Geography & Economics: Key Terms Explained
Geography and Economics: Key Terms
Cliff: Steep and rocky coast with vertical walls, due to sea erosion.
Aquaculture: Activity dedicated to fish farming. The center where salmon are raised is called a fish farm.
Economic Activity: Any activity that humans perform to meet their needs and offers benefits and services.
Financial Activity: Transport is responsible for the movement of capital.
Aquifers: Water flowing through underground strata that is not waterproof, forming water pockets inside the earth, called aquifers.
Extensive Agriculture (Low-Intensity Farming): Agriculture or livestock located on large tracts of land in regions with low population density, requiring little labor.
Intensive Agriculture (High-Intensity Farming): Agriculture or livestock located on a very limited area of land, requiring a large investment of capital and labor to obtain high yields.
Albufera: Saltwater lagoon next to the coast, separated from the sea by a sandbar.
Almadraba: Fishing technique, used for centuries, employing a maze of vertical nets to lead fish, especially tuna, into an enclosure where they are caught.
Annual Temperature Range: The difference between the maximum and minimum temperatures of an area (looking at the difference between the warmest and coldest months).
Anticyclone: A center of high atmospheric pressure, more than 1014 millibars. Inside, the air descends and moves in a clockwise direction. The passage of an anticyclone is accompanied by stable weather without precipitation.
Sharecropping: A variable contract between the owner and the sharecropper. The farmer pays the landlord a share of the crop or livestock production obtained.
Apiculture: The economic activity devoted to bee farming. Honey and wax are obtained from bees.
Archipelago: A group of islands, large and small, that share the same physical drive and usually have the same origin. Generally, they belong to one country. Spain has two archipelagos.
Metropolitan Area: A highly urbanized area consisting of a core and surrounding municipalities with which it has created economic and social interrelations, for example, through transportation.
Peri-Urban Area: A strip of rural areas, in variable length depending on the size of the city and the time of the study, surrounding the city. It welcomes land use, social and economic influences and impacts created by the city.
Rururbanized Area: An indeterminate, transitional zone between the town and country, featuring characteristics from both. It mixes uses, functions, and agricultural and urban activities.
Aridity: The aridity of a region is defined by the ratio of evapotranspiration, precipitation, and soil absorption. A territory is arid or dry if precipitation does not compensate for water losses due to other factors.
Lease: The landlord gives the exploitation of land to the peasants in return for which they pay an amount by a certain date. The farmer grows what he wants.
Poultry Farming: Within the primary sector, activity focused on developing farms where birds breed and are exploited. Usually, eggs and meat are obtained on the farm.
Atmosphere: Gaseous envelope surrounding the earth.