Assam HS Economic Geography cheat sheet

Economic geography studies the spatial distribution of production, exchange and consumption, and the locational logic behind them.

Core tradition (Haggett's five themes): location, place, human–environment interaction, movement and region.

Key ratio: spatial concentration = (share of an activity in an area) ÷ (share of the area in the total reference space); values above 1 indicate concentration.

Von Thünen's model: land use rings around a market, determined by rent = yield × (price − transport cost per unit distance × distance).

Location quotient (LQ) = (local employment in sector i / total local employment) ÷ (national employment in sector i / total national employment).

Deterministic vs. stochastic approaches: classical location theory is normative/deductive; modern spatial analysis is empirical and probabilistic.

Economic geography overlaps with economics (price and allocation) but differs by treating distance, place and territory as first-order variables.

Scale hierarchy for analysis: global, national, regional, local, firm/site; conclusions at one scale are not automatically valid at another.

Sectoral shift with development: primary share of employment falls, secondary rises then falls, tertiary rises - the Clark–Fisher thesis.

Four-sector classification: primary (extraction), secondary (manufacturing), tertiary (services), quaternary (knowledge/decision-making).

GDP per capita = GDP ÷ population; real values use constant prices, nominal values use current prices.

Human Development Index = geometric mean of three dimension indices: life expectancy, education (mean and expected years of schooling), and GNI per capita (PPP).

PPP conversion adjusts GDP for price-level differences; PPP GDP per capita is preferred for cross-country welfare comparison.

Core–periphery (Wallerstein's world-systems): core economies capture high-value activities, periphery supplies raw materials and cheap labour, semi-periphery is intermediate.

Gini coefficient ranges 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (perfect inequality); Kuznets curve hypothesises inequality rising then falling with income.

Stages-of-growth critiques: Rostow's linear model assumes all economies follow the same path; dependency theory argues surplus drain blocks periphery development.

Demographic transition stages: high stationary → early expanding → late expanding → low stationary → declining; natural increase = birth rate − death rate (per 1,000).

Doubling time (years) ≈ 70 ÷ annual percentage growth rate.

Dependency ratio = (population aged 0–14 + population aged 65+) ÷ population aged 15–64 × 100.

Sex ratio = (males ÷ females) × 100; in India the census reports females per 1,000 males.

Population density = total population ÷ total land area; arithmetic density ignores arable land, physiological density uses arable land only.

Push factors (land pressure, low wages, drought) drive out-migration; pull factors (jobs, services, security) attract migrants.

Economic activity ratio (activity rate) = labour force ÷ population of working age × 100.

Epidemiological transition links falling mortality to control of infectious disease, later shifting the disease burden to chronic, lifestyle-related causes.

Subsistence vs. commercial farming: distinguished by proportion of output consumed by the farm household and degree of market orientation.

Intensive subsistence (monsoon Asia) relies on high labour input per hectare and small holdings; extensive farming relies on large area per worker.

Shifting cultivation (jhum) cycle length = cropping years + fallow years; shortening the fallow reduces soil recovery and yields.

Agricultural density = agricultural population ÷ cultivated area; it measures labour pressure on farmland.

Von Thünen rings from the market: horticulture/dairy, then forestry, then grains, then ranching - driven by perishability and transport cost.

Fishing grounds concentrate where plankton-rich cold currents meet warm currents and where broad continental shelves occur.

Mining is site-specific: extraction must occur where the ore body is, so transport cost of ore versus concentrate governs smelter location.

Tragedy of the commons: open-access resources (grazing land, ocean fisheries) tend to overuse unless access is regulated by quota or property rights.

Weber's least-cost location: choose the point minimising total transport cost, weighted by weight of material and product moved.

Material index = weight of localised raw material ÷ weight of finished product; above 1 favours raw-material location, below 1 favours market location.

Bulk-gaining (weight-gaining) industries locate near the market; bulk-reducing industries locate near the raw material.

Footloose industries face low transport cost relative to value and can locate on labour cost, amenities or agglomeration advantages.

Agglomeration economies: cost savings from firms clustering (shared labour pool, suppliers, infrastructure); diseconomies produce congestion and high rents.

Industrial location factors: raw material, power, labour, market, transport, capital, government policy and inertia of existing plants.

Import substitution and export-oriented industrialisation differ in whether production targets the domestic market behind tariffs or foreign buyers.

Industrial regions typically form on coalfields, port hinterlands, or near large markets, following the historical energy and transport pattern.

Tertiary activities deliver services; quaternary activities involve knowledge generation, decision-making and information handling.

Gravity model of trade/interaction: interaction between two places is proportional to the product of their masses (population or income) and inversely proportional to distance.

Balance of trade = value of exports − value of imports; a negative value is a trade deficit.

Transport cost per unit falls with distance (tapering principle) and with volume (long-haul economies), favouring large nodal hubs.

Break-of-bulk point: a place where cargo is transferred between transport modes, often attracting processing and manufacturing.

Tourism carries leakage: revenue retained locally = gross tourism receipts − imports and repatriated profits; high leakage weakens local multiplier effects.

Quaternary hubs cluster in high-amenity, high-connectivity cities because face-to-face contact and skilled labour pools drive knowledge work.

