| ACE | Active Community Environment. | "Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design: A Guide for Public Health Practioners," National Center for Bicycling and Walking, May 2002, pages 1 and 5. |
| Access | 1. Freedom of approach or communication; or the means, power, or opportunity of approaching, communicating, or passing to and from. 2. In real property law, the term denotes the right vested in the owner of land which adjoins a road or other highway to go and return from his own land to the highway without obstruction. "Access" to property does not necessarily carry with it possession. See Access, easement of. 3. For purpose of establishing element of access by defendant in copyright infringement action, "access" is ordinarily defined as opportunity to copy. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 8. |
| Access, easement of | An easement of access is the right which an abutting owner has of ingress to and egress from his premises, in addition to the public easement in the street. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 8. |
| Agricultural district | A legally recognized geographic area formed by
one or more landowners and approved by one or more government agencies, designed to keep land in agriculture. Agricultural districts are created for fixed, renewable terms. Enrollment is voluntary; landowners receive a variety of benefits that may include eligibility for differential assessment, limits on annexation and eminent domain, protection against unreasonable government regulation and private nuisance lawsuits, and eligibility for purchase of agricultural conservation easement programs. Also known as agricultural preserves, agricultural security areas, agricultural preservation districts, agricultural areas, agricultural incentive areas, agricultural development areas and agricultural protection areas. |
www.farmlandinfo.org/fic/tas/tafs-gloss.html; accessed October 30, 2001 |
| Agricultural land | Land managed for the science and practice of farming, including the cultivation of the soil and the rearing of livestock. | Fellman, Jerome, Arthur Getis, and Judith Getis. Human Geography - Landscapes of Human Activities, Third Edition. Wm. C. Brown Publishers, Iowa. 1992. Page 499. |
| Agriculture | The purposeful tending of crops and livestock in order to produce food and fiber. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 600. |
| Alluvial | Refers to the mud, silt, and sand (alluvium) deposited by rivers and streams. Alluvial plains adjoin many larger rivers; they consist of such renewable deposits that are laid down during floods, creating fertile and productive soils. Alluvial deltas mark the mouths of rivers such as the Mississippi and the Nile. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 600. |
| American Farmland Trust | American Farmland Trust is a nonprofit membership organization devoted to the protection of the nation’s agricultural resources. AFT works to stop the loss of productive farmland and to promote farming practices that lead to a healthy environment. Programs include public education, technical assistance, and direct farmland protection projects. AFT’s technical assistance staff provide information about farmland protection programs, policies and activities to anyone interested in these issues, including farmers and ranchers; federal, state and local officials; conservation professionals; and concerned citizens. For more information, contact: American Farmland Trust -
1920 N Street N.W., Suite 400 - Washington, DC 20036 - Phone: (202) 659-5170 - Fax: (202) 659-8339 Email: info@farmland.org |
www.sonoran.org/library/terms/aft.html; accessed October 30, 2001 |
| Annexation | The incorporation of land into an existing community that results in a change in the community's boundary. Annexation generally refers to the inclusion of newly incorporated land but can also involve the transfer of land from one municipality to another. | www.farmlandinfo.org/fic/tas/tafs-gloss.html; accessed October 30, 2001 |
| Appraisal | A systematic method of determining the market value of property. | www.farmlandinfo.org/fic/tas/tafs-gloss.html |
| Arable | Literally, cultivable. Land fit for cultivation by one farming method or another. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley nod Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 600. |
| Area | A term that refers to part of the earth's surface with less specificity than region. For example, "urban area" alludes very generally to a place where urban development has taken place, whereas "urban region" requires certain specific criteria upon which a delimitation is based (e.g., the spatial extent of commuting or the built townscape). | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 601. |
| Arithmetic density | A country's population, expressed as an average per unit area (square mile or square kilometer), without regard for its distribution or the limits of arable land--see physiological density. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 601. |
| Assessor | The term "Assessor" is defined as, an officer chosen or appointed to appraise, value, or assess property. A person learned in some particular science or industry, who sits with the judge on the trial of a cause requiring such special knowledge and gives his advice. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 78. |
| Association for Biodiversity Information | ABI's staff and member programs work together to develop and provide knowledge about the world's natural diversity. We are an organization that includes hundreds of skilled scientists, information specialists, and other professionals, delivering a unique blend of expertise in two fields--conservation biology and data management. ABI provides the context, analysis, and interpretation that transforms biological data into conservation knowledge. (2) | www.abi.org; accessed October 15, 2001. |
| Bargain sale | The sale of property or an interest in property for less than fair market value. If property is sold to a qualifying public agency or conservation organization, the difference between fair market value and the agreed-upon price can be claimed as a tax-deductible charitable gift for income tax purposes. Bargain sales also are known as conservation sales. | www.farmlandinfo.org/fic/tas/tafs-gloss.html |
| Best management practices | Information to identify "best in class" environmental business processes and management, which, when implemented, will lead organizations to exceptional environmental performance. Also known as "benchmarking" or "best practices". | http://government.about.com/cs/benchmarking/index.htm; accessed October 30, 2001. |
| Best use | In eminent domain, the value of property considering its optimum use at a given time and hence the money which should be awarded for such governmental taking; used commonly as "highest and best use". | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 110. |
