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Human Geo. Vocab.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| absolute direction | the cardinal directions north, south, east, and west |
| absolute distance | distance that can be measured using a standard unit of length |
| absolute location | the exact location of an object, usually expressed in coordinates of longitude and latitude |
| acculturation | the process by which people within one culture adopt some of the traits of another while still retaining their own distinct culture |
| adherent | a person who is loyal to a belief, religion, or organization |
| administer | to manage the way borders are maintained and how goods and people cross them |
| African city model | a model of urban development depicting a city with three central business districts, growing outward in a series of concentric rings |
| agglomeration | the tendency of enterprises in the same industry to cluster in the same area |
| agribusinesses | the large-scale system that includes the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products and equipment |
| agricultural biodiversity | the variety and variability of plants, animals, and microorganisms that are used directly or indirectly for food and agriculture |
| agricultural density | the total number of farmers per unit of arable land |
| agricultural hearth | an area where different groups began to domesticate plants and animals |
| agricultural landscape | a landscape resulting from the interactions between farming activities and a location's natural environment |
| agriculture | the purposeful cultivation of plants or raising of animals to produce goods for survival |
| agroecosystem | an ecosystem modified for agricultural use |
| antecedent boundary | a border established before an area becomes heavily settled |
| antinatalist | describing attitudes or policies that discourage childbearing as a means of limiting population growth |
| aquifer | layers of sand, gravel, and rocks that contain and can release a usable amount of water |
| arable land | land that can be used to grow crops |
| arithmetic density | the total number of people per unit area of land; also called crude density |
| artifact | a visible object or technology that a culture creates |
| assimilation | a category of acculturation in which the interaction of two cultures results in one culture adopting almost all of the customs, traditions, language, and other cultural traits of the other |
| asylum | the right to protection in a country |
| autonomous | having the authority to govern territories independently of the national government; for example, by having a separate currency |
| bid-rent theory | a theory that describes the relationships between land value, commercial location, and transportation (primarily in urban areas) using a bid-rent gradient, or slope; used to describe how land costs are determined |
| biodiversity | the variety of organisms living in a location |
| biotechnology | the science of altering living organisms, often through genetic manipulation, to create new products for specific purposes, such as crops that resist certain pests |
| blockbusting | a practice by real estate agents who would stir up concern that Black families would soon move into a neighborhood; the agents would convince White property owners to sell their houses at below-market prices |
| boomburb | a suburb that has grown rapidly into a large and sprawling city with more than 100,000 residents |
| brain drain | the loss of trained or educated people to the lure of work in another — often richer — country |
| break-of-bulk point | location where it is more economical to break raw materials into smaller units before shipping them further |
| brownfield | abandoned and polluted industrial site in a central city or suburb |
| Buddhism | the oldest universalizing religion, which arose from a hearth in northeastern India sometime between the mid-sixth and mid-fourth centuries B.C.E. and is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha |
| bulk-gaining industry | industry in which the finished goods cost more to transport than the raw materials |
| bulk-reducing industry | industry in which the raw materials cost more to transport than the finished goods |
| carrying capacity | the maximum population size an environment can sustain |
| cartographer | a person who creates maps |
| cash crop | a crop produced mainly to be sold and usually exported to larger markets |
| census | an official count of the number of people in a defined area, such as a state |
| central business district (CBD) | the central location where the majority of consumer services are located in a city or town because the accessibility of the location attracts these services |
| central place theory | a theory that used to describe the spatial relationship between cities and their surrounding communities |
| centrifugal force | a force that divides a group of people |
| centripetal force | a force that unites a group of people |
| chain migration | type of migration in which people move to a location because others from their community have previously migrated there |
| choke point | a narrow, strategic passageway to another place through which it is difficult to pass |
| Christianity | a universalizing religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ that began in what is now the West Bank and Israel around the beginning of the common era and has spread to all continents |
| circular migration | migration pattern in which migrant workers move back and forth between their country of origin and the destination country where they work temporary jobs |
| circulation | temporary, repetitive movements that recur on a regular basis |
| climate | the long-term patterns of weather in a particular area |
| climate region | an area that has similar climate patterns generally based on its latitude and its location on a coast or continental interior |
| clustered settlement | a rural settlement pattern in which residents live in close proximity to one another, with farmland and pasture land surrounding the settlement; also known as a nucleated settlement |
