Geography key terms

A chart using repeated pictures or symbols to represent quantities, with a key stating the value of each complete symbol.

Preparing people, supplies and procedures so that communities can act effectively before, during and after a hazard.

Rules through which local government controls where development can take place and what form it can take.

An area of deliberately planted trees, often managed for timber production.

The zone where two tectonic plates meet and move relative to one another.

The boundary where two tectonic plates meet.

The theory that Earth’s rigid outer layer is divided into plates which move relative to one another, creating and destroying crust and causing earthquakes and volcanic activity.

Glacial erosion in which ice freezes onto rock and pulls it away as the glacier moves.

A deep hollow at the foot of a waterfall, excavated by falling water and the abrasion of rock fragments.

A deposit of river sediment on the inside of a meander, associated with a gently sloping bank called a slip-off slope.

The high-latitude circulation cell, approximately between 60° and 90° north or south, with descending air over the poles.

An environment at very high latitudes around the North or South Pole, with extreme cold and extensive permanent ice cover.

A decision or plan adopted by an organisation or public authority to guide action, such as restricting development on a flood plain or changing drain maintenance.

A difficulty involving power, decision-making or competing interests over how a place should be managed.

The ability to shape government decisions and policies affecting other places and people.

Protests or other challenges to a government that can create political instability.

Cutting a tree’s branches above the reach of grazing animals, allowing new branches to regrow.

The principle that those responsible for pollution should meet the costs of the damage they cause.

The introduction of harmful substances into the environment, damaging air, water, land or living organisms.

Having several centres of activity rather than a single dominant centre.

The average number of people per unit area, usually expressed as people per square kilometre: $\text{population density} = \frac{\text{population}}{\text{area}}$.

The way people are spread across an area.

An increase in the number of people living in an area.

The percentage change in a population over a stated period of time.

Increasing demand for land and resources as the number of people in an area grows.

An estimate of a future population based on assumptions about births, deaths and migration; it is not a certain prediction.

A graph showing the age and sex structure of a population using horizontal bars on opposite sides of a central age axis.