| Big game | A working definition for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department includes antelope, bighorn sheep, elk, moose, mule deer, white-tailed deer and rocky mountain goat as the species that are considered "big game". Then we have trophy game which are mountain lion and black bear. "Big Game of North America, Ecology and Management", by The Wildlife Management Institute (1980) lists all of the above plus grizzly bear as big game. | Nordyke, Kirk; Wyoming Game and Fish Department; personal communication; October 16, 2001. |
| Bike Lane | A portion of the roadway designated for preferential use by bicyclists. | "Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design: A Guide for Public Health Practioners," National Center for Bicycling and Walking, May 2002, page 19. |
| Biodiversity | The term biological diversity has been used to describe "the variety of life forms, the ecological roles they perform, and the genetic diversity they contain." | Wilson, E.O., "Biodiversity," National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1988, page 71. |
| Biogeography | The study of living systems and their distribution. Biogeography is important to the study of the Earth’s biodiversity because it helps with understanding where animals and plants live, where they don’t, and why. | National Geographic Society, Wild World Glossary , accessed March 3, 2003 |
| Biology | 1. The science that treats of living organisms. 2. All the plants and animals at any one location are interrelated members of a biological community. | 1. Webster's New Dictionary And Thesaurus; Russell, Geddes & Grosset, New York, Publishers; 1990; page 67. 2. Wallen, Robert N; Introduction to Physical Geography; Wm. C. Brown Publishers, Iowa; 1992; page 244. |
| Biophysical environment | 1. A classification of environmental factors that most influence the patterns of biodiversity. 2. In practice, these usually include climatic variables, soils or geology, and topography. Also known by other names, such as "enduring features", "environmental domains", "bioenvironments", "environmental units", and "physical environments". These can serve as surrogates of biodiversity where detailed biological inventories have not been completed. 3. These can also serve as a complementary set of conservation elements to accommodate changing climate and land use. | 1. Mackey, B. G., H. A. Nix, M. F. Hutchinson, J. P. MacMahon and P.M. Fleming. 1988. Assessing representativeness of places for conservation reservation and heritage listing. Environmental Management 12: 501-514; 2. Kirkpatrick, J.B. and M. J. Brown. 1994. A comparison of direct and environmental domain approaches to planning of forest higher plant communities and species in Tasmania. Conservation Biology 8: 217-224; 3. Hunter, M. L., G. L. Jacobson and T. Webb. 1988. Paleoecology and the coarse-filter approach to maintaining biological diversity. Conservation Biology 2: 375-385. |
| Biotic | Relating to life; as, the biotic principle. | Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. |
| Birth rate | The "crude birth rate" is expressed as the annual number of births per 1000 individuals within a given population. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 601. |
| Brownfield | Abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. | www.epa.gov/swerosps/bf/index.html; accessed October 17, 2001 |
| Buffering | The degree to which a site protects a neighboring site from undesirable disturbance vectors. | Kelly, P.A. and J. T. Rotenberry. 1993. Buffer zones for ecological reserves in California: Replacing guesswork with science. In "Interface between Ecology and Land Development in California." J. E. Keeley. Los Angeles, Southern California Academy of Sciences. |
| Cadastral map | Probably among the earliest "permanent" maps were drawings to accompany the cadastre--the official list of property owners and their land holdings. These drawings, called cadastral maps, showed the geographic relationships among land parcels. They are common today, and they record property boundaries much as they did several thousand years ago. The fact that cadastres are used to assess taxes helps explain why cadastral maps have always been with us. | Robinson, Arthur H., Joel L. Morrison, Phillip C. Muehrcke, A. Jon Kimerling, and Stephen C. Guptill. "Elements of Cartography," John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1995, page 16. |
| Capital Facilities Plan | A strategy by a local government describing how it will develop, maintain, and replace public infrastructure like bridges and parks. Also known as a capital improvement plan or program. | "Getting the Growth You Want (Part One): A citizen's guide to subdivisions and smart growth," by the Montana Smart Growth Coalition, and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Montana Smart Growth Coalition , 1st printing, September 2002, Page 30. |
| Capital Improvement Program (CIP) | The systematic organizing of the capital needs of a governmental unit into a plan for meeting those needs over a set period and within the financial capabilities of that unit. Considered to be a vital part of master planning, the CIP sets forth the essential facilities and service mechanisms necessary to support the future growth and development as well as adequately service existing population. Included would be planning for streets, water and sewer facilities, parks, libraries, museums, police headquarters, city halls, and all other "capital" expenditures to be funded from public tax support or dedicated revenue funds. These expenditures are usually financed by bonds sold by the government unit and repaid over a fixed period from tax sources, primarily the real estate property tax. The CIP should be the basis for the capital improvements portion of each year's adopted municipal budget. | Smith, Herbert H., "The Citizen's Guide to Planning." American Planning Association, Chicago and New York, page 162, 1979. |
| Carrying capacity | The level of development density or use an environment is able to support without suffering undesirable or irreversible degradation. | Marsh, William M., "Landscape Planning: Environmental Applications." John Wiley and Sons, New York. Page 340. 1983. |
| Census | The official counting or enumeration of people of a state, nation, district, or other political subdivision. Such contains classified information relating to sex, age, family, social and economic conditions, and public record thereof. The national census has been compiled decennially since 1790, and has increasingly listed a great variety of social and economic data. A primary use of such data is to apportion or reapportion legislative districts. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 152. |