| collectivist culture | a culture in which people are expected to confirm to collective responsibility within the family and to be obedient to and respectful of elder family members |
| colonialism | the practice of claiming and dominating overseas territories |
| Columbian Exchange | the exchange of goods, and ideas between the Americas, Europe, and Africa that began after Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492 |
| commercial agriculture | an agricultural practices that focuses on producing crops and raising animals for the market for others to purchase |
| commodity chain | a network of people, information, processes, and resources that work together to produce, handle, and distribute a commodity or product |
| commodity dependence | an aspect of dependency theory that occurs when more than 60 percent of a country's exports and economic health are tied to one or two resources |
| comparative advantage | the relative cost advantage a country or organization has to produce certain goods or services for trade |
| complementarity | the mutual trade relationship that exists between two places based on the supply of raw materials and the demand for finished products or services |
| concentric-zone model | a model of urban development depicting a city growing outward from a central business districts in a series of concentric rings |
| concurrent | sharing authority |
| contagious diffusion | the process by which an idea or cultural trait spreads rapidly among people of all social classes and levels of power |
| core | classification of a country or region that has wealth, higher education levels, more advanced technologies, many resources, strong militaries, and powerful allies |
| cottage industry | preindustrial form of manufacture in which members of families spread out through rural areas worked in their homes to make goods |
| creolization | the blending of two or more languages that may not include the features of either original language |
| crop rotation | the varying of crops from year to year to allow for the restoration of valuable nutrients and the continuing productivity of the soil |
| crude birth rate (CBR) | the number of births in a given year per 1,000 people in a given population |
| crude death rate (CDR) | the number of deaths in a given year per 1,000 people in a given population |
| cultural appropriation | the act of adopting elements of another culture |
| cultural convergence | the process by which cultures become more similar through interaction |
| cultural divergence | the process by which cultures become less similar due to conflicting beliefs or other barriers |
| cultural hearth | an area where cultural traits develop and from which cultural traits diffuse |
| cultural landscape | a natural landscape that has been modified by humans, reflecting their cultural beliefs and values |
| cultural norm | a shared standard or pattern that guides the behavior of a group of people |
| cultural relativism | the evaluation of a culture by its own standards |
| cultural trait | a shared object or cultural practice |
| culture | the beliefs, values, practices, behaviors, and technologies shared by a society and passed down from generation to generation |
| debt-for-nature swap | agreement between a bank and a peripheral country in which the bank forgives a portion of the country's debt in exchange for local investment in conservation measures |
| de facto segregation | segregation that results from residential settlement patterns rather than from prejudicial laws |
| define | to explicitly state in legally binding documentation such as a treaty where boundaries are located, using reference points such as natural features or lines of latitude and longitude |
| deforestation | loss of forest lands |
| deindustrialization | process by which a country or area reduces industrial activity, particularly in heavy industry and manufacturing |
| delimit | to draw boundaries on a map, in accordance with a legal agreement |
| demarcate | to place physical objects such as stones, pillars, walls, or fences to indicate where a boundary exists |
| demographics | data about the structures and characteristics of human populations |
| demographic transition model (DTM) | a model that represents shifts in the growth of the world's populations, based on population trends related to birth rate and death rate |
| denomination | a separate church organization that unites a number of local congregations |
| density | the number of things — people, animals, or objects — in a specific area |
| dependency ratio | the number of people in a dependent age group (under age 15 or age 65 and older) divided by the number of people in the working-age group (ages 15 to 64), multiplied by 100 |
| dependency theory | a theory that describes the development challenges and limitations faced by poorer countries and the political and economic relationships poorer countries have with richer countries |
| desertification | a form of land degradation that occurs when soil deteriorates to a desertlike condition |
| devolution | the process that occurs when the central power in a state is broken up among regional authorities within its borders |
| dialect | a variation of a standard language specific to a general area, with differences in pronunciation, degree of rapidity in speech, word choice, and spelling |
| diffusion | the process by which a cultural trait spreads from one place to another over time |
| disamenity zone | a high-poverty urban area in a disadvantaged location containing steep slopes, flood-prone ground, rail lines, landfills, or industry |
| dispersed | spread out |
| dispersed settlement | a rural settlement pattern in which houses and building are isolated from one another, and all the homes in a settlement are distributed over a relatively large area |
| distance decay | a principle stating that the farther away one thing is from another, the less interaction the two things will have |
| distribute | to arrange within a given space |
| domestication | the deliberate effort to grow plants and raise animals, making plants and animals adapt to human demands and using selective breeding to develop desirable characteristics |
