Rural Habitats, Industry, and Geographic Concepts in Spain
Rural Habitat
Concentrated: Rural population where houses are arranged alongside one another, regardless of the location of their tenements. This can be linear, with houses arranged along a crowded road, or around a principal core.
Dispersed: Rural population where houses are separated from each other, surrounded by their own land. This type does not include any dense population.
Concentrated Loose: Small clusters of houses forming villages, separated from their tenements but not united.
Scattered Interlayer: Houses surrounded by their tenements between two population cores.
Atmospheric Elements
Humidity: Atmospheric water vapor amount contained in the air from evaporation.
Isobar: Lines connecting points of equal air pressure on maps.
Isoyet: Lines representing equal precipitation on maps, measured in millimeters.
Isotherm: Lines connecting points of equal temperature on maps, in degrees Celsius.
Pressure: Weight of air above a unit area. It is measured in millibars with a barometer.
Precipitation: Water falling from the clouds, both solid and liquid. It is measured with a rain gauge in millimeters.
Industry
Basic Industry
Transforms raw materials into intermediate products. Initially, they were moved by the INI (National Industry Institute), but it no longer exists.
Petrochemical Industry
The chemical sector is one of the largest in Spain. Petrochemical refinery activities mainly occur in large complexes.
Steel Industry
Can be comprehensive, obtaining steel from iron in blast furnaces, or non-integral, obtained from scrap steel in electric metallurgical furnaces.
Manufacturing Industry
Engaged in manufacturing machinery of all types.
Transforms intermediate products into machines used in other industries.
Geographic and Urban Concepts
Geographic Location
Longitude: Angular distance from any point of land to the Greenwich Meridian (East or West).
Latitude: Angular distance (measured in degrees) from anywhere on Earth to the Equator (0º meridian).
Meridian: Semicircle running from pole to pole. The prime meridian is 0° or Greenwich Meridian.
Parallel: Circle perpendicular to the ground. The main parallel or 0° parallel is the Equator.
Glacial Lake: Formed from the excavation of basins by ice of the glacier at the cirque (cirque lakes) or valley (valley lakes).
Peninsula: Land surrounded by water on all sides except for an isthmus (e.g., the Iberian Peninsula, connected by the Pyrenees).
Plateau: High plains, remnants of the former Hesperian Massif (Hercynian orogeny emerged in the primary era), destroyed by erosion and becoming square. In the Tertiary period, the plateau was deformed and largely destroyed during the Alpine orogenesis. It can be differentiated into the old base, the interior mountains (Sistema Central and Montes de Toledo), and internal sedimentary basins (Duero, Tagus, and Guadiana).
Maremma: Typical mud flats of bays, such as the Guadalquivir.
Penillanura: Gently undulating erosion surface.
Continental Platform: Maritime zone that dips gently to 400m. Its amplitude from the coast can range from a few meters to several kilometers. It is the continuation of the submarine coastal continents.
Urban Concepts
Urban Hierarchy
Classification of cities in a country or geographical region.
Urban Morphology
The external aspect of a city. It is influenced by the site and urban conditions, resulting from a combination of design, construction, and land use.
Urban Periphery
Urban expansion occurs along main communication routes due to population growth, industry development, and services. This expansion is geographically dispersed.
Urban Plan
The set of constructed and free surfaces of a city. Three types can be distinguished: irregular, central radius, and right angle.
Radiocentric Plan: Has a center with radial streets intersected by others forming rings around the center. It can be regular or irregular.
Orthogonal Plan: Consists of streets intersecting at right angles.
Agricultural and Socioeconomic Concepts
Latifundio
Large property of over 100 hectares, often in the hands of a few, predominant in Andalusia, Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha, and Aragon. Traditionally associated with extensive cultivation, low yields, and seasonal unemployment.
Minifundio
Small holding of less than 10 hectares, resulting in many small land holdings. Predominates in northern Spain and Valencia. It hinders competitive agriculture due to low incomes and lack of modernization.
Monoculture
When an agricultural area specializes in a single crop (e.g., cereals).
Raw Material
Resource from which to obtain processed or semi-processed products. They fall into two types: organic and mineral.
Meridional
Referring to the south.
Morphology (Karst)
Appearance of the relief produced by the action of water on limestone, highlighting underground caverns.
Occidental
Referring to the west.
Oriental
Referring to the east.
Population
All persons 16 and over who provide labor to produce goods or services and are actively seeking employment. There are two types: the occupied population (working for a wage) and the unemployed (seeking work).
Population Pyramid
Represents the various stages in the evolution of natural population movement, with birth, death, and natural growth having homogeneous features. There are three systems: old, demographic transition, and current demographic regime.
Plot
Cultivated land under one boundary. Classified based on size, limits (closed or open), and shape (regular or irregular).
Fishing
Deep-Sea Fishing: Done at distances from the coast, using a deep-sea fleet that stays at sea for days or weeks and introduces industrial processes in vessels and gear.
Coastal Fishing: Preserves craftsmanship and is almost family-based. It uses a coastal or inshore fleet that fishes from the Spanish coastline and 60 miles parallel to the coast. Landed fish is sold in fishing markets.
Register Office
Registers residents of municipalities, collecting demographic, economic, and social data annually on January 1st.
CAP (Common Agricultural Policy)
Designed to ensure a fair standard of living for farmers, stabilize markets, and ensure supplies to consumers at fair prices.
Polo Development
Territorial polarization of growth, selecting certain urban areas in backward regions to create conditions for industrial concentration, similar to developed regions. These industries attract others and act as a motor for development.