AP Human Geography

Created by Amy L.
Diem
AP Human Geography
Instructor: A. Diem Class, you have a vocab. card for
almost all of these terms.
List of Concepts for AP Human Geography Exam
Unit I. Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives—Basic

Vocabulary and Concepts
Basic Concepts
Changing attributes of place (built landscape, sequent occupance)
• Built landscape—syn. built environment. 1) That part of the
physical surroundings which are people-made or people-
organized, such as buildings and other major structures, roads,
bridges, and the like, down to lesser objects such as traffic
lights, telephone and pillar boxes. 2) That part of the physical
landscape that represents material culture; the buildings roads,
bridges, and similar structures large and small of the cultural
landscape.
• Sequent occupance—1) Derwent Whittlesey’s term for a
succession of stages in the human occupance of an area (he was
also the guy that did the world climate map). 2) The notion that
successive societies leave their cultural
imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.
Cultural attributes
• Cultural landscape—1) Modifications to the environment by
humans, including the built environment and agricultural
systems, that reflect aspects of their culture. 2) The human-
modified natural landscape specifically containing the imprint of
a particular culture or society.
• Culture trait—A defining characteristic of the culture that is
shared by most, if not all, members. (ex: wearing a turban)
Density (arithmetic, physiological)—The frequency with which
something exists within a given 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, which is land suitable for agriculture.
Diffusion (hearth, relocation, expansion, hierarchical, contagious,
stimulus)—Diffusion is the spread of some phenomenon over space
and through time from a limited number of origins.
• Hearth—1) The region from which innovative ideas originate. 2)
The area where an idea or cultural trait originates.
• Relocation diffusion—1) A process in which items being
diffused leave the originating areas as they move to new areas
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Created by Amy L. Diem
(i.e. the items diffuse with people migrating). 2) The spread of a

feature or trend through the bodily movement of people from
one place to another. 3) Spreading through physical movement; sequential
diffusion process in which the items being diffused are transmitted by their carrier
agents as they evacuate old areas and relocate to new ones.
• Expansion diffusion—1) A process in which the items being
diffused remain and often intensify in the origin area as new
areas are being affected. (i.e. the items diffuse from person to
person) (ex: religions) 2) The spread of a feature or trend among
people from one area to another in a snowballing process. 3) The
spread of an innovation or an idea through a population resulting in an expanding
area of dissemination.
• Hierarchical diffusion—1) Diffusion of a disease, cultural trait,
idea, or innovation from larger to smaller places, leaping over
nearby but small places in the early stages. Hierarchical
diffusion emphasizes the size distribution of urban places (i.e.
the urban hierarchy) in explaining the spread of things over time
and space. (ex: diffusion of AIDs to West Palm Beach, FL) 2) The
spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of
authority or power to other persons or places. 3) The spread from
authority or power to other people. (ex: hip hop music from big cities to small
cities)
• Contagious diffusion—1) Diffusion of a disease, cultural trait,
idea, or innovation that spreads outward from a node or
epicenter in wavelike fashion. Contagious diffusion emphasizes
the frictional force of distance in explaining the spread of things
in time and space. 2) The spread of a disease, innovation, or
cultural trait through direct contact with another person or
another place. 3) The rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature or
trend throughout the population. (Ex: influenza)
• Stimulus diffusion—The spread of an underlying principle,
even though a specific characteristic is rejected. (ex: diffusion of
a computer mouse from Apple computers to IBM computers)
Direction (absolute, relative)
• Absolute direction
• Relative direction
Dispersion/concentration (dispersed/scattered,
clustered/agglomerated)—1) Geographers are also concerned with the
spread of objects in the spatial dimension. The degree of dispersion
can be describe in terms of a continuum ranging from clustered on one
end, through random, to uniform at the other end. 2) Concentration is
the extent of a feature’s spread over space; ranges from clustered if close together to
dispersed if far apart. 3) In spatial distributions, the clustering of a phenomenon around a
central location.
• Dispersed/scattered—far apart
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• Clustered/agglomerated—close together
Distance (absolute, relative)
• Absolute distance—The distance that can be measured with a
standard unit of length, such as a mile or kilometer.
• Relative distance—A measure of distance that includes the
costs of overcoming the friction of absolute distance separating
tow places. Often relative distance describes the amount of
social, cultural, or economic connectivity between two places.
Distribution—1) The arrangement of something across the Earth’s surface. 2) The
arrangement of a feature in space; three main properties of distribution across Earth
include density, concentration, and pattern.
Environmental determinism—syn. environmentalism. 1) A 19th and
early 20th c. approach to the study of geography that argued that the
general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the
physical sciences. Geography was therefore the study of how the
physical environment caused human activities. 2) The view that the
natural environment has a controlling influence over various aspects of
human life, including cultural development.
Location (absolute, relative, site, situation, place name)
• Absolute location—The exact position of an object or place,
measured within the spatial coordinates of a grid system.
• Relative location—The position of a place relative to places
around it.
• Site—The absolute location of a place, described by local relief,
landforms, and other cultural or physical characteristics.
• Situation—The relative location of a place in relation to the
physical and cultural characteristics of the surrounding area and
the connections and interdependencies within that system; a
place’s spatial context.
• Place name—Toponym.
Pattern (linear, centralized, random)—1) The geometric or regular
arrangements of something in a study area. 2) The design or arrangement of phenomena
in earth space.
• Linear
• Centralized
• Random
Physical attributes (natural landscape)
Possibilism—Geographic viewpoint (a response to environmental
determinism) that holds that human decision making, not the
environment, is the crucial factor in cultural development.
Nonetheless, possibilists view the environment as providing a set of
broad constraints that limits the possibilities of human choice.
Region (formal/uniform, functional/nodal, perceptual/vernacular)—A
region is an area characterized by similarity or by cohesiveness that
sets it apart from other areas.
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• Formal/uniform region—An area of near uniformity in one or

several characteristics (ex: Wheat belt, Corn belt, Rust belt,
Latin America. Anglo-America)
• Functional/nodal region—1) A region created by the
interactions between a central node and surrounding locations.
(ex: broadcasting zone); 2) A region defined by the particular set of
activities or interactions that occur within it; area organized around a focal point.
• Perceptual/vernacular region—An area defined by subjective
perceptions that reflect the feelings and images about key place
characteristics. (ex: the “South) When these perceptions come
from the local, ordinary folk, a perceptual region can be called a
vernacular region.
Scale (implied degree of generalization)
Size
Spatial--of or pertaining to space on or near Earth’s surface.
Spatial interaction (accessibility, connectivity, network, distance
decay, friction of distance, time-space compression)
• Accessibility—The relative ease with which a destination may
be reached from some other place.
• Connectivity—The degree of economic, social, cultural, or
political connection between two places.
• Networks—A set of interconnected nodes without a center.
• Distance decay-- The declining intensity of an activity with
increasing distance from its point of origin.; The decrease in
interaction between two phenomenon, people, or places as the
distance between them increases.
• Friction of distance—A measure of how much absolute
distance affects the interaction between two places.
• Time-space compression—A term associated with the work of
David Harvey that refers to the social and psychological effects
of living in a world in which time-space convergence has rapidly
reached a high level of intensity.
Geographic Tools
Distortion
Geographic Information System (GIS)—A set of computer tools
used to capture, store, transform, analyze and display geographic
data.
Global Positioning System (GPS) –A set of satellites used to help
determine location anywhere on the earth’s surface with a portable
electronic device.
Grid (North and South Poles, latitude, parallel, equator, longitude,
meridian, prime meridian, international date line)—the set of imaginary
lines that intersect at right angles to forma coordinate reference
system for locating points on the surface of the earth.
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• Latitude—the angular distance north or south of the

equator, defined by lines of latitude, or parallels.
• Parallels—another name for lines of latitude; east-west
lines of latitude that run parallel to the equator and that
mark distance north or south of the equator.
• equator
• Longitude—the angular distance east or west of the prime
meridian, defined by lines of longitude, or meridians.
• Meridians—another name for lines of longitude; lines of
longitude that run north-south; all lines of longitude are
equal in length and intersect at the poles.
• Prime Meridian—An imaginary line passing through the
Royal Observatory in Greenwhich, England, which marks
the 0 degree line of longitude.
• International Date Line—The line of longitude that
marks where each new day begins, centered on the 180th
meridian.
Map—A two dimensional graphical representation of the surface of the
earth (or of events that occur on the earth). Maps are the tool most
uniquely identified with geography; the ability to use and interpret
maps is an essential geographic skill.
Map scale--distance on a map relative to distance on Earth.; the ratio
between the size of an area on a map and the actual size of that same
area on the Earth’s surface.
• Large-scale maps—usually have higher resolution and
cover much smaller regions than small scale maps (ex:
South Beach)
• Small-scale maps—usually depict large areas (ex: state of
Florida)
Map types (thematic, statistical, cartogram, dot, choropleth, isoline)
• Thematic map—a map that demonstrates a particular feature
or single variable. Four types are: dot maps, choropleth maps,
proportional symbol maps, and isoline maps.
• Cartogram—a type of thematic map that transforms space
such that the political unit with the greatest value for some type
of data is represented by the largest relative area.
• Choropleth map—a thematic map in which ranked classes of
some variable are depicted with shading patterns or colors for
predefined zones.
• Dot map—a thematic map in which a dot represents some
frequency of the mapped variable.
• Isoline map—a thematic map with lines that connect points of
equal values.
Mental map—The maplike image of the world, country, region, city, or
neighborhood a person carries in mind.
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Model--a simplified abstraction of reality, structured to clarify causal

