57 of the Geography glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
The return flow of water down a beach under gravity after the swash, carrying sediment back towards the sea at right angles to the shoreline.
Water pumped into tanks in a ship’s hull to keep it stable when it carries little cargo, and released in another port, often carrying organisms from a distant ecosystem.
The discharge at which a river fills its channel completely, just before it overflows onto the floodplain.
A ridge of sand or shingle that extends across a bay, joining two headlands and enclosing a lagoon behind it.
A crescent-shaped dune with its horns pointing downwind and its slip face on the concave side, formed where sand is limited and the wind blows from one direction.
Any physical, economic, political, cultural or informational obstacle that slows or prevents the spread of an innovation, idea or disease.
The movement of a glacier over its bed on a film of meltwater, possible only where the base is at the pressure melting point.
The part of a river's discharge supplied by groundwater seeping slowly into the channel, which keeps the river flowing between storms and in dry seasons.
A method of aseismic design in which a building rests on flexible bearings, such as layers of rubber and steel, that absorb ground motion so that less shaking reaches the structure above.
The lowest level to which a river can erode its bed, usually sea level, or the level of a lake for rivers that drain into one.
An international treaty, signed in 1989 and in force since 1992, that controls transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and requires the prior informed consent of importing countries.
The line, normally the low-water line along the coast, from which a state's territorial sea, EEZ and other maritime zones are measured.
The average number of people to whom one infected person passes a disease in a population where nobody is immune and no control measures are taken.
An accumulation of sand or shingle on the shore between the low water mark and the limit of storm waves, shaped by the balance between swash and backwash.
The artificial addition of sand or shingle to a beach, usually dredged from offshore, to make it higher and wider so that it absorbs more wave energy.
A cross-section of a beach from the sea to the back of the beach, measured as a series of slope angles and distances between breaks of slope.
A global infrastructure and investment strategy launched by China in 2013, financing ports, railways, roads, energy and telecommunications through overland corridors and a Maritime Silk Road.
The zone of earthquake foci that dips from the trench into the mantle along a subducting plate, reaching depths of up to about 700 km.
A systematic distortion of results caused by the way sites, people or data are chosen, recorded or interpreted, so that they no longer represent the whole fairly.
A theory (Alonso, 1964) that land users bid for sites according to the value of accessibility to them, so land values and land-use intensity fall with distance from the city centre.
The competitive procedure through which cities or countries apply to host an event, presenting plans, guarantees and campaigns to the owning organisation, which then chooses the host.
Aid given directly from the government of one country to the government of another, often reflecting the donor’s political and commercial links.
The capacity of ecosystems in an area to regenerate the resources people use and absorb their wastes, measured in global hectares, usually per person.
The breeding of food crops, by conventional methods or genetic engineering, so that they contain more vitamins or minerals as they grow.
A fuel made from recently living organic matter, such as ethanol from maize or sugar cane and biodiesel from vegetable oil, used in place of petrol and diesel.
The transfer of carbon from the surface ocean to the deep ocean and sea floor by organisms, as phytoplankton take up CO₂ and dead organisms and faecal pellets sink.
A large-scale ecosystem, such as tundra, boreal forest or tropical rainforest, characterised by its dominant vegetation and closely related to climate.
The measurement of physical or behavioural characteristics, such as the face, fingerprints or iris, to identify individuals automatically, for example at borders or for access to services.
A natural resource obtained from living organisms, such as fish, shellfish, marine mammals or seaweed.
A graph that plots scores on a scale between two opposite descriptions, such as poor and good, usually from −3 to +3, to compare the quality of places.
The number of live births per 1,000 people in a population per year, also called the crude birth rate.
A hollow in a sand dune scooped out by wind erosion where the protective vegetation cover has been broken by trampling, grazing or storms.
Carbon captured and stored by coastal and marine ecosystems, especially mangroves, saltmarshes and seagrass meadows, mostly in their waterlogged soils.
The part of a water footprint made up of surface water or groundwater withdrawn, for example for irrigation, and not returned to the source it came from.
A measure of body weight relative to height, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in metres; for adults 25 or more is overweight and 30 or more obese.
A cycle in which a place grows rapidly while a resource is profitable to extract and declines sharply when prices fall or the resource runs out.
The theory, set out by Ester Boserup in 1965, that population growth and pressure on food supplies stimulate agricultural innovation and intensification, so food production rises to meet the needs of more people.
An approach in which local communities identify their own water needs and plan, build and maintain solutions, often small-scale and low-cost, with outside support where needed.
A graph summarising a data set by its minimum, lower quartile, median, upper quartile and maximum, showing its spread and allowing data sets to be compared.
The deliberate refusal to take part in an event, or to buy from or deal with a country or organisation, as a form of protest.
A model that summarises how river channel characteristics change downstream, with discharge, width, depth, velocity and load quantity increasing and particle size, bed roughness and gradient decreasing.
The emigration of highly educated or skilled people, such as doctors, engineers and teachers, from a place, which reduces its human capital and ability to develop.
An intergovernmental group of major emerging economies, founded as BRIC by Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2009, joined by South Africa in 2010 and enlarged from 2024.
Water with a much higher concentration of dissolved salts than seawater, produced as waste by desalination plants or found naturally beneath salt flats.
A method of obtaining lithium and other dissolved salts by pumping mineral-rich groundwater from beneath a salt flat into shallow ponds, where evaporation concentrates it before processing.
A theory, put forward by Wilson and Kelling in 1982, that visible signs of disorder and neglect in an area encourage further antisocial behaviour and more serious crime.
Land that has previously been developed, such as a former factory, dock or railway yard, which may be derelict or contaminated and can be reused.
A genetically modified crop containing a gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis that makes it produce a protein toxic to certain insect pests, such as bollworms in cotton.
An approach to recovery that uses reconstruction to reduce future disaster risk, for example by rebuilding to stronger codes, moving homes out of hazard zones and improving services.
A set of legal standards that buildings must meet in design and construction, for example to resist earthquake shaking.
The human-made surroundings in which people live and work, including buildings, streets, public spaces and infrastructure.
Heavy fuel oil, a thick residue of crude oil refining, burned in the engines of large ships; it is cheap but high in sulphur, so it pollutes the air along shipping lanes and in ports.
A model (1925, based on Chicago) of a city as five concentric rings around the central business district, in which housing quality and residents' wealth increase with distance from the centre.
A high-capacity bus system with dedicated lanes, stations with fare payment before boarding and frequent services, giving metro-like speed and reliability at lower cost.
A planned area of offices, research and light industrial buildings in a landscaped setting at the edge of a city, with good road or airport access and parking.
An isolated, steep-sided hill with a small flat top, higher than it is wide, formed as a mesa is worn back by weathering and erosion.
Fish and other marine animals, such as dolphins, turtles and seabirds, caught unintentionally while fishing for a target species.