90 of the Geography glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
A barrier built across a river or stream to hold back water, raise its level or control its flow.
Travel to places associated with death, suffering, atrocity or disaster, such as battlefields, genocide memorials, former prisons and disaster zones.
An incident in which personal or confidential data held by an organisation are accessed, copied, stolen or published by someone who is not authorised to do so.
The transfer of digital information, such as communications, financial transactions, media and business data, between places across networks, especially across international borders.
An area of a lake or sea where oxygen levels are so low, usually because of eutrophication, that most aquatic life cannot survive.
The number of deaths per 1,000 people in a population per year, also called the crude death rate.
A fast-moving, water-saturated mixture of mud, rock and vegetation that flows downslope, often along a channel.
Money that a government, firm or household owes to lenders and must repay, usually with interest; a country’s external debt is the part owed to foreign lenders.
The partial or total cancellation of a country’s debt, or the rescheduling of its repayments on easier terms, by its creditors.
The breaking of the link between economic growth and environmental pressure, so that GDP rises while emissions grow more slowly (relative decoupling) or fall (absolute decoupling).
The extraction of mineral deposits such as polymetallic nodules, seafloor massive sulphides and cobalt-rich crusts from the deep-ocean floor.
A theory of residential design, put forward by Oscar Newman in 1972, that crime falls where the layout of buildings and spaces gives residents a sense of ownership and the ability to watch over them.
The removal of loose, fine particles from the ground surface by wind, which lowers the land and can form deflation hollows.
The permanent clearance of forest and its replacement by another land use, such as farming, grazing, mining or settlement.
How cut off a place is from transport routes, communications and outside help, which affects how quickly rescue and relief arrive after a hazard event.
The long-term decline of manufacturing industry, measured by its share of employment or output, in a city, region or country.
A landform of sediment deposited where a river enters a sea or lake faster than waves and currents can remove it, often divided by distributaries; arcuate, bird's-foot and cuspate are its main shapes.
An approach to water scarcity that reduces or reshapes demand, through pricing, metering, restrictions, efficient technology and education, rather than increasing supply.
The boost to economic growth that can result when falling fertility makes the working-age population (15–64) larger relative to the dependent population of children and older people.
A model showing how a population moves from high to low birth and death rates as a country develops, in five stages, with the resulting changes in natural increase and total population.
The process by which residents, especially young people, copy the behaviour, dress and consumption patterns of visitors, which can change local values and aspirations.
The number of people aged 0–14 and 65 and over for every 100 people aged 15–64, split into youth and old-age dependency ratios.
The loss of parks, gardens, wetlands, farmland and other vegetated areas within a city to building and paving.
The laying down of sediment by a river, waves, ice or wind when its velocity, and so its energy, falls too low to carry the load.
A lack of access to the goods, services, resources and opportunities considered normal in a society, such as adequate housing, education, health care, work and a safe environment.
The distance from the Earth's surface down to the focus of an earthquake, classed as shallow (0–70 km), intermediate (70–300 km) or deep (300–700 km).
The removal of dissolved salts from seawater or brackish groundwater to produce fresh water, usually by reverse osmosis or distillation, which requires large amounts of energy.
A surface layer of closely packed pebbles and stones left when deflation removes the finer particles, which then protects the ground from further wind erosion.
Land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities (UNCCD definition).
A map that shows straight lines from each user's place of origin to a facility or destination, used to show its sphere of influence.
A high, steep and frequent wave, breaking about 10–14 times a minute, whose strong backwash removes sediment from the beach and carries it offshore.
A sentence or two of specific evidence that supports a point in an answer, giving a named location and usually a date, an amount or another precise fact.
A point in an answer that is extended beyond a bare statement by an explanation of how or why it works, a consequence, or a located example, so it can earn more than one mark.
A multidimensional process of positive change in the economic, social, political, environmental and cultural conditions of people’s lives, improving their wellbeing and choices.
A graph that plots four development indicators on four axes from a common centre, so that the shapes of the diamonds drawn for two or more places can be compared.
The difference in wealth, wellbeing and opportunity between the most and least developed places or groups, between countries or within one country.
A measurable statistic, such as life expectancy, school enrolment or GNI per capita, used to describe and compare one aspect of the level of development of a place.
A population that has spread from its original homeland to other countries while keeping cultural, emotional or family links with it.
The average amount of food energy available for human consumption in a country, in kilocalories per person per day, calculated from national food balance sheets.
The unequal susceptibility to harm of different groups within the same place exposed to the same hazard, because of differences in income, gender, age, disability, ethnicity, legal status or housing.
Pollution that enters water from many dispersed sources across a wide area, such as fertiliser runoff from fields, so that no single source can be identified.
The spread of a phenomenon, such as an innovation, an idea or a disease, from its place of origin across space and over time.
The gap between people, places or countries that have access to modern digital technology and the internet and those that have limited or no access.
An electronic record and means of proving a person’s identity, such as a chip-based identity card, online account or biometric number, used to access services, make transactions or cross borders.
An effect caused immediately and physically by a hazard event, such as deaths, injuries, collapsed buildings and destroyed roads or crops.
