BSEB Inter Geography cheat sheet

Human geography studies the relationship between human beings and the physical environment; its core concepts are space, place, region, landscape, and diffusion.

Determinism holds that nature controls human activity; possibilism (Vidal de la Blache) holds that humans can modify nature within limits; neo-determinism (Griffith Taylor) calls this 'stop-and-go determinism'.

Environmental determinism was criticised because it ignored human choice, technology, and culture as forces shaping livelihood patterns.

Spatial interaction depends on complementarity (demand in one place matched by supply in another), transferability (cost of movement), and intervening opportunity (a nearer substitute).

Distance decay: interaction declines as distance increases; the gravity model expresses interaction as proportional to population product divided by distance squared.

Diffusion types: relocation (people carry ideas), expansion (contagious, hierarchical, stimulus), and their rates depend on density, transport, and cultural barriers.

Regions are mental constructs: formal regions share measurable uniformity, functional regions are organised around a node, and vernacular regions exist in popular perception.

Population geography, settlement geography, economic geography, and cultural geography are the main branches; each uses maps, field surveys, and statistical indicators.

Density of population = total population ÷ total area (persons per sq km); physiological density = population ÷ cultivated area.

About 90% of world population lives in roughly 10% of land area; ecumene is inhabited land, non-ecumene includes deserts, polar regions, and high mountains.

Natural increase = birth rate − death rate; growth rate is expressed per 1,000 persons per year.

Demographic transition stages: high stationary, early expanding, late expanding, low stationary, and declining (the fifth stage).

Doubling time can be estimated by the rule of 70: 70 ÷ annual growth rate (%) gives approximate years to double.

Population composition covers age structure, sex ratio (females per 1,000 males in India), literacy, occupation, and rural–urban distribution.

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

India's 2011 Census recorded about 1.21 billion people, a sex ratio of 943, and a literacy rate of 74.04%.

Human development means enlarging people's choices; its pillars are equity, sustainability, productivity, and empowerment.

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

Each dimension index = (actual value − minimum) ÷ (maximum − minimum); HDI ranges from 0 to 1.

Mahbub ul Haq and Amartya Sen shaped the capability approach; the first Human Development Report appeared in 1990.

Other measures: Gender Development Index, Gender Inequality Index, Multidimensional Poverty Index (health, education, standard of living).

Income alone is an inadequate indicator because it ignores distribution, health, education, and non-market welfare.

Human development approaches include income approach, welfare approach, basic needs approach, and capability approach.

Primary activities directly exploit natural resources: gathering, pastoralism, fishing, hunting, agriculture, mining, and quarrying.

Shifting cultivation (slash-and-burn) is known as jhum in northeast India, milpa in Mexico, and ladang in Indonesia; it requires long fallow periods.

Intensive subsistence farming is labour-intensive with small holdings and high yields per hectare, typical of monsoon Asia.

Plantation agriculture is capital-intensive, mono-cropping, and export-oriented (tea, coffee, rubber, sugarcane, bananas).

Von Thünen's model places perishable and bulky products near the market; land use intensity declines with distance from market.

Nomadic herding is subsistence-based and follows seasonal migration; commercial ranching is market-oriented on large holdings.

Mining is a primary activity but is often classed as extractive industry; it is site-specific and non-renewable.

Fishing depends on continental shelves and cold-warm current mixing; major grounds include the North Sea, Newfoundland, and Japan's coast.

Secondary activities transform raw materials into finished goods: manufacturing, processing, construction, and power generation.

Classification by inputs: agro-based, mineral-based, chemical-based, forest-based, and animal-based industries.

Classification by size uses capital investment and workforce: cottage, small-scale, medium, and large-scale industries.

Classification by ownership: public sector, private sector, joint sector, and cooperative sector.

Weber's least-cost theory locates industry where transport and labour costs are minimised; material index = weight of raw material ÷ weight of finished product.

Footloose industries (electronics, software, garments) are not tied to raw material sources and locate near markets or skilled labour.

High-technology industries cluster near universities and research centres, e.g., Silicon Valley, Cambridge, and Bengaluru.

Industrial agglomeration lowers unit costs through shared infrastructure and labour pools; deglomeration follows congestion and rising rents.

Tertiary activities provide services: trade, transport, communication, banking, insurance, education, health, and tourism.

Quaternary activities involve knowledge handling: research, information processing, education, and consultancy; quinary activities involve high-level decision-making.

Services are classified as producer services (finance, advertising), consumer services (retail, tourism), and public services (administration, defence).

Outsourcing shifts routine service work to lower-cost locations; Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) are examples.

Digital divides and medical tourism are outcomes of uneven service development; medical tourism combines health services with travel.

Retail formats include itinerant, periodic, and fixed-shop retailing; e-commerce is a fixed but digital form of retailing.

Tourism types: cultural, heritage, eco, adventure, and medical; tourism earns foreign exchange and generates local employment.

Transport modes: land (road, rail), water (inland, oceanic), air, and pipelines; each has differing cost, speed, and flexibility.