| doubling time | the number of years in which a population growing at a certain rate would double |
| dual agricultural economy | an economy having two agricultural sectors that have different levels of technology and different patterns of demand |
| dual economies | economies with two distinct distributions of economic activity across the economic sectors |
| ecological footprint | impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain the use of natural resources |
| ecological perspective | the relationships between living things and their environments |
| economic sectors | collections of industries engaged in similar economic activities based on the creation of raw materials, the production of goods, the provision of services, or other activities |
| economies of scale | cost reductions that occur when production rises |
| ecotourism | a form of tourism based on the enjoyment of natural areas that minimizes the impact to the environment |
| edge city | a type of community located on the outskirts of a larger city with commercial centers with office space, retail complexes, and other amenities typical of an urban center |
| electoral college | a set of people, called electors, who are chosen to elect the president and vice president of the United States |
| emigration | movement away from a location |
| eminent domain | a government's right to take over privately owned property for public use or interest |
| enclosure system | system in which communal lands were replaced by farms owned by individuals, and use of the land was restricted to the owner or tenants who rented the land from the owner |
| environmental determinism | the idea that human behavior is strongly affected, controlled, or determined by the physical environment |
| environmental injustice | the ways in which communities of color and poor people are more likely to be exposed to environmental burdens such as air pollution or contaminated water; also called environmental racism |
| epidemiological transition model (ETM) | a model that describes changes in fertility, mortality, life expectancy, and population age distribution, largely as the result of changes in causes of death |
| ethnic cleansing | the process by which a state attacks an ethnic group and tries to eliminate it through expulsion, imprisonment, or killing |
| ethnicity | the state belonging to a group of people who share common cultural characteristics |
| ethnic neighborhood | a cultural landscape within a community of people outside of their area of origin |
| ethnic religion | a religion that is closely tied with a particular ethnic group often living in a particular place |
| ethnic separatism | the process by which people of a particular ethnicity in a multinational state identify more strongly as members of their ethnic group than as citizens of the state |
| ethnocentrism | the tendency of ethnic groups to evaluate other groups according to preconceived ideas originating from their own culture |
| ethnonationalism | the process by which the people of a country identify as having one common ethnicity, religious belief, and language, creating a sense of pride and identity that is tied to the territory; also called ethnic nationalism |
| exclusive economic zone (EEZ) | an area that extends 200 nautical miles from a state's coast; a state has sole access to resources found within the waters or beneath the sea floor of its particular one |
| expansion diffusion | the spread of a cultural trait outward from where it originated |
| export processing zone (EPZ) | an area within a country that is subject to more favorable regulations (usually including the elimination of tariffs) to encourage foreign investment and the manufacturing of goods for export |
| extensive agriculture | an agricultural practices with relatively few inputs and little investment in labor and capital that results in relatively low outputs |
| exurb | a typically fast-growing community outside of or on the edge of a metropolitan area where the residents and community are closely connected to the central city and suburbs |
| fair trade | a movement that tries to provide farmers and workers in peripheral and semi-peripheral countries with a fair price for their products by providing more equitable trading conditions |
| farm subsidy | a form of aid and insurance given by the federal government to certain farmers and agribusinesses |
| federal state | the organization of a state in which power is shared between the federal government and its internal regional units |
| Fertile Crescent | a hearth in Southwest Asia that forms an arc from the eastern Mediterranean coast up- into what is now western Turkey and then south and east along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to western parts of modern Iran |
| fertility | the ability to produce children |
| filtering | the process of neighborhood change in which housing vacated by more affluent groups passes down the income scale to lower-income groups |
| first agricultural revolution | the shift from foraging for food to farming about 11,000 years ago, marking the beginning of agriculture |
| flow | movement of people, goods, or information that has economic, social, political, or cultural effects on societies |
| food desert | area where residents lack access to healthy, nutritious foods because stores selling these foods are too far away |
| food insecurity | the disruption of food intake or eating patterns because of poor access to food |
| food security | reliable access to safe and nutritious food that can support an active and healthy lifestyle |
| foragers | small, nomadic groups who had primarily plant-based diets and ate small animals or fish for protein |
| forced migration | type of migration in which people are compelled to move by economic, political, environmental, or cultural factors |
| Fordism | a highly organized and specialized system for industrial production that focuses on efficiency and productivity in mass production; named after Henry Ford |
| formal region | an area that has one or more shared traits; also called a uniform region |