| Census blocks | Each census block is a well-defined piece of land bounded by streets, roads, railroad tracks, streams, or other features on the ground. It is the smallest area for which census data will be tabulated. Only selected statistics based on the complete count part of the census are published. No sample data are available at the block level. Block statistics will be tabulated for all urbanized areas, all incorporated places of 10,000 or more population, and any other areas that have contracted with the Bureau to provide block-level data. | Dent, Borden D., "Cartography: Thematic Map Design," William C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque, IA, 1990, pages 415. |
| Census geography | Of particular interest to the cartographer is the nature of the census geography used in the decennial census. The Census Bureau tabulates data into more than 40 types of geographical areas. Other censuses are also conducted by the Census Bureau, including the Census of Governments, six Economic Censuses, and the Census of Agriculture. The larger the geographic area, the greater the data detail available. For example, less data is available at the census block level than at the census tract level…The boundaries of census geographic areas are determined by a variety of agencies. Governmental authorities provide the Census Bureau with information on the boundaries of such units as states, congressional districts, Indian reservations, election districts, counties, minor civil divisions, incorporated places and city wards…Caution is necessary when dealing with census data taken from decennial censuses. Definitions often change from one census to the next, so they must be checked before using these data sources. Comparability is doubtful in many instances. Furthermore, census geography may likewise change from time to time--urbanized area boundaries, for example, are usually different from one census to the next. | Dent, Borden D., "Cartography: Thematic Map Design," William C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque, IA, 1990, pages 105-107. |
| Census tract | Census tracts are subdivisions of a Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area and contain an average population of approximately 4,000 but may range in population from 2,500 to 8,000. The actual delineation of tracts is carried out by local Census Statistical Areas Committees made up of local data users, with the Bureau providing general guidelines, detailed review, and approval of the plans to maintain an overall uniform standard. Census tracts have been established for all counties within the current 288 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas and in a number of other highly populated counties that have expressed an interest in the program. There are over 40,000 census tracts. While the basic tenet has been to keep census tract boundaries as stable as possible, some modifications are necessary from time to time if the census tracts are to continue to be useful and usable. | Dent, Borden D., "Cartography: Thematic Map Design," William C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque, IA, 1990, pages 414-415. |
| Central Business District (CBD) | The downtown heart of a city, the CBD is marked by high land values, a concentration of business and commerce, and the clustering of the tallest buildings. | De Blij, H. J., and Peter O. Muller; "Geography - Regions and Concepts;" John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 601. |
| CDC | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. | "Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design: A Guide for Public Health Practioners," National Center for Bicycling and Walking, May 2002, page 1. |
| CBD | Central Business District . | "Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design: A Guide for Public Health Practioners," National Center for Bicycling and Walking, May 2002, page 1. |
| Capital Facilities Plan | A strategy by a local government describing how it will develop, maintain, and replace public infrastructure like bridges and parks. Also known as a capital improvement plan or program. | "Getting the Growth You Want (Part One): A citizen's guide to subdivisions and smart growth," by the Montana Smart Growth Coalition, and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Montana Smart Growth Coalition , 1st printing, September 2002, page 30. |
| CIP | Capital Improvement Program. | "Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design: A Guide for Public Health Practioners," National Center for Bicycling and Walking, May 2002, page 29. |
| CMAQ | Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement. | "Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design: A Guide for Public Health Practioners," National Center for Bicycling and Walking, May 2002, page 34. |
| Census | The official counting or enumeration of people of a state, nation, district, or other political subdivision. Such contains classified information relating to sex, age, family, social and economic conditions, and public record thereof. The national census has been compiled decennially since 1790, and has increasingly listed a great variety of social and economic data. A primary use of such data is to apportion or reapportion legislative districts. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 152. |
| Central business district (CBD) | The downtown heart of a city, the CBD is marked by high land values, a concentration of business and commerce, and the clustering of the tallest buildings. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 601. |
| Centrality | The strength of an urban center in its capacity to attract producers and consumers to its facilities; a city's "reach" into the surrounding region. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 601. |
| Cities, High-Growth Suburban Centers | In the mid-1980s, a new type of suburb began to emerge that will pose significant challenges to planners. Some planners call them "centers," but there is as yet no common term for high-growth suburbs such as DuPage County, Illinois, and Route 1 near Princeton, New Jersey. The development of the "new" type of suburb began when the traditional suburb--consisting largely of single0-family housing with little multifamily housing and some business development--came to be seen by major businesses as a highly desirable location for office, research or industrial facilities. The second phase of development occurred when enough businesses had relocated to the suburbs to transform them into job generators. High-rise office buildings and sprawling business parks now cluster along major suburban arterial streets and expressways. | So, Frank S., Judith Getzels, editors. "The Practice of Local Government Planning," Second Edition, International City Management Association, 1988, page 8. |