Road transport is flexible and door-to-door; rail is suited to bulk and long-distance freight over land.

Pipelines carry liquids and gases continuously and are unaffected by weather but have high fixed costs.

Communication includes telecommunications, postal services, radio, television, and the internet; satellites enable global coverage.

Trade is the exchange of goods and services; balance of trade = exports − imports; a surplus is positive, a deficit negative.

Trade is bilateral or multilateral; barriers include tariffs, quotas, and embargoes; free trade areas and customs unions reduce barriers.

Containerisation reduced handling costs and boosted intermodal transport; major world ports include Rotterdam, Singapore, and Shanghai.

Hub-and-spoke networks concentrate flows at hubs; break-of-bulk points are where cargo is transferred between modes.

Settlements are classified as rural (hamlet, village) and urban (town, city, metropolis, conurbation, megalopolis).

Site factors (water, defence, relief, fertile land) and situation factors (route junctions, ports, trade routes) determine settlement location.

Settlement patterns: compact/nucleated, dispersed, linear, rectangular, radial, and star-shaped.

Urban functions include administrative, industrial, commercial, residential, and religious functions; functional classification follows dominant activity.

Central Place Theory (Christaller) explains spacing of settlements: higher-order centres are fewer and farther apart, serving larger hinterlands.

Primate city dominance describes a city disproportionately larger than the second city in a country.

Urbanisation is measured by the percentage of population living in urban areas; urban sprawl and slums are common consequences.

India's 2011 Census classified towns by statutory status and by population size, density, and non-agricultural workforce (census towns).

India's physiographic divisions: Himalayas, Northern Plains, Peninsular Plateau, Indian Desert, Coastal Plains, and Islands.

Land use categories: forest, area not available for cultivation, other uncultivated land, fallow land, and net sown area.

Cropping seasons: kharif (monsoon, June–October), rabi (winter, October–March), and zaid (short summer season).

Major crops: rice (high rainfall), wheat (cool growing season), cotton (black soil), tea (well-drained slopes), and sugarcane (hot humid).

Green Revolution boosted wheat and rice yields via HYV seeds, irrigation, and fertilisers, mainly in Punjab, Haryana, and western UP.

Industries are distributed near raw materials, markets, power, and transport; iron and steel centres include Jamshedpur, Bhilai, and Rourkela.

India's population policy aims at lowering fertility through education, health care, and female empowerment; NFPP 2000 is a key framework.

Urbanisation in India is uneven; megacities include Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai; million-plus cities have grown rapidly.

Indian Railways is one of the largest networks in the world; broad gauge dominates; zones are administrative divisions of the network.

National Highways connect major cities and ports; the Golden Quadrilateral links Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata.

Inland waterways: National Waterway 1 (Ganga–Bhagirathi–Hooghly), NW-2 (Brahmaputra), NW-3 (West Coast Canal).

Major ports include Kandla, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru (Nhava Sheva), Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, Haldia, and Kochi.

Air transport serves high-value and perishable goods; international airports include Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru.

India's major exports include petroleum products, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, textiles, and pharmaceuticals.

Major imports include crude petroleum, gold, electronics, machinery, and chemicals; the trade deficit is persistent.

Major trading partners include the USA, China, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the EU; SEZs promote export-led manufacturing.

Environmental pollution types: air, water, land, noise, and radiation pollution; each has distinct sources and health effects.

Air pollution is worsened by particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10), vehicular emissions, and industrial smoke; urban smog is a common outcome.

Water pollution arises from industrial effluents, sewage, agricultural runoff, and religious practices at riverbanks.

Land degradation results from deforestation, overgrazing, mining, and excessive irrigation leading to waterlogging and salinity.

Slums and squatter settlements result from rural–urban migration, housing shortages, and insecure tenure.

Urban waste disposal and e-waste are growing problems; landfill sites are often located near poor neighbourhoods.

Deforestation causes soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and altered hydrology; afforestation and joint forest management are responses.

Disaster vulnerability links to floods, droughts, cyclones, and earthquakes; mitigation includes land-use planning and early warning.

Scale is the ratio of map distance to ground distance; representative fraction (RF), statement, and graphical scales are the three forms.

Large-scale maps show small areas in detail (e.g., 1:10,000); small-scale maps show large areas with less detail (e.g., 1:1,000,000).

Contour lines join points of equal elevation; closely spaced contours indicate steep slopes, widely spaced ones gentle slopes.

Topographic maps use conventional signs and symbols; colours (blue for water, green for vegetation, brown for relief) aid interpretation.

Grid references use eastings first, then northings; a six-figure grid reference locates a point within a 100 m square on a 1:50,000 map.

Map projections: cylindrical, conic, and azimuthal; Mercator preserves direction but distorts area at high latitudes.

Thematic maps include choropleth, isopleth, dot, and flow maps; choropleth uses shading to show density or ratio values.

Statistical diagrams: bar graphs compare quantities, pie charts show proportions, and line graphs show trends over time.