Human Geography Models
Demographic Transition Model
Stage One
• Every country in the world has moved out of
Stage 1 and into at least Stage 2
• High CBR’s and CDR’s: (Roughly around 35 to
40 per 1,000)
• Agricultural Revolution: (8000 B.C.E.): huge
boost in population but remained in Stage 1
because of unpredictable harvests, wars,
famine, and disease.
Stage 2
• CDR drops significantly:
• Industrial Revolution: caused population to grow 10x
faster.
• 1750 grew 500,000 1800 grew 5 million
• Infrastructure improved: sewers installed; food and
water supply safeguarded from contamination.
• CBR stays high. NIR very high because of gap
between CDR and CBR
Stage 2
• Europe and North America entered stage 2
around 1800
• Most other countries (Africa, Asia, and Latin
America) around 1950
Medical Revolution: caused
Africa, Asia, and Latin America
to push into stage 2; Unlike
Europe and North America.
Medical technology invented in
Europe and North America
diffused to LDC’s.
Stage 3
• CBR’s drop because of conscious decision to
have fewer children.
• CDR continues to fall but at a slower rate than
in stage 2. Population continues to grow but
at slower rates.
• Growth of Cities
Stage 3
• Europe and North America moved to Stage 3
during the first half of the 20th century
• Latin America and Asia moved to stage 3 more
recently
• Many African nations are still in stage 2
One and
What were
we thinking?
done son!
Stage 4
• When CBR and CDR equal one another.
• (Around 10 per 1,000) NIR equals zero. Zero
Population Growth:
• CBR may be slightly higher than CDR because some
females die before they reproduce.
• During ZPG Total Fertility Rates are more often
measured. When the TFR is 2.1 the population
replaces itself and there is no growth (or decline)
Epidemiologic
Transition Model
Why do we die?
Stage 1: Epidemics and Natural Checks
(pestilence and famine)
• Epidemics: The Black Plague (Bubonic Plague)
• Natural Checks: animal and human attacks as
well as accidents. Famine
Stage 2: Receding Pandemics
• Pandemic: a disease that occurs over a wide
geographic area and affects a very high portion of
the population.
• At first crowded cities and living conditions kept
death rates high. Cholera spread easily through
crowded urban centers.
• Why: improved sanitation, nutrition, and medicine
during the Industrial Revolution reduced spread of
these diseases.
Stage 3: Degenerative and Human-Created
Diseases
• Decrease in deaths from infectious diseases and an
increase in chronic disorders associated with aging.
Cardiovascular diseases (heart attacks) and cancer
• Vaccines are responsible for this decline.
Stage 4: Delayed Degenerative Diseases
• Medical advances prolong life by helping
people with cardiovascular diseases and
cancer to live longer.
• People are more aware of these diseases and
practice better lifestyles to avoid them.
Dieting and exercising.
Stage 5: Evolution of Infectious Diseases
• Some say we are moving into a stage 5
• Evolution: microbes constantly develop resistance
to drugs and new strands emerge.
•Improved Travel
causes further
spread; cars connect
urban to rural.
Airplanes connect
countries
Gravity Model
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•
•
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Migration
Large places attract more people
Closer places are of higher attraction
Therefore people will migrate to the next
largest city.
• “migration between two places is directly
proportionate to population and inversely
proportionate to distance”
Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration
• Migrants travel short distance
• Migrants who travel far tend to go to larger cities.
• Rural residents are more likely to migrate than
urban.
• Families less likely to migrate across national
borders.
Chain Migration
Language Trees
1. Indo European
2. Sino-Tibetan
3. Niger-Congo
• Family (Indo European)
–Branch (Germanic)
• Group (West Germanic) 1. Mandarin Chinese
2. Spanish
–Language (English)
3. English
»Dialect (Southern, New
England, etc.)
Universalizing vs Ethnic Religion
• Christianity
• Buddhism
• Islam
How do they tie
into diffusion?
Largest?
• Hinduism
• Judaism
Fastest Growing?
Theories of World Domination
Heartland Theory by MacKinder
• suggests that whoever owns Eastern Europe
and Western Asia has the political power and
capital to rule the world.
• Eastern Europe contained one of the richest
agricultural regions, which could sustain a
large population.
• Also, raw materials were available to build a
military and industrial base.
• Hitler believed in this theory.
Heartland Theory
Rimland Theory by
Spykman
• believes that forming
alliances is necessary
to keep the Heartland
in check.
• Heartland may control the land but the Rimland will
control the sea.
• To the north of the Heartland is icebound ocean.
