| Easement | 1. A right of use over the property of another. Traditionally the permitted kinds of uses were limited, the most important being rights of way and rights concerning flowing waters. The easement was normally for the benefit of adjoining lands, no matter who the owner was (an easement appurtenant), rather than for the benefit of a specific individual (easement in gross). The land having the right of use as an appurtenance is known as the dominant tenement and the land which is subject to the easement is known as the servient tenement. 2. A right in the owner of one parcel of land, by reason of such ownership, to use the land of another for a special purpose not inconsistent with a general property in the owner. 3. An interest which one person has in the land of another. A primary characteristic of an easement is that its burden falls upon the possessor of the land from which it issued and that characteristic is expressed in the statement that the land constitutes a servient tenement and the easement a dominant tenement. An interest in land in and over which it is to be enjoyed, and is distinguishable from a "license" which merely confers personal privilege to do some act on the land. | 1, 2, and 3. Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 352. |
| Easement by estoppel | Easement which is created when landlord voluntarily imposes apparent servitude on his property and another person, acting reasonably, believes that servitude is permanent and in reliance upon that belief does something that he would not have done otherwise. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement by implication | Easement created by law and grounded in court's decision in reference to particular transaction in land where owner of two parcels had so used one parcel to the benefit of other parcel that on selling the benefited parcel purchaser could reasonably have expected, without further inquiries, that these benefits were included in sale. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement by prescription | A mode of acquiring an easement in property by immemorial or long-continued enjoyment, and refers to personal usage restricted to claimant and his ancestors or grantors. The uninterrupted use of the land must generally be for the same statutory period of time as for adverse possession. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement in gross | An easement in gross is not appurtenant to any estate in land or does not belong to any person by virtue of ownership of estate in other land but is mere personal interest in or right to use land of another; it is purely personal and usually ends with death of grantee. Easements that do not benefit a particular tract of land (e.g. utility easements). | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement of access | Right of ingress and egress to and from the premises of a lot owner to a street appurtenant to the land of the lot owner. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement of convenience | One which increases the facility, comfort, or convenience of the enjoyment of the dominant estate, or of some right connected with it. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement of natural support | Easement which creates right of lateral support to land in its natural condition entitling the holder thereof to have his land held in place from the sides by neighboring land. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement of necessity | One in which the easement is indispensable to the enjoyment of the dominant estate. Such arises by operation of law when land conveyed is completely shut off from access to any road by land retained by grantor or by land of grantor and that of a stranger. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement, affirmative easement | One where the servient estate must permit something to be done thereon, as to pass over it, or to discharge water on it. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 352. |
| Easement, apparent easement | One [where] the existence of which appears from the construction or condition of one of the tenements, so as to be capable of being seen or known on inspection. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 352. |
| Easement, appendant easement | See Appurtenant easement. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 352. |
| Easement, appurtenant easement | An easement that benefits a particular tract of land. An incorporeal right which is attached to a superior right and inheres in land to which it is attached and is in the nature of a covenant running with the land. There must be a dominant estate and servient estate. An easement interest which attaches to the land and passes with it. An "incorporeal right" which is attached to and belongs with some greater and superior right or something annexed to another thing more worthy and which passes as incident to it and is incapable of existence separate and apart from the particular land to which it is annexed. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 352. |
| Easement, discontinuing easement | Discontinuous, non-continuous, or non-apparent easements are those the enjoyment of which can be had only by the interference of man, as, a right of way or a right to draw water. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement, equitable easements | The special easements created by derivation of ownership of adjacent proprietors from a common source, with specific intentions as to buildings for certain purposes, or with implied privileges in regard to certain uses, are sometimes so called. A name frequently applied to building restrictions in a deed. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement, exclusive easement | Grant of "exclusive easement" conveys unfettered rights to owner of easement to use that easement for purposes specified in grant to exclusion of all others. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement, flowage easement | Common law right of lower land to allow water from higher land to flow across it. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement, implied easement | One which the law imposes by inferring the parties to a transaction intended that result, although they did not express it. An easement resting upon the principle that, where the owner of two or more adjacent lots sells a part thereof, he grants by implication to the grantee all those apparent and visible easements which are necessary for the reasonable use of the property granted, which at the time of the grant are used by the owner of the entirety for the benefit of the part granted. One not expressed by parties in writing but arises out of existence of certain facts implied from the transaction. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement, intermittent easement | One which is usable or used only at times, and not continuously. