Ap Human Geography Vocab

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Acid deposition

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sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides, emitted by burning fossil fuels, enter the atmosphere and then return to Earth's surface

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Active Solar Energy Systems

Back 2

solar energy system that collects energy through the use of mechanical devices like photovoltaic cells or flat-plate collectors

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Agribusiness

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commercial agriculture characterized by integration of different steps in the food-processing industry, usually through ownership by large corporations

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Agricultural density

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the ratio of the number of farmers to the total amount of land suitable for agriculture

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Agriculture revolution

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the time when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering

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Agriculture

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the deliberate effort to modify a portion of Earth's surface through the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock for sustenance or economic gain

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Animate power

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power supplied by people or animals

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Animism

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belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events, like thunderstorms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and conscious life

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Annexation

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legally adding land area to a city in the United States

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Apartheid

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laws (no longer in effect) in South Africa that physically seperated different races into different geographic areas

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Arithmetic density

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the total number of people divided by the total land area

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Autonomous religion

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a religion that does not have a central authority but shares ideas and cooperates informally

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Balance of power

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condition of roughly equal strength between opposing countries or alliances of countries

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Balkanization

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process by which a state breaks down through conflicts among its ethnicities

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Balkanized

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a small geographic area that could not successfully be organized into one or more stable states because it was inhabited by many ethnicities with complex, long-standing antagonisms toward each other

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Base line

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an east-west line designated under the Land Ordinance of 1785 to facilitate the surveying and numbering of townships in the United States

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Basic industries

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industries tht sell their products or services primarily to consumers outside the settlement

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Biodiversity

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the number of species within a specific habitat

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Blockbusting

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a process by which real estate agents convince white property owners to sell their houses at low prices because of fear that black families will soon move into the neighborhood

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Boundary

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invisible line that marks the extent of a state's territory

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Brain drain

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large-scale emigration by talented people

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Branch (of a religion)

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a large and fundamental division within a religion

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Break of bulk point

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a location where transfer is possible from one mode of transportation to another

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Breeder reactor

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a nuclear power plant that creates its own fuel from plutonium

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British received pronunciation (BRP)

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the dialect of English associated with upper-class Britions living in the London area and now considered standard in the United Kingdon

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Business services

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services that primarily meet the needs of other businesses

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Cartography

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the science of making maps

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Caste

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the class or distinct hereditary order into which a
Hindu is assigned according to religious law

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Central Business District

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the area of the city where retail and office activites are clustered

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Central place theory

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a theory that explains the distribution of services, based on the fact that settlements serve as centers of market areas for services; larger settlements are fewer and farther apart than smaller settlements and provide services for a larger number of people who are willing to travel further.

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Central place

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a market center for the exchange of services by people attracted from the surrounding area

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Centripetal force

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an attitude that tends to unify people and enhance support for a state

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Cereal grain

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a grass yeilding grain for food

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Chaff

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husks of grain seperated from the seed by threshing

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Chan migration

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migration of people to a specific location because relatives or members of the same nationality previously migrated there

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City-state

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a sovereign state comprising a city and its immediate hinterland

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Clustered rural settlement

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a rural settlement in which the houses and farm buildings of each family are situated close to each other and fields surround the settlement

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Colonialism

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attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political,economic, and cultural principles in another territory

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Colony

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a territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than completely independent

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Commercial agriculture

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agriculture undertaken primarily to generate products for sale off the farm

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Compact state

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a state in which the distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly

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Concentric zone model

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a model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings

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Consumer services

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businesses that provide services primarily to individual consumers, including retail services and personal services

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Cosmogony

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a set of religious beliefs concerning the origin of the universe

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cottage industry

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manufacturing based in homes rather than in a factory, commonly found before the Industrial Revolution

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Council of government

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a cooperative agency consisting if representatives of local governments in a metropolitian area in the United States

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Counterurbanization

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net migrateion from urban to rural areas in more developed countries

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Creole or Creolized language

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a language that results from the mixing of a colonizer;s language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated

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Crop rotation

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the practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil

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Crude Birth Rate

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the total number of live births in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society

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Crude Death Rate

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the total number of deaths in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society

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Cultural economy

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geographic appraoch that emphasizes human-environment relationships

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Cultural landscape

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fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group

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Demograhic transition

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the process of change in a society's population from a condition of high crude birth and death rates and low rate of natural increase to a condition of low crude birth and death rates, low rate of natural increase, and a higher total population

