Geography key terms

Harvesting timber while allowing forests to regenerate and maintaining their environmental value for future generations.

Managing an environment to meet present needs while maintaining its ability to support people and ecosystems in the future.

Managing tourism so that it supports local people and the economy while protecting the environment for the future.

Transport that meets people's travel needs while reducing environmental damage and resource use over the long term.

Urban living that meets people’s needs while limiting environmental damage and resource consumption, so that future generations can also meet their needs.

Using a resource in a way that can continue over the long term without exhausting it or seriously damaging the environment.

Managing water so that present needs are met without damaging the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

The movement of water up a beach after a wave breaks.

Drawing together knowledge, understanding and skills from different geographical themes to explain an issue.

Selecting samples at regular intervals, such as measuring river depth every 50 cm across a channel.

The northern forest biome dominated by coniferous trees; it is also called boreal forest.

The people a piece of communication is intended to reach.

A tax charged on goods traded across a national border, usually imports.

A lake occupying the basin of a corrie.

Deposits containing sand, clay, water and bitumen, a thick, heavy form of oil that needs processing before it can be used.

Expert advice, training or knowledge transfer provided to strengthen skills, organisations or policies.

Movement and deformation of the Earth’s crust associated with moving tectonic plates.

An earthquake or volcanic eruption that could harm people, property or infrastructure.

A large, rigid section of Earth’s lithosphere, made up of crust and the uppermost mantle.

An imaginary line from the River Tees to the River Exe used to describe the broad division between Britain’s north-western uplands and south-eastern lowlands.

The difference between a recorded temperature and a specified reference average.

Information associated with particular dates or times, allowing change over time to be investigated.

A ridge of glacial debris deposited at the furthest position reached by a glacier's snout.

An ecosystem found on land rather than in the sea.

A disagreement over which country controls or owns an area of land.

Economic activities that provide services, such as banking, transport, retail and telecommunications.

A map showing the geographical distribution of a particular subject, such as population density or rainfall.