Unit 6, Module 52, Challenges of Urban Sustainability, Vocab - Human Geography AP

ecological footprint

The total amount of natural resources used and their impact on the natural environment

urban heat island

A mass of warm air in cities, generated by urban building materials and human activities, that sits over a city

urban footprint

The spatial extent of an urban area's impacts on the natural environment

Urban risk divide

The idea that disasters and distaster risk become urban phenomena as the world's population becomes increasingly concentrated in large cities

Brownfields

Properties whose use or development may be complicated by the potential presence of hazardous substances or pollutants

Brownfield remediation

The process of removing or sealing off contaminants so that a site may be used again without any health concerns

Phytoremediation

The removal of contaminants with plant species that react with, degrade, or draw up contaminants from the soil into shoots and leaves

Farmland Protection Policy Act (FPPA)

US law that grants municipalities oversight over federally funded development projects on farmland

Scattered developments

Subdivisions or developments that do not border on existing settlements and that remove agricultural land from production