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement, light and air easement | An easement obtained from an adjoining land owner to protect against the obstruction of light and air which would result if a building or structure was constructed on the grantor's property. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement, negative easement | Those where the owner of the servient estate is prohibited from doing something otherwise lawful upon his estate, because it will affect the dominant estate (as interrupting the light and air from the latter by building on the former). As to Reciprocal negative easement, see that title below. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement, private or public easements | A private easement is one in which the enjoyment is restricted to one or a few individuals, while a public easement of which is vested in the public generally or in an entire community; such as an easement of passage on the public streets and highways or of navigation on a stream. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement, quasi easement | An "easement," in the proper sense of the word, can only exist in respect of two adjoining pieces of land occupied by different persons, and can only impose a negative duty on the owner of the servient tenement. Hence an obligation on the owner of land to repair the fence between his and his neighbor's land is not a true easement, but is sometimes called a "quasi easement." | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353. |
| Easement, reciprocal negative easement | If the owner of two or more lots, so situated as to bear the relation, sells one with restrictions of benefit to the land retained, the servitude becomes mutual, and, during the period of restraint, the owner of the lot or lots retained can do nothing forbidden to the owner of the lot sold; this being known as the doctrine of "reciprocal negative easement." | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 353-354. |
| Easement, reserved easement | An easement created by the grantor of property, benefiting the retained property and burdening the granted property. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 354. |
| Easement, secondary easement | One which is appurtenant [belonging to] to the primary or actual easement. Every easement includes such "secondary easements," that is, the right to do such things as are necessary for the full enjoyment itself. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 354. |
| Ecological network | The network of nature's patterns and processes across the land; mapped as the combination of large patches of natural vegetation and major corridors or routes of animal movements and water flows. | Forman, R. T. T., and A. M. Hersperger. 1996. Road ecology and road density in different landscapes, with international planning and mitigation solutions. Pages 1 - 22 in Trends Addressing Transportation Related Wildlife Mortality, Tallahassee, Florida, State of Florida, Department of Transportation. |
| Ecology | Strictly speaking, this refers to the study of the many interrelationships between all forms of life and the natural environments in which they have evolved and continue to develop. The study of ecosystems focuses on the interactions between specific organisms and their environments. See also cultural ecology. | 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 603-604. |
| Economies of scale | The savings that accrue from large-scale production whereby the unit cost of manufacturing decreases as the level of operation enlarges. Supermarkets operate on this principle and are able to charge lower prices than small grocery stores. | 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 604. |
| Ecoregion | A regionalization, classification, and mapping system for stratifying the Earth into progressively smaller areas of increasingly uniform ecological potentials. Ecological types are classified and ecological units are mapped based on associations of those biotic and environmental factors that directly affect or indirectly express energy, moisture, and nutrient gradients which regulate the structure and function of ecosystems. These factors include climate, physiography, water, soils, air, hydrology, and potential natural communities. | ECOMAP. 1993. National hierarchical framework of ecological units. Unpublished administrative paper. Washington, DC. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 20 p. |
| Ecotypic | The smallest taxonomic subdivision of an ecospecies, consisting of populations adapted to a particular set of environmental conditions. The populations are infertile with other ecotypes of the same ecospecies. | The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
| Ecumene | The habitable portions of the earth's surface where permanent human settlements have arisen. | 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 604. |
| Edge | The portion of an ecosystem near its perimeter, where influences of the surroundings prevent development of interior environmental conditions. | Forman, R. T. T. 1995. Land mosaics: The ecology of landscapes and regions. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. |
| Elite | A small but influential upper-echelon social class whose power and privilege give it control over a country's political, economic, and cultural life. | 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 604. |
| Emigrant | A person migrating away from a country or area; an out-migrant. | 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 604. |
| Eminent domain | The power to take private property for public use by the state, municipalities, and private persons or corporations authorized to exercise functions of public character. In the United States, the power of eminent domain is founded in both the federal (Fifth Amendment) and state constitutions. The Constitution limits the power to taking for a public purpose and prohibits the exercise of the power of eminent domain without just compensation to the owners of the property which is taken. The process of exercising the power of eminent domain is commonly referred to as "condemnation", or, "expropriation". The right of eminent domain is the right of the state, through its regular organization, to reassert, either temporarily or permanently, its dominion over any portion of the soil of the state on account of public exigency and for the public good. Thus, in time of war or insurrection, the proper authorities may possess and hold any part of the territory of the state for the common safety; and in time of peace the legislature may authorize the appropriation of the same to public purposes, such as the opening of roads, construction of defenses, or providing channels for trade or travel. Eminent domain is the highest and most exact idea of property remaining in the government, or in the aggregate body of the people in their sovereign capacity. It gives a right to resume the possession of the property in the manner directed by the constitution and the laws of the state, whenever the public interest requires it. | Black's Law Dictionary -- Abridged Sixth Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1991; page 362. |