| Cities, Inner-Ring Suburbs | In many ways the problems of older, inner-ring suburbs mirror those of central cities: because most of the land has been built out, these areas are not the focus of the kind of development interest that is being directed toward "outer-ring" suburbs. | So, Frank S., Judith Getzels, editors. "The Practice of Local Government Planning," Second Edition, International City Management Association, 1988, page 6. |
| Cities, Older Central | Older central cities, such as Cleveland, Gary, and Newark, are what come to mind when the media refer to "the city." Most of these cities developed during the nineteenth century; their economies were based on smokestack industries; they were the early financial and retail centers; and they housed wave after wave of immigrants during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. | So, Frank S., Judith Getzels, editors. "The Practice of Local Government Planning," Second Edition, International City Management Association, 1988, page 3. |
| Cities, Residential Suburbs | Residential suburbs include those that developed in the late 1940s and early 1950s as well as more recently. Suburban housing is predominantly single-family, with a small proportion of multifamily townhouse developments and low-rise apartment buildings. Residential suburbs generally include some commercial development, such as community and regional shopping centers, and business development along major arterial streets. Some suburbs may also sustain a limited amount of light industry along arterial streets or expressways. | So, Frank S., Judith Getzels, editors. "The Practice of Local Government Planning," Second Edition, International City Management Association, 1988, page 7. |
| Cities, Resort Towns | The resort community is another planning environment that poses special challenges to planners. Resort communities in rural areas share many of the problems of other growing rural areas: growth in a rural environment often occurs without sufficient governmental oversight. Even when adequate technical planning services are available, rapid growth in a resort area can cause public services to lag behind the pace of development. The fact that resort areas often take root in environmentally fragile areas poses special planning problems. A resort established in a beautiful natural area may find that growth takes its toll on the recreational value--open space, clean air, and a sense of wilderness. A number of problems associated with resort areas are less related to growth than to the seasonal character of the communities. | So, Frank S., Judith Getzels, editors. "The Practice of Local Government Planning," Second Edition, International City Management Association, 1988, pages 10. |
| Cities, Rural Small Towns | The rural small town is a distinct type of environment for planning. These often-isolated communities serve as the centers for the county or township in an agricultural, resource-based, or other nonmetropolitan economy. They may have as few as 1,000 people; many are in the 2,500-to-5,000 population range. Many such communities have lost population to metropolitan areas; many have declined because of drops in the surrounding agricultural economy. Small towns in poor or declining regions present special problems. Often, they do not have sufficient public funds to provide good public services. The cost of replacing a system of private wells and septic tanks with a modern water or sewerage system may be more than a small community can afford, and maintenance and replacement costs for public facilities can be quite high. Providing modern medical services is also a special problem for small communities. | So, Frank S., Judith Getzels, editors. "The Practice of Local Government Planning," Second Edition, International City Management Association, 1988, pages 8-9. |
| Cities, Sun Belt | Sun Belt cities may be as old as cities in the North and East, but they are developing rapidly. Pleasant climates, coupled with a general shift of economic activity to the South and West, have created high rates of growth in cities such as Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. Suburbs near these cities are also high-growth areas. | So, Frank S., Judith Getzels, editors. "The Practice of Local Government Planning," Second Edition, International City Management Association, 1988, page 5. |
| Citizen Action Group (CAG) | A requirement for formalized citizen participation in the determination of where and how Community Development block grants will be spent. Since the inception of the requirement to show citizen involvement in community planning and action in the Federal Housing Act of 1954, the federal government has continued to increase its pressure for representative citizen involvement in policy determination in the use of aid money. Members of CAG's are usually appointed by the mayor, although in some instances election by districts may be used. In all cases, the membership is required to be representative of all geographic, economic, and ethnic groups. | Smith, Herbert H. The Citizen's Guide to Planning. American Planning Association, Chicago, 1979, page 160. |
| Civic art | Term current ca.1910-1930, used to describe a body of knowledge combining art and technique, dedicated to the creation and improvement of the urban fabric in America. Also the title of an encyclopedic, and still relevant, book by Werner Hegemann and Elbert Peets (1922 & 1988). | http://www.dpz.com; access October 16, 2001 |
| Clustering | The grouping of buildings on a portion of the site in order to preserve open space. Clustering is the equivalent of a transfer of development rights within a single site. As a smaller lot has a lesser market value than a large lot, the value differential is usually equalized by increasing the number of units. Additional motivation occurs as the units at the edges of the cluster usually have long views over open space and therefore retain the value of a larger lot. Also, infrastructure is decreased by the simple expedient of reducing its length. Caution: mere clustering does not constitute a neighborhood, and while it preserves open space, in the absence of mixed use, it produces sprawl. | http://www.dpz.com; access October 16, 2001 |
| Cluster Development (Density Control Development) | A design technique permitted by many zoning ordinances that allows clustering of residential units on a smaller land parcel for each unit than specified as the minimum lot size for an individual unit. The controlling factor is that the normal average density for the zone must be maintained. If the zoning permits three units to the acre but requires a minimum lot 12,000 square feet, a developer's plan could be approved in which the units are "clustered" on individual parcels of only 6,000 square feet provided the density of three per acre is maintained. The remaining land is utilized for common open space or public use. the technique encourages innovative design and planning, saves development costs for the investor, and provides green areas and open space in common ownership for the residents. Some more sophisticated ordinances also use this same principle in planning for commercial and industrial development. | Smith, Herbert H. The Citizen's Guide to Planning. American Planning Association, Chicago, 1979, page 162. |