| formal sector | businesses, enterprises, and other economic activities that have government supervision, monitoring, and protection, and are also taxed |
| free trade zone (FTZ) | a relatively large geographical area within a country in which businesses pay few or no tariffs on goods to encourage or facilitate its role in international trade |
| friction of distance | a concept that states that the longer a journey is, the more time, effort, and cost it will involve |
| functional region | an area organized by its function around a focal point, or the center of an interest or activity |
| galactic city model | a model of urban development depicting a city where economic activity has moved from the central business districts toward loose coalitions of other urban areas and suburbs; also known as the peripheral model |
| Gender Development Index (GDI) | a measure that calculates gender disparity in the three basic dimensions of human development: health, knowledge, and standard of living |
| gendered space | a space designed and deliberately incorporated into the landscape to accommodate gender roles |
| gender identity | an individual's innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both, or neither |
| Gender Inequality Index (GII) | a measure that calculates inequality based on three categories: reproductive health, empowerment, and labor-market participation |
| genetically modified organism (GMO) | a plant or animal with specific characteristics obtained through the manipulation of its genetic makeup |
| gentrification | the renovations and improvements conforming to middle-class preferences |
| geographic information system (GIS) | a computer system that allows for the collection, organization, and display of geographic data for analysis |
| geometric boundary | a mathematically drawn boundary that typically follows lines of latitude and longitude or is a straight-lie arc between two points |
| gerrymandering | the drawing of legislative boundaries to give one political party an advantage in elections |
| globalization | the expansion of economic, cultural, and political processes on a worldwide scale |
| global positioning system (GPS) | a network of satellites that orbit Earth and transmit location data to receivers, enabling users to pinpoint their exact location |
| global supply chain | a network of people, information, processes, and resources that work together to produce, handle, and distribute goods around the world |
| gravity model | a model that predicts the interaction between two or more places; geographers derived the model from Newton's law of universal gravitation |
| greenbelt | a ring of parkland, agricultural land, or other type of open space maintained around an urban area to limit sprawl |
| Green Revolution | movement beginning in the 1950s and 1960s in which scientists used knowledge of genetics to develop new high-yield strains of grain crops |
| Gross Domestic Product (GDP) | the total value of the goods and services produced by a country's citizens and companies within the country in a year |
| Gross National Income (GNI) per capita | the total value of goods and services globally produced by a country in a year divided by the country's population |
| Gross National Product (GNP) | the total values of the goods and services produced by a country's citizens and companies both domestically and internationally in a year |
| growth pole | a place of economic activity clustered around one or more high-growth industries that stimulate economic gain by capitalizing on some special asset |
| guest worker | a migrant who travels to a new country as temporary labor |
| hierarchical diffusion | the spread of an idea or trait from a person or place of power or authority to other people or places |
| Hinduism | an ethnic religion that arose a few thousand years ago in South Asia and is closely tied to India |
| human development | the processes involved in the improvement of people's freedoms, rights, capabilities, choices, and material conditions |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | a measure that determines the total development of a country by incorporating 3 key dimensions of human development: life expectancy at birth, access to education, & standard of living measured by GNI per capita |
| human geography | the study of the processes that have shaped how humans understand, use, and alter Earth |
| human migration | the permanent movement of people from one place to another |
| human trafficking | defined by the United Nations as "the recruitment, transportation, harboring, or receipt of persons by improper means (such as force, abduction, fraud, or coercion)" |
| hybrid | the product created by breeding different varieties of species to enhance the most favorable characteristics |
| identity | the ways in which humans make sense of themselves and how they wish to be viewed by others |
| immigration | movement to a location |
| imperialism | the push to create an empire by exercising force or influence to control other nations or peoples |
| inclusionary zoning law | law that creates affordable housing by offering incentives for developers to set aside a minimum percentage of new housing construction to be allocated for low-income renters or buyers |
| industrialization | the process in which the interaction of social and economic factors causes the development of industries on a wide scale |
| industrial park | a collection of manufacturing facilities in a particular area that is typically found in suburbs and is located close to highways to facilitate movement of raw materials and finished products |
| Industrial Revolution | the radical change in manufacturing methods that began in Great Britain in the mid-18th century and was marked by the shift from small-scale, hand-crafted, muscle-powered production to power-driven mass production |
| industry | any economic activity using machinery on a large scale to process raw materials into products |
| infant mortality rate (IMR) | the number of deaths of children under the age of 1 per 1,000 live births |
| infill | redevelopment that identifies and develops vacant parcels of land within previously built areas |
