Geography Terms and Definitions
Landscape
A combination of the ecosystem of an area and the economic, social, and cultural factors of human society, determining their influence on the place.
Parallel
Each of the equally spaced circles around the Earth parallel to the Equator.
Plot of Culture
In the land, each farmland owned by a different term or district.
Natural Park
The most emblematic natural areas protected for their geological, hydrological, vegetation, and fauna, maintained by the autonomous region.
National Park
The most emblematic natural areas protected for their geological, hydrological, vegetation, and fauna. Its management is unique to the state.
Pangaea
The union of all continents on Earth in its origins, based on the theory of continental drift.
Peninsula
Land surrounded by water everywhere but one area, which is called the isthmus.
Urban Periphery
Also known as the suburbs. The space surrounding the central sector of the city.
Artisanal Fishing
Used near the sea for subsistence.
Industrial Fishing
Used to obtain the highest number of fish and supply major markets.
Deep Sea Fishing
Done by the high seas fleet. Fleets operating far from ports, with ships over 100 tons spending much of the year at sea.
Inshore Fishing
Done by the coastal fleet. Fishing fleets within 60 miles of the coast, with vessels under 100 tons.
GDP (Gross Domestic Product)
Monetary value of all goods and services produced within a country.
GNP (Gross National Product)
Measures the value produced by the sectors of economic activity of a country during an entire year.
Population Pyramid
A graphical representation used to study and understand the structure of a population by sex and age.
Stabilization Plan
A plan designed from 1959 for the industrial and economic development of Spain.
National Hydrological Plan
Plans developed by the State to manage water resources in the country, addressing water scarcity.
Planet
A celestial body that orbits a star and reflects light.
Radiocentric Plane
An urban plan characterized by a central point from which streets depart like radii, intersected perpendicularly by concentric circles.
Labor Force
All persons between 16 and 65 who provide labor available for the production of goods and services.
Unemployed
Within the labor force, a group of people who are unemployed and seeking their first job.
Inactive Population
Persons who, by age (under 16 or over 65), should not work, including homemakers and students.
Rural Population
How settlements and residences are located for populations of less than 2,000 inhabitants.
Urban Population
How settlements and residences are located for the population. In Spain, a town with less than 2,000 inhabitants is rural, and one with more than 10,000 is a city. Towns between 2,000 and 10,000 inhabitants fall in between.
Polyculture
Several different products are grown in a particular area.
Polje
A karstic depression bounded by steep cliffs.
Development Pole
An economically disadvantaged region where the state sought to promote industrial development.
Barometer
The weight exerted by a column of air above any point on Earth.
Dewpoint
The temperature below which water vapor in the atmosphere condenses and precipitates. Its exact value depends on the amount of water vapor in the air.
Rambla
A channel that is dry most of the year, even for several years, but can carry a high water flow after heavy rainfall.
Industrial Restructuring
The modernization of a company or an industry.
River Basin
A river basin controlled by its respective confederation.
Rainfall
The rainfall regime is the frequency, regularity, and intensity of precipitation.
Demographic Regime
A demographic situation with homogeneous trends in fertility, mortality, and natural growth.
Main Demographic Regime
High mortality and high natality. Until the 18th century in developed countries.
Transition Regime
High natality and decreasing mortality. Demographic explosion.
Modern Demographic Regime
Low natality and low mortality. Zero growth. Developed countries today. Aging population.
Regressive Regime
Low natality and increasing mortality. Produced by an aging population.
Fluvial System
The variation in the amount of water flowing into each river throughout the year is called the flow regime.
Annual Rainfall Pattern
The annual precipitation behavior in a certain place.
Thermal Regime
The seasonal temperature behavior in a particular climate and location.
Region
A specific and distinct area whose special character can be defined by various human or physical factors, with varying extents.
Registry
Includes key life events of people, managed by the Ministry of Justice.
Terrain
The result of the Earth’s internal forces generating irregularities in the crust.
