burden on workers.
Diffusion of Fertility Control: Spread of fertility control globally (U.S.: below 2.1, Africa: above 4, South America: 2-3, Europe: below 2.1, China/Russia: below 2.1, Middle East: above 4), showing where populations are growing versus leveling off.
Disease Diffusion: Contagious (spread through population density) and hierarchical (spread from urban to rural areas). Important for predicting disease spread.
Doubling Time: Years needed to double a population (constant rate of natural increase). Helps project population increase.
Ecumene: Proportion of Earth's surface with permanent human settlement, indicating how much land is built upon.
Epidemiological Transition Model: Distinctive causes of death in each stage of the demographic transition, explaining population changes.
Infant Mortality Rate (IMR): Annual deaths of infants under 1 year per 1000 live births. Indicates country's development level (high IMR = LDC, low IMR = MDC).
J-Curve: Exponential population growth projection, showing potential exponential resource use and demand for food.
Maladaptation: Adaptation that becomes harmful. Relates to human geography because it becomes unsuitable over time, showing as the world changes so do the things surrounding it.
Malthus, Thomas: Argued population increase was outpacing food development. Raised concerns about outrunning supplies.
Mortality: Measured by IMR and life expectancy. IMR reflects healthcare system; life expectancy measures average lifespan.
Natality: Crude birth rate (live births per 1000 people), indicating population growth rate.
Neo-Malthusian: Theory building on Malthus, considering LDC population growth and resource depletion beyond food due to medical transfers without wealth.
Overpopulation: Relationship between population and resource availability, causing problems when population exceeds environmental carrying capacity.
Population Densities: Frequency of something in space.
Arithmetic Density: Objects in an area, comparing population distribution.
Physiological Density: People per area of arable land, indicating potential food scarcity.
Agricultural Density: Farmers per farmland unit, indicating agricultural efficiency.
Population Distributions: Arrangement of features in space (density, concentration, pattern).
Population Explosion: Sudden population increase (late 18th/early 19th centuries due to Stage 2 of DTM). Factors can be traced.
Population Projection: Predicts future population.
Population Pyramid: Population displayed by age/gender on a bar graph, shaped by crude birth rate; shows age distribution and sex ratio.
Rate of Natural Increase: , excluding migration; affects population and resource support.
S-Curve: Traces cyclical movement upwards and downwards in a graph related to growth and decline in natural increase.
Sex Ratio: Males per 100 females, influenced by birth/death rates, immigration.
Standard of Living: Quality/quantity of goods/services available, higher in MDCs.
Sustainability: Providing best outcomes for humans and natural environments, meeting today's needs without compromising future generations.
Underpopulation: Sharp drop in population, impacting local economy due to fewer taxpayers.
Zero Population Growth: Crude birth rate equals crude death rate, natural increase nears zero, relevant to Stage 4 of the DTM.
Activity Space: Space allotted for an industry/activity (city area or central place).
Chain Migration: Family member migrates, rest follow (Mexico to U.S.).
Cyclic Movement: Clear cyclical trends in migration.
Distance Decay: Diminished contact due to distance.
Forced Migration: People removed due to war, disaster, or government.
Gravity Model: Predicts optimal service location is related to population size and inversely to distance.
Internal Migration: Movement within a country.
Intervening Opportunity: Environmental or cultural feature that helps migration.
Intercontinental Migration: Permanent movement to a different country on the same continent.
Interregional Migration: Movement from one region to another within a country.
Rural-Urban Migration: Movement from suburbs/rural areas to urban areas.
Transhumance Migration: Seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures.
Cultural Patterns & Processes
Acculturation: Adopting customs to one's advantage.
Assimilation: Less dominant cultures losing their culture to a more dominant one.
Cultural Core/Periphery Pattern: Core = main economic power, periphery = lesser economic ties.
Cultural Ecology: Geographic study of human-environmental relationships.
Cultural Identity: ones belief in belonging to a group or certain cultural aspect.
Cultural Landscape: Visible imprint of human activity.
Culture: Customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a group of people.
Culture Region:
Formal (Uniform): Shared distinctive characteristics.
Core: Center of economic activity.
Periphery: Outlying region.
Functional (Nodal): Organized around a node.