| Empirical | Relating to the real world, as opposed to theoretical abstraction. | 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 604. |
| Enabling statute | A law that permits what was previously prohibited or that creates new powers; esp., a congressional statute conferring powers on an executive agency to carry out various delegated tasks. Also termed enabling act. | Black’s Law Dictionary – Deluxe Seventh Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1999; page 1420. |
| Enclave | A piece of territory that is surrounded by another political unit of which it is not a part. | 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 604. |
| Endangered species | The Department of the Interior is charged with the responsibility of identifying species of wildlife that are in imminent danger of extinction. Such species are officially designated as "endangered." Species whose populations have been declining rapidly but are not yet in imminent danger of extinction are classified as "threatened." | Owen, Oliver S., "Natural Resource Conservation: An Ecological Approach," Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1985, page 359. |
| Environmental Assessment (EA) | A report on how a subdivision (or other development) will impact the public interest, for example, impacts on air and water quality, public health and safety, and delivery of public services. Environmental assessments are required as part of some subdivision reviews. | "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. |
| Environmental determinism | The view that the natural environment has a controlling influence over various aspects of human life, including cultural development. Also referred to as environmentalism. | 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 604. |
| Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) | Created and popularized by the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the EIS has now become one of the most potent tools in the planning process. An EIS consists of a detailed analysis of the impact of a proposed project upon the total environment -- natural and man-made -- within the general vicinity of the project or in an affected area at any distance. Communities are discovering that an EIS on all major projects (not just those federally funded) is a useful means of making certain that good planning principles are followed and that areas beyond the project are adequately protected. | Smith, Herbert H. The Citizen's Guide to Planning. American Planning Association, Chicago, 1979, page 164. |
| Environmental inventory | Compilation and classification of data and information on the natural and human features in an area proposed for some sort of planning project. | Marsh, William M., "Landscape Planning: Environmental Applications." John Wiley and Sons, New York. Page 340. 1983. |
| Erosion | A combination of gradational forces that shape the earth's surface landforms. Running water, wind action, and the force of moving ice combine to wear away soil and rock. Human activities often speed erosional processes, such as through the destruction of natural vegetation, careless farming practices, and overgrazing by livestock. | 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 604. |
| Estate tax | A tax imposed on property transferred by will or interstate succession. Black’s Law Dictionary – Deluxe Seventh Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1999; page 1469. Interstate Succession. The method used to distribute property owner by a person who dies without a valid will. | Black’s Law Dictionary – Deluxe Seventh Edition; West Publishing Company; St. Paul; 1999; page 827. |
| Evapotranspiration | The loss of moisture to the atmosphere through the combined processes of evaporation from the soil and transpiration by plants. | 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 604. |
| Exclave | A bounded (non-island) piece of territory that is part of a particular state but lies separated from it by the territory of another 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 604. |
| Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) | An oceanic zone extending up to 200 nautical miles from a shoreline, within which the coastal state can control fishing, mineral exploration, and additional activities by all other countries. | 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 604. |
| Expansion diffusion | The spreading of an innovation or an idea through a fixed population in such a way that the number of those adopting grows continuously larger, resulting in an expanding area of dissemination. | 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 604. |
| Externality | An external effect or externality can arise when two conditions are present: 1. For any two (or more) economic agents (consumers or firms) "i" and "j", an externality is present whenever agent "i's" utility or production relationship includes variables whose magnitudes are chosen by the other agent(s), "j", without regard to "i's" own preferences. 2. The "i-th" individual or firm has no control over the variables chosen by "j" because the variables have no explicit exchange value. No markets (or imperfect markets) exist for the variables entering "i's" objective frontier. Air and water pollution are examples of negative externalities or external diseconomies--cases where individuals and firms discard waste products into the environment without acknowledging the damages these products cause to others…A public external diseconomy arises when a natural resource is used without payment, and the "consumption" of the externality by one agent does not reduce the consumption of the externality by others. Again, air and water pollution are examples of public external diseconomies. A private external diseconomy is typically bilateral, or involves relatively few agents. One party's actions affect the actions of another party, but there is no spillover of the externality to other agents. | Hartwick, John M., and Nancy D. Olewiler. "The Economics of Natural Resource Use," page 382-383 and 386-387 . Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1986. |
| Extraterritoriality | Politico-geographical concept suggesting that the property of one state lying within the boundaries of another actually forms an extension of the first 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 604. |
| Federal state | A political framework wherein a central government represents the various entities within a nation-state where they have common interests -- defense, foreign affairs, and the like -- yet allows these various entities to retain their own identities and to have their own laws, policies, and customs in certain spheres. | 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 604. |
