Key Geographic and Demographic Terms

Watershed

Watershed: The land area drained by a main sewer and its tributaries, whose limit is in the watersheds of each of the rivers that integrate it.

Natural Growth

Natural Growth: A demographic indicator in determining the quantities that the population of a country grows in one year; the difference between natality and mortality.

Real Growth

Real Growth: A demographic indicator that determines the quantities in real mode that the population of a country increases in a year. (Natural growth + Net migration).

Deciduous

Deciduous: A type of plant species that sheds its leaves during cold seasons of autumn and winter (e.g., Oak).

Census

Census: A national statistical count carried out every 10 years. It reveals the basic structure of the population (sex, age, occupation, etc.).

Zero Growth

Zero Growth: A demographic status in which the rates of natality and mortality are equal, resulting in aging.

Old Town

Old Town: The oldest part of a city; a built-up area comprising the middle of the 19th century. (In Spain, it denotes its medieval layout, Christian or Muslim).

Business Center

Business Center: The part of the city with the largest number of financial and business services, near the historic center.

Bedroom Community

Bedroom Community: Suburbs of big cities characterized by having a residential function.

Conurbation

Conurbation: An urban area formed by the growth of two or more cities that merge into a continuous urban area while retaining independence.

Slums

Slums: Improvised urban habitat that appears in large cities due to the accumulation of population without resources, arriving from the countryside.

Industrial Center

Industrial Center: A place where factories and industrial plants are concentrated on an industrial scale.

Wholesale

Wholesale: A type of internal trade where production is concentrated and retailing is redistributed.

Retail Trade

Retail Trade: Trade that is sold directly to consumers (small local sole proprietors).

Internal Trade

Internal Trade: The exchange of goods and commodities to and from the same country, wholesaler or retailer.

Foreign Trade

Foreign Trade: Trade in goods and commodities that is done with other countries; it reflects the value of imports and exports.

Land Consolidation

Land Consolidation: An agricultural policy that aims to increase productivity, giving each owner a single parcel or a few.

Agricultural Cooperatives

Agricultural Cooperatives: A type of goods and services company whose owners and managers are member farmers, with tax benefits.

Crops Under Plastic

Crops Under Plastic: An agricultural technique that involves covering a plot with plastic greenhouses to create a microclimate that accelerates the growth and maturation of crops.

Hydroponics

Hydroponics: Growing plants in aqueous solutions, with sand media.

Sanded Crops

Sanded Crops: An agricultural technique that prepares the ground with a layer of manure and sand, acting as a fertilizer (water-scarce areas).

Delta

Delta: An outgoing shoreline break; it is formed when a river yields more sediment than the sea can redistribute.

Dune

Dune: A mound of sand typical of sandy coastal areas, formed by the accumulation of sand by the wind.

Demography

Demography: The science that studies the movements of a group of people and their structure.

Population Density

Population Density: The number of inhabitants per unit area; it indicates the degree of concentration of the population.

Public Deficit

Public Deficit: A negative balance of the accounts of the state, as a result of spending more than initially budgeted.

Relocation

Relocation: The closure of a factory in one place to move it where production conditions are more favorable.

Currency

Currency: The legal tender of a country; to be used, it must be convertible outside the country (listed).