RBSE SS Geography cheat sheet

Human geography studies the spatial organisation of human activities and people–environment interaction; its central concern is areal differentiation between regions.

Systematic approach studies one theme (e.g. population) across many regions; regional approach studies all themes within one defined region.

Environmental determinism (Ratzel, Semple, Huntington) holds that nature controls human activity; possibilism (Vidal de la Blache) holds that environment offers possibilities from which humans choose.

Ratzel's Anthropogeographie (1882) and the concept of Lebensraum; Vidal de la Blache's genre de vie (mode of life) and pays.

Core dualisms: nomothetic vs idiographic; determinism vs possibilism; quantitative spatial science vs behavioural and humanistic approaches.

The quantitative revolution of the 1950s–60s brought models, statistics and spatial science; behavioural geography then replaced 'economic man' with real decision-making under imperfect information.

Radical and welfare geography (1970s, associated with David Harvey) introduced inequality, social justice and political economy into spatial analysis.

Geography works as a bridge discipline, borrowing methods from economics, sociology, demography and environmental science and working at scales from local to global.

Population density = total population ÷ total area; India 382 persons/km² and Rajasthan 200 persons/km² (Census 2011).

Demographic transition: Stage 1 high birth–high death (stable); Stage 2 high birth–low death (rapid growth); Stage 3 falling birth–low death; Stage 4 low–low; India is in late Stage 3.

Natural increase = birth rate − death rate (per 1000); doubling time ≈ 70 ÷ annual growth rate in per cent.

Sex ratio in India = females per 1000 males; the child sex ratio (0–6 years) is computed separately. Census 2011: India 943, Rajasthan 928.

Push factors include poverty, unemployment, drought and conflict; pull factors include jobs, wages, education, health and safety. Ravenstein: most migration is short-distance, step-wise and rural-to-urban.

Migration types: internal (rural–urban, seasonal, circular, inter-state) and international (voluntary or forced, including refugees and asylum seekers).

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

Population pyramid shapes: expansive (broad base, high fertility), constrictive (narrow base, ageing population) and stationary (near-vertical sides).

Primary activities extract directly from nature: farming, animal husbandry, fishing, forestry and mining; they still employ the largest share of India's workforce (about 43 per cent in 2011).

Secondary activities transform raw materials: manufacturing, processing and construction; classified as heavy/light, basic (supplies other industries) / non-basic, and cottage/small/large.

Weber's least-cost theory: material index = weight of raw material ÷ weight of finished product. MI > 1 (weight-losing, e.g. sugar, iron and steel) locates near raw material; MI < 1 (weight-gaining, e.g. soft drinks, bakery) locates near the market.

Footloose industries (electronics, garments, jewellery) are not tied to raw material weight and respond mainly to labour, capital, transport and government policy.

Tertiary = services (trade, transport, banking, education, health); quaternary = knowledge and information work; quinary = high-level decision-making, research and top administration.

Von Thünen's model: concentric rings around a market - perishables and dairying nearest, then grain, then ranching/forest at the margin - governed by transport cost and land rent.

Farming systems: subsistence (shifting cultivation, intensive peasant farming) versus commercial (plantation, dairy, extensive grain farming, mixed farming).

Industrial location factors in India: raw material, power, water, transport, labour, market, capital and government policy; SEZs (2000 policy) and industrial corridors are policy instruments.

Road density is measured as length of road per 100 km² of area; rail density as route length per 1000 km².

Indian Railways gauges: broad 1.676 m, metre 1.000 m, narrow 0.762 m and 0.610 m; Project Unigauge converts metre and narrow lines to broad gauge.

Golden Quadrilateral (5,846 km) links Delhi–Mumbai–Chennai–Kolkata; North–South corridor Srinagar–Kanyakumari and East–West corridor Silchar–Porbandar.

Major ports: Deendayal (Kandla), JNPT (largest container port), Mumbai, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Kochi, Tuticorin, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, Haldia and Kolkata.

National waterways: NW-1 Ganga (Haldia–Prayagraj), NW-2 Brahmaputra (Dhubri–Sadiya), NW-3 West Coast Canal in Kerala.

Balance of trade = value of exports − value of imports of goods; India normally runs a merchandise deficit driven by crude oil, gold and electronics imports.

India's leading exports: petroleum products, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and textiles; leading imports: crude oil, gold, electronics and coal.

WTO was created in 1995 by the Marrakesh Agreement; major trade blocs include the EU, USMCA, ASEAN, SAARC/SAFTA and BIMSTEC.

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

Dispersed settlement dominates hills, forests, deserts and pastoral areas where water is scarce or land steep; nucleated settlement dominates fertile plains, favoured by defence, water supply and services.