Vernacular (Perceptual): People believe exists as part of their cultural identity.
Diffusion Types:
Expansion: Spread in a snowballing process.
Hierarchical: Spread from authority figures.
Contagious: Rapid widespread spread.
Stimulus: Spread of an underlying principle.
Relocation: Spread through physical movement.
Innovation Adoption: Study of new technology spread.
Maladaptive Diffusion: Diffusion with negative side effects.
Sequence Occupancy: Cultural succession and its lasting imprint.
Religion: Faithfulness to codified beliefs and rituals, important due to past wars.
Religion and Belief Systems
Animism: Belief that objects and natural events have spirits.
Buddhism: Major universalizing religion in China and Southeast Asia.
Cargo Cult Pilgrimage: Movement in Melanesia with belief in ancestral spirits trading western goods.
Christianity: Monotheistic religion centered on Jesus, most popular religion.
Confucianism: Complex system of moral, social, political, and religious thought in China.
Ethnic Religion: Religion with concentrated distribution based on physical characteristics of its location.
Exclave/Enclave: Enclave surrounded by another country, exclave geographically separated.
Fundamentalism: Strict adherence to basic religious principles.
Geomancy: Prediction by interpreting markings on the ground.
Hajj: Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
Hinduism: Religion in India with karma belief; third largest religion.
Interfaith Boundaries: Boundaries between major faiths.
Islam: Submission to the will of God, monotheistic originating with Muhammad, second largest religion.
Jainism: Religion emphasizing spiritual independence and equality in India.
Judaism: Monotheistic faith; influenced many other religions.
Landscapes of the Dead: Areas for burial.
Monotheism/Polytheism: Belief in one god vs. many gods.
Mormonism: Religious and cultural aspects of Latter Day Saint movement.
Muslim Pilgrimage: Pilgrimage to Mecca during Ramadan (Hajj).
Muslim Population: Religion of 1.3 billion, predominant in the Middle East, with significant populations outside Middle East.
Proselytic Religion: (Universalizing Religion) A religion which attempts to be global and appeal to all people. There are three religions that practice this they are Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. To proselytize is to try to convert another person to your religion.
Reincarnation: Belief in rebirth in another life (plant, animal, or human).
Religion (groups, places): Universalizing religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism) and ethnic religions (Hinduism, Daoism, Confucianism).
Religious Architectural Styles: Temples, statues, etc. that have affected future styles.
Religious Conflict: Conflicts between religions (Israel-Palestine).
Religious Culture Hearth: Origin of major religions (Middle East, India).
Religious Toponym: Origin and meaning of religious names.
Sacred Space: Place for religious ceremonies with historical significance.
Secularism: Belief based on facts, not religious beliefs.
Shamanism: Beliefs and practices claiming ability to heal or cause pain.
Sharia Law: Legal framework based on Muslim principles.
Shintoism: Native religion of Japan, worship of kami.
Sikhism: Religion in Northern India emphasizing faith in God.
Political Organization of Space
Annexation: Incorporating territory into another geo-political entity.
Antarctica: Continent with no permanent residents, not belonging to any country.
Apartheid: Segregation of blacks in South Africa (1948-1994).
Balkanization: Fragmentation of a region/country into smaller entities.
Border Landscape: Exclusionary (keeps people out) and inclusionary (facilitates trade).
Boundary Disputes: Conflicts over border location/size.
Boundary Origin: Often from tribal lands or lands won in war.
Boundary Process: The process of creating boundaries.
Boundary Type: Natural, political, cultural; Africa and Middle East boundaries not defined by culture but by politics.
Buffer State: Country between hostile powerful countries.
Capital: Principal city; best located at the center of the country.
Centrifugal: Forces causing disunity in a state.
Centripetal: Forces unifying people in a state.
City-State: Region controlled by a city with sovereignty.
Colonialism: Establishing settlements and imposing political/economic control.
Confederation: Association of states by treaty on defense, foreign affairs, trade, and currency.
Conference of Berlin: Regulated trade/colonization in Africa.
Core/Periphery: Core countries are developed with innovation, periphery countries are less developed.
Decolonization: Colonies gaining independence.
Devolution: Decentralization of government or fracturing of government.
Domino Theory: If one land in a region came under the influence of Communists, then more would follow in a domino effect.
