Exam 3 Study Guide

Be able to define, explain, and come up with examples related to the following concepts:

Political geographies

  • The concept of the modern state
  • The difference between a nation, state, and nation-state
  • How identity is tied to nationhood and statehood
  • State configurations and shapes
  • Challenges and opportunities associated with exclaves such as the Northwest Angle
  • Environmental determinism
  • Berlin Conference
  • Separatism and modern separatist movements
  • Centrifugal and centripetal forces
  • Gerrymandering

Urban geography

  • Definitions of urban places in various countries
  • Agglomeration economies and the CBD
  • Decentralization
  • Central Place Theory
  • Decline of Central Cities
    • Federal Housing Act
    • Interstate Highway and Defense Act of 1956
    • Criminal Conspiracy by General Motors
    • Urban Renewal
  • Ways to improve central cities
    • Smart Growth
    • Mixed land use
    • Alternative transportation
  • Myths about good urban design
  • Reasonable barriers to implementing good urban design principles

Agricultural geographies

  • Agricultural revolutions and techniques associated with each
  • Concerns and opportunities surrounding GMOs
  • Norman Borlaug
  • The von Thunen model or agriculture
  • Sustainability
  • Transformation of the Aral Sea
    • Reasons for its transformation
    • Negative consequences
  • Extensive vs. intensive agriculture
  • New trends in agriculture
    • Hydroponics
    • Aquaponics
    • Vertical farms
    • Seasteading
    • Urban agriculture
  • Benefits of urban agriculture

The humanized environment

  • Hazards
  • Disasters
  • Technological vs. environmental hazards and disasters
  • Local and global environmental problems of significant concern
  • Anthropocene
  • Significance of the ozone hole and projections on its future
  • Climate change and how it is studied
  • Greatest greenhouse gas emitters by country, both in aggregate and per captia
  • Greenhouse gas emissions by sector
  • Global electricity usage by source
  • Nuclear power opportunities and challenges

Overarching concepts

  • Scale
  • Diffusion
  • What makes geography unique as a discipline
  • Identity
  • Israel, Palestine, and the role of identity in the conflict
  • Effects of redlining and the role of the HOLC
  • Adaptation vs. mitigation