Year 8 Geography Summer Examination Revision Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Urbanisation, Asia, Climate Change, Ecosystems, and Geographical Skills for the Year 8 Geography Summer Examination.

Urbanisation

The growth in the proportion of a country's population living in towns and cities.

Rural-to-urban migration

The process of people moving from the countryside to live in towns and cities.

Push factors

Negative reasons that cause a person to leave their current location.

Pull factors

Positive reasons that attract a person to move to a new location.

Megacity

A city with a very large population, typically defined as having over $10$ million people.

Geographical Information System (GIS)

A framework for gathering, managing, and analyzing data rooted in the science of geography.

Raster data

GIS data that consists of a matrix of cells (or pixels) organized into a grid where each cell contains a value representing information.

Vector data

GIS data that uses points, lines, and polygons to represent geographical features.

Urals

A mountain range located in Asia.

Caucasus

A mountain range located in Asia.

Himalayas

A major mountain range in Asia that includes Mount Everest.

Silk Road

A historical network of trade routes that connected sections of Asia with the West.

Anthropocene

A proposed geological epoch defined by the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

Greenhouse effect

The natural process by which radiation from a planet's atmosphere warms the planet's surface to a temperature above what it would be without its atmosphere.

Enhanced greenhouse effect

The disruption of Earth's natural climate equilibrium caused by the increased concentration of greenhouse gases due to human activities.

Positive feedback loop

A process where an initial change causes further change in the same direction, such as a loop that makes climate change worse.

Carbon footprint

The total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities.

Mitigation

Policies or actions taken by governments to reduce or prevent the emission of greenhouse gases to alleviate climate change.

Ecosystem

A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Biome

A large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat.

Emergent layer

The top layer of a tropical rainforest consisting of the tallest trees that grow above the canopy.

Canopy

The primary layer of the rainforest that forms a continuous roof of leaves over the layers below.

Under-canopy

The layer of a rainforest beneath the canopy, characterized by low light levels and smaller trees.

Forest floor

The bottom layer of the rainforest, where very little sunlight reaches and decomposition occurs.

Drip tips

Plant adaptations in the rainforest where leaves have pointed ends to allow water to run off quickly.

Lianas

Woody vines that are rooted in the ground but climb up trees to reach the sunlight in the canopy.

Buttress roots

Large, wide roots on all sides of a shallowly rooted tree that provide stability and support in nutrient-poor rainforest soils.

Epiphytes

Plants that grow on the surface of other plants, such as trees, to reach sunlight higher in the rainforest.

Contour lines

Lines on a map that join points of equal height above sea level.

Triangulation pillars

Concrete pillars found on hills or high ground used to show height and location on a map.

Spot heights

Points on a map that show the exact height of the land at that specific position.

Population density

The measurement of population per unit area, often calculated with the formula $\text{population} \div \text{land area}$.

Mean

The average of a dataset, calculated by dividing the sum of all values by the total number of values.

Median

The middle value in a set of data when the values are arranged in order.

Mode

The value that appears most frequently in a dataset.

Range

The numerical difference between the highest and lowest values in a dataset.

Scattergraph

A graph in which the values of two variables are plotted along two axes, the pattern of the resulting points revealing any correlation present.