Key Environmental Terms and Concepts Explained
Cold Drop: A situation occurring in late summer, typically in the Spanish eastern region, due to a cold air mass entering at a certain height from the subpolar zone over warmer, moist air, intensified by Mediterranean summer warming. This causes heavy rains, hail, and frequent flooding.
GVT (Geothermal Vertical Temperature Gradient): The change in air temperature with height. Its average value is a 0.65°C drop per 100m (0.65°C/100m), varying greatly with altitude, latitude, season, and time of day. These variations are represented by a performance curve (X-axis: temperature, Y-axis: height).
Ecological Footprint: A measure of the total environmental impact of a population, expressed as the hectares of land needed for resource production and CO2 absorption.
Environmental Impact: Any change in the environment caused by human action, altering its natural state and quality. It can be positive or negative, though generally negative, meaning the initial environmental quality is damaged.
Global Environmental Impacts: Impacts affecting large geographic areas or the entire Earth, such as biodiversity loss, ozone layer depletion, the greenhouse effect, and climate change.
Local Environmental Impacts: Impacts affecting a circumscribed area, like air pollution in cities, water contamination, or buildings affecting relief.
Regional Environmental Impacts: Impacts affecting large regions or multiple countries, such as major river pollution, oil spills, or acid rain.
Environmental Indicators: Variables reflecting human activity pressure on the environment (pressure gauges), the environmental impact caused (state indicators), or human efforts regarding the environment (response indicators). For example, the amount of CO2 emissions.
Measurement Indices of Sustainability: Systems measuring the state of the environment to enable sustainable development decisions, including environmental indicators and the ecological footprint.
Intensity of an Earthquake: A measure of earthquake size based on observed effects at a specific location, using a scale like Mercalli. Intensity varies with distance from the hypocenter.
Inversion: A temperature inversion in the troposphere occurs when temperature increases with altitude instead of decreasing, creating stable atmospheric conditions and slowing vertical motion. This can happen during long, cold winter nights.
Magnitude of an Earthquake: A measure of earthquake size based on energy released, determined by studying seismic waves, often using the Richter scale. Magnitude is independent of measurement location but depends on the earthquake source.
Risk Maps: Cartographic representations of hazard data, usually from historical records, showing severity, geographic distribution, and return time. They may also include vulnerability, exposure, or data from all three factors.
Environment: The set of physical, chemical, biological, and sociocultural components capable of directly or indirectly affecting living beings and human activities. It’s sometimes divided into natural, rural, and urban environments based on human presence.
Spatial Planning: Determining the most appropriate land use (agriculture, forestry) based on its capacity, delineating areas subject to risks (earthquakes, floods), and regulating land use accordingly.
Dangerousness: The probability of a potentially harmful phenomenon occurring in a specific place within a specific time interval, depending on severity, return time, and geographical distribution.
Torrential Rainfall: Rainfall exceeding 200L/m2 in 24 hours, often causing floods and rapidly increasing stream and river flow.
Dew Point: The air temperature at which, given a certain amount of water vapor, the air becomes saturated (100% relative humidity). If the air temperature drops further, water vapor condenses into dew, fog, or clouds.
Natural Resource: Anything humanity takes from nature to meet its needs and desires, such as minerals, wind energy, fishing, or scenery. Natural resources are divided into renewable and nonrenewable.
Nonrenewable Resources: Resources existing in fixed amounts, like fossil fuels, which are depleted over time depending on the exploitation rate.
Renewable Resources: Resources that are not exhausted by use, such as solar and wind energy. Potentially renewable resources regenerate naturally but can be depleted if the exploitation rate exceeds the renewal rate, like fisheries and forests.
Rules of Herman Daly: Three principles for sustainable development: sustainable harvesting (consumption rate less than renewal rate), sustainable emissions (emissions lower than natural assimilative capacity), and sustainable emptying (not depleting non-renewable resources without developing alternatives).
Risk: The probability of a condition, process, event, or phenomenon causing injury, economic loss, or environmental damage. Risk depends on hazard, vulnerability, and exposure.
Mixed Risks: Risks resulting from altering natural geological processes through human activity, such as disease spread via transport, flooding from deforestation, or increased UV radiation due to ozone layer depletion.
Natural Hazards: Hazards due to natural causes, including biological (diseases), chemical (water substances), physical climatic (cold drop, drought), physical internal geological (volcanoes, earthquakes), physical external geological (floods), and cosmic (solar radiation) hazards.
Technological Risks: Risks due to normal technology use (fertilizers), human error (oil spills, fires), or dangerous habits (drugs, smoking).
Overexploitation: When the exploitation and consumption rate of a resource exceeds its renewal rate, causing depletion or deterioration, such as overfishing, overgrazing, or intensive farming.
Weather: The specific values of meteorological parameters at one place and time, varying by season, time of day, latitude, and altitude. The average weather over an extended period is climate.
Tsunamis: Giant waves produced by undersea earthquakes or volcanic collapses, traveling long distances at high speed and causing devastating floods.
Vulnerability: The degree of damage, expressed as a fraction of total losses at risk (victims, damage, economic loss). Vulnerability depends on prediction and prevention capabilities.