Unit 4 vocab engineering essentials

Scatter plot

a graph of plotted points that show the relationship between two sets of data

Regression

a set of statistical processes for estimating the relationships among variables

Urbanization

the process by which a population moves from living in rural communities to cities

Urban sprawl

the spread of a city into the area surrounding it, often without planning

Evaporation

when radiant energy from the sun heats water and causes the water molecules to become so active that some of them rise into the atmosphere as vapor

Condenses (condensation)

the physical process in which a substance changes from a gas to a liquid

Precipitates

the act of water being released from clouds as rain, snow, sleet, or hail

Evapotranspiration

the process by which water is transferred from land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and other surfaces, and by transpiration from plants

Infiltrate

the process of water seeping through the ground

Runoff

precipitation that reaches the surface of the Earth but does not infiltrate the soil

Center

a value that attempts to describe a set of data by identifying the central position of the data set as representative of a “typical” value of that set. Measures of center include the mean, median, and mode.

Spread

how similar or varied the values of a data set are for a particular variable (such as volume, diameter, or number of defects). Measures of spread include range, quartiles, interquartile range, variance, and standard deviation.

Impervious

not allowing entrance or passage

Watershed

an area of land that contains a common set of streams and rivers that all drain into a single larger body of water, such as a river, lake, or ocean

Pervious

allowing substances to pass through; accessible (for example, pervious soil)

Policy

a set of ideas or plans that is used as a basis for making decisions, especially in politics, economics, or business

Infrastructure

the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (such as buildings, roads, and power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise

Utilities

a service to the public, especially services such as electricity, gas, water, and telephone

Ethical dilemmas

a situation in which there is a choice to be made between two or more options, neither of which resolves the situation in an ethically acceptable fashion

Canons

a general law, rule, principle, or criterion by which something is judged

Autonomous

functioning independently without control by others

Commercial

involving or relating to the buying and selling of goods

Residential

an area designed for people to live in, containing houses rather than offices or factories

Spatial

relating to, occupying, or having the character of space. Spatial describes the relationships of objects in space or on Earth.

Orthographic

a method of representing three-dimensional objects on a plane having only length and breadth. It is also referred to as right-angle projection or orthographic view

Attributes

nonspatial information about a geographic feature in a geographic information system (GIS), usually stored in a data table and linked to the feature by a unique identifier

Geographical features

natural and artificial identifying features of the Earth

Layer

the visual representation of a geographic data set in a digital map environment

Point

a geometric element defined by a pair of x, y coordinates

Polyline

in ArcGIS software, a shape defined by one or more paths in which a path is a series of connected segments. If a polyline has more than one path (a multipart polyline), then the paths may branch or be discontinuous.

Polygon

on a map, a closed shape defined by a connected sequence of x, y coordinate pairs, where the first and last coordinate pair are the same and all other pairs are unique

Scale

the relationship between a distance or area on a map and the corresponding distance or area on the ground, commonly expressed as a fraction or ratio

Brownfield

real property of which the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of it may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant

Geocoding

a geographic information system (GIS) operation for converting street addresses into spatial data that can be displayed as features on a map, usually by referencing address information from a street segment data layer

Address

a designation of the location of a residence, workplace, organization, or building, consisting of numerical and text elements, such as a street number, street name, and city, arranged in a particular format

Relative location

the position of a place or entity based on its location with respect to other locations

Vector data model

coordinate-based format that represents geographic features using exact points, lines, and polygons

Raster data model

Xrepresents geographic features or continuous surfaces as a grid of equally sized cells (or pixels) organized into rows and columns

Tiling

an internal subsetting of a spatial data set (commonly raster) into a manageable rectangular set, or rows and columns of pixels, typically used to process or analyze a large raster data set without consuming vast quantities of computer memory

Shapefile

a vector data storage format for storing the location, shape, and attributes of geographic features. A shapefile is stored in a set of related files and contains one feature class.

Filter

a desktop geographic information system (GIS) operation used to hide (not delete) features in a map document or attribute table

Point feature

a map feature that has neither length nor area at a given scale, such as a city on a world map or a building on a city map

Geospatial

relating to information that identifies where particular features are on the Earth’s surface, such as oceans and mountains

Sustainable

a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged and will still be available for future generations

Patterns

when data repeats in a predictable way

Trends

a general tendency for a set of data to change, such as to increase or decrease

Population density

the number of people living in each unit of area (such as a square mile)

Low density development

a residential zone intended for housing that includes substantial open space, a small number of residential homes, and no large industries, apartment complexes, or other large structures

high-density development

residential and commercial development at a density higher than typically found in the existing community. The outcome of this type of development is often more homes, or residences, on a property.

Green infrastructure

the planning and management of systems of landscapes and protected natural resources to counteract the negative impacts of development and create healthier and more sustainable urban communities

Stormwater runoff

precipitation that flows over the ground surface, created when rain falls on roads, driveways, parking lots, rooftops, and other paved surfaces that do not allow water to soak into the ground

Aesthetics

of or relating to beauty or art and people’s appreciation of beautiful things

Equitability

equal and just treatment of all concerned

Optimize

making the best or most effective use of resources to obtain the best possible solution