| Common property right | A common property right is nonexclusive; anyone is free to use the natural resource. Another term used to describe common property is "open access." | Hartwick, John M., and Nancy D. Olewiler. "The Economics of Natural Resource Use," page 8. Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1986. |
| Community | 1. A sustainable human habitat which is complete and compact. Its smallest manifestation is technically defined as a Neighborhood. 2. Neighborhood; vicinity; synonymous with locality. People who reside in a locality in more or less proximity. A society or body of people living in the same place, under the same laws and regulations, who have common rights, privileges, or interests. It connotes a congeries of common interests arising from associations -- social, business, religious, governmental, scholastic, recreational. | 1. http://www.dpz.com; accessed October 16, 2001. 2. Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 192. |
| Community services | Community services include such things as schools, streets, emergency response, water and sewer systems. | David “Tex” Taylor, Roger Coupal and Don McLeod, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Wyoming, 2001. |
| Community services, cost of | Although agricultural land provides more revenue to counties than it demands in services, residential growth actually costs more than it provides in revenue. Taxpayers are often unaware that their tax burdens include the costs of sprawl; growth requires additional spending for necessities like emergency services, schools, streets, and water and sewer systems. The primary beneficiaries of these expenses are those who move into expanding sprawl zones, while residents of denser neighborhoods share equally in the costs. Although such subsidies are probably not a direct cause of sprawl, they do artificially lower the costs of moving to the suburbs. In turn, such expenditures divert funding from urban projects and inner city neighborhood amenities. Growth tools that limit public funding for new development, thereby forcing development to pay for itself are often effective for controlling sprawl. In addition to infrastructure costs, communities also spend tremendous amounts of money to attract industry and businesses to their areas, often accompanied by tax incentives for those that choose to locate there. Such business relocations contribute greatly to sprawl and the accompanying community expenditures drain funds that could otherwise be used for land use planning and urban redevelopment. | David “Tex” Taylor, Roger Coupal and Don McLeod, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Wyoming, 2001. |
| Community Stewardship Organization | A Community Stewardship Organization (CSO) is a development initiative that brings together diverse interests to promote community-based conservation and enhance community life. These initiatives typically are provided with dedicated funding to carry out a variety of purposes within and beyond the developments that provide funding. A CSO is just one approach to integrating community stewardship in land development. What makes CSOs unique is their focus on stewardship after the development is completed and the developer is gone. | http://www.sonoran.org/library/terms/Cso.html; accessed October 30, 2001 |
| Comprehensive plan | A regional, county or municipal document that contains a vision of how the community will grow and change and a set of plans and policies to guide land use decisions. Comprehensive plans also are known as general plans and master plans. | American Farmland Trust, Farmland Information Center, Fact Sheet, Glossary, September, 1998, http://www.farmlandinfo.org/fic/tas/tafs-gloss.html |
| Concentric zone model | A geographical model of the American central city that suggests the existence of five concentric rings arranged around a common center. Ring 1 is the central business district; ring 2 is the zone of transition; ring 3 is the zone of independent workingmen's homes; zone 4 is the zone of better residences; and zone 5 is the commuter's zone. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 602. |
| Connectivity | A measure of how connected or spatially continuous a corridor, network, or matrix is (structural connectivity). The fewer gaps, the higher the connectivity. Functional or behavioral connectivity refers to how connected an area is for a process, such as an animal moving through different types of landscape elements. | Forman, R. T. T. 1995. Land mosaics: The ecology of landscapes and regions. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. |
| Conserve | To save and protect from loss or damage. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 210. |
| Conservation | 1: an occurrence of improvement by virtue of preventing loss or injury or other change [syn: preservation] 2: the preservation and careful management of the environment and of natural resources [syn: conservancy, conserving] 3: (physics) the maintenance of a certain quantities unchanged during chemical reactions or physical transformations [syn: conservation law]. | WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University |
| Conservation biology | Conservation biology is a synthetic discipline that focuses on the application of biological principles to the preservation of biodiversity; it represents a fusion of relevant ideas from ecology, genetics, biogeography, behavior, reproductive biology, and a number of applied disciplines such as wildlife management and forestry. | Brussard, P.F. 1991. The role of ecology in biological conservation. Ecol. Applic. 1:6-12. |
| Conservation district board | An elected body that oversees water rights, irrigation ditches, and agricultural uses of surface waters for a local area. | "Getting the Growth You Want (Part One): A citizen's guide to subdivisions and smart growth," by the Montana Smart Growth Coalition, and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Montana Smart Growth Coalition , 1st printing, September 2002, page 30. |
| Contagious diffusion | The distance-controlled spreading of an idea, innovation, or some other item through a local population by contact from person to person--analogous to the communication of a contagious illness. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 602. |
| Contiguous | A word of some importance to geographers that means, literally, to be in contact with, adjoining, or adjacent. Sometimes we hear the continental (conterminous) United States minus Alaska referred to as contiguous. Alaska is not contiguous to these "lower 48" states because Canada lies in between; neither is Hawaii, separated by over 2000 miles of ocean. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 602. |
