Geography Terms Explained: From Desertification to Urban Morphology
Desertification: The process, continuing over time, of transforming terrain into desert due to human action. Not to be confused with desertification, which is a similar process but of natural causes.
Deurbanization: The process by which the population of large metropolitan areas begins to decrease, while small and medium-sized cities grow at a strong pace. This occurs because industrial activities are no longer concentrated in big cities.
Dolinas: Funnel-shaped hollows of various sizes, found singly or in groups.
Dorsals: Very long volcanic mountain ranges with steep slopes and a central summit.
Ocean Ridges: Major submarine ridges that run along the ocean floor.
Free Market Economy (Capitalism): Aims to achieve maximum benefit at minimum cost, with sales produced in private firms.
Mixed Economy: The state intervenes to alleviate the problems created by capitalism.
Boomerang Effect: Debt is paid and does not affect the debtor or the party giving credit.
Foehn Effect: The effect caused by humid winds colliding with elevated terrain. After rising over the terrain and releasing moisture as precipitation, the winds descend on the other side as strong, dry winds with high temperatures.
Energy: The force required to perform an activity or produce work.
Urban Location: Placement and status of a city.
Endemism: A species that lives only in a certain area and does not occur anywhere else. Endemic species are the result of isolation. Notable examples include the endemic animals and plants of the Canary Islands.
Wind Power: A renewable energy source obtained from the force of the wind.
Hydropower: Energy obtained from hydropower plants that convert the force of falling water into electricity. Hydropower is a renewable energy source.
Renewable Energy: A power supply that can be replenished by natural cycles and can operate without fear of being exhausted.
Non-Renewable Energy: Traditional energy sources (oil, coal, gas) that cannot be renewed.
Tidal Power: A renewable energy source produced by the currents of the sea.
Thermoelectric Energy: Renewable energy obtained from burning coal or oil.
Urban Expansion: Built in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, under the auspices of the bourgeoisie, due to population growth in cities. Urban expansions present an orthogonal plane.
Equinox: The time of year when the length of days and nights is the same across the Earth because the sun, in its path, intersects the plane of the Equator. The spring equinox occurs around March 20-21.
Low Water: Decreased river flow during dry seasons due to low rainfall.
Stratosphere: The second layer of the atmosphere, containing the ozone layer, which acts as a filter for ultraviolet rays (18-50km).
Star: A celestial body that radiates electromagnetic energy.
Germanic Structure: A tectonic structure of fractures and blocks, where deep blocks have been raised. This structure is typical of ancient massifs composed of very hard materials.
Estuary: The mouth of a large river where it meets the sea, characterized by a funnel shape whose sides widen in the direction of flow.
Rural Exodus: The phenomenon of rural populations abandoning the countryside and moving towards urban centers seeking improved living standards. Farmers, many of whom lived in squalid conditions, migrated en masse to the cities.
Farmland: Territory exploited by people who develop agricultural activities. This space depends on both physical/natural factors and human factors.
Extrarradio: Suburbs.
Geological Fault: A fracture in a geomorphological formation, where there is displacement of the blocks.
ERDF (European Regional Development Fund): Economic aid to redress regional imbalances within the EU, helping disadvantaged regions.
Abyssal Trench: Deep cavities in the very deep ocean crust.
Polar Front: An imaginary line that separates two air masses with different characteristics on the surface, especially in terms of temperature.
Energy Source: Resources and raw materials used to produce energy.
Extensive Livestock Farming: Cattle feed on natural pastures, practiced in areas where farming is impossible.
Modern Intensive Farming: Practiced in more developed countries because it requires large investments. It is high-performance.
Geography: The science that describes and analyzes the Earth’s surface.
Glacier: A mass of ice formed during periods of glaciation. The major glaciation occurred in the Quaternary period.
Globalization: The process of integrating the entire planet into a single economic, social, and political system. New technologies for production and communication make the world an increasingly integrated economic and financial system, even from the standpoint of cultural and behavioral habits.
Pressure Gradient: The pressure difference between two points with different air pressures.
Altitudinal Thermal Gradient: The rate of temperature decrease that occurs with increasing altitude, corresponding to a decline of 0.6°C per 100m.