relationships. Geographers use models (e.g., Demographic Transition,
Epidemiological Transition, Gravity, Von Thünen, Weber, Stages of
Growth [Rostow], Concentric Circle [Burgess], Sector [Hoyt], Multiple
Nuclei, Central Place [Christaller], and so on) to explain patterns, make
informed decisions, and predict future behaviors.
Projection—A systematic method of transferring a spherical surface
to a flat map.
Remote sensing—The use of satellite images of the Earth. 2)
Observation and mathematical measurement of the earth’s surface
suing aircraft and satellites. The sensors include both photographic
images thermal images, multispectral scanners, and radar images. 3)
The observation and mathematical measurement of the Earth’s surface
using aircraft and satellites. .
Time zones—There are 24 times zones. Longitude plays an important
role in calculating time. Earth is divided into 360 degrees of longitude
(from 0 to 180 west, plus 0 to 180 east). Every 15 degrees of
longitude represent one time zone so that 360 degrees/15 = 24 time
zones, one for each hour of the day.
Unit II. Population—Basic Vocabulary and Concepts
Population
Age distribution
Carrying capacity
Cohort—All individuals in a certain range.
Demographic equation
Demographic momentum—syn. hidden momentum. Continued
population growth long after replacement-level fertility rates have
been reached. (ex: demographic momentum of India even though birth
rates have declined)
Demographic regions
Demographic Transition model—A model of population change
from an equilibrium with high birth rates and high death rates (Stage
1); to a stage of rapid population increase marked by high birth rates
and decreased death rates (Stage 2), to a stage of rapid population
decrease marked by decreasing birth rates and low death rates (Stage
3), to a new equilibrium with low birth rates and low death rates
(Stage 4)
Dependency ratio
Diffusion of fertility control
Disease diffusion
Doubling time
Ecumene
Epidemiological Transition model
Gendered space
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Infant mortality rate—Number of deaths of children under one year

of age per 1,000 live births in a year.
J-curve
Maladaptation
Malthus, Thomas—English economist, demographer, and cleric who
suggested that unless self-control, war, or natural disaster checks
population, it will inevitably increase faster than will the food supplies
needed to sustain it. This view is known as Malthusianism.
Mortality
Natality
Neo-Malthusian
Overpopulation
Population densities
Population distributions
Population explosion
Population projection
Population pyramid—A graph showing the number of males and
females in discrete age cohorts (age categories).
Rate of natural increase
S-curve
Sex ratio
Standard of living
Sustainability
Underpopulation
Zero population growth—A state in which the crude birth rate minus
the crude death rate equals zero. The number of deaths exactly
offsets the number of births.
Migration
Activity space
Chain migration
Cyclic movement
Distance decay—The declining intensity of an activity with increasing
distance from its point of origin.
Forced
Gravity model—A model to predict spatial interaction, where size
(population) is directly related to interaction and distance is inversely
related to interaction.; A mathematical formula that describes the level
of interaction between two places, based on the size of their
populations and their distance from each other.
Internal migration
Intervening opportunity—The idea that one place has a demand for
some good or service and two places have a supply of equal price and
quality, then the closer of the two suppliers to the buyer will represent
an intervening opportunity, thereby blocking the third from being able
to share its supply of goods or services. Intervening opportunities are
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frequently utilized because transportation costs usually decrease with

proximity.
Migration patterns
1 • Intercontinental
2 • Interregional
3 • Rural-urban
Migratory movement
Periodic movement
Personal space
Place utility
Push-pull factors –Pull factors are reasons to move to a particular
place. Push factors are reasons to move from a particular place.
Refugee
Space-time prism
Step migration
Transhumance
Transmigration
Voluntary
Unit III. Cultural Patterns and Processes, Part 1—Basic

Vocabulary and Concepts
Concepts of Culture
Acculturation—1) The adoption of cultural traits, such as language,
by one group under the influence of another. 2) Cultural modification
resulting from intercultural borrowing. In cultural geography and anthropology, the term
is often used to designate the change that occurs in the culture of a less technologically
advanced people when contact is made with a society that is more technologically
advanced.
Assimilation—1) The process through which people lose originally
differentiating traits, such as dress, speech particularities or
mannerisms when they come into contact with another society or
culture. Often used to describe immigrant adaptation to new places of
residence. 2) The process through which people lose originally differentiating traits,
such as dress, speech peculiarities or mannerisms, when they come into contact with
another society or culture. Often used to describe immigrant adaptation to new places of
residence.
Cultural adaptation-- The complex strategies human groups employ
to live successfully as part of a natural system.
Cultural core/periphery pattern
Cultural ecology—The study of the interactions between societies
and the natural environments they live in.
Cultural identity
Cultural landscape—see Basic Concepts above
Cultural realm
Culture—The sum total of the knowledge, attitudes, and habitual
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behavior patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a

society.
Culture region--A region defined by similar culture traits and cultural
landscape features. (ex: the state of Utah is considered to be a
Mormon culture region because the population of the state is
dominated by people who practice the Mormon religion and
presumably adhere to its beliefs and values.)
• Formal—core, periphery
1 • Functional—node
2 • Vernacular (perceptual)—regional self-awareness
Diffusion types
1 • Expansion diffusion—3 types: hierarchical, contagious,
stimulus
• Expansion diffusion—the spread of ideas, innovations,
fashion or other phenomenon to surrounding areas
through contact and exchange
2 • Relocation diffusion—The diffusion of ideas, innovations,
behaviors and the like from one place to another through
migration.
Innovation adoption
Maladaptive diffusion (ex: ranch house in New England)
Sequent occupance-- 1) Derwent Whittlesey’s term for a succession
of stages in the human occupance of an area. 2) The notion that successive
societies leave their cultural
Folk and Popular Culture

Adaptive strategy—The unique way in which each culture uses its
particular physical environment; those aspects of culture that serve to
provide the necessities of life: food, clothing, shelter, and defense.
Anglo-American landscape characteristics
Architectural form
• Folk architecture—Structures built by members of a
folk society or culture in a traditional manner and style,
without the assistance of professional architects or
blueprints, using locally available raw materials.
Built environment--1) That part of the physical surroundings which
are people-made or people-organized, such as buildings and other
major structures, roads, bridges, and the like, down to lesser objects
such as traffic lights, telephone and pillar boxes. 2) That part of the
physical landscape that represents material culture; the buildings
roads, bridges, and similar structures large and small of the cultural
landscape.
Folk culture—A small, cohesive, stable, isolated, nearly self-sufficient
group that is homogeneous in custom and race; characterized by a
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strong family or clan structure, order maintained through sanctions

based in the religion or family, little division of labor other than
between sexes, frequent and strong interpersonal relationships, and a
material culture consisting mainly of handmade goods. It includes both
material and nonmaterial elements. It tends to be concentrated in rural
areas and has little variation over time. Folk cultures are still common
in poorer, underdeveloped countries. (ex: Amish)
Folk food
Folk house—Many folk houses survive in the refuge regions of
American and Canadian folk culture. New England folk houses are of
wooden frame construction and shingle siding often covers the exterior
walls. There are a variety of floor plans, including the New England
“large” house, a huge two-and-a-half story house built around a central
chimney and two rooms deep. As Yankees moved westward, they
developed the upright-and-wing dwelling. The New England homes are
often massive because of the cold winters which require much of the
work to be done indoors. By contrast, Southern folk homes are smaller
and built of notched logs. Many houses in this folk tradition consist of
two log rooms, with either a double fireplace between, forming a
saddlebag house, or an open, roofed breezeway separating the two
rooms, called the dogtrot house. An example of an African-American
folk dwelling is the shotgun house, a narrow structure only one room in
width but two, three, or even four rooms in depth. Canada also offers
a variety of traditional folk houses. NOT FINISHED
Folk songs—Folk songs are usually composed anonymously and
transmitted orally. A song may be modified from one generation to the
next as conditions change, but the content is most often derived from
events in daily life that are familiar to the majority of the people.
Folklore—Nonmaterial folk culture; the teaching and wisdom of a folk
group; the traditional tales, sayings, beliefs, and superstitions that are
transmitted orally.
Material culture—All physical, tangible objects made and used by
members of a culture group, such as clothing, buildings tools and
utensils, instruments, furniture, and artwork; the visible aspect of
culture. Compare: popular culture.
Nonmaterial culture—The wide range of tales, songs, lore, beliefs,
superstitions, and customs that passes from generation to generation
as part of an oral or written tradition.
Popular culture—A dynamic culture based in large, heterogeneous
societies permitting considerable individualism, innovation, and
change; having a money-based economy, division of labor into
professions, secular institutions of control, and weak interpersonal ties;
producing and consuming machine-made goods. It is concentrated
mainly in urban areas and changes rapidly over time. Compare:
material culture.
Survey systems
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Traditional architecture--
Language
Creole
Dialect
Indo-European languages
Isogloss
Language
Language family
Language group
Language subfamily
Lingua franca
Linguistic diversity
Monolingual/multilingual
Official language
Pidgin
Toponymy
Trade language
Religion
Animism
Buddhism
Cargo cult pilgrimage
Christianity
Confucianism
Ethnic religion
Exclave/enclave
Fundamentalism
Geomancy (feng shui)
Hadj
Hinduism
Interfaith boundaries
Islam
Jainism
Judaism
Landscapes of the dead
Monotheism/polytheism
Mormonism
Muslim pilgrimage
Muslim population
Proselytic religion
Reincarnation
Religion (groups, places)
Religious architectural styles
Religious conflict
Religious culture hearth
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Religious toponym
Sacred space
Secularism
Shamanism
Sharia law
Shintoism
Sikhism
Sunni/Shia
Taoism
Theocracy
Universalizing
Zoroastrianism
Ethnicity
Acculturation—1) The adoption of cultural traits, such as language,
by one group under the influence of another. 2) Cultural modification
resulting from intercultural borrowing. In cultural geography and anthropology, the term
is often used to designate the change that occurs in the culture of a less technologically
advanced people when contact is made with a society that is more technologically
advanced.
Adaptive strategy-- The unique way in which each culture uses its
Assimilation—1) The process through which people lose originally
differentiating traits, such as dress, speech particularities or
mannerisms when they come into contact with another society or
culture. Often used to describe immigrant adaptation to new places of
residence. 2) The process through which people lose originally differentiating traits,
such as dress, speech peculiarities or mannerisms, when they come into contact with
another society or culture. Often used to describe immigrant adaptation to new places of
residence.
Barrio—Spanish word for “neighborhood.” Barrioization was defined
by geographer James Curtis as the dramatic increase in Hispanic
population in a given neighborhood.
Chain migration—Migration of people to a specific location because
relatives or members of the same nationality previously migrated
there. (ex: Finns in Lake Worth; Poles in Chicago) It results in the
formation of ethnic neighborhoods.
Cultural adaptation—The complex strategies human groups employ
to live successfully as part of a natural system.
Cultural shatterbelt—see shatterbelt in Political Organization below.
Ethnic cleansing—Process in which more powerful ethnic group
forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create an ethnically
homogenous region.
Ethnic conflict
Ethnic enclave—1) Enclave is a residential cluster that results from
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voluntary segregation. (Ex: ethnic neighborhoods such as Chinatown,