| Conurbation | General term used to identify large multi-metropolitan complexes formed by the coalescence of two or more major urban areas. The Boston-Washington "Megalopolis" along the U.S. northeastern seaboard is an outstanding example. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 602. |
| Council of Governments (COG) | Designates council of governments. These are voluntary organizations of local governments banding together to work on common regional problems. Membership in a COG is comprised of elected officials appointed by governing bodies of the individual governmental units. There is usually an executive director and a professional staff. Originally started as an alternative to formalized metropolitan government and a means of cooperative regional planning in such matters as land use, transportation, air quality control, and delivery of services, COG's have become clearing house organizations for federally aided programs (in effect, subsidiary branches of some of the federal departments). While COG's have no enforcement powers, their position in the allocation and distribution of federal aid has given them an influential role in many geographical areas. | Smith, Herbert H. The Citizen's Guide to Planning. American Planning Association, Chicago, 1979, page 163. |
| Core area | In geography, a term with several connotations. "Core" refers to the center, heart, or focus. The core area of a "nation-state" is constituted by the national heartland--the largest population cluster, the most productive region, the area with greatest "centrality" and "accessibility", probably containing the capital city as well. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 602. |
| Core-periphery relationships | The contrasting spatial characteristics of, and linkages between, the "have" (core) and "have-not" (periphery) components of a national or regional system. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 602. |
| Corridor | In general, refers to a spatial entity in which human activity is organized in a linear manner, as along a major transport route or in a valley confined by highlands. Specific meaning in politico-geographical context is a land extension that connects an otherwise landlocked state to the ocean. History has seen several such corridors come and go. Poland once had a corridor (it now has a lengthy coastline); Bolivia lost a corridor to the Pacific Ocean between Peru and Chile. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 602. |
| Cost benefit analysis (CBA) | The fundamental role of CBA is to establish principles by which the costs and benefits of any public program are measured. Many of the components of costs and benefits are not exchanged in markets and thus have no well-defined prices. In addition, many markets contain distortions--taxes, subsidies, quotas, monopoly, monopsony--that make the prices misrepresentative of the resource-scarcity or shadow price of the commodities exchanged. | Hartwick, John M., and Nancy D. Olewiler. "The Economics of Natural Resource Use," page 426. Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1986. |
| Cost of community services | Although agricultural land provides more revenue to counties than it demands in services, residential growth actually costs more than it provides in revenue. Taxpayers are often unaware that their tax burdens include the costs of sprawl; growth requires additional spending for necessities like emergency services, schools, streets, and water and sewer systems. The primary beneficiaries of these expenses are those who move into expanding sprawl zones, while residents of denser neighborhoods share equally in the costs. Although such subsidies are probably not a direct cause of sprawl, they do artificially lower the costs of moving to the suburbs. In turn, such expenditures divert funding from urban projects and inner city neighborhood amenities. Growth tools that limit public funding for new development, thereby forcing development to pay for itself are often effective for controlling sprawl. In addition to infrastructure costs, communities also spend tremendous amounts of money to attract industry and businesses to their areas, often accompanied by tax incentives for those that choose to locate there. Such business relocations contribute greatly to sprawl and the accompanying community expenditures drain funds that could otherwise be used for land use planning and urban redevelopment. | David “Tex” Taylor, Roger Coupal and Don McLeod, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Wyoming, 2001. |
| Cost-of-services study (COSS) | A study of what it costs the government to deliver public services (like road maintenance and police) to a certain area. Usually, these studies compare the taxes generated by development in the area with the costs of the development to the public. Also known as cost-of-community services study (COCS). | "Getting the Growth You Want (Part One): A citizen's guide to subdivisions and smart growth," by the Montana Smart Growth Coalition, and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Montana Smart Growth Coalition , 1st printing, September 2002, page 30. |
| County | The largest territorial division for local government in state. Its powers and importance vary from state to state, and as well within the given state. In certain New England states, it exists mainly for judicial administration. In Louisiana, the equivalent unit is called a parish. Counties are held in some jurisdictions to be municipal corporations, and are sometimes said to be involuntary municipal corporations. Other cases, seeking to distinguish between the two, hold that counties are agencies or political subdivisions of the state for governmental purposes, and not, like municipal corporations, incorporations of the inhabitants of specified regions for purposes of local government. Counties are also said to be merely quasi corporations. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 245. |
| Crosswalk | Marked or unmarked area of an intersection where pedestrians cross, or a marked roadway crossing mid-block. Pedestrians have special rights at crosswalks. | "Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design: A Guide for Public Health Practioners," National Center for Bicycling and Walking, May 2002, page 17. |
| Cultural diffusion | The process of spreading and adoption of a cultural element, from its place of origin across a wider region. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 602. |
| Cultural ecology | The multiple interactions and relationships between a culture and its natural environment. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 602. |