• The Rimland would use the oceans to contain the
Heartland.
• How do these theories tie into
the Economic/Industrialization
Unit?
• How do these theories tie into
the Agricultural Unit?
Domino Theory
• when one country experiences rebellion or
political unrest, other countries around it will
also experience turmoil as a result, leading to
a domino effect.
• Developed by US in the 1960’s
and 1970’s on communism.
Organic Theory of Colonialism
• the state is like a living entity that constantly
needed to grow and thrive. States constantly
need new territory to meet the demands of
their ever-growing population.
~Friedrich Ratzel
3 main reasons for colonizing
• GOD
– Europeans spreading Christianity.
– Persecuted religious minorities emigrate to
establish colonies
• GLORY
• GOLD
– El Dorado
Main Colonizers
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•
•
•
British- America (Settlement)
French- Canada (Settlement)
Spain- Latin America (Land )
Portuguese- Brazil (Sea)
• How do these tie into Language and Religion?
• Diffusion?
Dependency Theory
• Many countries are poor today because of
their colonization by European powers.
• Former colonies have not been able to heal
from the imperial domination established by
the colonizers.
• The continued economic dependence of new
states on their former colonial masters is
called neocolonialism
World Systems by Wallerstein
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•
•
•
Divides the world into three groups
Core: Economically developed
Periphery: Undeveloped economies
Semi-Periphery: developing economies
• Wallerstein argues that the Core can only exist by
exploiting the peripheral countries. So we will
never have 100% of the countries in the world fully
developed.
Territorial Morphology
Examples
Compact
Prorupted
Elongated
Fragmented
Perforated
First Agricultural Revolution
• AKA Neolithic Revolution
• People began to discover how to bring the
food to them rather than chasing their food.
• Leads to domestication of animals and the
development of civilizations.
• Vegetative Planting:
removing part of a
plant and putting it in
the ground to grow a
new plant.
• Seed Agriculture:
planting seeds of
existing plants to
produce new plants.
– Practice more often
today than V.P.
Second Agricultural Revolution
• Used technology of Industrial Revolution to
increase production and distribution of
products on farms.
• 1750-1900
Occurred in MDC’s
• Transportation advancements
were crucial in getting food to
markets before they spoil
• Cause a reduction in the number of farmers
Third Agricultural Revolution
• AKA Green Revolution
• Involves the use of biotechnology or genetic
engineering.
• Increase in the use of chemical fertilizers.
• Diffused to LDC’s in the 1970’s
• More food to reduce starvation
Third Agricultural Revolution
• Negative effects:
• Higher-yielding crop strains are often more prone
to viruses and pest infestations.
• Many of these new crops (rice and wheat) cannot
be grown in dryer African regions where hunger is
a problem
• Created economic inequalities.
• Health problems from chemicals
• Overwork the land
Von Thunen’s Model of Agriculture
Land Use
Peep this
model class
Year 1826
• Model suggests that certain crops are grown
in direct relation to their distance from the
market.
• If the farmer grows products that don’t fit the
model, the farmer will go bankrupt from the
increased cost of production and
transportation.
• The central marketplace is surrounded by
agriculture rings.
• Moving outward from the marketplace, the
farming activities change from intensive to
more extensive.
1. Market Gardening Activities and
Dairy:
• heavy, bulky, products.
Why:
– Spoil factor
– Weight and mass raises
transportation
costs.
2. Forestry:
• woodlots where trees are
cut for resources.
Why:
-weight increases
transportation costs.
3. Mixed Crop and Livestock
• Why:
-land is cheaper, further
from urban centers
-livestock is transported
to town only a couple
times a year, reducing
costs.
4. Extensive Pastoral Grazing
Why:
-price of land and amount of land needed.
Things Not Considered
by Von Thunen
Why you gotta
poke holes in my
Theory dog?
• - physical features of the
land
• -assumes all land is the
same quality
• -social customs and
govt. policies influence
what is grown.
Von Thunen Model Today
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•
•
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Refrigeration and food preservation
Improved transportation
Regional and global markets
Urbanization has eliminated many
“Forest” zones close to the market.
• How does Von Thunen’s Model Tie
into Weber’s Least Coast Theory?
Weight-Gaining Product
(Canned Veggies)
Weight-Losing Product
(Potatoes Chips)
Market
Market
Industrial
Point
Industrial
Point
Peas
Carrots
Salt
Potatoes
• What are the site factors that
Weber ignores?