Little Italy, etc.) 2) An ethnic area which persists over some time but
which is primarily based on choice and a preservation function in
particular.
Ethnic group—A term referring to vertical divisions in a society where
a group, which is part of a larger population, possesses a distinct
culture of its own. The members of such a group feel a common origin,
real or imaginary, and are frequently set apart by race, religion, or
national origin, or some combination of these.
Ethnic homeland
Ethnic landscape
Ethnic neighborhood—An area within a city containing members of
the same ethnic background. (Ex: Little Havana in Miami) 2)
Neighborhood, typically situated in a larger metropolitan city and
constructed by or comprised of a local culture, in which a local culture
can practice its customs.
Ethnicity—1) A socially created system of rules about who belongs
and who does not belong to a particular group based upon actual or
perceived commonality. 2) Identity with a group of people that share
distinct physical and mental traits as a product of common heredity
and cultural traditions.
Ethnocentrism—The attitude that one’s own race and culture are
superior to others’.
Ghetto—An ethnic area which persists because it is based on
constraints and discriminatory action of the charter group. Compare:
ghetto in Cities & Urban Land Use below.
Plural society—A society in which two or more distinct cultures or
social groups (with different languages, religious beliefs, kinship
systems) live side by side without mingling in one political unit. These
groups constitute different levels of social stratification.
Race—1) A problematic classification of human begins based on skin
color and other physical characteristics. 2) Identity with a group of
people descended from a common ancestor.
Segregation-- Spatial separation of specific population subgroups
within a wider population.
Social distance—Distance perceived by individuals or small groups
from themselves to other individuals or social groups. In practice it is a
functional distance which involves the spatial separation of two or
more distinct social groups for most activities. This may come about
by mutual choice or by imposition by the more powerful group.
Gender
Dowry death
Enfranchisement
Gender—see Development below
Gender gap
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Infanticide
Longevity gap
Maternal mortality rate
Unit IV. Political Organization of Space—Basic Vocabulary and

Concepts
Annexation
Antarctica
Apartheid—A system of forced segregation between races in South
Africa in effect until 1993.
Balkanization
Border landscape
Boundary, disputes (definitional, locational, operational, allocational)
Boundary, origin (antecedent, subsequent, superimposed, relic)
Boundary, process (definition, delimitation, demarcation)
Boundary, type (natural/physical, ethnographic/cultural, geometric)
Buffer state
Capital
Centrifugal
Centripetal
City-state
Colonialism
Confederation
Conference of Berlin (1884)
Core/periphery
Decolonization
Devolution
Domino theory
EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone)
Electoral regions
Enclave/exclave—Enclave is also residential clusters that result from
voluntary segregation. (Ex: ethnic neighborhoods such as Chinatown,
Little Italy, etc.)
Ethnic conflict
European Union
Federal
Forward capital
Frontier
Geopolitics
Gerrymander
Global commons
Heartland/rimland
Immigrant states
International organization
Iron Curtain
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Irredentism—A movement to reunite a nation’s homeland when part

of it is contained within another state. The piece of homeland that is
ruled by the other state is known as an irredenta.
Israel/Palestine
Landlocked
Law of the Sea
Lebanon
Mackinder, Halford J.--
Manifest destiny
Median-line principle
Microstate
Ministate
Nation
National iconography
Nation-state—A state that has the same boundaries as a nation.
Nunavut
Raison d’être
Reapportionment
Regionalism
Religious conflict
Reunification
Satellite state
Self-determination
Shatterbelt—A region caught between powerful forces whose
boundaries are continually redefined.
Sovereignty
State—A political territory equivalent to a “country.” Necessary
components to qualify as a state include 1) defined boundaries, 2) an
effective government, 3) international recognition of its formal
independence, 4) full sovereignty, 5) organized economy and
circulation system, and 6) permanent resident population.
Stateless ethnic groups
Stateless nation
Suffrage
Supranationalism
Territorial disputes
Territorial morphology (compact, fragmented, elongated, prorupt,
perforated)
Territoriality
Theocracy
Treaty ports
UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)
Unitary
USSR collapse
Women’s enfranchisement
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Unit V. Agricultural and Rural Land Use—Basic Vocabulary and

Concepts
Adaptive strategies--The unique ways in which each culture uses its

Agrarian--Referring to the culture of agricultural communities and the type of
tenure system that determines access to land and the kind of cultivation practices
employed there.
Agribusiness—1) An industrialized, corporate form of agriculture
organized into integrated networks of agricultural inputs and outputs
controlled by a small number of large corporations. 2) Commercial
agriculture characterized by integration of different steps in the food-processing industry,
usually through ownership by large corporations. 3) A general term for large-scale,
mechanized industrial agriculture that is controlled by corporate interests. 4) A set of
economic and political relationships that organizes agro-food production from the
development of seeds to the retailing and consumption of the agricultural product. 5)
Highly mechanized, large-scale farming usually under corporate ownership.
Agricultural industrialization--
Agricultural landscape--the cultural landscape of agricultural areas.
Agricultural location model—syn.--von Thunen model—1) A model that
explains the location of agricultural activities in a commercial, profit-making 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. The original (1826) Isolated State model now applies to the
continental scale and beyond. 2) Model developed by Johann Heinrich von Thunen
(1783-1850), German economist and landowner, to explain the forces that control the
prices of agricultural commodities and how those variable prices affect patterns of
agricultural land utilization. 3) Concentric-zone model which describes a situation in
which highly capital-intensive forms of commercial agriculture, such as market
gardening and feedlots, lie nearest to market. The increasingly distant, successive
concentric belts are occupied by progressively less intensive types of agriculture,
represented by dairying, livestock fattening, grain farming, and ranching.
Agricultural origins--
Agriculture—1) The intentional cultivation of crops and raising of
livestock. 2) The deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth’s surface through the
cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic gain. 3) A
science, an art, and a business directed at the cultivation of crops and the raising of
livestock for sustenance and for profit. 4) The purposeful tending of crops and livestock
in order to produce food and fiber. 5) The science and practice of farming, including the
cultivation of the soil and the rearing of livestock.
Animal domestication--The transformation of a wild animal into a domesticated
animal to gain control over food production. A necessary evolutionary step in the
16
development of humankind—the invention of agriculture.

Aquaculture—1) The cultivation of fish and shellfish under controlled conditions,
usually in coastal lagoons. 2) Production and harvesting of fish and shellfish in land-
based ponds.
Biorevolution
Biotechnology—1) Technique that uses living organisms (or parts of organisms) to
make or modify products, to improve plans and animals, or to develop microorganisms
for specific uses. 2) The use of genetically engineered crops in agriculture and DNA
manipulation in livestock in order to increase production. Increasingly applied to more
advanced states of food production in the form of radiation of meats and vegetables to
prolong their freshness.
Collective farm
Commercial agriculture (intensive, extensive)—1) Agriculture
primarily for the purpose of selling the products for money. 2)
Agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm. 3) Farming
primarily for sale, not direct consumption.
• Intensive agriculture involves small-area farms and
ranches with high outputs of labor per acre and high
output per acre. 2) Any agricultural system involving the
application of large amounts of capital and/or labor per unit of
cultivated land; this may be part of either a subsistence or a
commercial economy. 3) The expenditure of much labor and capital on
a piece of land to increase its productivity. In contrast, extensive
agriculture involves less labor and capital.
• Extensive agriculture involves large-area farms or
ranches with low inputs of labor per acre and low output
per acre. 2) A crop or livestock system characterized by low inputs
of labor per unit area of land. It may be part of either a subsistence or
a commercial economy.
Core/periphery—see Industrialization section below.
Crop rotation—1) The practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop
each year, to avoid exhausting the soil. 2) Method of maintaining soil fertility in which
the fields under cultivation remain the same, but the crop being planted is changed.
Cultivation regions
Dairying--An agricultural activity involving the raising of livestock, most commonly
cows and goats, for dairying products such as mil, cheese, and butter.
Debt-for-nature swap
Diffusion
Double cropping-- Harvesting twice a year from the same field. (Rubenstein);
Practice used in milder climates, where intensive subsistence fields are planted and
harvested more than once a year.
Economic activity (primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, quinary)
• Primary— The portion of the economy concerned with the direct extraction of
materials from Earth’s surface, generally through agriculture, although
sometimes by mining, fishing, and forestry.
• Secondary—1) Economic activities involving the processing of raw
17
materials and their transformation into finished industrial products; the

