Environmental

Urban

An area that contains a city.

Ecosystem services

The role organisms play in creating a healthful environment for humans.

Infrastructure

The basic facilities of a country or region, such as roads, bridges, and sewers.

Heat Island

An area in which the air temperature is generally higher than the temperature of the surrounding rural areas.

Geographic Information System (GIS)

An automated system for capturing, storing, retrieving, analyzing, manipulating, and displaying geographic data.

Overgrazing

The depletion of vegetation due to continuous feeding of too many animals.

Reforestation

The reestablishment and development of trees in a forest land.

Famine

Widespread malnutrition and starvation in an area due to a shortage of food, usually caused by a catastrophic event.

Topsoil

The surface layer of the soil, which is usually richer in organic matter than the subsoil is.

Desertification

The process by which human activities or climatic changes make arid or semiarid areas more desertlike.

Rural

an area of open land that is often used for farming

Urban Sprawl

the rapid spread of a city into adjoining suburbs and rural areas.

Land-use planning

a set of policies and activities related to potential uses of land that is put in place before an area is developed.

Deforestation

the process of clearing forests.

Wilderness

a region that is not cultivated and that is not inhabited by humans

Malnutrition

a disorder of nutrition that results when a person does not consume enough of each of the nutrients that are needed by the human body.

Diet

the type and amount of food that a person eats

Arable land

farmland that can be used to grow crops.

Erosion

a process in which the materials of Earth’s surface are loosened, dissolved, or worn away and transported from one place to another by a natural agent, such as wind, water, ice, or gravity.

Compost

a mixture of decomposing organic matter, such as manure and rotting plants, that is used as fertilizer and soil conditioner.

Urbanization

an increase in the ratio or density of people living in urban areas rather than in rural areas

Yield

The amount of crops produced per unit area