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Demography

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the scientific study of population characteristics

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Denomination

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a division of a branch that unites a number of local congragations in a single legal and administrative body

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Density gradient

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the change in density in an urban area from the center to the periphery

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Dependency ratio

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the number of people under the age of 15 and over the ae of 64, compared to the number of people active in the labor force

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Desertification

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degradation of land , especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting

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Development

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a process of improvement in the material conditions of people through diffusion of knowledge and technology

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Diocese

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the basic unit of geographic organization in the Roman Catholic Church

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Dispered rural settlement

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a rural settlement pattern characterized by isolated farms rather than clustered villages

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Distance decay

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the diminishing in importance and eventual disapperance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin

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Ebonics

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dialect spoken by some African-Americans

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Economic base

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a community's collection of basic industries

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Ecumene

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the portion of Earth's surface occupied by permanent human settlements

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Edge city

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a large node of office and retail activities on the edge of an urban area

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Emigration

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migration FROM a location

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Enclosure movement

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the process of consolidating small landholdings into a smaller number of larger farms in England during the 18th century

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Environmental determinism

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a 19th and early 20th century approach to the study of geography that argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences

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Epidemiological transition

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distinctive causes of death in each stage of the demographic transition

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Epidemiology

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branch of medical scienve concerned with the incidence, distribution, and control of diseases that affect large numbers of people

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Ethni cleansing

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process in which more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create an ethnically homogeneous region

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Ethnic religion

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a religion with a relativel concentrated spatial distribution whose principles are likely to be based on the physical characteristics of the particular location in which its adherents are concentrated

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Ethnicity

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identity with a group of people that share distinct physical and mental traits as a product of common heredity and cultural traditions

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Expansion diffusion

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the spread of a feature or trend amond people from one area to another in a snowballing process

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Federal state

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an internal organization of a state that allocates msot powers to units of local government

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Ferrous

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metals, including iron oe, that are utilized in the production of iron and steel

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Filtering

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a process of change in the use of a house, from single family owner occupancy to abandonment

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Fission

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the splitting of an atomic nucleus to release energy

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Folk culture

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culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous, rural group living in relative isolation from other groups

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Forced migration

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permanent movement compelled usually by cultural factors

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Formal region

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an area in which everyone shares in one or more distinctive characteristics

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Franglais

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a term used by the French for English words that have entered the French language, combo of French and English

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Frontier

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a zone separating 2 states in which neither state exercises political control

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Functional or Nodal region

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an area organized around a node or focal point

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Fundamentalism

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literal intetpretation an strict adherence to basic principles of a religion

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Fusion

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creation of energy by joining the nuclei of 2 hydrogen atoms to form helium

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Gender empowerment measure

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compares the ability of woment and men to participate in economic and political decision making

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Gender Related development index

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compares the level of development of women with that of both sexes

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Gentrification

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a process of converting an urban neighborhood from a predominantly low-income renter-occupied area to a predominantly middle-class owner-occupied area

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Geothemal energy

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energy from steam or hot water produced from hot or molten underground rock

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Gerrymandering

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process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power.

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Globalization

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actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope

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Gravity Model

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a model that holds that the potential use of a service at a particular location is directly relate to the numer of people in a location and inversely related to the distance people mus travel to reach the service

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Green revolution

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rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers

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Greenbelt

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a ring of land maintained as parks, agriculture, or other types of open space to limit the sprawl of an urban area

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Greenwich Mean Time

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the time in that zone encompassing the prime meridian

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Gross domestic product

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the value of the total ouput of goods and services produced in a country in a given time period

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Hierarchical diffusion

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the spread of a feature or trend from one key person or node of authority or power to other persons or places

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Hierarchical religion

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a religion in which a central authority exercises a high degree of control

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Horiculture

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the growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers

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Hull

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the covering of a seed

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Human Development Index

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indicator o level of development for each country, constructed by United Nations, combining income, literacy, education, and life expectancy

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Ideogram

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the system of writing used in China and other East Asian countries in which each symbol represents an idea or a concept rather than a specific sound, as is the case with letters in English

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Imperialism

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control of territory already occupied and organized by an indigenous society

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Inanimate power

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power supplied by machines

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Industrial Revolution

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a series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods

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Infant Mortality rate

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the total numer of deaths in a year among infants under one year old for every 1,000 live births in a society