manufacturing sector. 2) Economic activities that process, transform, fabricated,
or assemble the raw materials derived from primary activities, or that reassemble,
refinish, or package manufactured goods
• Tertiary—1) Economic activities associated with the provision of services—
such as transportation, banking, retailing, education, and routine, office-based
jobs. 2) Economic activities involving the sale and exchange of goods and
services.
• Quaternary--Economic activities that deal with the handling and processing
of knowledge and information. The economic sector in which knowledge-based
jobs are among the fastest growing. Sometimes referred to as white collar jobs.
• Quinary-- The economic sector reserved for the very top echelon of any
organization: the CEO, FEO, research scientists, and the like. These people are
responsible for top-level corporate decisions and exist in an information-rich
environment. These are the “gold collar” jobs. Not all textbooks distinguish this
sector of the economy as separate from quarternary activities.
Environmental modification (pesticides, soil erosion, desertification)
• Pesticides
• Soil erosion
• desertification
Extensive subsistence agriculture (ex: shifting cultivation [slash-
and- burn, milpa, swidden], nomadic herding/pastoralism)
• Shifting cultivation—syn. Slash-and-burn, milpa, swidden— 1)
A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to
another; each field is used for crops for a relatively few years and left fallow for
a relatively long period. 2) Cultivation of crops in tropical forest clearings in
which the forest vegetation has been removed by cutting and burning. These
clearings are usually abandoned after a few years in favor of newly cleared
forestland. Also known as slash-and-burn agriculture. 3) A system in which
farmers aim to maintain soil fertility by rotating the fields within which
cultivation occurs. 4) Crop production on tropical forest clearings kept in
cultivation until their quickly declining fertility is lost. Cleared plots are then
abandoned and new sites are prepared. 5) A type of agriculture characterized by
land rotation, in which temporary clearings are sued for several years and then
abandoned to be replaced by new clearings; also known as slash-and-burn
agriculture.
• Nomadic herding— Migratory but controlled movement of livestock
solely dependent on natural forage. 2) Continuous movement of people with their
livestock in search of forage for their animals.
• Pastoralism—1) A form of subsistence agriculture based on herding
domesticated animals. 2) Subsistence activity that involves the breeding and
herding of animals to satisfy the human needs of food, shelter, and clothing.
Extractive industry
Farm crisis--The financial failure and eventual foreclosure of thousands of family
farms across the U.S. Midwest.
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Farming--The growing of crops as well as all forms of livestock raising, including the
use of natural vegetation for feeding the animals and the gathering-in of crops, whether
for subsistence or exchange.
Feedlot--A factorylike farm devoted to either livestock fattening or dairying; all feed
is imported and no crops are grown on the farm.
First agricultural revolution—1) The original invention of farming
and domestication of livestock 8,000-14,000 years ago and the
subsequent dispersal of these methods from the source regions. 2) The
first period of agricultural advancement and innovation which occurred between 12,000
and 14,000 years ago consisting of the practice of cultivating plants in place rather than
migrating to find edible plants in the wild. Cultivation of roots and seeds in place
allowed for the subsequent development of a sedentary form of life and permanent
settlements. In time, the first significant moves toward urbanization and new
governmental forms began to evolve. With the amount of food increasing, the first
recognizable population explosion occurred.
Fishing
Food chain--Five central and connected sectors (inputs, production, product
processing, distribution, and consumption) with four contextual elements acting as
external mediating forces (the State, international trade, the physical environment, and
credit and finance).
Forestry
Globalized agriculture-- A system of food production increasingly dependent
upon an economy and set of regulatory practices that are global in scope and
organization.
Green Revolution—syn. the Third Agricultural Revolution. 1) The
application of biological science to the development of better strains of
plants and animals for increasing agricultural yields. 2) Rapid diffusion of
new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers. 3) The
successful recent development of higher-yield, fast-growing varieties of rice and other
cereals in certain developing countries, which led to increased production per unit area
and a dramatic narrowing of the gap between population growth and food needs. 4) The
export of a technological package of fertilizers and high-yielding seeds, from the core to
the periphery, to increase global agricultural productivity. 5) The recent introduction of
high yield hybrid crops and chemical fertilizers and pesticides into traditional Asian
agricultural systems, most notably paddy rice farming, with attendant increases in
production and ecological damage.
Growing season
Hunting and gathering—1) The collecting of roots, seeds, fruit, and
fiber from wild plants and the hunting and fishing of wild animals. 2)
The killing of wild animals and fish as well as the gathering of fruits, roots, nuts, and
other plants for sustenance. 3) Activities whereby people feed themselves through
killing wild animals and fish and gathering fruits, roots, nuts, and other edible plants to
sustain themselves. 4) The killing of wild game and the harvesting of wild plants to
provide food in traditional cultures.
Intensive subsistence agriculture—1) A form of subsistence agriculture in
which farmers must expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum
19
feasible yield from a parcel of land. 2) Practice that involves the effective and efficient
use—usually through a considerable expenditure of human labor and application of
fertilizer—of a small parcel of land in order to maximize crop yield.
Intertillage—1) Practice of mixing different seeds and seedlings in the same
swidden. 2) The raising of different crops mixed together in the same field, particularly
common in shifting cultivation.
Livestock ranching—1) The raising of cattle for meat and of sheep for meat and
wool.
Market gardening—syn.—truck farming; horticultural farming. 1) Farming
devoted to specialized fruit, vegetable, or vine crops for sale rather than consumption. 2)
Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named because truck was a Middle English
word meaning bartering or the exchange of commodities. 3) The intensive production of
fruits and vegetables for market rather than for canning or processing.
Mediterranean agriculture--Specialized farming of grapes, olives, citrus, figs,
and certain vegetables which occurs only in areas where the dry-summer Mediterranean
climate prevails.
Mineral fuels
Mining
Planned economy-- A system of production of goods and services, usually
consumed or distributed by a governmental agency, in quantities, at prices, and
in locations determined by the governmental program.
Plant domestication--The transformation of a wild plant into a cultivated crop to
gain control over food production. A necessary evolutionary step in the development of
humankind—the invention of agriculture.
Plantation agriculture--The growing of cash crops on large estates. A plantation
is a large farm in tropical and subtropical climates that specializes in the production of
one or two crops for sale, usually to a more developed country (MDC).
Renewable/nonrenewable resources
• Renewable resources can be used and restored after use or
have an unlimited supply. A natural resource that is potentially
inexhaustible either because it is constantly (as solar radiation) or periodically (as
biomass) replenished as long as its use does not exceed its maximum sustainable
yield.
• Nonrenewable resources
Rural settlement (dispersed, nucleated, building material, village
form)—see settlement patterns in Unit VII: Cities below.
Sauer, Carl O.—Geographer from the University of California at
Berkeley who defined the concept of cultural landscape as the
fundamental unit of geographical analysis. The landscape results from
interaction between humans and the physical environment. Sauer
argued that virtually no landscape has escaped alteration by human
activities.
Second agricultural revolution—1) A period of technological change
from the 1600s to mid-1990s that started in Western Europe,
beginning with preindustrial improvements such as crop rotation and
better horse collars, and concluding with industrial innovations to
20
replace human labor with machines and to supplement natural

fertilizers and pesticides with chemical ones. 2) Most frequently associated
with changes and improvements in agriculture in England before an during the Industrial
Revolution of the late 18th c., this revolution began as early as the end of the Middle Ages
and extended into the 19th c. The Second Agricultural Revolution both acted as a
stimulus to the Industrial Revolution and benefited from a number of its inventions,
including advanced agricultural machinery to replace human and animal labor. New
approaches to crop rotation; the elimination of the open-field system; the awarding of
land to private owners through the Enclosure Acts; the use of fences, walls, and other
boundary identifiers; and the expansion of arable land were key factors in this important
era. Resulted in a population explosion (see J-Curve).
Specialization
Staple grains
Suitcase farm--In American commercial grain agriculture, a farm on which no
one lives; planting and harvesting is done by hired migratory crews.
Survey patterns (long lots, metes and bounds, township-and-range)
• Long lots
• Metes and bounds
• Township-and-range
Sustainable yield--The maximum rate at which a renewable resource can be
exploited without impairing its ability to be renewed or replenished
Third agricultural revolution (characteristics: mechanization,
chemical farming, food manufacturing)-- Began in the 1950s with continued
improvements in seed and chemical additives combined with advanced agricultural
machinery and computer-based farm management practices which brought higher crop
yields with less human labor. Traditional family farms gave way to agribusinesses.
Advances in agriculture have been most pronounced in the developed countries, but an
important exception is the Green Revolution, which brought great increases in grain
production to the countries of South Asia.
• Mechanization-- The replacement of human farm labor with machines.
• Chemical farming--Application of synthetic fertilizers to the soil—and
herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides to crops—in order to enhance yields.
• Food manufacturing-- The observation that in the absence of collective
control over the use of a resource available to all, it is to the advantage of all
users to maximize their separate shares even though their collective pressures
may diminish total yield or destroy the resource altogether.
“Tragedy of the commons”-- The observation that in the absence of collective
control over the use of a resource available to all, it is to the advantage of all users to
maximize their separate shares even though their collective pressures may diminish total
yield or destroy the resource altogether.
Transhumance--
Truck farm--
Von Thünen, Johann Heinrich –German economist and landowner
who explained the forces that control the prices of agricultural
commodities and how those prices affected patterns of agricultural
land utilization. (von Thunen model)
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Unit VI. Industrialization and Development—Basic Vocabulary

and Concepts
Development
Agricultural labor force—a large number of subsistence farmers
indicates a lower level of development whereas the presence of
commercial agriculture indicates a higher level of development. In
LDCs, more than 75% of the people are engaged in primary economic
activities such as agriculture. In MDCs, less than 5% are engaged in
primary activities.
Calorie consumption--Daily available calories per capita reflects a
country’s food supply. Daily available calories per capita is the
domestic agricultural production plus imports, minus exports and
nonfood uses. To maintain a moderate level of physical activity, an
average individual requires 2360 calories a day, according to the UN
Food and Agricultural Organization. The figure must be adjusted for
age, sex, and region of the world. In MDCs, the average person
consumes one-third or more over the required average minimum,
while in LDCs, the average person gets only the minimum requirement
or less.
Core-periphery model-- A model of the economic development process over
time and space that focuses on the evolving relationships between a rich, productive,
innovative core region and a poor, dependent periphery.
Cultural convergence--The tendency for cultures to become more alike as they
increasingly share technology and organizational structure in a modern world united by
improved transportation and communication.
Dependency theory--A school of thought that explains low development levels as
being a result of the LDCs’ economic dependency on MDCs. It also stressed that
development be measured in terms of human welfare indicators rather than economic
indicators. A school of thought that explains low development levels as being a result of
the LDCs’ economic dependency on MDCs. It also stressed that development be
measured in terms of human welfare indicators rather than economic indicators.
Development—The process of economic growth, expansion, or
realization of regional resource potential.; The extent to which a society is
making effective use of resources, both human and natural; the process of growth,
expansion, or realization of potential; bringing regional resources into full productive use.
Energy consumption--
Foreign direct investment-- The total of overseas business investments made
by private companies; When an economic entity such as a large transnational
organization decides not simply to market its products in a foreign country but to actually
build a facility there (e.g. factory, distribution center). Ex: Japan’s Nissan Corporation
decided to build an auto assembly plant in Smyrna, TN.
Gender--Social differences between men and women, rather than the anatomical,
biological differences between the sexes. Notions of gender differences—that is, what is
considered “feminine” or “masculine”—vary greatly over time and space.
22
Gross domestic product (GDP)-- The total dollar value of all final goods and
services sold in monetary transactions in a country in a given year, excluding overseas
transactions.
Gross national product (GNP)-- The total dollar value of all final goods and
services sold in monetary transactions in a country in a given year, including international
transactions.
Human Development Index-- Indicator of level of development for each
country, constructed by the United Nations, combining income, literacy, education, and
life expectancy.
Levels of development
Measures of development—Economic measures of development
include the gross domestic product per capita, types of jobs held by
people, access to raw materials, and ability to purchase consumer
goods; social indicators of development include literacy rate and
amount of education; and demographic measures of development
include the health and welfare of people in a society, life expectancy,
infant mortality rate, natural increase rate and crude birth rate.
Neocolonialism-- When a previously colonized country has become politically
independent but remains economically dependent on exporting the same commodities
(raw materials and foodstuffs) as it did during colonization.
Physical Quality of Life Index
Purchasing power parity--a method for comparing living standards
based on the price for equivalent products in different local currencies;
A monetary measurement which takes account of what money actually buys in each
country.
Rostow, W. W.
“Stages of Growth” model—syn. Stages of Development model—A
model of economic development that describes a country’s
progression which occurs in five stages transforming them from least-
developed to most-developed countries.
Technology gap-- The contrast between the technology available in developed core
regions and that present in peripheral areas of underdevelopment.
Technology transfer-- The diffusion or transfer of technology, usually from a
more-developed country to a less-developed country.
Third World--
World Systems Theory--Theory originated by Immanuel Wallerstein, who
proposed that social change in the developing world is inextricably linked to the
economic activities of the developed world. In this analysis, the world functions as a
single entity, organized around a new international division of labor in which those living
in poorer countries have little autonomy.
Industrialization
Acid rain-- A growing environmental peril whereby acidified rainwater severely
damages plant and animal life. Caused by the oxides of sulfur and nitrogen that are
released into the atmosphere when coal, oil, and natural gas are burned, especially in
major manufacturing zones.
23
Agglomeration—The grouping together of many firms in the same industry in a