| Cultural landscape | The forms and artifacts sequentially placed on the physical landscape by the activities of various human occupants. By this progressive i9mprinting of the human presence, the physical landscape is modified into the cultural landscape, forming an interacting unity between the two. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 602. |
| Cultural pluralism | A society in which two or more population groups, each practicing its own culture, live adjacent to one another without mixing inside a single state. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 602. |
| Cultural resource | Cultural Resource Management or CRM archaeology is generally state or federally funded archaeological research, completed because a particular parcel of privately owned property is to be purchased by the state for use in a road, bridge, or other public works project. For example, if a new interstate highway is set to be built using federal funding, an archaeological assessment of the area to be disturbed must be performed prior to construction. This assessment, resulting in a technical report similar to and sometimes part and parcel of an environmental impact statement, must identify and evaluate all cultural resources, historic and prehistoric, likely to be disturbed by the project. CRM archaeology is usually broken into three phases or stages of operation, including: I. Archaeological Testing (or Phase I) – the project goal is to find and describe the archaeological sites within a given area; II. Testing and Evaluation (Phase II) – a small percentage of a specific site is subjected to testing, to enable a better understanding of the site and determine if it is of sufficient preservation and importance to either protect, avoid, or mitigate; and III. Mitigation or Data Recovery (Phase III) – a site or portions of a site are scheduled to be demolished for one reason or another, and the project goal is to understand as much as is possible before the site is destroyed. These definitions are presently under revision and are certainly not used by everyone in CRM. See The Moss-Bennett Act of 1971. | http://archaeology.miningco.com/blcrm.htm, accessed October 30, 2001 |
| Cultural Resource Management | Government-sponsored preservation and study of archaeological and historical resources, including archaeological sites, historical buildings. Often used, more specifically, to archaeological and historical work done in advance of government-sponsored projects such as highways and dams. | http://archaeology.about.com/library/glossary/blglossary.htm, access on October 30, 2001 |
| Culture | 1. That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. 2. The sum total of the knowledge, attitudes, and habitual behavior patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society. 3. The mass of learned and transmitted motor reactions, habits, techniques, ideas, and values--and the behavior they induce. 4. The man-made part of the environment. 5. A way of life which members of a group learn, live by, and pass on to future generations. 6. The learned patterns of thought and behavior characteristics of a population or society. 7. The acquired knowledge that people use to interpret experience and to generate social behavior. 8. The sum of the morally forceful understandings acquired by learning and shared with the members of the group to which the learner belongs. | 1. Edward B. Taylor (1871) 2. Ralph Linton (1940) 3. Alfred L. Kroeber (1948) 4. Melville J. Herskovits (1955) 5. Ann E. Larimore et al. (1963) 6. Marvin Harris (1971) 7. James P. Spradley and David W. McCurdy (1975) 8. Marc J. Swartz and David K. Jordan (1976) as cited in De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 7. |
| Culture area | A distinct, culturally discrete spatial unit; a region within which certain culture norms prevail. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Culture complex | A related set of culture traits such as prevailing dress codes, cooking, and eating utensils. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Culture hearth | Heartland, source area, innovation center; place of origin of a major culture. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Culture realm | A cluster of regions in which related culture systems prevail. In North America, the United States and Canada form a culture realm, but Mexico belongs to a different one. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Culture trait | A single element of normal practice in a culture--such as the wearing of a turban. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Curb Extension | A section of curb that extends into the roadway, which shortens crossing distance and improves pedestrian visibility. Also known as a bulb-out, neckdown, flare or choker. | "Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design: A Guide for Public Health Practioners," National Center for Bicycling and Walking, May 2002, page 18. |
| Curb Radius | The curved edge of the roadway at an intersection. | "Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design: A Guide for Public Health Practioners," National Center for Bicycling and Walking, May 2002, page 18. | Cyclical movement | Movement (for example, nomadic migration) that has a closed route repeated annually or seasonally. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| DEQ | ...Department of Environmental Quality, an agency of state government responsible for maintaining a clean and healthful environment. Among its duties is ensuring that new subdivisions will not hurt water quality or quantity. | "Getting the Growth You Want (Part One): A citizen's guide to subdivisions and smart growth," by the Montana Smart Growth Coalition, and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Montana Smart Growth Coalition , 1st printing, September 2002, page 30. |
| Death rate | The crude death rate is expressed as the annual number of deaths per 1000 individuals within a given population. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Deed | The deed is a property right which typically gives the holder the power to use the land and to appropriate returns from the land. The deed is exclusive and enforceable. The owner of the land may be able to subdivide the property and sell or gives others a portion. | Hartwick, John M., and Nancy D. Olewiler. "The Economics of Natural Resource Use," page 2. Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1986. |
| Deed restrictions | In drafting the legal document (deed) by which property ownership is transferred from one party to another, a landowner or developer can place certain restrictions or prohibitions on activities on the land. Deed restrictions can be versatile and flexible. They can be used to encourage or mandate standards within a development, such a siting location, building and landscaping materials, and architectural guidelines. They are especially useful in preserving open space, wildlife habitat, unspoiled views, and solitude--features that homebuyers are increasingly willing to pay more for.