Exclusive Economic Zone: Sea zone with special rights over marine resources.
Electoral Regions: Voting districts.
Enclave/Exclave: Enclave surrounded by another country, exclave geographically separated.
Ethnic Conflict: War between ethnic groups.
European Union: Supranational union of European member states.
Federal: Power shared between national and state governments.
Forward Capital: Symbolically relocated capital.
Frontier: Zone with no state control.
Geopolitics: Study of geography, history, and social science with reference to international politics.
Gerrymander: Redrawing legislative boundaries to benefit a political party.
Global Commons: That which no one person or state may own or control and which is central to life.
Heartland/Rimland: Central region of a country/continent, maritime fringe.
Immigrant State: Target of many immigrants.
Agricultural & Rural Land Use
Agrarian: People/societies that are farmers promoting agricultural interests.
Agribusiness: Commercial agriculture integrated through large corporations.
Agricultural Industrialization: Use of machinery in agriculture.
Agricultural Landscape: The land that we farm on and what we choose to put were on our fields. Effects how much yield one gets from their plants.
Agricultural Origins: Domesticating plants/animals. Vegetative planting (SE Asia) and seed agriculture (W. India, N. China, Ethiopia).
Agriculture: Modification of Earth's surface through cultivation/livestock.
Animal Domestication: Domestication of animals for selling or using byproducts.
Aquaculture: Cultivation of aquatic organisms for food.
Biorevolution: Revolution of biotechnology.
Biotechnology: Using living organisms to produce commercial products.
Commercial Agriculture: Production for sale off the farm.
Core/Periphery: MDCs are called the core and LDCs is referred to as the periphery.
Crop Rotation: Rotating use of fields to avoid soil exhaustion.
Cultivation Regions: Regions with agricultural activity.
Dairying: Farming/sale of milk products.
Debt-for-Nature Swap: World Bank cancels debt if country sets aside natural resources.
Diffusion: Spread of a feature or trend over time.
Double Cropping: Harvesting twice a year from the same land.
Economic Activity:
Primary: Lumber and mining.
Secondary: Manufacturing products and assembling raw materials.
Tertiary: The service sector that provides us with transportation,communication and utilities.
Environmental Modifications: Destruction of the environment for the purpose of farming.
Extensive Subsistence Agriculture:
Shifting Cultivation: Use many fields for crop growing each field is used for a couple years then left fallow for a relatively long time.
Nomadic Herding/Pastoralism: Based on herding domesticated animals.
Farming: see agriculture.
Feedlot: plot of land on which livestock are fattened for market.
First Agricultural Revolution: Domesticating plants animals around 8000 B.C.
Fishing: Technique, occupation, or diversion ofcatching fish.
Food Chain: A series of organisms interrelated in their feeding habits.
Forestry: Science of planting and taking care of trees and forests.
Globalized Agriculture: Diffusion of agriculture across the globe.
Green Revolution: Newagricultural technology, especially newhigh-yield seeds and fertilizer.
Growing Season: The season in which crops growbest.
Hunting and Gathering: Before the agriculture, humans gained food by hunting for animals, fishing, or gathering plants.
Intensive Subsistence Agriculture: Form ofsubsistence agriculture in which farmers must expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum feasibility yield from a parcel of land.
Intertillage: Tillage between rows ofcrops of plants.
Livestock Ranching: Commercial grazing of livestock over an extensive area.
Market Gardening: Small scale production of fruits, vegetables, and flowers as cash crops sold directly to local consumers.
Mediterranean Agriculture: Farming in the land surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.
Mineral Fuels: Natural resources containing hydrocarbons
Mining: Extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, vein, orcoal seam.
Planned Economy:Economic system in which a single agency makes all decisions about the production and allocation of goods and services.
Renewable: Energy replaced continually within a human lifespan.
Non-Renewable: Energy formed so slowly that for practical purposes it cannot be renewed.
Rural Settlement: Sparsely settled places away from the influence of large cities.
Dispersed: Characterized by farmers living on individual farms isolated from neighbors rather than alongside other farmers in the area.
Nucleated: a number of families live in close proximity to each other,with fields surrounding the collection of houses and farm buildings.