single area for collective or cooperative use of infrastructure and sharing of labor
resources.; A process involving the clustering or concentrating of people or activities.
The term often refers to manufacturing plants and businesses that benefit from close
proximity because they share skilled-labor pools and technological and financial
amenities. (Ex: Hollywood movie industry—actors, movie studies, and other industry
support services all located in Hollywood)
Agglomeration economies-- The positive economic effects of urbanization and
the local concentration of industry. Cost savings resulting from location near other firms.
Agglomeration diseconomies means the negative economic effects of urbanization and
the local concentration of industry.
Air pollution
Aluminum industry (factors of production, location)
Assembly line production/Fordism-- A highly organized and specialized
system for organizing industrial production and labor. Named after automobile producer
Henry ford, Fordist production features assembly-line production of standardized
components for mass consumption.; Forms of mass production in which each worker is
assigned one specific task to perform repeatedly.
Bid rent theory—Bid rent theory indicates how much a person
(farmer, householder, retailer, etc.) is prepared to pay for a unit of land
at varying distances from the market/city center. It describes the
trade off of cheaper land rents with increased transport costs due to
increased distance from the market/city center . In an urban setting,
the highest land values will be found near the city center, or central
business district. Land values away from the city center will decline.
Within a city, the city center will have the highest values; a commercial
and office zone is found next, then an industrial zone, and finally a
broad residential zone. Population density will be highest toward the
center because of the high cost of land. Conversely, residential zones,
with their lower land costs, will allow a homeowner to purchase a
relatively large plot of land for a homesite. The advantages of locating
a business closer to the city center are lower transportation costs and
increased accessibility to activities at the center. These advantages
cost the business owner more for the land. For a residential location,
the requirement for optimal accessibility to the city center will usually
be lower than it is for a business.
Break-of-bulk point-- A location along a transport route where goods must be
transferred from one carrier to another. In a port, the cargoes of oceangoing ships are
unloaded and put on trains, trucks, or perhaps smaller riverboats for inland distribution;
The stage of transportation when a bulk shipment is broken into smaller lots and/or
different modes of transportation.
Canadian industrial heartland
Carrier efficiency
Comparative advantage—A position of global dominance as compared to other
countries.; When one region is relatively more efficient at producing a particular product
compared with other regions.
24
Cumulative causation-- Self-sustaining economic growth that builds on itself as

capital, skilled labor, innovation, and services attract and create more of the same.; A
spiral buildup of advantages that occurs in specific geographic settings as a result of the
development of external economies, agglomeration effects, and localization economies
Deglomeration—the opposite of agglomeration; The dispersal of an
industry that formerly existed in an established agglomeration. It
occurs when firms leave an agglomerated region to start up in a
distant, new place. (Ex: after the dot-com bust, some high tech firms
left San Francisco because the costs of living were so high)
Deindustrialization—Loss of industrial activity in a region.; A relative
decline in industrial employment in core regions.
Economic sectors
Economies of scale—Lower production costs as a result of a large
volume of production.
Ecotourism--Responsible travel that does not harm ecosystems or the well-being of
local people.
Energy resources-- Another factor in the location of industry is the availability of
an energy supply. This factor used to be much more important than it is today. The early
British textile mills, because they depended on water rushing down hillsides to drive the
looms, had few choices in deciding where to locate. The same can be said of early mills
in the northeastern U.S. Today, however, power comes from different sources and can be
transmitted via high-voltage electrical lines over long distances. Manufacturers are
therefore able to base location decisions on considerations other than power. Exceptions
occur when an industry needs very large amounts of energy—for example, certain
metallurgical (aluminum and copper processing), chemical industries (fertilizer
production, phosphate industry in Florida), and hydroelectric plants.
Entrepôt-- A place, usually a port city, where goods are imported, stored, and
transshipped; a break-of-bulk point.
Export processing zone-- Small areas within which especially favorable
investment and trading conditions are created by governments in order to attract export-
oriented industries.
Fixed costs
Footloose industry—Manufacturing activities in which cost of
transporting both raw materials and finished product is not important
for determining the location of the firm.
Four Tigers-- The newly industrializing countries of Asia are called the “little tigers”
or Four Tigers. They are Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. These four
tigers challenge Japan’s economic dominance of Asia. The forces behind the rise of the
four tigers are tied to the shift of labor-intensive industries to areas with lower labor
costs. They are also the product of government efforts to protect developing industry and
to invest in education and training.
Greenhouse effect-- A process in which the increased release of carbon dioxide
and other gases into the atmosphere, caused by industrial activity and deforestation,
permits solar short-wave heat radiation to reach the Earth’s surface but blocks long-wave
outgoing radiation, causing a thermal imbalance and global heating.
Growth poles-- Urban centers with attributes that, if augmented by a measure of
25
investment support, will stimulate regional economic development in its hinterland.;

Economic activities that are deliberately organized around one or more high-growth
industries.
Heartland/Rimland
Industrial location theory
Industrial regions (place, fuel source, characteristics)
Industrial Revolution—The rapid economic and social changes in
manufacturing that resulted after the introduction of the factory
system to the textile industry in England at the end of the 18th
century.; Period characterized by the rapid social and economic
changes in manufacturing and agriculture that occurred in England
during the late 18th c. and rapidly diffused to other parts of the
developing world.
Industry (receding, growing)
Infrastructure-- The underlying framework of services and amenities needed to
facilitate productive activity.; The foundations of a society: urban centers, transport
networks, communications, energy distribution systems, farms, factories, mines, and such
facilities as schools, hospitals, postal services, and police and armed forces.
International division of labor-- The specialization, by countries, in particular
products for exports.
Labor-intensive-- An industry for which labor costs represent a large proportion of
total production costs.
Least-cost location—A concept developed by Alfred Weber to
describe the optimal location of a manufacturing establishment in
relation to the costs of transport and labor, and the relative
advantages of agglomeration or deglomeration.
Major manufacturing regions—A region in which manufacturing
activities have clustered together. The major U.S. industrial region has
historically been in the Great Lakes, which includes the states of
Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania.
Industrial regions also exist in southeastern Brazil, central England,
around Tokyo, Japan, and elsewhere.
Manufacturing exports
Manufacturing/warehouse location (industrial parks,
agglomeration, shared services, zoning, transportation, taxes,
environmental considerations)
Maquiladoras—Those U.S. firms that have factories just outside the
U.S./Mexican border in areas that have been specially designated by
the Mexican government. In such areas, factories cheaply assemble
goods for export back to the U.S.
Market orientation—The tendency for an industry to locate near
population centers in order to save on transport costs, which usually
occurs when the final product is more expensive to transport than the
raw materials.
Multiplier effect-- syn.—multiplier leakage. The process by which industrial
profits flow back to major industrial districts from factories established in outlying
26
provinces or countries.; Expansion of economic activity caused by the growth or

expansion of another economic activity. For example, a new basic industry will create
jobs, directly or indirectly, in the non-basic sector.
NAFTA
Outsourcing--The practice of locating branch plants in foreign countries in order to
take advantage of the cheaper labor there.
Ozone depletion
Plant location (supplies, “just in time” delivery)
Postindustrial economy—The emerging mode of production and
consumption of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, featuring huge
transnational corporations and localized agglomerations that produce
and/or utilize information technology and telecommunications, with
greater employment in tertiary and quaternary services.
Refrigeration
Resource crisis
Resource orientation—syn. raw material orientation. The tendency
for an industry to locate near the source of raw materials in order to
save on transport costs, which usually occurs when raw materials lose
weight in the production process.
Special economic zones-- Specific area within a country in which tax incentives
and less stringent environmental regulations are implemented to attract foreign business
and investment (ex: China)
Specialized economic zones
Substitution principle-- In industry, the tendency to substitute one factor of
production for another in order to achieve optimum plant location.
Threshold/range—see Cities & Urban Land Use below
Time-space compression-- The reduction in time needed to move information,
people, and goods across earth space.
Topocide
Trade (complementarity)—The actual or potential trade between two
places.
Transnational corporation—A firm that conducts business in at least
two separate countries; also known as multinational corporation.
Ubiquitous good-- A widely available good that might be added in the process of
manufacturing at the market since the weight of the finished product would, in this case,
be greater than that of the localized (i.e. nonobiquitous) raw materials of which it is
composed.
Variable costs-- Costs which vary such as energy supply, transport expenses, labor
costs, and other needs which must be considered when locating a secondary industry.
Weber, Alfred
Weight-gaining industry—syn. bulk-gaining industry. An industry in
which the final product weighs more or comprises a greater volume than the inputs.
Weight-losing industry—syn. bulk-reducing industry. An industry in
which the final product weighs less or comprises a lower volume than the inputs.
World cities-- Cities in which a disproportionate part of the world’s most important
business is conducted.; A group of cities that form an interconnected, internationally
27
dominant system of global control of finance and commerce.
Unit VII. Cities and Urban Land Use—Basic Vocabulary and

