Human Geography AP Review
Important Concepts and People
Basics
• Human Geography
– Spatial perspective
• Space
– The “why of where”
• Eratosthenes
– Father of Geography
– First to use term
• Calculated circumference of the Earth
Basics – 5 Themes
• Location
– Site
– Situation or Relative Location
– Absolute Location
– Location Theory
• Human Environment
– Cultural landscape
Basics – 5 Themes
• Region
– Formal
– Functional
– Perceptual or Vernacular
• Place
– Unique point in space
– Sense of place – infused with human meaning
Basics – 5 Themes
• Movement
– Cyclical v. Periodic
– Activity Space
– Mental map
• Globalization
– Unoffical 6th theme
– Process by which local patterns become global
Basics – Models
• Distance Decay
– Strength of interaction decreases
with distance
– “Friction of Distance”
– Somewhat overcome by advances
in communications and
transportation
• Harvey: Time-Space Compression
Basics – Models
• Gravity Model
– Bigger and Closer
beats Smaller and
Farther
– New York – Paris
interaction greater
than Warren - Reims
Basics – Cultural Diffusion
Basics – Cultural Theories
Environmental
Determinism
• Ellen Church Semple
Possibilism
• Carl Sauer
• Climate and location
determine cultural
patterns
• Environment presents
constraints, but social
conditions vary
• Temperate regions are
superior
• Role for human agency
– Racist
Population - Measures
• Crude Birth/Death Rates  Natural Increase
• Total Fertility Rate
– Avg. # of births per woman during fertile years
• Infant Mortality/Child Mortality
• Density
– Arithmetic
– Physiologic
Population
• Malthus
– Food production linear
– Population increase exponential
• S-Curve
Population – Demographic Transition
Population Policies
• Pronatalist
– Increase fertility
– France
• Antinatalist
– Decrease fertlity
– China’s One Child
policy
• Eugenics