Building Material: houses and buildings are typically built from materials that are abundant in the area.
Village Form
Sauer, Carl O.: Defined cultural landscape, as an area fashioned from nature by a cultural group.
Second Agricultural Revolution: Precursor to Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, that allowed a shift in work force beyond subsistence farming to allow labor towork in factories.
Specialization: Third level of cities, offer a narrowand highly specialized variety of services.
Staple Grains: Maize, wheat, and rice are the most produced grains produced world-wide, accounting for 87% of all grains and 43% of all food.
Suitcase Farm: Individuals who live in urban areas a great distance from their land and drive to the country to care for theircrops and livestock.
Survey Patterns:
Long Lots (French) houses erected on narrowlots perpendicular along a river
Metes and Bounds (English uses physical features of the local geography)
Township-and-Range (U.S.A) survey’s used west of Ohio.
Sustainable Yield: Ecological yield that can be extracted without reducing the base ofcapital itself.
Third Agricultural Revolution:’Green Revolution’ Rapid diffusion of newagricultural techniques between 1970’s and 1980’s, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers.
Mechanization: Farmers need tractors, irrigation pumps, and other machinery to make the most effective use of the new miracle seeds.
Chemical Farming: Increased use of fertilizers with nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
Food Manufacturing: increased production to avoid widespread famine.
‘Tragedy of the Commons’: social trap that involves a conflict over resources between interests and the common good.
Transhumance: pastoral practice ofseasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pasture areas.
Truck Farm: Commercial gardening and fruit farming.
Von Thunen, Johann Heinrich: When choosing an enterprise, a commercial farmer compares two costs.
Industrialization & Development
Agricultural Labor Force: Number of people working in agriculture, which indicates a country's development level.
Calorie Consumption: As a percentage of daily requirement, is an important index of development.
Core-Periphery Model: Describes the pattern of distribution of the MDCs and LDCs.
Cultural Convergence: Change in culture that occurs as diffusion of ideas and technology increases.
Dependency Theory: States that LDCs tend to have a higher dependency ratio.
Development: Improvement in material conditions of a place as a result of diffusion of technology and knowledge.
Energy Consumption: An index of development.
Foreign Direct Investment: Investment in the economies of LDCs by transnational corporations based in MDCs.
Gender: An important developmental factor.
Gross Domestic Product: Total value of goods and services produced in a year in a given country.
Gross National Product: Similar to GDP except that includes income that people earn abroad.
Human Development Index: An aggregate index of development,which takes into account economic,social and demographic factors, using GDP, literacy and education, and life expectancy.
Levels of Development: That countries are classified into include MDCs (more developed countries) and LDCs (less developed countries).
Measures of Development: Are used to distinguish LDCs from MDCs.
Neocolonialism: Refers to the economic control that MDCs are sometimes believed to have over LDCs.
Physical Quality of Life: Index, is another development index.
Purchasing Power Parity: Is an index of income related to GDP.
Technology Gap: The difference in technologies used and/or developed in two companies,countries, ethnic groups, etc.,where one is more advanced than the other.
Technology Transfer: Process by which existing knowledge, facilities, or capabilities developed under federal research and development funding are utilized to fulfill public and private needs.
Third World: Countries in the developing world independent of their political status (developing countries).
World Systems Theory: Refers to perspective that seeks to explain the dynamics of the “capitalistworld economy” as a “total social system”.
Bid Rent Theory: Refers to how the price and demand on land changes as the distance towards the CBD increases.
Assembly Line Production/Fordism: Industrial arrangement of machines, equipment, and workers forcontinuous flowofwork pieces in mass production operations, each movement of material is made as simple and short as possible.
Air Pollution: Concentration of trace substances at a greater level than occurs in average air, human causes include mainly motor vehicles, industry, and power plants.
Agglomeration Economies: Refers to benefits or advantages (savings,cost reductions, etc.) resulting from the spatial clustering of activities and/or people
Acid Rain: Tiny droplets of sulfuric acid and nitric acid in the atmosphere that dissolve in water and return to Earth’s surface.
“Stages of Growth” Model: Linear theory of development that developed countries go through a common pattern ofstructural change (1-Traditional Society, 2-Transitional Stage, 3-Take Off, 4-Drive to Maturity, 5-High Mass Consumption.
