Human Geography Study Library.

Introduction to maps (reference, thematic, topographic) and how map projections distort space · Geographic data: GIS, GPS, remote sensing, satellite imagery · Spatial concepts: absolute vs. relative location, distance, distribution, pattern, density, scale · The power of geographic data: census data, field work, photographic interpretation · Geographic perspectives: landscape analysis, region types (formal, functional, vernacular/perceptual) · Human-environment interaction and feedback loops

Population distribution and density: arithmetic, physiological, and agricultural density · Population composition: age-sex pyramids, dependency ratio, cohort analysis · Population dynamics: crude birth rate (CBR), crude death rate (CDR), natural increase rate (NIR), total fertility rate (TFR) · Demographic transition model (DTM): 5 stages, characteristics, and limitations · Epidemiological transition model · Migration types: voluntary vs. forced, internal vs. international, chain migration, step migration, transhumance · Ravenstein's laws of migration; push and pull factors · Gravity model of migration · Refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) · Consequences of population distribution: resource allocation, carrying capacity, pro- and anti-natalist policies

Introduction to culture and cultural landscapes · Sequent occupance: layering of cultures visible in the landscape · Cultural patterns: language families (Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Afro-Asiatic), lingua franca, pidgin languages · Religion distributions: universalizing (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism) vs. ethnic (Hinduism, Judaism) religions · Sacred spaces and religious landscapes · Types of diffusion: relocation, expansion (hierarchical, contagious, stimulus) · Acculturation, assimilation, and syncretism · Folk culture vs. popular culture · Globalization and cultural homogenization vs. cultural divergence · Lingua franca, creolization, and language extinction

Introduction to political geography: states, nations, nation-states, stateless nations, multi-state nations · Political processes: self-determination, nationalism, devolution, supranationalism · Political power and territoriality: sovereignty, UNCLOS and maritime boundaries, heartland theory (Mackinder), rimland theory (Spykman) · Defining political boundaries: geometric, physical-political (rivers, mountains), ethnographic · Boundary evolution: antecedent, subsequent, superimposed, relict boundaries · Electoral geography: gerrymandering, reapportionment, redistricting · Centripetal forces (unifying: common language, culture, religion) vs. centrifugal forces (dividing: ethnic conflict, regional disparities) · Supranational organizations: EU, UN, NATO, ASEAN, African Union

Land survey systems: metes and bounds, township and range, long lot · Settlement patterns: dispersed, nucleated, linear · Agricultural origins and hearths (Fertile Crescent, Mesoamerica, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa) and diffusions · First Agricultural Revolution (Neolithic); Second (18th-century mechanization); Third (Green Revolution: high-yield varieties, fertilizers, pesticides) · Subsistence agriculture: intensive (wet rice, market gardening) and extensive (shifting cultivation, pastoral nomadism) · Commercial agriculture: plantation, mixed crop-livestock, grain farming, dairy · Von Thünen's agricultural land use model: rings of production around a market city · Agribusiness, GMOs, and food systems · Rural land use changes: urban sprawl, exurbanization, rural gentrification · Sustainability challenges: soil erosion, water depletion, deforestation

Origins and influences of urbanization: industrial, economic, political · Site vs. situation of cities · World cities and global city hierarchy (Sassen): command and control functions · Size and distribution of cities: rank-size rule, primate city, Christaller's central place theory (hexagonal market areas) · Urban land use models: Burgess concentric zone, Hoyt sector, Harris-Ullman multiple-nuclei, Latin American city model, African city model · Zones of a city: CBD, zone in transition, residential zones, suburbs · Urban challenges: urban sprawl, edge cities, exurbs, urban heat island, transportation congestion · Redevelopment: gentrification, urban renewal, new urbanism · Infrastructure: smart cities, sustainable urban development · Squatter settlements (favelas, barrios, slums) in developing world cities

The Industrial Revolution: origin in Britain, spread to Europe and North America, factors of production · Economic sectors: primary (extraction), secondary (manufacturing), tertiary (services), quaternary (information), quinary (high-level decision-making) · Measures of development: GDP per capita, GNI per capita, HDI (Human Development Index), GII (Gender Inequality Index), infant mortality rate, literacy rate, life expectancy · Wallerstein's world-systems theory: core, semi-periphery, periphery · Rostow's stages of economic development: traditional society → preconditions → takeoff → drive to maturity → high mass consumption · Weber's industrial location theory: minimizing transport costs and labor costs, agglomeration · Deindustrialization and the shift to service economies · Special economic zones, export processing zones, free trade zones · Women and economic development: microfinance, gender inequality, informal economy