A measure of the burden of disease in which one unit is one year of healthy life lost, through premature death or through years lived with illness or disability.
A serious disruption of a community caused by a hazard event, involving loss of life, property or livelihoods beyond the community's ability to cope with its own resources.
A model, devised by Park in 1991, that shows how quality of life falls during a hazard event and recovers through the phases of relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
The policies and actions that aim to prevent new disaster risk, reduce existing risk and manage what remains, so that losses of life, livelihoods and assets are reduced.
The change over time in the number of recorded disasters, the deaths they cause, the people affected or their economic losses, usually shown by year or by decade.
The volume of water passing a point in a river per unit of time, found by multiplying the cross-sectional area of the channel by the mean velocity, and measured in m³ s⁻¹ (cumecs).
Permafrost that underlies 50–90% of the ground, broken by unfrozen areas beneath lakes, rivers and warmer slopes.
A coastline where bands of rock of different resistance run at right angles to the shore, so that weak rock is eroded into bays and resistant rock forms headlands.
Time free from paid work, study, sleep, personal care and household or caring obligations, which a person can choose how to spend.
The total impact of disease and injury on a population, measured by deaths and, more fully, by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost.
The range of diseases arranged from diseases of poverty, which dominate where living conditions are poor, to diseases of affluence, which grow as incomes and lifespans rise.
Measures that stop a disease from occurring or spreading, such as vaccination, clean water and sanitation, bednets, health education, screening and the regulation of tobacco and food.
Medical care that cures or controls a disease after a person has become ill, such as drugs, oral rehydration, surgery and hospital care.
Non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and many cancers, which become more common as incomes rise, diets change, activity falls and people live longer.
Diseases most common among people in low-income conditions, mainly communicable diseases such as diarrhoea, TB, malaria and HIV, plus undernutrition and maternal conditions.
The involuntary movement of residents or businesses out of an area because of rising rents and prices, redevelopment or eviction.
The income a household has available to spend or save after paying income taxes and social security contributions.
A new technology that significantly changes the way goods are produced, services are delivered or power is exercised, displacing established products, methods or institutions.
The decline in an interaction, such as the number of visitors to a facility, as distance from it increases.
A channel that branches off from the main river and flows away from it, usually across a delta, to reach the sea separately.
A system that supplies heat to many buildings from a central source, such as waste heat, biomass or a heat pump, through a network of insulated pipes.
The difference between the highest and lowest temperatures at a place within 24 hours, or between the mean daily maximum and mean daily minimum for a month.
A plate boundary where two plates move apart and new crust forms from rising magma, as at mid-ocean ridges and continental rifts.
The selling of shares, bonds or other investments in companies or industries, such as fossil-fuel producers, for ethical, environmental or financial reasons.
Tourism by residents of a country to places within the same country but outside their usual environment.
A decline in the willingness of governments and the public to give aid, usually during a long or repeated crisis, which leads to falling funds even when needs remain high.
A map showing the distribution of a phenomenon with dots, each representing one feature or a fixed number of them, placed where they occur.
A situation in which a population has high levels of communicable disease at the same time as rising levels of non-communicable disease.
The coexistence of undernutrition, including micronutrient deficiency, with overweight, obesity or diet-related diseases in the same population, household or individual.
The number of years a population would take to double at its current growth rate, estimated as 70 divided by the growth rate in % per year.
A model (1975) suggesting that residents' attitudes to tourists pass through four stages, euphoria, apathy, annoyance and antagonism, as visitor numbers grow.
An area of land drained by a river and its tributaries, from which all precipitation that is not lost to the atmosphere flows to the same outlet; also called a catchment.
The total length of all streams in a drainage basin divided by the area of the basin, measured in km per km².
The removal of sediment from the bed of a river, harbour or channel to make it deeper, increasing its capacity or allowing ships to pass.
A method of irrigation that delivers water slowly through pipes and emitters directly to the roots of each plant, reducing losses to evaporation and seepage.
An aircraft without a human pilot on board, controlled remotely or flying autonomously, used for military, commercial, scientific and private purposes.
An extended period, usually a season or more, in which water availability is well below normal: meteorological (low rainfall), agricultural (low soil moisture) or hydrological (low river flow and groundwater).
Growing crops without irrigation in areas of low rainfall by conserving soil moisture, for example through fallowing, mulching and drought-tolerant crop varieties.
Areas with an aridity index below 0.65, made up of hyper-arid, arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid lands, in which water is the main limit on plant growth and human activity.
The legal status of a person who is a citizen of two countries at the same time, with the rights and duties of both.
A process in which a company identifies, prevents, reduces and accounts for the harm its own operations and its supply chain cause to people and the environment.
The rebuilding or stabilising of sand dunes by planting marram grass, fencing, thatching and controlling access, so that they store sand and protect the land behind.
A damp hollow between dune ridges where the surface lies close to the water table, supporting moisture-loving plants such as reeds, rushes and willows.
The length of time for which a hazard event lasts, from seconds for an earthquake's main shaking to months or years for an eruption or a slow landslide.
In the PAR model, the processes such as rapid urbanisation, population growth or a lack of training that turn root causes into unsafe conditions.