Rostow, W. W.: Economist, developed the “Stages of Growth” model in the late 1950s.
Aluminum Industry: U.S. companies are the largest single producer with plants in 35 states producing about $39.1 billion in products and exports. U.S. supply is comprised of three sources, primary, imports and recycled.
Cities & Urban Land Use
Agglomeration: A built up area consisting ofcentral city and its surrounding suburbs(similar to the term “urbanized area”,shows the extent of a city’s influence)
Barriadas: A neighborhood, usually a slum or lower class (many of the Latin American cities have these outside the central city)
Bid-Rent Theory: Explains that the price/demand for land increases closer to the CBD (explains the concentric zone model and why different levels of development are located at certain distances from the central city)
Blockbusting: The process of white families selling their homes because of fears that blacks would move in and lower the property value (explains the white flight of the 1950’s and the growth of suburbs)
CBD: Stands for central business district, location of skyscrapers and companies (would always be the center of the 3 urban models, many people commute, few actually live there)
Census Tract: These are govt. designated areas in cities that each have ~5,000 people, they often times correspond to neighborhoods (data in census tracts is used to analyze urban patterns such as gentrification or white flight)
Centrality: The strength of dominance of an urban center over its surrounding area, larger than the MSA or agglomeration (Twin Cities centrality extends up into northern MN, over intoND, SD, and western WI)
Centralization: The movement of people,capital,services, and govt. into the central city (opposite ofsuburban sprawl, happened to cities before WWII and is happening now)
Christaller, Walter: He created the Central Place Theory,which explains howservices are distributed and why there are distinct patterns in this distribution (central place theory involves market area/hinterland and the threshold,which is the minimum number ofcustomers needed to keep the business running)
City: Centralized area with a mayor and local government, usually bigger than a town (cities started in the Greek/Roman times, more and more people live in cities, especially in LDC’s)
Cityscapes: Similar to a landscape, yet of a city (cityscapes often showthe city’s skyline,which is the CBD).
Colonial City: Cities founded by colonial powers,such as Mexico City by the Spanish (these often contain plazas, large Catholic cathedrals, and historic architecture, most of these are in Latin America and in Southern Asia, in India)
Commercialization: The process of the increasing importance of business (advertisements in cities, development leans toward services)
Concentric Zone Model: Created by E.W. Burgess,city grows outwards from a central area (CBD in middle, then zone of transition, then zone of workers’ homes, then zone of residences, then commuter’s zone)
Counterurbanization: A net migration from urban to rural areas (this only happens in very developed areas in North America and Western Europe)
Decentralization: The process of dispersing decision-making outwards from the center of authority Deindustrialization-process of social and economic change caused by removal of industry.
Early Cities: Cities of the ancient world (-3500 to -1200) (We learned about howagriculture and language began in this era.
Economic Base: Communities collection of basic industry (We learned about job sectors)
Edge City: A new concentration of business in suburban areas consisting of suburbs (We learned about urban sprawl.)
Emerging Cities: City currently without much population but increasing in size at a fast rate (learned aboutcities that are growing at a fast rate)
Employment Structure: Graph showing howprimary secondary and tertiary sector jobs are separated.
Entrepot: Trading center where goods are exported and imported without cost. (We learned aboutcenters of trade.)
Ethnic Neighborhood: A neighborhood with distinctive ethnic composition (We learned about segregation ofcities into ethnic backgrounds.)
Favela: A shantytown or slum, especially in Brazil (We learned about the slum conditions faced by Latin American countries.
Female-Headed Household: A household dominated by a woman (We learned about how MCDs have different family structure.)
Festival Landscape: A landscape ofcultural festivities (We learned about the culture.)
Gateway City: A settlement which acts as a link between two areas. (We learned about primate cities,which are similar.)
Gender: A person’s sex (We learned about differences that occur as a result of gender.)
Gentrification: Process in which lowcost neighborhoods are renovated by middle class to increase property values. (We learned about the positives and negatives of this process.)
Ghetto: A usually poor section of a city inhabited primarily by people of the same race, religion, orsocial background. (We learned about the worst parts of cities.)
Globalization: Development of worldwide patterns of economic relationships (we learned about the future impact this will have.