Human Geography

99 flashcards by MentisLibrary

Why people live where they do and what happens when they move. Covers population and the demographic transition, migration, city models and urbanization, development and trade, and the cultural and political patterns drawn on the map.

What is the difference between absolute and relative location?
Absolute location is a fixed coordinate position, such as latitude and longitude; relative location describes a place in terms of its position near other places
What is the difference between site and situation?
Site is the physical character of a place itself, such as terrain, soil, water and climate; situation is its position relative to other places and to transport routes
What is scale in geography?
It has two meanings: the ratio of map distance to ground distance, and the level of analysis at which a phenomenon is studied, from local to global
What is distance decay?
The weakening of an interaction or a cultural trait as distance from its origin increases
What is Tobler's first law of geography?
Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things
What is space-time compression?
The reduction in the time it takes for people, goods and ideas to move between places, which effectively shrinks the perceived distance between them
What is a geographic information system, or GIS?
A computer system for capturing, storing, analyzing and displaying spatially referenced data in layers
What is remote sensing?
The collection of data about the earth's surface from a distance, usually by satellite or aircraft sensors
What is a choropleth map?
A thematic map that shades areas in proportion to a statistical value for each area
What is the main distortion of the Mercator projection?
It preserves direction and local shape but stretches area severely toward the poles, so high-latitude landmasses look far larger than they are
What is population density?
The number of people per unit of area
What is the difference between arithmetic and physiological density?
Arithmetic density is people per unit of total land area; physiological density is people per unit of arable land
What are the crude birth rate and the crude death rate?
The number of live births per 1,000 people per year, and the number of deaths per 1,000 people per year
What is total fertility rate?
The average number of children a woman would have over her lifetime at current age-specific birth rates
What is doubling time?
The number of years it would take a population to double at its current growth rate
What is the demographic transition model?
A model describing the shift from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates as a society develops, usually through four or five stages
What happens in stage 2 of the demographic transition model?
Death rates fall sharply because of better food supply, sanitation and medicine, while birth rates stay high, producing rapid population growth
What is meant by stage 5 of the demographic transition model?
A proposed stage in which birth rates fall below death rates, causing natural population decline and rapid aging
What is a population pyramid?
A bar graph showing the distribution of a population by age group and sex
What does a wide-based population pyramid indicate?
High birth rates and a young population, typical of rapid growth
What is the dependency ratio?
The ratio of people outside the typical working ages, usually under 15 and over 64, to those of working age
What was Thomas Malthus's argument about population?
That population tends to grow geometrically while food production grows arithmetically, so growth would outrun the food supply and be checked by famine, disease or war
What was Ester Boserup's counterargument to Malthus?
That population pressure drives agricultural innovation, so rising population makes societies intensify and improve food production
What is carrying capacity?
The maximum population an environment can support given available resources and technology
Why is population aging a policy problem for many countries?
A shrinking working-age population must support rising pension and healthcare costs for a growing elderly population
What is the difference between push and pull factors?
Push factors drive people away from a place, and pull factors attract them to a destination
What are Ravenstein's laws of migration?
A set of generalizations from the 1880s, including that most migrants move short distances, that long-distance migrants head for major centers, and that each migration stream produces a counterstream
What is chain migration?
Migration in which people follow relatives, friends or others from their home community to a destination where that community is already established
What is step migration?
Migration accomplished in a series of shorter moves toward a final destination rather than in one long move
What is an intervening obstacle?
A barrier that makes migration harder or stops it, whether physical, political or economic