| informal sector | any part of a country's economy that is outside of government monitoring or regulation; sometimes called informal economy |
| infrastructure | the many systems and facilities that a country needs in order to function properly |
| intensive agriculture | an agricultural practice in which farmers expend a great deal of effort to produce as much yield as possible from an area of land |
| internally displaced person | person who has been forced to flee his or her home but remains within the county's borders |
| internal migration | movement within a country's borders |
| international division of labor | a pattern of production and labor in which different countries are engaged in distinct aspects of production |
| interregional migration | movement from one region of the country to another |
| intervening obstacle | an occurrence that holds migrants back |
| intervening opportunity | an occurrence that causes migrants to pause their journey by choice |
| intraregional migration | movement within one region of the country |
| irredentism | attempts by a state to acquire territories in neighboring states inhabited by people of the same nation |
| Islam | a universalizing religion based on the teachings of Muhammad that originated in the hearth of Mecca on the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century |
| isolate | a language that is unrelated to any other known language |
| Judaism | the world's first monotheistic religion, which developed among the Hebrew people of Southwest Asia about 4,000 years ago |
| just-in-time delivery | a system in which goods are delivered as needed so that companies keep in inventory only what is needed for near-term production |
| kinship links | networks of relatives and friends |
| labor-market participation (LMP) | rate that measures an economy's active labor force, calculated by taking the sum of all employed workers divided by the working age population |
| land degradation | long-term damage to the soil's ability to support life |
| landforms | the natural features of Earth's surface |
| land tenure | the legal rights, as defined by a society, associated with owning land |
| language | a distinct system of communication that is the carrier of human thoughts and cultural identities |
| language branch | a collection of languages within a language family that share a common origin and separated from other branches in the same family several thousand years ago |
| language family | a group of languages that share a common ancestral language from a particular hearth, or region of origin |
| language group | languages within a language branch that share a common ancestor in the relatively recent past and have vocabularies with a high degree of overlap |
| Latin American city model | a model of urban development depicting a city with a central business districts, concentric rings, and sections stricken by poverty; also known as the Griffin-Ford model |
| least-cost theory | industrial location theory proposed by Alfred Weber suggesting that businesses locate their facilities in a particular place because that location minimizes the costs of production |
| life expectancy | the average number of years a person is expected to live |
| linear settlement | a rural settlement pattern in which houses and buildings form in a long line that usually follows a land feature or aligns along a transportation route |
| lingua franca | common language used among speakers of different languages |
| location | the position that a point or objects occupies on Earth |
| majority-minority district | an electoral district in which the majority of voters are members of an ethnic or racial minority |
| map scale | the relationship of the size of the map to the size of the area it represents on Earth's surface |
| market gardening | a type of farming that produces fruits, vegetables, and flowers and typically serves a specific market or urban area |
| Mediterranean agriculture | an agricultural practice that consists of growing hardy trees and shrubs and raising sheep and gosts |
| megacity | a city with a population of more than 10 million |
| mental maps | internalized representations of portions of Earth's surface |
| mentifact | a central, enduring element of a culture that reflects its shared ideas, values, knowledge, and beliefs |
| metacity | a city with a population of more than 20 million |
| metropolitan area | a city and the surrounding areas that are influenced economically and culturally by the city |
| microloan | a very small short-term loan with low interest intended to help people in need |
| mixed crop and livestock systems | a type of farming in which both crops and livestock are raised for profit |
| mixed-use development (MUD) | a single planned development designed to include multiple uses, such as residential, retail, educational, recreational, industrial, and office spaces |
| mixed-use zoning | zoning that permits multiple land uses in the same space or structure |
| mobility | all types of movement from one location to another, whether temporary or permanent or over short or long distances |
| model | a representation of reality that presents significant features or relationships in a generalized form |
| monocropping | the cultivation of one or two crops that are rotated seasonally |
| monoculture | the agricultural system of planting one crop or raising one type of animal annually |
| mortality | deaths as a component of population change |
| multiculturalism | a situation in which different cultures live together without assimilating |
| multinational state | a country with various ethnicities and cultures living inside its borders |
| multiple-nuclei model | a model of urban development depicting a city where growth occurs around the progressive integration of multiple nodes, not around one central business district |
| multiplier effect | the economic effect in which a change creates a larger change, such as when a new manufacturing plant grows the economy by giving rise to more related jobs and services |
| multistate nation | people who share a cultural or ethnic background but live in more than one country |
