AP Human Geography — urban challenges and sustainability

The last topics of Unit 6 of AP Human Geography ask what goes wrong in cities and what planners, governments and residents do about it. This material covers topics 6.6 to 6.11 of the course framework: density and land use, infrastructure, urban sustainability, urban data, the challenges of urban change and the challenges of urban sustainability. Gentrification itself is treated in another material of the category and appears here only as context.

You begin with the built landscape: low-, medium- and high-density housing, infilling, and how the location and quality of roads, transit and utilities steer investment and create uneven development. Sustainable design comes next. You weigh mixed land use, walkability, transit-oriented development, New Urbanism, greenbelts and the urban growth boundary of Portland, Oregon, against the criticisms the course names: higher housing costs, de facto segregation and loss of place character.

The central block deals with housing and justice. You explain redlining, from the federal lending maps of the 1930s to its lasting effects, and blockbusting; you recognize environmental injustice when hazards cluster next to low-income and minority neighborhoods; and you assess urban renewal, which built highways and public housing but displaced many residents. You calculate what an inclusionary zoning rule requires of a developer and explain its purpose, and you examine squatter settlements and the land tenure conflicts they generate in the cities of Latin America, Africa and Asia. Fragmented metropolitan government explains why regional problems are so hard to solve, and the sustainability block closes with sprawl, sanitation, air and water quality, ecological footprints, brownfield remediation and farmland protection. Throughout, you practice using quantitative census data and qualitative field data together.

Four formats are offered. The quiz has twelve questions built on real policies and short scenarios, including a small calculation, each explained. The flashcards cover the vocabulary of urban change. The written work contains eight free-response style questions to answer by hand, with a reference answer and key points for each. In the oral exam an examiner asks one question at a time, asks you to judge the trade-offs of a policy and to move between neighborhood, city and regional scales, and ends with precise feedback.

This is practice material written by Zestly, based on the published AP Human Geography course framework; it is not produced or endorsed by the College Board.

• Describe low-, medium- and high-density housing and explain infilling
• Explain how infrastructure shapes uneven development within cities
• Evaluate smart growth, New Urbanism, transit-oriented development and urban growth boundaries, including their criticisms
• Explain redlining, blockbusting, environmental injustice and urban renewal and their long-term effects
• Explain squatter settlements, land tenure conflicts and inclusionary zoning
• Explain urban sustainability challenges, brownfield remediation, farmland protection and the problem of fragmented metropolitan government

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the College Board AP Human Geography Course and Exam Description (course framework effective fall 2020), Unit 6, topics 6.6 to 6.11.