Concentrated Settlement: When homes are grouped to form compact cores, towns, or villages of varying sizes, usually near a water source.
Isolated Settlement: Houses are not clustered in towns or villages, and rural homes are independently distributed throughout the territory.
Dispersed Settlement: Small towns or villages with few houses near a central core, also small, which concentrates city services. This pattern is typical of areas with significant rainfall.
Habitat: The location of buildings and human structures in space, in relation to different landscape elements, both physical and human.
Gorge: A narrow, vertical mountain pass carved by a river.
Heavy Industry: Transforms semi-processed raw materials into products used by other industries. Requires large capital investments and large installations.
Equipment Industry: Transforms products from major industries into machinery and equipment used in later industrial activities. Requires huge investments of capital and skilled labor.
Light Industry (Consumer Goods): Transforms raw materials or intermediate products into consumer products.
Petrochemical Industry: The industry based on oil and natural gas used as feedstock for the production of chemicals.
CPI (Consumer Price Index): A measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services.
Income Tax: Tax on income to individuals.
Isobars: On weather maps, lines joining points of equal pressure.
Isotherms: On temperature maps, lines connecting points of equal temperature.
Isohyets: On precipitation maps, lines joining points of equal precipitation, measured in millimeters.
Lake: An accumulation of fresh water in a particular place on Earth due to impermeable and poorly drained soil.
Lapiaz: Rocky surfaces with numerous grooves and furrows.
Latifundio: A very large operating farm. In Spain, these are mostly found in Andalusia, Aragon, Extremadura, and parts of the Plateau. Latifundios often feature abundant pasture land and rainfed crops.
Latitude: The geographical distance of a point on Earth from the Equator, measured in degrees, minutes, and seconds along a meridian.
Lithosphere: The superficial layer of the solid Earth, characterized by its rigidity. It consists of the crust and the contiguous zone, the outermost part of the mantle, and “floats” on the asthenosphere. It is the area where plate tectonics occur, in interaction with the asthenosphere.
Leaching: The dissolution and washing of soluble elements from the upper soil horizon by water (especially organic matter).
Abyssal Plain: A large, flat area in the depths of the oceanic crust.
Orographic Rainfall: Rainfall caused by clouds colliding with mountainous relief.
Acid Rain: Moisture in the air combines with nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide emitted by factories, power plants, and vehicles that burn coal or petroleum products. These gases form sulfuric and nitric acids, which then fall to Earth with precipitation.
Convectional Rainfall: Heat warms the lower layers of air, causing it to become lighter and rise. This rising air cools, leading to precipitation.
Dynamic Rainfall: Occurs when two air masses (one cold and one hot) come into contact.
Longitude: The geographical distance of a point on Earth from the Prime Meridian, measured in degrees, minutes, and seconds.
Location: The space people live in as individuals.
Beds (Lava Flows): Ancient, highly eroded volcanic mountain ranges. This term may also refer to a group of mountains.
Map: A graphical representation that synthesizes information on the characteristics of a territory, or the distribution/location of phenomena under study.
Maremma: Flat land located next to the sea, often flooded by seawater or rivers.
Raw Materials: Resources extracted from nature and subsequently transformed by industrial activity.
Meander: When a watercourse runs through a flat area, the channel can form large curves called meanders.
Megalopolis: A set of metropolitan areas that extend over hundreds of kilometers, forming giant cities.
Meridian: A great circle of the celestial sphere, passing through the poles and intersecting the parallels at right angles.
Mesosphere: The third layer of the atmosphere, where the temperature ranges from 0°C to -80°C (50-80km high).
Metropolis: A large city that hosts and organizes services for a nearby area.
Smallholding: A small landholding. Most smallholdings are devoted to irrigation, and intensive agriculture is practiced.
Monoculture: The entire cultivated area is devoted to a single crop.
Urban Morphology: The study of the shape, configuration, and structure of human settlements.
Nation: A human community with shared cultural characteristics, often sharing a territory and state.
Orogeny: A geological period during which mountains are formed (e.g., Alpine orogeny).
Municipal Register: A municipal census containing the list of inhabitants of towns, along with some of their characteristics. Conducted every 5 years.