| nation | a cultural entity made up of people who have forged a common identity through a shared language, religion, heritage, or ethnicity — often all four of these |
| nation-state | a politically organized and recognized territory composed of a group of people who consider themselves to be a nation |
| neocolonialism | the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies |
| neoliberalism | beliefs that favor free-market capitalism in which trade has no constraints from government |
| Neo-Malthusian | describing the theory related to the idea that population growth is unsustainable and that the future population cannot be supported by Earth's resources |
| net migration | the difference between the number of emigrants and immigrants in a location, such as a city or a country |
| New Urbanism | a school of thought that promotes designing growth to limit the amount of urban sprawl and preserve nature and usable farmland |
| node | the focal point of a functional region |
| nomadic herding | a type of agriculture based on people moving their domesticated animals seasonally or as needed to allow the best grazing |
| offshore outsourcing | the condition when one or more aspects of production moves to an organization in another country |
| overpopulation | a term used to describe the condition in which population growth outstrips the resources needed to support life |
| pattern | the way in which things are arranged in a particular space |
| perceptual region | a type of region that reflects people's feelings and attitudes about a place; also called a vernacular region |
| periphery | classification of a country or region that has less wealth, lower education levels, and less sophisticated technologies and also tends to have an unstable government and poor healthcare systems |
| physical geography | the study of natural processes and the distribution of features in the environment, such as landforms, plants, animals, soil, and climate |
| physiological density | the total number of people per unit of arable land |
| pilgrimage | a journey to a holy place for spiritual reasons |
| place | a location on Earth that is distinguished by its physical and human characteristics |
| placemaking | a community-driven process in which people collaborate to create a place where they can live, work, play, and learn |
| plantation agriculture | a type of large-scale commercial farming of one particular crop grown for markets often distant from the plantation |
| political geography | the study of the ways in which the world is organized as a reflection of the power different groups hold over territory |
| popular culture | the widespread behaviors, beliefs, and practices of ordinary people in society at a given point in time |
| population density | the number of people occupying a unit of land |
| population distribution | where people live in a geographic area |
| population pyramid | a graph that shows the age-sex distribution of a given population |
| possibilism | theory of human-environment interaction that states that humans have the ability to adapt the physical environment to their needs |
| post-Fordism | system focused on small-scale batch production for a specialized market and flexibility that allows for a quick response to changes in the market |
| postindustrial economy | an economic pattern marked by predominant tertiary sector employment — with a good share of quaternary and quinary jobs |
| postmodern architecture | a building style that emerged as a reaction to "modern" designs, and values diversity in design |
| precision agriculture | a farming management concept that uses technology to apply inputs with pinpoint accuracy to specific parts of fields to maximize crop yields, reduce waste, and preserve the environment |
| primary sector | economic sector associated with removing or harvesting products from the earth; includes agriculture, fishing, forestry, mining or quarrying, and extracting liquids or gas |
| primate city | the largest city in a country, which far exceeds the next city in population size and importance |
| pronatalist | describing attitudes or policies that encourage childbearing as a means of spurring population growth |
| pull factor | a positive cause that attracts someone to a new location |
| push factor | a negative cause that compels someone to leave a location |
| qualitative | involving data that is descriptive of a research subject and is often based on people's opinions |
| quantitative | involving data that can be measured by numbers |
| quaternary sector | economic sector that is a subset of tertiary sector activities that requires workers to process and handle information and environmental technology |
| quinary sector | economic sector that is a subset of the quaternary sector; involves the very top leaders in government, science, universities, nonprofits, health care, culture, and media |
| quota | limit on the number of immigrants allowed into the country each year |
| range | in central place theory, the distance that someone is willing to travel for a good or service |
| rank-size rule | explanation of size of cities within a country; states that the second-largest city will be one-half the size of the largest, the third largest will be one-third the size of the largest, and so on |
| rate of natural increase (RNI) | rate at which a population grows as the result of the difference between the crude birth rate and the crude death rate |
| raw materials | any metals, wood or other plant products, animal products, or other substances that are used to make intermediate or finished goods |
| reapportionment | the redistribution of representative seats among seats among states based on shifts in population |
| redistricting | the redrawing of internal territorial and political boundaries |
| redlining | practice by which a financial institution such as a bank refuses to offer home loans on the basis of a neighborhood's racial or ethnic makeup |
| reference map | a map that focuses on the location of places |
| refugee | a person who is forced to leave his or her country for fear of persecution or death |
| region | an area of Earth's surface with certain characteristics that make it cohesive yet distinct from other areas |