Hub-and-spoke networks concentrate flows at few nodes, lowering total network cost but raising congestion risk at hubs.

Renewable resources regenerate on a human timescale; non-renewable (stock) resources are finite and depleted by extraction.

Sustainable yield: harvest rate must not exceed regeneration rate; for a fishery, maximum sustainable yield occurs near half the carrying capacity.

Energy intensity = energy consumed ÷ GDP; falling values indicate decoupling of growth from energy use.

Per-capita energy use = total energy consumption ÷ population; it is a rough proxy for level of development.

Ecological footprint compares resource demand with biocapacity; a footprint above biocapacity gives an ecological deficit.

Energy transition sequence: biomass → coal → oil → natural gas → renewables and nuclear; each shift alters industrial location patterns.

Sustainable development (Brundtland): meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.

Pollution control instruments: command-and-control standards versus market instruments (taxes, tradable permits) that equalise marginal abatement cost.

Assam lies in the Brahmaputra valley (with the Barak valley and Karbi Anglong–Dima Hasao hills); the Brahmaputra is braided and flood-prone.

Tea is Assam's signature plantation crop, concentrated in Upper Assam and the Barak valley; it is a labour-intensive estate industry.

Digboi hosts India's oldest refinery; Assam's oil and gas fields (Naharkatia, Moran, Rudrasagar) support refining and petrochemicals.

Assam's industrial estate clusters include Guwahati (refining, tea, trade), Namrup (fertiliser, gas-based), Jagiroad (paper) and Bokajan (cement).

Jhum (shifting cultivation) persists in the hill states; terrace cultivation and horticulture are promoted as alternatives.

Flood and riverbank erosion displace population and damage infrastructure, raising transport cost and discouraging long-term investment.

Connectivity constraints: the Siliguri Corridor (Chicken's Neck) links the region to the rest of India; hill terrain raises construction costs.

Bamboo, cane, sericulture (muga silk) and horticulture are regionally significant resource-based activities in the North-East.

Choropleth maps shade whole administrative units by value class; isopleth maps join points of equal value (contours, isohyets).

Dot maps show absolute distribution; density shading shows relative intensity - choose the symbol to match the variable type.

Flow maps use line width proportional to volume; desire lines show movement between origins and destinations.

Scale: representative fraction 1:50,000 means 1 cm on the map equals 0.5 km on the ground.

Mean = sum of values ÷ number of values; median is the middle value of an ordered set and resists outliers.

Standard deviation measures dispersion around the mean; a high value indicates strong spatial or temporal variability.

Percentage share = (part ÷ total) × 100; growth rate = ((new − old) ÷ old) × 100.

Field study sequence: define objective, select sample sites, collect primary data with a schedule, tabulate, map, then interpret and report limitations.

Correlation describes association, not causation; a scatter plot with a fitted trend line shows direction and strength.

Index numbers express change relative to a base year: index = (current value ÷ base-year value) × 100.

Rank–size rule: the nth largest city's population ≈ largest city population ÷ n; deviation signals primate-city dominance.

Primacy index = population of the largest city ÷ population of the second largest city; values above about 2 indicate primacy.

Sampling choices: random (unbiased), systematic (regular interval), stratified (by subgroup) - state the method when reporting results.

Bar graphs compare magnitudes across categories; line graphs show change over time; pie charts show composition of a whole.

Locational triangle (Weber) is drawn with material source, market and a third point; the least-cost point lies inside it for weight-losing industries.

Reading a table: check units, base year and whether values are absolute or per capita before comparing places.

Assam districts to locate: Guwahati (Kamrup Metro), Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Tinsukia, Nagaon, Tezpur (Sonitpur), Silchar (Cachar).

Brahmaputra enters Assam near Sadiya and flows west to Dhubri before entering Bangladesh; the Barak flows through the southern valley.

Kaziranga National Park lies on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra in Golaghat–Nagaon; Manas is in the north-west near the Bhutan border.

Neighbouring states of Assam: Arunachal Pradesh (north), Nagaland and Manipur (east/south-east), Mizoram and Tripura (south), Meghalaya (south), West Bengal (west).

International borders: Bhutan and Bangladesh; the Siliguri Corridor in West Bengal is the narrow land link to mainland India.

Map-reading rule: locate latitude–longitude grid first, then physical features (rivers, hills), then settlements, then economic symbols.

Data interpretation in Assam context: tea production and oil output are reported in million kg and million tonnes respectively - keep units consistent.

Field survey in a tea estate or riverbank village should record household size, occupation, income source and landholding to link population with activity.

Field-study report structure: title, objective, study area, methodology, data tables, maps/graphs, analysis, conclusion, limitations.

Primary data come from direct observation, interviews and questionnaires; secondary data come from census, government reports and statistical abstracts.

Pilot testing of a questionnaire before the main survey reduces ambiguity and non-response.

Ethical field practice: informed consent, anonymity of respondents, and no distortion of recorded data.

Triangulation - cross-checking interview data with official statistics or observation - increases reliability of findings.

Systematic sampling along a transect is suited to studying land use or vegetation change across a valley or slope.

Measure of central tendency must match data level: mean for interval data, median for ordinal, mode for nominal categories.

Limitations section should state sample size, seasonality of data, recall error and access constraints.