| Federation | The association and cooperation of two or more nation-states or territories to promote common interests and objectives. | 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 604. |
| Feudalism | Prevailing politico-geographical system in Europe during the Middle Ages when land was owned by the nobility and was worked by peasants and serfs. Feudalism also existed in other parts of the world, and the system persisted into this century in Ethiopia and Iran, among other places. | 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 604. |
| Final plat | The final set of plans sent by the subdivider to the local government for review. The final plat has often changed significantly from the preliminary plat. Once the government approves the final plat, the subdivision process is complete. | "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. |
| Floodplain | Low-lying area adjacent to a mature river, often covered by alluvial deposits and subject to the river's floods. | 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 604. |
| Forced migration | Human migration flows in which the movers have no choice but to relocate. | 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 604. |
| Formal region | A type of region marked by a certain degree of homogeneity in one or more phenomena; also called uniform region or homogeneous 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 604. |
| Fragmentation | 1. Both a process and a pattern. Habitat fragmentation is a term that has been used in many different ways. Habitat fragmentation, by definition, is an event that creates a greater number of habitat patches that are smaller in size than the original contiguous tract(s) of habitat. Yet, the term commonly is used to describe human practices that destroy habitat. This usage is misleading because there are situations in which habitat can be removed without fragmenting the landscape whatsoever. 2. Fragmentation can be defined as the loss and isolation of natural habitats. It is considered to have two components: 1) reduction of the total amount of habitat type, or perhaps of all natural, habitat in a landscape; and 2) apportionment of the remaining habitat into smaller, more isolated patches. 3. The breaking up of a habitat, ecosystem, or land-use type into smaller parcels. | 1. http://www.findarticles.com/m2120/n2_v79/20574296/p1/article.jhtm ; 2. http://www.umsl.edu/~sorkv/Bio240/Pages/Fragmentation.html |
| Freehold title | A freehold title to land is an exclusive, enforceable, transferable, and generally divisible right that holds forever. | Hartwick, John M., and Nancy D. Olewiler. "The Economics of Natural Resource Use," page 8. Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1986. |
| Frontier | Zone of advance penetration, of contention; an area not fully integrated into a national 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 605. |
| Functional region | A region marked less by its sameness than its dynamic internal structure; because it usually focuses on a central node, also called nodal or focal 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 605. |
| Functional specialization | The production of particular goods or services as a dominant activity in a particular location. Certain cities specialize in producing automobiles, computers or steel; others mainly serve tourists. | 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 605. |
| Gentrification | A word of recent vintage that portends an increasingly meaningful social dilemma. In simple terms, this refers to the trend of the return of the "gentry" or well-to-do to the inner-city residential areas, which is resulting in a displacement of lower-income persons, many of whom were renters. Older neighborhood homes are becoming more attractive to persons with means as the energy crisis continues and as city living once again becomes acceptable. The displacement of the poorer families creates a problem of finding adequate housing for them and begins the transfer of what probably has been a heterogeneous area back into a homogeneous one. | Smith, Herbert H. The Citizen's Guide to Planning. American Planning Association, Chicago, 1979, page 164. |
| Geographic realm | The basic spatial unit in our world regional classification. Each realm is defined in terms of a synthesis of its total human geography -- a composite of its leading cultural, economic, historical, political, and appropriate environmental factors. | 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 605. |
| Geometric boundaries | Political boundaries defined and delimited (and occasionally demarcated) as straight lines or arcs. See also "definition" and "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 605. |
| Geomorphology | The geographic study of the configuration of the earth's solid surface -- the world's landscapes and their constituent landforms. | 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 605. |
| Gentrification | A word of recent vintage that portends an increasingly meaningful social dilemma. In simple terms, this refers to the trend of the return of the "gentry" or well-to-do to the inner-city residential areas, which is resulting in a displacement of lower-income persons, many of whom were renters. Older neighborhood homes are becoming more attractive to persons with means as the energy crisis continues and as city living once again becomes acceptable. The displacement of the poorer families creates a problem of finding adequate housing for them and begins the transfer of what probably has been a heterogeneous area back into a homogeneous one. | Smith, Herbert H., "The Citizen's Guide to Planning." American Planning Association, Chicago and New York, page 164, 1979. |
| Geographic Information Systems (GIS) | An organized collection of computer hardware, software, geographic data, and personnel designed to efficiently capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze, and display all forms of geographically referenced information. Certain complex spatial operations are possible with a GIS that would be very difficult, time consuming, or impracticable otherwise. | Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., "Understanding GIS, The Arc/Info Method," 1995, page xxx. |
| Ghetto | An intraurban region marked by a particular ethnic character. Often an inner-city poverty zone, such as the black ghetto in the American central city. Ghetto residents are involuntarily segregated from other income and racial groups. | 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 605. |
| Grassbanks | The purpose of a Grassbank is to make possible the ecological restoration and productivity of grazing lands. By improving the condition of the land, a Grassbank can strengthen the foundation of a region or area's ranching heritage. It can also help reduce conflicts between grazing and other land uses.