| regional planning | planning conducted at a regional scale that seeks to coordinate the development of housing, transportation, urban infrastructure, and economic activities |
| relative direction | direction based on a person's perception, such as left, right, up, or down |
| relative distance | distance determined in relation to other places or objects |
| relative location | a description of where a place is in relation to other places or features |
| relic | a former boundary that no longer has an official function |
| religion | a system of spiritual beliefs that helps form cultural perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, and values |
| relocation diffusion | the spread of culture traits through the movement of people |
| remittance | money earned by an emigrant abroad and sent back to his or her home country |
| remote sensing | collecting or analyzing data from a location without making physical contact |
| repatriate | to return to one's home country |
| reservoir | artificial lake used to store water |
| safe space | a space of acceptance for people who are sometimes marginalized by society |
| salinization | the process by which water-soluble salts build up in the soil, which limits the ability of crops to absorb water |
| scale | the area of the world being studied |
| second agricultural revolution | a change in farming practices, marked by new tools and techniques, that diffused from Britain and the Low Countries starting starting in the early 18th century |
| sect | a relatively small group that has separated from an established from an established religious denomination |
| sector model | a model of urban development depicting a city with wedge-shaped sectors and divisions emanating from the central business districts, generally along transit routes |
| secularized | focused on worldly rather than spiritual reasons |
| self-determination | the right of all people to choose their own political status |
| semiautonomous | describing a region that is given partial authority to govern its territories independently from the national government |
| semi-periphery | classification of a country or region that has qualities of both core and peripheral areas and is often in the process of industrializing |
| sense of place | the subjective feelings and memories people associate with a geographic location |
| sequent occupance | the notion that successive societies leave behind their cultural imprint, a collection of evidence about human character and experiences within a geographic region, which shapes the cultural landscape |
| sex ratio | the proportion of males to females in a population |
| shatterbelt | a region where states form, join, and break up because of ongoing, sometimes violent, conflicts among parties and because they are caught between the interests of more powerful outside states. |
| shifting cultivation | the agricultural practice of growing crops or grazing animals on a piece of land for a year or two, then abandoning that land when the nutrients have been depleted from the soil and moving to a new piece of land where the process is repeated |
| Sikhism | the newest universalizing religion; founded by Guru Nanak, who lived from 1469 to 1539, in the Punjab region of northwestern India |
| site | a place's absolute location, as well as its physical characteristics, such as the landforms, climate, and resources |
| situation | location of a place in relation to other places or its surrounding features |
| skills gap | a shortage of people trained in a particular industry |
| slash and burn | a method of agriculture in which existing vegetation is cut down and burned off before new seeds are down; often used when clearing land |
| slow-growth city | city where planners have used smart-growth policies to decrease the rate at which the city grows outward |
| smart-growth policy | policy implemented to create sustainable communities by placing development in convenient locations and designing it to be more efficient and environmentally responsible |
| sociofact | a structure or organization of a culture that influences social behavior |
| Southeast Asian city model | a model of urban development depicting a city oriented around a port and lacking a formal central business districts, growing outward in concentric rings and along multiple nodes |
| sovereignty | the right of a government to control and defend its territory and determine what happens within its borders |
| space | the area between two or more things |
| spatial perspective | geographic perspective that focuses on how people live on Earth, how they organize themselves, and why the events of human societies occur where they do |
| special economic zone (SEZ) | an area within a country that offers move favorable economic regulations (such as tax benefits or no tariffs) to attract foreign businesses |
| squatter settlement | an informal housing area beset with overcrowding and poverty that features temporary homes often made of wood scraps or metal sheeting |
| stages of economic growth | a model that suggests that all countries can be categorized on a spectrum from traditional to modern and that to become modern, countries need to pass through distinct stages of economic growth and succession |
| state | a politically organized independent territory with a government, defined borders , and a permanent population; a country |
| stateless nation | a people united by culture, language, history, and tradition but not possessing a state |
| step migration | series of smaller moves to get to the ultimate destination |
| stimulus diffusion | the process by which a cultural trait or idea spreads to another culture or region but is modified to adapt to the new culture |
| subsequent boundary | a border drawn in an area that has been settled and where cultural landscapes exist or are in the process of being established |
| subsistence agriculture | an agricultural practice that provides crops or livestock to feed one's family and close community using fewer mechanical resources and more people to care for the crops and livestock |
| suburbanization | the shifting of population away from cities into surrounding suburbs |