GNI per Capita
The number derived by dividing the total economic output of a country by the number of inhabitants.
Second Home
Housing that is not the primary residence, generally used for vacations.
Redevelopment
The process by which governments seek to rehabilitate urban centers, creating changes in their social composition and age.
Ría
Sea inlets in river valleys.
Rift
A groove remaining after the formation of oceanic ridges.
Roques
Accumulations of viscous lava that solidifies in the crater’s mouth.
Crop Rotation
Dividing the land into three parts: winter cereal, summer cereal, and fallow (uncultivated land left to rest).
Rururbanization
The occupation of the countryside or rural towns by people working in cities.
Net Migration
The difference between the number of immigrants and emigrants in a state or territory.
Satellite
An opaque celestial body that reflects the light of a star and revolves around a planet.
Primary Sector
Economic activities that produce natural, but transformed, products. Includes agriculture, livestock, forestry, fisheries, mining, and energy sources.
Secondary Sector
Activities related to transforming natural resources derived from the primary sector.
Tertiary Sector
Economic activities that do not produce material goods, covering a wide range of services to meet societal needs (trade, transport, tourism, media, health, education, finance).
Drought
A prolonged period with zero or very scarce precipitation.
Sex Ratio
The ratio of men to women.
Forestry
The operation and care of forests for construction, furniture, and paper production.
Solstice
The time of year when the sun is at one of the two tropics, resulting in the greatest inequality between day and night. The summer solstice occurs between June 21 and 22.
Leeward
The part sheltered from the wind.
Suburbanization
The growth of the outer ring of a city, leading to population loss in the central city and concentration in the periphery.
Soil
The Earth’s surface where inert materials of the lithosphere and organic matter contact.
Fertility Rate
The ratio of births to women of childbearing age (15-49 years) per thousand inhabitants. The Spanish fertility rate is 1.2 children per woman, below the level for natural population growth.
Birth Rate
Number of babies under 1 year / women aged 15 to 49 years x 1000.
Mortality Rate
Number of deaths / total population x 1000 in one year.
Infant Mortality Rate
Deaths under 1 year / number of births x 1000.
Natality Rate
Number of births in one year / total population x 1000.
Plate Tectonics
The collision of plates resting on the asthenosphere, formed by melts.
Thermosphere
The 4th layer of the atmosphere, extending between 80 km and 500 km altitude, reaching 1500º.
Territory
An area in which a particular society operates.
Weather
The state of the atmosphere at a specific time, referring to various elements.
Tómbolo
A sea accumulation due to erosion that connects an island to the coast.
Labor
The physical or intellectual effort made by people to produce goods and services.
Transhumance
A livestock breeding system involving moving livestock (mainly sheep) between grazing areas seasonally.
River Transfer
The artificial passage of water from one river to another to compensate for dry seasons.
Tropic
Each of the two smaller circles of the celestial sphere at latitudes + and – 23º 27′. The northern hemisphere tropic is the Tropic of Cancer, and the southern hemisphere tropic is the Tropic of Capricorn.
Troposphere
The 1st layer of the atmosphere where weather phenomena occur, up to 18 km.
Trust
A group of companies under the same management aiming to control the market for a particular product or sector.
Tourism
An activity in the services sector involving the temporary movement of people for over 24 hours, implying a change of residence for leisure, rest, or fun, not work.
Umbria
A mountain slope facing north, receiving less sunlight.
Trough
The end of a storm.
Glacial Valley
Valleys between two mountain areas shaped by Quaternary glaciation.
Valleys
Spaces between two mountains.
Ecological Closed Season
A period prohibiting hunting and fishing of certain species to allow reproduction.
Slope
The incline of the relief, marking the area where rivers will flow.
Zocalo
A group of old materials forming the base of a mountain range. These materials break rather than fold.
Zur
Delineated areas with incentives, for up to three years, for the establishment and expansion of stable employment-generating enterprises to diversify production and promote technical progress.