28 of the Geography glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
An industrially manufactured food or drink made mainly from substances extracted from foods and from additives, such as soft drinks, packaged snacks and instant noodles, as defined by the NOVA classification.
A voluntary United Nations initiative launched in 2000 in which companies commit to ten principles on human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption, and report on their progress.
The number of children who die before reaching the age of five, per 1,000 live births in a given year.
A condition in which a person’s usual food intake does not provide enough dietary energy for a normal, active and healthy life; reported by the FAO as a share of the population.
A form of malnutrition caused by too little energy, protein or nutrients, often combined with infection; measured in children by stunting, wasting and underweight.
Low weight for age in a child, more than two standard deviations below the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards; in adults, a body mass index below 18.5.
The international treaty of 1982, in force since 1994, that defines the maritime zones of coastal states, their rights and duties in each, and the rules for the high seas and deep seabed.
A non-binding declaration adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007 that sets out the rights of Indigenous peoples to their lands, resources, cultures and self-determination.
The international treaty agreed at Rio in 1992 that sets the framework for global action on climate change; its parties meet annually at a Conference of the Parties (COP).
A situation in which all people can use the quality health services they need, from prevention to treatment and rehabilitation, without suffering financial hardship from paying for them.
In the PAR model, the specific forms of vulnerability in a place and time, such as weak buildings on unstable slopes or a lack of warnings.
The unequal power between states sharing a river that results from their positions on it, since upstream states can control the quantity, timing and quality of water downstream.
The rise of cold, nutrient-rich water from below the thermocline to the ocean surface, usually where winds move surface water away from a coast.
A continuously built-up area with a high density of buildings and people, in which most residents work in non-agricultural activities; each country sets its own threshold of size, density or status.
A street between rows of tall buildings, in which radiation is trapped by repeated reflection between walls and wind speed is reduced.
An economic or social role that a settlement performs for its residents and surrounding area, such as administration, trade, manufacturing, port activity, tourism, education or finance.
An increase in the number of people living in an urban area, or in the area it covers, regardless of any change in the share of the population that is urban.
An estimate of the future size of an urban population, calculated from present data and assumptions about natural increase, migration and the reclassification of settlements as urban.
An urban area that is significantly warmer than the surrounding rural area, especially at night in calm, clear weather, because urban surfaces store heat, human activity releases heat and there is less evaporative cooling.
A model of the city as a system of flows, in which resources such as energy, water, food and materials enter, are used and transformed, and leave as products, wastes and emissions.
The small-scale climate of a city, in which temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind and visibility differ from the surrounding rural area because of urban surfaces, buildings and human activity.
The demolition and rebuilding of an urban area, often changing its land use, density and population, as part of a plan to regenerate it.
The capacity of a city’s people, communities, institutions, businesses and systems to survive, adapt and keep developing despite the chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience.
The specialised location, extraction and first medical care of people trapped in collapsed buildings, carried out by trained teams with equipment such as listening devices, cameras and cutting tools.
The uncontrolled spread of low-density urban development, especially housing and roads, into the countryside at the edge of a city.
A city viewed as a system of inputs such as people, water, energy and materials, stores, flows and outputs such as goods, waste and emissions, linked by infrastructure.
The idea that settlements form a continuous gradient from highly urban to highly rural, rather than two distinct categories, with density and urban functions decreasing outwards.
An increase in the proportion of a population living in urban areas, caused by rural–urban migration, natural increase in towns and cities, and the reclassification of rural settlements.