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CSS Geography Population and Urban Geography Flashcards
51 question-and-answer cards covering Population and Urban Geography as it is examined in CSS Geography. 24 of them are printed below, taken from across the deck — no signup, no paywall on the preview.
24 sample cards from the Population and Urban Geography deck
Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.
Name three factors that produce densely populated regions of the world.
Fertile soils and flat lowland plains/river valleys, temperate or favourable climate, and economic opportunity (industry, ports, resources, water supply).
Which three regions contain the greatest concentrations of world population?
East Asia (China), South Asia (India/Pakistan/Bangladesh), and Europe; plus the north-eastern USA, largely on fertile lowlands and coasts.
Define 'overpopulation'.
Overpopulation occurs when the number of people exceeds the resources and technology available to maintain an adequate standard of living, given the area's carrying capacity.
List four consequences or threats of overpopulation.
Food/water shortages and famine, unemployment and poverty, overcrowding and pressure on housing/services, and environmental degradation (deforestation, pollution, resource depletion).
Define 'underpopulation'.
Underpopulation occurs when there are too few people to fully use the resources of an area, so the region could support a larger population at the same standard of living.
List four consequences or threats of underpopulation.
Underused resources, labour and skills shortages, smaller domestic market and lower production, and a high tax/dependency burden as the workforce shrinks and population ages.
Define 'optimum population'.
Optimum population is the number of people which, working with the available resources and technology, produces the highest standard of living (maximum output per person).
What is 'carrying capacity' in population studies?
Carrying capacity is the maximum population that the resources and environment of an area can support sustainably without degradation.
Contrast the Malthusian and Boserup views on population and resources.
Malthus argued population grows geometrically while food grows arithmetically, leading to checks (famine, war); Boserup argued that population pressure stimulates innovation so that 'necessity is the mother of invention' and food supply increases.
Name the four functional zones of Burgess's Concentric Zone Model (centre outward).
1) Central Business District (CBD), 2) zone of transition (industry/twilight), 3) low-class/working-class housing, 4) better residential housing, and 5) the commuter (outer suburban) zone.
What is the central idea of Hoyt's Sector Model of urban structure?
Cities grow in wedge-shaped sectors radiating out from the CBD along transport routes, so similar land uses (e.g. industry or high-class housing) extend outward in sectors rather than rings.
Describe the Harris and Ullman Multiple Nuclei Model.
A city develops around several separate nuclei (not one CBD), each attracting particular activities; similar uses cluster and incompatible uses repel each other, giving a more complex, fragmented pattern.
What are the main characteristics of the Central Business District (CBD)?
The CBD is the commercial/economic heart of a city with the highest land values, tall buildings, shops, offices, high accessibility, high daytime population, and few permanent residents.
State the core idea of Christaller's Central Place Theory.
Settlements function as 'central places' providing goods and services to surrounding areas; they form a hierarchy in which larger, fewer high-order centres are spaced further apart, ideally in hexagonal market areas.
Define 'threshold' and 'range' in Central Place Theory.
Threshold is the minimum population/demand needed to support a good or service; range is the maximum distance people will travel to obtain that good or service.
Distinguish low-order from high-order goods and services.
Low-order goods/services are cheap, frequently bought, with small thresholds and ranges (e.g. bread, newspapers); high-order ones are expensive, infrequently bought, with large thresholds and ranges (e.g. furniture, specialist hospitals).
What does the rank-size rule state about city sizes within a country?
The rank-size rule states that the nth largest city has a population of 1/n that of the largest city (so the 2nd city is half, the 3rd a third, etc. of the largest).
Define a 'primate city' and 'urban primacy'.
A primate city is the largest city that dominates a country and is disproportionately larger than the second city (more than twice its size); urban primacy is the condition where one city dominates the urban hierarchy.
Define 'urbanisation'.
Urbanisation is the increase in the proportion of a country's population living in towns and cities, usually caused by rural-to-urban migration and natural increase in cities.
What is a 'megacity' and a 'conurbation'?
A megacity is an urban area with a population exceeding 10 million; a conurbation is a continuous built-up area formed when neighbouring towns and cities merge through growth.
Define 'counter-urbanisation' and 'suburbanisation'.
Counter-urbanisation is the movement of people from large cities to smaller towns and rural areas; suburbanisation is the outward spread of a city's population and activities to its surrounding suburbs.
What is the urban bid-rent theory's explanation for land-value patterns?
Bid-rent theory states land value and rent are highest at the most accessible point (the CBD) and decline with distance from it, so different land uses outbid one another for the most accessible locations.
Name four common social/economic problems found within urban areas.
Housing shortages and slums/squatter settlements, traffic congestion and pollution, unemployment and poverty, and inadequate services (water, sanitation, waste) with rising crime.
What is a 'squatter settlement' (shanty town) and where do they typically form?
A squatter settlement is an unplanned, often illegal area of self-built housing lacking basic services; they typically form on the edges of, or on marginal land within, rapidly growing cities of developing countries (e.g. Karachi's katchi abadis).
What this deck covers
The Population and Urban Geography deck follows the CSS Geography Population and Urban Geography syllabus — 3 chapters and 11 topics — so questions land on material that is genuinely examinable rather than trivia around it. That works out to roughly 17.0 cards per chapter.
Answers are written to be recallable, not just readable — averaging about 187 characters, which is long enough to carry the reasoning and short enough to say out loud.
A deck like this earns its keep on the second and third pass. Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then use the cards to find the specific facts that have not stuck.
Population and Urban Geography flashcards FAQ
How many Population and Urban Geography flashcards are in this CSS Geography deck?
51 cards. This page previews 24 of them, sampled evenly across the deck so you can judge the difficulty before installing anything.
Are these CSS Geography flashcards free?
Yes. The preview here is free to read with no signup, and the full 51-card deck is free inside the Examius app.
What do the Population and Urban Geography cards cover?
They follow the CSS Geography Population and Urban Geography syllabus — 3 chapters and 11 topics — so the questions track what is actually examinable.
How should I use these flashcards?
Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then drill the deck. Examius schedules each card with spaced repetition, so cards you keep missing come back sooner and ones you know drift further apart.