Concepts
Agglomeration—In urban geography, the spatial grouping of people

or activities for mutual benefit. (see also Industrialization section
above)
Barriadas—1) Illegal housing settlements, usually made up of
temporary shelters, that surround large cities; often referred to as
squatter settlements.; 2) Shantytowns in Latin America; Latin American
rural people build dwellings in settlements on the cities' fringes without permission from
the authorities.
Bid-rent theory—see Industrialization section above
Blockbusting—1) A process by which real estate agents convince
white property owners to sell their houses at low prices because of fear
that black families will soon move into the neighborhood.; 2) An overt
tactic used by realtors to direct and control growth of black residential
areas in North American cities. It involves the use of scare tactics to
increase the rate of white turnover.
CBD (central business district)—1) The downtown heart of a central
city, the CBD is marked by high land values, a concentration of
business and commerce, and the clustering of the tallest buildings. 2)
The downtown or nucleus of an urban area. It has the peak value
intersection, the densest land use, the tallest buildings, and
traditionally was the urban area’s major concentration of retail, office,
and cultural activity.; 3) The downtown or nucleus of a city where
retail stores, offices, and cultural activities are concentrated; building
densities are usually quite high and transportation systems converge.;
4) The area of the city where retail and office activities are clustered.;
The central nucleus of commercial land uses in a city. 5) The central
portion of a city characterized by high-density land uses.
Census tract—1) An areal unit defined and used by the Census
Bureau for the presentation of data. Census tracts incorporate roughly
4,000 people, but considerable variation occurs.; 2) An area
delineated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for which statistics are
published; in urbanized areas, census tracts correspond roughly to
neighborhoods.; 3) Small district used by the U.S. Census Bureau to
survey the population.
Centrality—1) As a concept applied to location in general, it means
‘enjoying a state of high accessibility,’ (i.e. the quality of being at the
center of a transport system). 2) As applied to urban centers it is a
relative measure of the importance of settlements in terms of the
ration between services provided and the local needs of its inhabitants.
Centralization—The spatial trend whereby people and activities
concentrate into a few centers or locations.
28
Central place—1) A market center for the exchange of services by

people attracted from the surrounding area.; 2) A settlement in which
certain products and services are available to consumers.; 3) An urban
or other settlement node whose primary function is to provide goods
and services to the consuming population of its hinterland,
complementary region, or trade area.; 4) Any point or place in the
urban hierarchy, such as a town or city, having a certain economic
reach or hinterland.; 5) A town or city engaged primarily in the service
stages of production; a regional center.
Central-place theory—1) A geographic model of the sizes and
location patterns of settlements that serve as central locations for
selling goods and services to hexagonal-shaped market areas.; 2) A
theory formulated by Walter Christaller in the early 1900s that explains
the size and distribution of cities in terms of a competitive supply of
goods and services to dispersed populations.; 3) A theory that seeks
to explain the relative size and spacing of towns and cities as a
function of people’s shopping behavior.; 4) Theory proposed by Walter
Christaller that explains how and where central places in the urban
hierarchy would be functionally and spatially distributed with respect
to one another.; 5) A set of models designed to explain the spatial
distribution of urban service centers.
Christaller, Walter—German geographer credited with developing
central place theory.
City—A multifunctional nucleated settlement with a central business
district and both residential and nonresidential land uses.
Cityscape—1) The landscape of an urban area; the combined
impression of a city’s built and nonbuilt environments.; 2) An urban
landscape.
Colonial city—1) A city that was deliberately established or developed
as an administrative or commercial center by colonial or imperial
powers.; 2) A city founded by colonialism, or an indigenous city whose
structure is deeply influenced by Western colonialism.
Commercialization
Commuter zone—syn. commuter belt. The zone from which a city
daily draws workers or commuters from residences outside the city to
work in the city.
Concentric zone model—syn. concentric ring model. 1) Model that
describes urban environments as a series of rings of distinct land uses
radiating out from a central core, or central business district; 2) Model
that explains urban land use in a pattern of concentric zones around
the city center.; 3) A model of the internal structure of cities in which
social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings.; 4) A model
describing urban land uses as a series of circular belts or rings around
a core central business district, each ring housing a distinct type of
land use.; 5) A structural model of the American central city that
suggests the existence of five concentric land-use rings arranged
29
around a common center. 6) A social model that depicts a city as five

areas bounded by concentric rings.
Counterurbanization—1) Net migration from urban to rural areas in
more developed countries.; 2) The net loss of population from cities to
smaller towns and rural areas.
Decentralization—1) The movement of people, jobs, and activities
from the center or core of a major metropolitan area to suburban and
outlying locations within their daily urban system.; 2) The tendency of
people or businesses and industry to locate outside the central city.
Deindustrialization—see Industrialization section above
Early cities-- As hunters and gatherers became increasingly efficient in gathering
resources, their campsites became semipermanent. As the quantities of domesticated
plants and animals increased, settlements became even more permanent. The first cities
developed in the Middle East. They were farming villages that developed about 10,000
years ago. Two elements were crucial to the formation of cities: the creation of an
agricultural surplus and the development of a stratified social system. NOT FINISHED
Economic base (basic/nonbasic)—1) A community’s collection of
basic industries. 2) The manufacturing and service activities performed
by the basic sector of a city’s labor force; functions of a city performed
to satisfy demands external to the city itself and, in that performance,
earning income to support the urban population. The local economy is
subdivided into two mutually exclusive sectors:
• Basic sector—syn.-basic activities. 1) Those products
or services of an urban economy that are exported
outside the city itself, earning income for the
community.; 2) Economic activities whose products are
exported beyond a region’s limits.
• Nonbasic sector—syn.--nonbasic activities. 1) Those
economic activities of an urban unit that supply the
resident population with goods and services that have
no “export” implication. 2) Nonbasic, or service,
activities involve production and consumption within the
region.
Edge cities—1) Suburban nodes of employment and economic
activity featuring high-rise office space, corporate headquarters,
shopping, entertainment, and hotels. Their physical layout is designed
for automobile, not pedestrian, travel.; 2) Cities that are located on
the outskirts of larger cities and serve many of the same functions of
urban areas, but in a sprawling, decentralized suburban environment.;
3) Large nodes of office and retail activities on the edge of an urban
area.; 4) Nodal concentrations of shopping and office space situated
on the outer fringes of metropolitan areas, typically near major
highway intersections.; 5) A term introduced by American journalist
Joel Garreau in order to describe the shifting focus of urbanization in
the U.S. away from the central business district (CBD) toward a new
loci of economic activity at the urban fringe. These cities are
30
characterized by extensive amounts of office and retail space, few

residential areas, and modern buildings (less than 30 years old). 6)
New urban clusters of economic activity that surrounds our 19th c.
downtowns.
Emerging cities—Cities of a currently developing or emerging
country.
Employment structure
Entrepôt—see Industrialization section above.
Ethnic neighborhood—1) A voluntary community where people of
like origin reside by choice. 2) A small area occupied by a distinctive
minority culture.
Favela—Shantytown on the outskirts or even well within an urban area
in Brazil.
Female-headed household
Festival landscape-- syn.--festival settings. In many cities, gentrification efforts
focus on a multiuse redevelopment scheme that is built around a particular setting, often
one with a historical association. Waterfronts are commonly chosen as focal points for
these large scale projects. These complexes integrate retailing, office, and entertainment
activities and incorporate trendy shops, restaurants, bars and nightclubs. They serve as
sites for concerts, ethnic festivals, and street performances; they also serve as focal points
for the more informal human interactions that we usually associate with urban life. (ex:
Bayside in Miami, Riverwalk in San Antonio, Faneuil Hall in Boston)
Gateway city—1) Cities that, because of their geographic location,
act as ports of entry and distribution centers for large geographic
areas.; 2) A city that serves as a link between one country or region
and others because of its physical situation.
Gender—see Development section above.
Gentrification—1) The upgrading of inner-city neighborhoods and
their resettlement by upwardly mobile professionals. (ex: City Place
was a gentrification of an area previously characterized by urban
decay.); 2) The trend of middle- and upper-income Americans moving
into city centers and rehabilitating much of the architecture but also
replacing low-income populations, and changing the social character of
certain neighborhoods.; 3) A process of converting an urban
neighborhood from a predominantly low-income renter-occupied area
to a predominantly middle-class owner-occupied area.; 4) The invasion
of older, centrally located working-class neighborhoods by higher-
income households seeking the character and convenience of less
expensive and well-located residences.
Ghetto—1) During the Middle Ages, a neighborhood in a city set up
by law to be inhabited only by Jews; now used to denote a section of a
city in which members of any minority group live because of social,
legal, or economic pressure.; 2) A forced or voluntary segregated
residential area housing a racial, ethnic, or religious minority. 3) An
urban region marked by particular ethnic, racial, religious, and
economic properties, usually (but not always) a low income area. 4) A
31
segregated ethnic area within a city forced on the residents by

