Geo chapters 1&2 key terms

Population

a group or type of people

Rural

areas or populations outside cities

Urban

areas or populations inside cities or towns

Demography

the study of human population statistics

Growth rate

a number that shows the increase or decrease in a population during a certain period of time

Birth rate

the number of live births per thousand people every year

Death rate

the number of deaths per thousand people every year

Migration

the movement of people from one place to another

Economy

the system by which goods and services are produced, sold, and bought in a country or region.

Carrying capacity

the maximum number of people that a region can support without running out of resources

Population distribution

the patterns of how people are arranged in an area

Clustered (POPULATION PATTERNS)

close together and unevenly distributed over an area

Scattered (POPULATION PATTERNS)

spread over a large area and not grouped together.

Linear (POPULATION PATTERNS)

forming a line, which can be straight or wavy.

Peripheral (POPULATION PATTERNS)

distributed along the outer perimeter of an area

Population density

the number of people in a given area

Dense

describes high population density - many people crowded together in a given area.

Sparse

describes low population density - a small number of people scattered over a large area.

Settlement hierarchy

an ordering of settlements by size of population.

Arable land

an area with fertile soil in a moderate climate with a consistent water supply, that can be used to grow crops.

Climate

the average weather of an area over a long period of time

Physical Process

any naturally occuring change on or in Earth

Climate Change

changes in long-term weather patterns caused by natural events and human activity

Desertification

the unwanted process of turning arable land into desert due to factors such as reduced rainfall and poor agricultural practices

Drylands

areas with a long growing season and a semi-desert to moist climate; includes grasslands and semi-desert scrub

Climate Model 

a mathematical representation of Earth’s atmosphere, ocean and physical processes, often displayed in a map

Land Reclamation

the creation of new land in coastal areas by depositing materials such as sand, rock, concrete and sometime garbage in the water

Erosion

the wearing away of Earth’s surface by wind, water or glacial action