Key Geographical and Economic Concepts Explained
Dehesa: A Landscape and Agropastoral System
Dehesa: A characteristic landscape and agropastoral form of land use found in Zamora, Salamanca, Extremadura, and Western Andalusia. Its origin lies in the thinning of Mediterranean forests of oak and cork, to create open mountain pastures. Traditionally, it was oriented towards livestock farming. Today, it is somewhat more oriented towards cattle and, where the soil is better, agriculture. Some areas are also used for hunting.
Industrial Relocation: Shifting Production for Advantage
Industrial relocation: The diffusion of industrial facilities to locations that offer greater advantages for businesses, with the aim of reducing costs. This is fueled by new technologies. High-tech factories, offices, and services, requiring the most qualified labor, remain in central areas with the best equipment and service allocations.
Multinational Companies: Global Production Strategies
Multinational company: A company that has production facilities in different countries, operating with a joint strategy determined from headquarters, usually located in more developed countries. In some cases, subsidiaries are located in countries with expanding domestic markets to find new customers and overcome barriers. In other cases, parts for semi-finished products are located in low-cost countries and assembled by other branches closer to major consumer markets.
Renewable Energy: Sustainable and Inexhaustible Sources
Renewable energy: Sources of primary energy that are inexhaustible, do not disappear when generating energy, and allow for unlimited use. They are non-polluting and can be used in various locations. These sources are being developed rapidly.
Nuclear Energy: Power from Atomic Fission
Nuclear energy: Energy obtained from a nuclear power plant through the fission of uranium atoms. This process heats a circuit to a very high temperature, creating steam that spins turbines to generate electricity. Its production is cheap, but it has the disadvantage of the long-term radioactivity of the waste it generates.
Stabling: Intensive Livestock Farming Practice
Stabling: A practice characteristic of intensive livestock farming, consisting of keeping cattle indoors in facilities where they are fed with feed.
ERDF: Supporting Regional Development in Europe
ERDF: European Regional Development Fund: A Structural Fund of the European Union created in 1975 to provide financial support to business projects and infrastructure in the poorest regions, in order to reduce the gap with the more prosperous regions. It has proven effective in the development of European integration.
Energy Sources: Powering Economic Sectors
Sources of energy: Resources that provide the power needed to carry out work. Their use is indispensable in all economic sectors, especially industry, which uses them to process raw materials. According to their use, they are divided into primary (derived from nature) and end (obtained from the processing of the primary).
Ranching: Extensive Livestock Farming
Ranching: Depends on the physical environment and relies on grazing in the natural grassland of wet Spain (north of the peninsula and the mountains) or in the pastures of the peneplain and stubble of dry Spain.
Intensive Farming: Controlled Agricultural Production
Intensive farming: Is unrelated to the physical environment, with livestock housed and fed with feed in whole or in part. It is located in the vicinity of urban consumption centers in the northeastern peninsular and Mediterranean coast.
Gas Pipelines: Efficient Transportation of Natural Gas
Gas pipeline: A conduit for the transport of natural gas or gas produced by the chemical industry. It offers cheaper transport costs, since other means (tank) require the gas to be liquefied before transport. The expansion of the pipeline network in Spain has been an important factor in explaining the large current consumption of natural gas for both domestic use and for electricity generation.