discrimination; an involuntary community.
Ghettoization—a process occurring in many inner cities in which they
become dilapidated centers of poverty, as affluent whites move out to
the suburbs and immigrants and people of color vie for scarce jobs and
resources.
Globalization—1) Actions or processes that involve the entire world
and result in making something worldwide in scope.; 2) The increasing
interconnectedness of different parts of the world through common
processes of economic, environmental, political, and cultural change.;
3) The expansion of economic, political and cultural activities to the
point that they become global in scale and impact. This process has
been aided by technological advances in transportation, information
management, and telecommunications.
Great cities
High-tech corridors—see Industrialization section above
Hinterland—1) The market area surrounding an urban center, which
that urban center serves.; 2) The sphere of economic influence of a
town or city.; 3) The market area of region served by an urban center.;
4) Literally, “country behind,” a term that applies to a surrounding
area served by an urban center. That center is the focus of goods and
services produced for its hinterland and is its dominant urban influence
as well. In the case of a port city, the hinterland also includes the
inland area whose trade flows through that port.; 5) The area
surrounding a city and influence by it. 6) The area surrounding a central place,
from which people are attracted to use the place’s goods and services.
Hydraulic civilization—A civilization based on large-scale irrigation.
The hydraulic civilization model, developed by Karl Wittfogel, sees the
development of large-scale irrigation systems as the prime mover
behind urbanization and a class of technical specialists as the first
urban dwellers. Although the hydraulic model fits several areas where
cities first arose—China, Egypt, and Mesopotamia—it cannot be applied
to all urban hearths. In parts of Mesoamerica, for example, an urban
civilization blossomed without widespread irrigated agriculture, and
therefore without a class of technical experts.
Indigenous city—A city formed by local forces. Indigenous cities
developed without contact with Western colonial influences. In fact,
most evolved long before there were cities in northern Europe.
Precolonial indigenous cities in the New World are restricted to Mexico,
Central America, and the Andean highlands. In Africa, there are cities
in the west associated with the Yoruba civilization (Nigeria), along the
Nile River, cities in a band of Islamic empires in the north, and some
small cities in the eastern highlands, again associated with Islamic
empires. Many were originally laid out according to religious principles
with a sacred precinct in the center.
In-filling—syn. infill development. 1) Higher-density development in
32
smaller patches of undeveloped or redevelopable land inside the urban

boundaries.; 2) New building on empty parcels of land within a
checkerboard pattern of development.
Informal sector—1) Economic activities that take place beyond
official record, not subject to formalized systems of regulation or
remuneration.; 2) That part of a national economy that involves
productive labor not subject to formal systems of control or payment;
economic activity or individual enterprise operating without official
recognition or measured by official statistics.
Infrastructure—see Industrialization section above
Inner city—A loosely defined area close to the city center; an area of
obsolescent and dilapidated housing in multiple occupation, often
performing a reception function for new immigrants to the city.
Invasion and succession—A process of neighborhood change
whereby one social or ethnic group succeeds another.
Lateral commuting—1) Traveling from one suburb to another in
going from home to work. 2) Pattern of commuting which has
developed along with the evolution of outlying clusters of employment
opportunities. (ex: commuting from suburb to suburb, instead of
suburb to central business district of larger city)
Medieval cities—Cities that developed in Europe during the Medieval
Period and that contain such unique features as extreme density of
development with narrow buildings and winding streets, an ornate
church that prominently marks the city center, and high walls
surrounding the city center that provided defense against attack.
Megacities—1) Cities, mostly characteristic of the developing world,
where high population growth and migration have caused them to
explode in population since WWII. All megacities are plagued by
chaotic and unplanned growth, terrible pollution, and widespread
poverty.; 2) Very large cities characterized by both primacy and high
centrality within its national economy.; 3) A large urban region formed
as several urban areas spread and merge, such as Boswash, the region
including Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Megalopolis/conurbation—1) Several metropolitan areas that were
originally separate but that have joined together to form a large,
sprawling urban complex.; 2) A large, sprawled urban complex with
contained open, nonurban land, created through the spread and
joining of separate metropolitan areas. (conurbation: 1) a continuous,
extended urban area formed by the growing together of several
formerly separate, expanding cities.; 2) General term used to identify
large, multimetropolitan complexes formed by the coalescence of two
or more major urban areas. The Boston-Washington megalopolis along
the U.S. northeastern seaboard is an outstanding example.)
Metropolitan area—syn.-- urban area. 1) Within the U.S., an urban
area consisting of one or more whole county units, usually containing
several urbanized areas, or suburbs, that all act together as a coherent
33
economic whole.; 2) The entire built-up, nonrural area and its

population, including the most recently constructed suburban
appendages. Provides a better picture of the dimensions and
population of such an area than the delimited municipality (central
city) that forms its heart.
Multiple nuclei model—1) A model that explains urban land use as
organized around several separate nuclei.; 2) Type of urban form
wherein cities have numerous centers of business and cultural activity
instead of only one central place.; 3) Model which suggests that large
cities develop by peripheral spread not from one central business
district but from several nodes of growth, each of specialized use. The
separately expanding use districts eventually coalesce at their
margins.; 4) The Harris-Ullman model that showed the mid-20th c.
American central city consisting of several land-use zones arranged
around nuclear growth points. 5) A model that depicts a city growing
from several separate focal points.
Multiplier effect—In urban geography, the expected addition of
nonbasic workers and dependents to a city’s total employment and
population that accompanies new basic sector employment. (compare
to Industrialization section above)
Neighborhood—1) A district, normally in a city, identified as a social
unit by the face-to-face relationships between its residents. It
represents a spatially bounded community and while its boundaries
are imprecise, outsiders are more aware of its existence than the
residents. 2) A small social area within a city where residents share
values and concerns and interact with one another on a daily basis.
New Urbanism—A movement to make cities more livable and foster a
greater sense of community by designing compact, pedestrian-friendly
neighborhoods with sidewalks, front porches, and a larger variety of
housing types and land uses. (Ex: Abacoa)
Office park—A cluster of office buildings usually located along an
interstate, often forming the nucleus of an edge city.
Peak land value intersection—The most accessible and costly
parcel of land in the central business district and, therefore, in the
entire urbanized area.
Planned communities—syn.—master planned communities. Large-
scale residential developments that include, in addition to
architecturally compatible housing units, planned recreational facilities,
schools, and security measures. Many newer residential developments
on the suburban fringe are planned and built as complete
neighborhoods by private developers. Most of these communities
exploit various land-use restrictions and zoning regulations to maintain
control over land values, and that homes in these communities
maintain their value better than homes elsewhere. (ex: Weston, FL)
Preindustrial city--A Western city before the Industrial Revolution;
dominant aspect of the city was its imposing religious and
34
governmental structures. Preindustrial cities were similar in form,

function, and atmosphere. Preindustrial cities did have industries but
they were not manufacturing industries. The industries were small, but
they were often quite numerous.
Postindustrial city—
Postmodern urban landscape—1) Urban landscape which uses
older, historical styles and a sense of lightheartedness and eclecticism.
Buildings combine pleasant-looking forms and playful colors to convey
new ideas and to create spaces that are more people-friendly than
their modernist predecessors. It is a reaction in architectural design to
the feeling of sterile alienation that many people get from modern
architecture.; 2) Urban landscape which uses a postmodern style of
architecture which combines a mixture of historical and geographical
references with cutting-edge aesthetics in the same complex.
Primate city—1) A country’s leading city, with a population that is
disproportionately greater than other urban areas within the same
country.; 2) A country’s leading city, disproportionately larger and
functionally more complex than any other; a city dominating an urban
hierarchy composed of a base of small towns and an absence of
intermediate-sized cities.; 3) A country’s largest city—ranking atop the
urban hierarchy—most expressive of the national culture and usually
(but not always) the capital city as well.; 4) A city of large size and
dominant power within a country.
Primate city rule—A pattern of settlements in a country, such that
the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as the
second-ranking settlement.
Racial steering—Actions by real estate agents that serve to
geographically “steer” potential home buyers on the basis of their
racial or ethnic characteristics in ways that promote segregation.
Blockbusting is an example.
Rank-size rule—1) Rule that states that the population of any given
town should be inversely proportional to its rank in the country’s
hierarchy when the distribution of cities according to their sizes follows
a certain pattern.; 2) A pattern of settlements in a country, such that
the nth largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest
settlement. (ex: the 4th largest city is ¼ the size of the 1st largest city);
3) 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.
Redlining—1) A process by which banks draw lines on a map and
refuse to lend money to purchase or improve property within the
boundaries.; 2) The practice whereby lending institutions delimit “bad-
risk” neighborhoods on a city map and then use the map as the basis
for determining loans.; 3) 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. The practice derived its name from the red lines
35
depicted on cadastral maps used by real estate agents and developers.

Today, redlining is officially illegal. 4) A practice by banks and
mortgage companies of demarcating areas considered to be high risk
for housing loans.
Restrictive covenant—A statement written into a property deed that
restricts the use of land in some way; often used to prohibit certain
groups of people from buying property.
Sector model—1) A model that explains urban land use in pie-shaped
sectors radiating outward from the city center.; 2) A model or urban
land use that places the central business district in the middle with
wedge-shaped sectors radiating outwards from the center along
transportation corridors.; 3) 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); 4) A
spatial model of the American central city that suggests that land-use areas conform to a
wedge-shaped pattern focused on the downtown core. 5) An economic model that depicts
a city as a series of pie-shaped wedges.
Segregation—1) The process that results from suburbanization when
affluent individuals leave the city center for homogenous suburban
neighborhoods. This process isolates those individuals who cannot
afford to consider relocating to suburban neighborhoods and must
remain in certain pockets of the central city.
Settlement form (nucleated, dispersed, elongated)
• Clustered-- A rural settlement in which the houses and farm
buildings of each family are situated close to each other and fields
surround the settlement.
• Nucleated—1) A rural settlement with a compact
morphology (shape) and consisting of homes and
farmsteads clustered around a church and/or green. 2)
A tight clustering of residences in a small area within
the larger rural settlement.
• Dispersed—A rural settlement pattern characterized by
isolated farms rather than clustered villages.
• Elongated
Shopping mall—A distinctive landscape symbol of post WWII life in
America. Most malls are not designed to be seen from the outside, but
rather, from the inside. Often located near an off-ramp of a major
freeway of a metropolitan area, and close to middle- and upper-class
residential neighborhoods. Many scholars consider megamalls to be
America’s new main street.
Site/situation—see Basic Concepts section above. Two components of
urban location; site refers to the local setting of a city. The situation is the regional
setting. (Ex: San Francisco—the original site of the Mexican settlement was on a
shallow cove on the eastern shore of a peninsula. The importance of its situation, or
regional location, was that it drew upon waterborne traffic coming across the bay from
other, smaller settlements.)
36
Slum—An older, run down inner-city neighborhood populated by poor

