AP Human Geography cheat sheet

Scale levels from smallest to largest area: local, regional, national, global; a phenomenon's cause often lies at a different scale than its effect.

Map projection trade-off: all projections distort shape, area, distance, or direction; Mercator preserves shape/direction but inflates high-latitude area.

Large-scale (small-area) maps show more detail per unit area than small-scale (large-area) maps of the same region.

Distance decay: interaction between two places declines as the distance between them increases; time-space compression reduces this friction.

Site = physical characteristics of a place (climate, terrain); situation = location relative to other places.

Remote sensing and GIS capture and layer spatial data; GPS gives absolute location; all three differ from field observation.

Thematic maps: choropleth shades whole units by rate, dot density shows concentration, isoline connects equal values, graduated symbol varies marker size.

Environmental determinism claims physical environment controls culture; possibilism holds humans can adapt to and modify environment.

Region types: formal (uniform trait), functional/nodal (organized around a node), perceptual/vernacular (mental image, boundaries vary).

Natural increase rate = (births − deaths) / total population × 100; doubling time ≈ 70 / annual growth rate (percent).

Demographic transition stages: high stationary, early expanding, late expanding, low stationary, then possible decline.

Population pyramid shape: broad base = high birth rates; narrow base = aging population; bulges mark migration or baby-boom cohorts.

Total fertility rate ≈ 2.1 is replacement level in low-mortality settings; below it, population eventually declines absent migration.

Arithmetic density = population / land area; physiologic density = population / arable land; agricultural density = farmers / arable land.

Malthus predicted population outrunning food supply; Boserup argued population pressure drives agricultural intensification.

Ravenstein's laws: most migrants move short distances, rural to urban, adults more than families, and return migration often follows.

Push factors drive people out (persecution, famine, unemployment); pull factors attract (jobs, safety, family ties).

Voluntary migration types: transnational, internal, chain, step; forced migration includes refugees, internally displaced persons, and asylum seekers.

Cultural hearths are origin areas of traits: Fertile Crescent, Indus, Huang He, Mesoamerica, West Africa.

Relocation diffusion moves with migrating people; expansion diffusion (contagious, hierarchical, stimulus) spreads outward from a source.

Acculturation = adopting traits of a dominant culture; assimilation = full absorption; syncretism = blending of two cultures into new form.

Language families (Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Afro-Asiatic) branch into language groups, then individual languages and dialects.

Lingua franca is a bridge language among speakers of different tongues; pidgin is a simplified contact language; creole is a pidgin that becomes native.

Universalizing religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism) seek converts; ethnic religions (Hinduism, Judaism) are tied to a people or place.

Sacred space and pilgrimage routes shape cultural landscapes; toponyms reflect layers of settlement and language history.

Food taboos (e.g., pork in Islam and Judaism, beef in Hinduism) and folk vs. popular culture differ in origin, diffusion speed, and uniformity.

Ethnicity is identity by shared ancestry/culture; race is a socially constructed category; both shape segregation patterns and landscape.

State = sovereign political unit with defined territory; nation = group sharing identity; nation-state aligns both; stateless nation lacks a state.

Compact, elongated, prorupt, perforated, and fragmented are state shapes; each affects administration and internal cohesion.

Boundaries: antecedent (drawn before settlement), subsequent, superimposed (forced over existing culture), relic (no longer functions).

Geometric boundaries follow lines of latitude/longitude; natural boundaries follow physical features; cultural boundaries follow language or religion.

Exclusive economic zone extends 200 nautical miles from shore, granting coastal states resource rights.

Devolution transfers power from central to regional government, driven by ethnic, linguistic, economic, or peripheral identity.

Colonialism created many superimposed boundaries and landlocked or fragmented states; decolonization reshaped the political map.

Electoral geography: gerrymandering packs or cracks voters; reapportionment redistributes seats after census.

Centripetal forces unify a state (shared language, nationalism); centrifugal forces divide it (secessionism, regional inequality).

Von Thünen model: land use rings by distance from market; perishability and transport cost determine intensity, with dairy and market gardening innermost.

Intensive agriculture uses high inputs per area (labor, capital); extensive agriculture uses low inputs per area (shifting cultivation, ranching).

Subsistence farming feeds the farmer's household; commercial farming sells output; both differ from plantation agriculture, which is export-oriented.

First Agricultural Revolution = domestication and seed agriculture; Second = mechanization and crop rotation; Third = Green Revolution (hybrids, fertilizer, irrigation).

Shifting cultivation: slash-and-burn, long fallow, tropical; sustainable only at low population density.

Rural settlement patterns: clustered (nucleated), dispersed, and linear, each reflecting water, defense, or transport access.

Bid-rent and land-use competition explain why high-value crops locate on the most accessible land.

Desertification, soil salinization from irrigation, and deforestation are major agricultural environmental impacts.

Aquaculture and organic/peri-urban farming are responses to demand shifts and supply-chain proximity.

Rank-size rule: nth-largest city ≈ largest city / n; primate cities break the rule by dominating the urban hierarchy.

Central place theory: settlements are spaced by range and threshold of goods; higher-order goods are fewer and farther apart.

Concentric zone model (Burgess): CBD, transition zone, working-class, residential, commuter rings.

Hoyt sector model: growth along transport corridors into wedges; Harris-Ullman multiple nuclei: several independent centers.

Latin American city model: CBD and spine with elite housing, declining outward, surrounded by squatter peripheries.

Southeast Asian model: port core with mixed-use zones and informal settlements around a central market.

African city model: three CBDs (colonial, traditional, market) with ethnic quarters and informal settlements.

Bid-rent curve: land value peaks at the center and declines with distance; transport cost and accessibility set the slope.

Urban sprawl, edge cities, gentrification, and informal (squatter) settlements are key contemporary urban processes; urbanization rate = urban population / total population.

Rostow's stages: traditional society, preconditions, takeoff, drive to maturity, high mass consumption.

Wallerstein's world-systems: core, semi-periphery, periphery, linked by unequal exchange in the global economy.

Weber's least-cost theory: locate industry to minimize transport and labor costs, modified by agglomeration economies.

Sector models (Clark-Fisher): primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, and quinary employment shift with development.

Industrial location shifts: site factors (land, labor, capital) vs. situation factors (proximity to inputs or markets); bulk-gaining firms locate near markets, bulk-reducing near inputs.

Measures of development: GDP per capita, GNI, HDI (life expectancy, education, income), Gini coefficient (income inequality).

Demographic and epidemiologic transitions link development to lower birth rates and shifting causes of death.

New international division of labor moves labor-intensive manufacturing to low-wage regions; maquiladoras and export processing zones illustrate it.

Sustainable development balances economic growth, environmental cost, and social equity; the Human Development Index is a composite of three dimensions.