A Community Stewardship Organizations like the Rincon Institute relies on deed restrictions to generate a diverse, long-term funding base for a wide range of stewardship activities that will benefit local residents and landowners. For example, as a condition of local approval, the developer, Rocking K Ranch, agreed to impose deed restrictions binding all future homeowners and businesses to financially support the Institute. These provisions include nightly surcharges on hotel rooms, occupancy fees on commercial and retail outlets on site, monthly homeowner fees, and real estate transfer fees that extend to resales. Enforcing deed restrictions can be difficult over the long term, as they are only enforceable by the prior owner or a third party to the original transaction, such as the owner of abutting property. One way to ensure continued enforcement is to include a third-party entity, like a Community Stewardship Organization, Land Trust, or other corporation, in the transaction. However, these parties can cancel the restrictions at any time by mutual agreement. Deed restrictions involve a complicated area of law and should only be used with professional legal advice. For landowners seeking to permanently protect their property, Conservation Easements may be a more attractive alternative. |
http://www.sonoran.org/library/terms/Deed_rest.Html; accessed October 30, 2001 |
| Definition | In political geography, the written legal description (in a treaty-like document) of a boundary between two countries or territories -- see delimitation. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Delimitation | In political geography, the translation of the written terms of a boundary treaty (the definition) into an official cartographic representation. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Demarcation | In political geography, the actual placing of a political boundary on the landscape by means of barriers, fences, walls, or other markers. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Demographic transition model | Three-stage model, based on Western Europe's experience, of changes in population growth exhibited by countries undergoing industrialization. High birth rates and death rates are followed by plunging death rates, producing a huge net population gain; this is followed by the convergence of birth and death rates at a low overall level. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Demographic variables | Births (fertility), deaths (mortality), and migration (population redistribution) are the three basic demographic variables. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Demography | The interdisciplinary study of population -- especially birth and death rates, growth patterns, longevity, and related characteristics. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Density of population | The number of people per unit area. Also see "arithmetic density" and "physiological density" measures. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Density zoning | Type of cluster zoning which regulates open spaces, density of population and use of land. Density zoning requires state enabling legislation. Under this device, the city council determines what percentage of a particular district must be devoted to open space and what percentage may be used for dwelling units. The task of locating in the particular district the housing and open spaces devolves upon the planning commission working in conjunction with the developer. The latter will submit a series of plans and seek approval to go forward at each stage. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 1114. |
| Desert | An arid area supporting very sparse vegetation, receiving less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of precipitation per year. Usually exhibits extremes of heat and cold because the moderating influence of moisture is absent. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Desertification | The encroachment of desert conditions on moister zones along the desert margins. Here plant cover and soils are threatened by desiccation, in part through overuse by humans and their domestic animals and, possibly, also because of inexorable shifts in the earth's environmental zones. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Design Speed | A selected speed used to determine the various geometric design features of the roadway. | "Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design: A Guide for Public Health Practioners," National Center for Bicycling and Walking , May 2002, page 23. |
| Developer | A person or company who makes changes to a piece of land or to the structures on it for profit-that is, not just for personal use. This can be Uncle Fred or MegaStores International, Inc. | "Getting the Growth You Want (Part One): A citizen's guide to subdivisions and smart growth," by the Montana Smart Growth Coalition, and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Montana Smart Growth Coalition , 1st printing, September 2002, page 30. |
| Development | The economic, social, and institutional growth of states. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Development density | A measure of the intensity of development or land use; defined on the basis of area covered by impervious surface, population density, or building floor area coverage, for example. | Marsh, William M., "Landscape Planning: Environmental Applications." John Wiley and Sons, New York. Page 341. 1983. |
| Devolution | In political geography, the disintegration of a nation-state as the result of emerging or reviving regionalism. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Diffusion | The spatial spreading or dissemination of a culture element (such as a technological innovation) or some other phenomenon (e.g., a disease outbreak). See also contagious, expansion, hierarchical, and relocation diffusion. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Dispersed settlement | In contrast to agglomerated or nucleated settlement, dispersed settlement is characterized by the wide spacing of individual homesteads. This lower-density pattern is characteristic of rural North America. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Distance decay | The various degenerative effects of distance on human spatial structures. The degree of spatial interaction diminishes as distance increases; therefore, people and activities try to arrange themselves in geographic space to minimize the "friction" effects of overcoming distance, which involves the costs of time as well as travel. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Domestication | The transformation of a wild animal or wild plant into a domesticated animal or a cultivated crop to gain control over food production. A necessary evolutionary step in the development of humankind -- the invention of agriculture. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Double cropping | The planting, cultivation, and harvesting of two crops successively within a single year on the same plot of farmland. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |
| Doubling time | The time required for a population to double in size. | De Blij, H. J., and Perter O. Muller; Geography - Regions and Concepts; John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto and Singapore; 1992; page 603. |