AP Human Geo

Basic Business

A business that sells its products or services primarily to customers outside the settlement

Business Service

A service that primarily meets the needs of other businesses, including professional, financial, and transportation services

Central Place

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

Central Place Theory

A theory that explains the distribution of services based on the fact that settlements serves as market areas for services; larger settlements are fewer and farther apart than small settlements and provide services for a larger number of people who are willing to travel farther

Clustered Rural Settlement

A rural settlement in which the houses and farm buildings of each family are situated close to each other, with fields surrounding the settlement

Customer Service

A service that primarily meets the needs of individual consumers, including retail, education, health, and leisure services

Dispersed Rural Settlement

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

Economic Base

A community’s base of economic businesses

Enclosure Movement

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

Food Desert

An area that has a substantial amount of low-income residents and has poor access to a grocery store, defined in most cases as further than one mile

Gravity Model

A model which holds that the potential use of a service at a particular location is directly related to the number of people in a location and inversely related to the distance people must travel to reach the service

Hinterland

The area surrounding a central place from which people are attracted to the place’s goods and services (also known as a market area)

Market Area

see Hinterland

Nonbasic Business

A business that sells its products primarily to customers in the same settlement

Primate City

A city that is the largest settlement in a country and has more than twice as many people as the second ranking settlement

Primate City Rule

A pattern of settlements in a country such that the largest settlement has more than twice the population as the second ranking settlement

Public Service

A service offered by the government to provide security and protection for citizens and businesses

Range

The maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service

Rank-Size Rule

A pattern of settlements in a country such that the nth settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement

Service

Any activity that fulfills a human want or need and returns money to those who provide it

Settlement

A permanent collection of buildings and inhabitants

Threshold

The minimum number of people needed to support a service

Urbanization

An increase in the percentage and number of people living in urban settlements

Annexation

Legally adding land area to a city in the United States

Carbon Capture and Storage

The process of capturing waste CO2, transporting it to a storage site, and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere, usually underground

Census Tract

An area delineated by the US Census Bureau for which statistics are published; in urban areas, census tracts correspond roughly to neighborhoods

Central Business District

The area of a city where retail and office activities are clustered

Central City

An urban settlement that has be legally incorporated into an independent, self-governing unit known as a municipality

Combined Statistical Area

In the United States, two or more contiguous CBSAs tied together by commuting patterns

Concentric Zone Model

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

Core-Based Statistical Area

In the United States, any MSA or μSA

Density Gradient

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

Edge City

A large node of office and retail services on the edge of an urban area

FIltering

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

Gentrification

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

Informal Settlement

An area within a city in a less developed country in which people illegally establish residences on land they do not own or rent and erect homemade structures

Megalopolis

A continuous urban complex in the northeastern United States

Metropolitan Statistical Area

In the United States, an urbanized area of at least 50,000 population, the county within which the city is located, and adjacent counties meeting one of several tests indicating a functional connection to the central city

Micropolitan Statistical Area

An urbanized area of between 10,000 and 50,000 inhabitants, the county in which it is located, and adjacent counties tied to the city

Multiple Nuclei Model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a collection of nodes of activities

Peripheral Model

A model of North American urban areas consisting of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential areas and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road

Primary Census Area

In the United States, any MSA not included in a CSA, or any μSA not included in a CSA

Public Housing

Government-owned housing rented to low-income individual, with rents set at 30 percent of the tenant’s income

Redlining

A process by which financial institutions draw red-coloured lines on a map and refuse to to lend money for people to pursue or improve property within the lines

Rush Hour

The four consecutive 15-minute periods in the morning and evening with the heaviest volume of traffic

Sector Model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are arranged around a series of sectors, or wedges, radiating out from the central business district

Smart Growth

Legislation and regulations to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland

Social Area Analysis

Statistical analysis is used to identify where people of similar living standards, ethnic backgrounds, and lifestyle living within an urban area

Sprawl

Development of new housing sites at relatively low density and at locations that are not contiguous to the existing built-up area

Suburb

A residential or commercial area situated within an urban area but outside the central city

Sustainable Development

Development that meets the need of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

Underclass

A group in society prevented from participating in the material benefits of a more developed society because of a variety of social and economic characteristics

Urban Area

A central city and its surrounding built-up suburbs

Urban Cluster

In the United States, an urban area with between 2,500 and 50,000 inhabitants

Urbanized Area

In the United States, an urban area with at least 50,000 inhabitants

Zoning Ordinance

A law that limits the permitted uses of land and maximum density of development in a community