Assam HS Economic Geography flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Economic geography

The branch of geography that studies how economic activities are distributed over space, why they cluster or disperse, and how location affects production, exchange and consumption.

Location quotient

A ratio comparing a region's share of employment in an activity with the national share; values above one indicate the activity is concentrated locally and may be exported.

Von Thünen model

A land-use model where rent depends on yield, price and transport cost; perishable or bulky products are farmed near the market and durable products farther away.

Clark-Fisher thesis

The proposition that as economies develop, employment shifts from primary to secondary and then to tertiary activities, reflecting rising productivity and income elasticity of demand.

Human Development Index

A composite index using life expectancy, schooling years and GNI per capita in purchasing power parity, combined geometrically to measure average human development.

Core-periphery model

A world-systems view in which core economies capture high-value activities and capital, while peripheral regions supply raw materials and cheap labour and remain dependent.

Purchasing power parity

A conversion rate that equalises the price of an identical basket of goods across countries, allowing GDP comparisons that reflect real living standards rather than exchange rates.

Demographic transition

A model of population change through stages, from high birth and death rates to low ones, with the fastest growth occurring when death rates fall before birth rates.

Dependency ratio

The number of people aged under fifteen and over sixty-four divided by the working-age population, multiplied by one hundred; it indicates the burden on earners.

Doubling time

The number of years a population takes to double at a constant growth rate, approximated by dividing seventy by the annual percentage growth rate.

Shifting cultivation

A farming system in which land is cleared and cropped for a few years then abandoned to regenerate; shortened fallow periods reduce yields and soil fertility.

Material index

The weight of localised raw material divided by the weight of the finished product; above one favours raw-material location, below one favours market location.

Footloose industry

An industry whose transport costs are small relative to product value, so it can locate on labour cost, amenities or agglomeration advantages rather than raw materials.

Agglomeration economies

Cost savings that firms gain by clustering together, through shared labour pools, specialised suppliers and infrastructure; excessive clustering produces diseconomies such as congestion.

Bulk-gaining industry

A manufacturing activity whose finished product weighs more than its inputs, so plants tend to locate near the market to minimise the cost of moving the heavier output.

Gravity model

A model stating that interaction between two places is proportional to the product of their sizes and inversely proportional to the distance between them.

Break-of-bulk point

A place where goods are transferred from one transport mode to another, often attracting processing plants and warehouses because handling costs are lower there.

Quaternary activities

Economic activities concerned with generating, processing and transmitting knowledge and information, including research, education, finance and decision-making services.

Tourism leakage

Revenue from tourism that leaves the host region through imports, foreign-owned profits or repatriated wages, reducing the local multiplier effect of visitor spending.

Sustainable yield

The maximum rate at which a renewable resource can be harvested without reducing its capacity to regenerate, keeping harvest equal to natural replacement.

Ecological footprint

The area of biologically productive land and water needed to supply a population's resources and absorb its wastes, compared with available biocapacity.

Energy intensity

Energy consumed per unit of gross domestic product; a falling ratio indicates that economic growth is becoming less dependent on energy use.

Brundtland definition

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, balancing economy, society and environment.

Jhum cultivation

The North-East Indian form of shifting cultivation in which hill slopes are cleared and burned, cropped for a few seasons, then left fallow to regenerate forest.

Siliguri Corridor

A narrow strip of West Bengal linking India's North-East to the rest of the country, bordered by Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, and vital for regional trade.

Digboi refinery

India's oldest oil refinery, located in Upper Assam near the historic Digboi oilfield, and a landmark of the region's petroleum-based industrial economy.

Choropleth map

A map in which entire administrative units are shaded or patterned according to the value of a variable, showing relative intensity rather than point locations.

Isopleth map

A map joining points of equal value with lines, such as contours for elevation or isohyets for rainfall, used to show continuous surfaces.

Representative fraction

A map scale expressed as a ratio, such as one to fifty thousand, meaning one unit on the map equals fifty thousand of the same units on the ground.

Rank-size rule

A regularity stating that the nth largest city in a system has about one-nth the population of the largest; deviation suggests primate-city dominance.

Index number

A value expressing change relative to a chosen base year, calculated by dividing the current value by the base value and multiplying by one hundred.

Primary data

Information collected directly by the researcher through observation, interviews, questionnaires or measurement, rather than taken from published statistical sources.

Triangulation

The practice of cross-checking findings from one source or method against another, such as comparing interview responses with official statistics, to improve reliability.