Weight-Gaining Product
(Canned Veggies)
Weight-Losing Product
(Potatoes Chips)
Market
Market
Industrial
Point
Industrial
Point
Peas
Carrots
Salt
Potatoes
Human Development Index
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•
•
•
•
0-1 (1 is the highest)
Life Expectancy
Literacy
Education
Standard of Living (GDP)
Economic Sectors
• Primary: basic activities: farming,
extracting resources
• Secondary: manufacturing, processing
• Tertiary: moving , selling, and trading the
products made in secondary industries.
Also includes services; examples:
banking, law, education, govt.
Economic Sectors
• Quaternery: collecting, processing, and
manipulation of information.
• Quinery: high level management,
scientific research, complex decision
making.
Rostow’s Model of
Development
(AKA Take-off Model)
“Model” suggests
today’s MDC’s passed
through these stages
and that LDC’s will
pass through these
stages as they develop.
Stage 1: Traditional Society:
• Workforce: primary sector
• Economy: Trade between farmers and their
agriculture products
• Description: mostly subsistence farming
Stage 2: Preconditions for takeoff
(transitional phase):
• Workforce: shifting from primary to secondary
sector
• Economy: investment in entrepreneurial
activities (Things that will ultimately stimulate
and increase productivity.) Transportation
and infrastructure improve.
• Description: expendable income begins to rise
allowing more people to invest.
Stage 3: The Take Off
• Workforce: a few industries successfully
shifted to secondary
• Economy: more companies become involved
in manufacturing
• Description: growth takes place near urban
centers but only in a few industries. These
industries improve technology and increase
productivity.
Stage 4: The Drive to Maturity
• Description: same as “the take off” stage
except the technology is now being
diffused and integrated into all areas of
the manufacturing sector
Stage 5: The Age of Mass Consumption
• Workforce: shifting from secondary to tertiary
sector
• Economy: producing consumer goods
• Description: workers have become highly
skilled in their professions.
• Productivity, earnings, and savings are at alltime highs.
Comparing Urban Structures
United States Cities
• Central Business District: a downtown area
that serves as the commercial center
• Agglomeration shown in Shopping malls.
• Lowerclass found in center of cities and
upperclass on the outskirts (suburbs)
Eastern vs Western US
• Eastern: narrow streets; public transportation
such as subways/trains
• Western: spread out; grid system;
dependency on interstate highway system
European Cities
• Dendritic Patterns: cities were built for travel
on foot.
• Preservation of old buildings
• Skyscrapers built on the outskirts of cities due
to old pre-established center.
• Green-Belts: pockets of land that are to be left
undeveloped.
Latin American Cities
• “Spine” of high-income residential areas
Squatter Settlements
develop along outskirts of
cities.
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•
•
•
Asian Cities
Economically advanced
Coastal cities built for trade
Specific zones for foreign companies
Densely populated = high skyscrapers
Hong
Kong
African Cities
• Many are molded after their former colonial
owners.
• Lack public transportation and infrastructure.
• Dirty roads.
• Huge unorganized
markets
Lagos,
Nigeria
• Central Place Theory: explains the size
and spacing of cities that specialize in
selling goods and services
– Threshold: the minimum number of
customers needed for a service or product
to succeed.
• depending on the service it is not just
the number of people but the type of
people.
– Range: the maximum distance that
people are willing to travel to purchase a
product or service.
• people tend to go to the nearest
available service
• Low-Order Products: are bought frequently on
a regular basis people are not typically willing
to travel long distances to gain these
items/services
(gas, groceries, coffee)
• High Order Products: are bought less
frequently and people are typically willing to
travel longer distances to obtain these
items/services. (luxury items, medical
specialists, entertainment)
The Gravity Model
• Gravity Model: the optimal location of a
service is directly related to the number of
people in the area and inversely related to the
distance people must travel to access it.
Rank-Size Rule:
• a country’s nth largest settlement is 1/n the
population of the largest settlement.
• This is said to be a characteristic of MDC’s.
Example:
Largest city =100,000 people
2nd: 50,000 (100,000 x ½)
3rd: 33,333 (100,000 x 1/3)
4th: 25,000 (100,000 x ¼)
5th: 20,000 (100,000 x 1/5)
Primate City Rule
• the largest settlement (Primate City) has
more than twice as many people as the
second-ranking settlement.
London 7 million: Birmingham 1 million
Paris 10 million: Marseilles 1.5 million
Buenos Aires 12 million : Rosario 1.2 million
Mexico City 9 million: Guadalajara 2 million
Concentric Ring Model (Burgess)
Bid Rent Curve
• Rent and population density decline as you move
further away from the center of the city.
• This aligns with the agriculture unit