Census of India urban unit: a statutory town (municipality, corporation, cantonment, notified area) or a census town (5,000+ population, density above 400/km², 75 per cent or more of male workers in non-agricultural work).

Level of urbanisation, 2011: India 31.16 per cent; Rajasthan 24.87 per cent.

Urban classes: town, city, million-plus city (1 million+), megacity (10 million+); Census 2011 counted 53 million-plus urban agglomerations.

Rank–size rule: population of the nth city = population of the largest city ÷ n; a primate city violates the rule by dominating the urban hierarchy.

Christaller's central place theory: hexagonal complementary regions with central places of different order, determined by the range (maximum distance consumers will travel) and threshold (minimum demand needed) of a good.

Resource classes: renewable vs non-renewable; biotic vs abiotic; and by status - potential, developed, stock and reserve (a reserve is known and economically usable with present technology).

Resource development sequence: potential → developed → stock → reserve, driven by technology, demand and price.

Sustainable development (Brundtland Report, 1987): development that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs, balancing economy, society and environment.

Milestones: Stockholm 1972; Brundtland 1987; Rio Earth Summit 1992 (Agenda 21, UNFCCC); Kyoto Protocol 1997; Paris Agreement 2015; SDGs 2015 (17 goals).

Environmental degradation forms: air and water pollution, deforestation, desertification, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, ozone depletion and global warming.

Soil conservation methods: contour ploughing, terracing, strip cropping, shelter belts, check dams and crop rotation.

Pollution control tools: the 3R hierarchy (reduce, reuse, recycle), environmental impact assessment before major projects, CPCB/SPCB standards and BS-VI vehicle norms.

Ecological footprint (in global hectares) compared with biocapacity indicates whether a region runs an ecological surplus or deficit.

India: area 3.28 million km² (2.4 per cent of world area), population 1.21 billion in 2011 (about 17.5 per cent of world population), density 382/km².

Physiographic divisions: Himalayas, Indo-Gangetic Plain, Peninsular Plateau, coastal plains and islands.

Southwest monsoon (June–September) supplies about 75 per cent of annual rainfall; national average is 100–120 cm; Mawsynram is the wettest place; a 'break in monsoon' damages kharif crops.

Cropping seasons: kharif (June–October: rice, cotton, maize, bajra, groundnut), rabi (October–March: wheat, mustard, gram) and zaid (summer melons and fodder).

Green Revolution from the mid-1960s used HYV wheat, fertiliser and irrigation, concentrated in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh; Operation Flood organised dairying.

Major industrial regions: Mumbai–Pune, Hooghly, Bengaluru–Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Chhotanagpur and Visakhapatnam–Guntur.

Regional imbalance persists in hill states, the drought-prone Deccan and tribal central India; policy responses include special category status and NITI Aayog aspirational districts.

Transport and trade infrastructure: Golden Quadrilateral, metro rail in major cities, NW-1 on the Ganga, and international airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Rajasthan: area 342,239 km², the largest state (10.4 per cent of India); population 68.5 million, density 200/km², sex ratio 928 and literacy 66.1 per cent (Census 2011).

Aravalli range, among the world's oldest fold mountains, runs southwest–northeast from Mount Abu towards Delhi; Guru Shikhar (1,722 m) is the highest peak; it separates arid western Rajasthan from semi-arid eastern Rajasthan.

Climate: arid west (Thar, Jaisalmer rainfall under 20 cm) grading to semi-arid east; about 90 per cent of the state is arid or semi-arid and drought is frequent; the Aravalli creates a rain-shadow effect.

Rivers: Chambal is the only perennial river (rising in the Janapav hills); Luni is ephemeral and ends in the Rann of Kachchh; Banas, Mahi and Sabarmati also drain the state; the west has inland drainage.

Indira Gandhi Canal, fed from the Harike barrage in Punjab, irrigates Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Bikaner and Jaisalmer, but has caused waterlogging and salinity in parts of the command.

Minerals: zinc–lead at Zawar and Rampura–Agucha (Bhilwara), copper at Khetri, marble at Makrana, rock phosphate at Jhamarkotra, gypsum, lignite at Palana and crude oil at Mangala (Barmer).

Agriculture: bajra, wheat, mustard, gram, guar and canal-irrigated cotton; livestock (cattle, sheep, goats, camels) is central to the arid economy.

Industry and energy: textiles, cement, zinc smelting and handicrafts; solar parks at Bhadla (Jodhpur) and in Jaisalmer; tourism rests on forts, palaces and Keoladeo, Ranthambhore and Sariska.