| suburbs | less densely populated residential and commercial areas surrounding a city |
| superimposed boundary | a border drawn over existing accepted borders by an outside or conquering force |
| supranational organization | an alliance of three or more states that work together in pursuit of common goals or to address an issue or challenge |
| sustainability | the use of Earth's land and natural resources in ways that ensure they will continue to be available in the future |
| sustainable development | development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs |
| syncretism | process of innovation combining different cultural features into something new |
| tariff | a tax or duty to be paid on a particular import or export |
| temperate climate | a climate with moderate temperatures and adequate precipitation amounts |
| terracing | the process of carving parts of a hill or mountainside into small, level growing plots |
| territoriality | the attempt to influence or control people and events by delimiting and asserting control over a geographic area; the connection of people, their culture, and their economic systems to the land |
| tertiary sector | economic sector that includes a host of activities that involve the transport, storage, marketing, and selling of goods or services; also called the service sector |
| thematic map | any map that focuses on one or more variables to show a relationship between geographic data |
| theory | a system of ideas intended to explain certain phenomena |
| third agricultural revolution | a shift to further mechanization in agriculture through the development of new technology and advances that began in the early 20th century and continues to the present day |
| third place | a communal space that is separate from home (first place) or work (second place) |
| threshold | in central place theory, the number of people needed to support a business |
| time-space compression | a key geographic principle that describes the ways in which modern transportation and communication have allowed humans to travel and communicate over long distances more quickly and easily |
| topography | the representation of Earth's surface to show natural and human-made features, especially their relative positions and elevations |
| toponym | a place name |
| total fertility rate (TFR) | the average number of children one woman in a given country or region will have during her childbearing years (ages 15 to 49) |
| traditional architecture | an established building style of different cultures, religions, and places |
| traditional culture | the long-established behaviors, beliefs, and practices passed down from generation to generation |
| traditional zoning | zoning that creates separate zones based on land-use type or economic function such as various categories of residential (low-, medium-, or high-density), commercial, or industrial |
| transhumance | the movement of herds between pastures at cooler, higher elevations during the summer months and lower elevations during the winter |
| transnational migration | international migration in which people retain strong cultural, emotional, and financial ties with their countries of origin |
| transportation-oriented development | the creation of dense, walkable, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use communities centered around or located near a transit station |
| unitary state | an organization of a state in which power is concentrated in a central government |
| United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) | the international agreement that established the structure of maritime boundaries |
| universalizing religion | a religion that tries to appeal to all humans and is open to membership by everyone |
| urban area | a city and its surrounding suburbs |
| urban growth boundary | a boundary that separates urban land uses from rural land uses by limiting how far a city can expand |
| urbanization | urban growth and development |
| urban renewal | the nationwide movement that developed in the 1950s and 1960s when U.S. cities were given massive federal grants to tear down and clear out crumbling neighborhoods and former industrial zones as a means of rebuilding their downtowns |
| urban sprawl | areas of poorly planned, low-density development surrounding a city |
| vernacular region | a type of region that reflects people's feelings and attitudes about a place; also called a perceptual region |
| vertical integration | the combining of a company's ownership of and control over more than one stage of the production process of goods |
| voluntary migration | type of migration in which people make the choice to move to a new place |
| von Thünen model | a model that suggests that perishability of the product and transport costs to the market each factor into the location of agricultural land use and activity |
| walkability | a measure of how safe, convenient, and efficient it is to walk in an urban environment |
| wetland | area of land that is covered by water or saturated with water |
| women's empowerment | women's options and access to participate fully in the social and economic spheres of a society |
| world city | a city that wields political, cultural, and economic influence on a global scale |
| world system theory | theory describing the spatial and functional relationships between countries in the world economy; categorizes countries as part of a hierarchy consisting of the core, periphery, and semi-periphery |
| zone of abandonment | area that has been largely deserted due to lack of jobs, declines in in land value, and falling demand |
| zoning | the process of dividing a city or urban area into zones within which only certain land uses are permitted |
| consequent boundary | a type of subsequent boundary that takes into account the differences that exist within a cultural landscape, separating groups that have distinct languages, religions, ethnicities, or other traits |
| secondary sector | economic sector associated with the production of goods from raw materials; includes manufacturing, processing, and construction |
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