and disadvantaged populations.
Social structure—syn.—social stratification. 1) The hierarchical
ranking of individuals and groups in society based on class and social
status. Within a stratum all members are equal but between strata
there exist recognized and sanctioned differences, which are the basis
for placing one individual or group higher or lower than another in the
social order.; 2) The differentiation of society into classes based on
wealth, power, production, and prestige.
Specialization-- Industrial cities went through a phase of
specialization. In some cities, certain industries grew to dominate the
manufacturing sector to such a degree that their products and names
of the cities became almost synonymous. (ex: Detroit & autos).
Functional specialization decreased with urban growth. Most industrial
cities now have a diversified manufacturing base.
Squatter settlement—1) A residential development characterized by
extreme poverty that usually exists on land just outside of cities that is
neither owned nor rented by its occupants.; 2) An area within a city in
a less developed country in which people illegally established
residences on land they do not own or rent and erect homemade
structures.; 3) Residential developments that take place on land that is
neither owned nor rented by its occupants. 4) An illegal housing
settlement, usually made up of temporary shelters, that surrounds a
large city.
Street pattern (grid, dendritic; access, control)
Suburb—1) Residential community, located outside of a city center,
that is usually relatively homogenous in terms of its population.; 2) A
subsidiary urban area surrounding and connected to the central city.
Many are exclusively residential; others have their own commercial
centers or shopping malls. (ex: Wellington and Jupiter are suburbs of
West Palm Beach)
Suburbanization—1) The process whereby growth in population and
economic activity has been most intense at the fringes of urbanized
areas.; 2) The growth of population along the fringes of large
metropolitan areas.; 3) Movement of upper and middle-class people
from urban core areas to the surrounding outskirts to escape pollution
as well as deteriorating social conditions (perceived and actual). In
North America, the process began in the early 19th c. and became a
mass phenomenon by the second half of the 20th c.
Symbolic landscape—Representations of particular values or
aspirations that the builders and financiers of those landscapes want to
impart to a larger public; townscapes which take on symbolic significance. There
are three highly symbolic landscapes in the U.S.: the New England village with its white
church, commons, and tree lined neighborhood; Main Street of middle America, the
string street of a small Midwestern town, with store fronts, bandstand, and park; and
California suburbia, suburbs of quarter acre lots, effusive garden landscaping, swimming
37
pools, and ranch style houses. (ex: A skyscraper is more than a high rise office building;
they are symbols of progress, economic vitality, or corporate identities.)
Tenement—Building erected on a narrow plot of land which catered to

rapid growth of urban population. It may be several stories high,
served by a common staircase from which passages run, each
containing two or more dwellings. (it was the equivalent to a block of
flats). As the original inhabitants moved out, tenements were often
further subdivided and allowed to deteriorate, so becoming slums.
Threshold/range (of a service)—Range is 1) the maximum distance
people are willing to travel to obtain a central place function (a good or
service that a central place provides); 2) the maximum distance people
are willing to travel to use a service. Threshold is 1) the minimum
market size needed to support a central place function; 2) the
minimum number of people needed to support a service.; 3) the
minimum market size required to make the sale of a particular product
or service profitable.
Town—A nucleated settlement that contains a central business district
but that is small and less functionally complex than a city.
Underclass—1) A group in society prevented from participating in the
material benefits of a more developed society because of a variety of
social and economic characteristics.; 2) A subset of the poor, isolated
from mainstream values and the formal labor market.
Underemployment—A situation in which people work less than full
time even though they would prefer to work more hours.
Urban growth rate
Urban function--The types of services offered by an urban area. Large urban areas
will have a higher level of specialization. For example, a hamlet of farmers may offer no
services and have no urban function. But if it provides some basic services for the people
living there, it is an urban place on the bottom step of the urban hierarchy. A village, the
next larger urban settlement, is likely to offer several dozen services. The key here is
specialization. Stores sell certain goods; gas stations sell competing brands. A town is
not merely larger than a village; its functions reveal a higher level of specialization.
Bank and postal services, medical services, education institutions, and stores selling such
goods as furniture, appliances, and hardwares, etc. are among the functions of a town. A
town may have a hinterland (surrounding service area) that includes smaller villages and
hamlets. The hinterland reveals the economic reach if each settlement. A settlement’s
functions as well as its economic reach produce a measure of its centrality. A city has
not only more functional specialization than a town, but a larger hinterland and greater
centrality.
Urban hearth areas—One of the five regions--Mesopotamia, the Nile
Valley, Pakistan’s Indus River valley, the Yellow River (or Huang Ho) of
China, and Mesoamerica—where the world’s first cities evolved.
Urban heat island—a large mass of warmer air which sits over a city
as a result of the generation of heat by a large urban population from
building heating systems, autos, industries, and even human bodies.
38
The heat island causes yearly temperatures in cities to average 3.5

degrees F higher than in the countryside.
Urban hierarchy—1) A ranking of cities based on their size and
functional complexity. 2) A system of cities consisting of various levels,
with few cities at the top level and increasingly more settlements on
each lower level. The position of a city within the hierarchy is
determined by the types of central place functions it provides. 3) A
ranking of settlements (hamlets, village, town, city, metropolis)
according to their size and economic functions.
Urban hydrology—Not only is the city a great consumer of water, but
it also alters runoff patterns in a way that increases the frequency and
magnitude of flooding. Within the city, residential areas are the
greatest consumers of water. Generally, each person in the U.S. uses
about 60 gallons per day in a residence. Residential demand can vary.
It is greater in drier climates, where lots are larger, and in middle- and
high-income neighborhoods. The cost of water influences demand:
people use less when it costs more. Urbanization seems to increase
both the frequency and magnitude of flooding. This is because cities
are large impervious areas where water cannot soak into the earth.
Instead, precipitation is converted into immediate runoff. It is forced
into gutters, sewers, and stream channels that have been straightened
and stripped of vegetation, resulting in more frequent high-water
levels than are found in a comparable area of rural land. Furthermore,
the time between rainfall and peak runoff is reduced in cities; there is
less lag than in the countryside, where water runs across soil and
vegetation into stream channels and then into rivers. So, because of
hard surfaces and artificial collection channels, runoff in cities is
concentrated and immediate.
Urban morphology—1) The form and structure of cities, including
street patterns and the size and shape of buildings. 2) The study of the
physical form and structure of urban places.
Urbanization—1) An increase in the percentage and in the number of
people living in urban settlements. 2) Transformation of a population
from rural to urban status; the process of city formation and
expansion. 3) A term with several connotations. The proportion of a
country’s population living in urban places is its level of urbanization.
The process of urbanization involves the movement of people to, and
the clustering of people in, towns and cities—a major force in every
geographic realm today. Another kind of urbanization occurs when an
expanding city absorbs the rural countryside and transforms it into
suburb; in case of cities in the developing world, this also generates
peripheral shantytowns.
Urbanized population—The percentage of a nation’s population
living in towns and cities around the world. For example, the countries
of Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean have
relatively high levels of urbanization, with approximately 75% of each
39
country’s population living in urban areas; whereas the nations of

Africa and Asia have relatively less urbanization, with approximately
38% of the country’s population living in urban areas.
World city—1) Centers of economic, cultural, and political activity that
are strongly interconnected and together control the global systems of
finance and commerce. 2) A city in which a disproportionate part of the
world’s most important business is conducted. 3) One of a small
number of interconnected, internationally dominant centers that
together control the global systems of finance. (ex: New York, London,
Tokyo) 4) Dominant city in terms of its role in the global political
economy. These are not the world’s biggest cities in terms of
population or industrial output. Rather, they are centers of strategic
control of the world economy. 5) One of the largest cities in the world,
generally with a population over 10 million.
Zone in transition—An area of mixed commercial and residential
land uses surrounding the central business district. (CBD)
Zoning—1) Planned regulations that define permissible land uses for
parcels of the city. 2) Designating by ordinance areas in a municipality
for particular types of land use. 3) Legal restrictions on land use that
determine what types of building and economic activities are allowed
to take place in certain areas. In the U.S., areas are most commonly
divided into separate zones of residential, retail, and industrial land
use.
40

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List of Concepts for AP Human Geography Exam

Unit I. Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives—Basic

(i.e. the items diffuse with people migrating). 2) The spread of a

• Formal/uniform region—An area of near uniformity in one or

• Latitude—the angular distance north or south of the

Model--a simplified abstraction of reality, structured to clarify causal

Unit II. Population—Basic Vocabulary and Concepts

Infant mortality rate—Number of deaths of children under one year

frequently utilized because transportation costs usually decrease with

Unit III. Cultural Patterns and Processes, Part 1—Basic

behavior patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a

Folk and Popular Culture

strong family or clan structure, order maintained through sanctions

voluntary segregation. (Ex: ethnic neighborhoods such as Chinatown,

Unit IV. Political Organization of Space—Basic Vocabulary and

Irredentism—A movement to reunite a nation’s homeland when part

Unit V. Agricultural and Rural Land Use—Basic Vocabulary and

Adaptive strategies--The unique ways in which each culture uses its

development of humankind—the invention of agriculture.

materials and their transformation into finished industrial products; the

replace human labor with machines and to supplement natural

Unit VI. Industrialization and Development—Basic Vocabulary

Agglomeration—The grouping together of many firms in the same industry in a

Cumulative causation-- Self-sustaining economic growth that builds on itself as

investment support, will stimulate regional economic development in its hinterland.;

provinces or countries.; Expansion of economic activity caused by the growth or

dominant system of global control of finance and commerce.

Unit VII. Cities and Urban Land Use—Basic Vocabulary and

Agglomeration—In urban geography, the spatial grouping of people

Central place—1) A market center for the exchange of services by

around a common center. 6) A social model that depicts a city as five

characterized by extensive amounts of office and retail space, few

segregated ethnic area within a city forced on the residents by

smaller patches of undeveloped or redevelopable land inside the urban

economic whole.; 2) The entire built-up, nonrural area and its

governmental structures. Preindustrial cities were similar in form,

depicted on cadastral maps used by real estate agents and developers.

Slum—An older, run down inner-city neighborhood populated by poor

Tenement—Building erected on a narrow plot of land which catered to

The heat island causes yearly temperatures in cities to average 3.5

country’s population living in urban areas; whereas the nations of

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