Grassbanks require collaboration among ranchers and, generally, public land managers, so that the grazing lands involved are of sufficient size to allow restoration of land and the rotation of cattle to actively grazed areas. The rested portion of the land may then be allowed to grow a crop of grass that may then be burned in a controlled fire. Such a fire can check and even reverse the encroachment of trees and shrubs into grasslands. Alternatively, other treatments could be considered, such as small-diameter timber removal or brush control and reseeding. Continue rest for one or more grazing seasons will allow desired new vegetation to grow prior to returning livestock to the area. If ranchers are able to move their cattle to other grazing lands while restoring all or part of their lands, there would be no need to reduce or suspend normal ranching operations. A Grassbank thereby makes it possible for a rancher to maintain the economic viability of his or her operation and removes a significant disincentive for enhanced range management. In addition to the Malpai Borderlands Group, the Conservation Fund is involved in a Grassbank initiative in northern New Mexico, involving the US Forest Service and the Northern New Mexico Stockman's Association. The Conservation Fund has bought a property qualifying it to become a permittee of a substantial grazing allotment within Santa Fe National Forest. The Fund will allow other national forest permittees from northern New Mexico to graze on their allotment while the Forest Service and the permittees to restore other grazing allotments. For more information on these Grassbanks initiatives, contact: Bill deBuys 1511 Don Gaspar Santa Fe, NM 87505 Phone: (505) 984-2871 Email: wdebuys@aol.com |
http://www.sonoran.org/library/terms/grass.Html; accessed October 30, 2001 |
| Green revolution | The successful recent development of higher yield, fast-growing varieties of rice and other cereals in certain Third World countries. This has led to increased production per unit area and a temporary narrowing of the gap between population growth and food needs. | 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 605. |
| Gross National Product (GNP) | The total value of all goods and services produced in a country during a given year. In some underdeveloped countries (UDCs), where a substantial number of people practice subsistence and where the collection of information is difficult, GNP figures may be unreliable. | 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 605. |
| Growth policy | A plan for the future growth of an area and a report on the state of the area's current growth. The future plan includes goals and objectives for new growth and a strategy and timeline for meeting those goals. The current report includes information on local population, geography, development, natural resources, housing, economy, and transportation. Growth policies were previously called comprehensive plans. | "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 30-31. |
| Growing season | The number of days between the last frost in the spring and the first frost of the fall. | 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 605. |
| Growth pole | An urban center with certain attributes that, if augmented by a measure of investment support, will stimulate regional economic development in its hinterland. | 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 605. |
| Habitat | The natural environment of a place, consisting of climate, soils, plants, and animals. The term is a synonym for environment. | Wallen, Robert N., "Introduction to Physical Geography," William C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque, IA, 1992, page 524. |
| Hacienda | Literally, a large estate in a Spanish-speaking country. Sometimes equated with plantation, but there are important differences between these two types of agricultural enterprise. | 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 605. |
| Hierarchical diffusion | A form of diffusion in which an idea or innovation spreads by "trickling down" from larger to smaller adoption units. An urban hierarchy is usually involve, encouraging the leapfrogging of innovations over wide areas, with geographic distance a less important influence. | 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 605. |
| Hierarchy | An order of gradation of phenomena, with each level or rank subordinate to the one above it and superior to the one below. The levels in a national urban hierarchy are constituted by hamlets, villages, towns, cities, and (frequently) the primate city. | 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 605. |
| Hinterland | Literally, "country behind," a term that applies to a surrounding area served by an urban center. That center is the focus of goods and services produced for its hinterland and is its dominant urban influence as well. In the case of a port city, the hinterland also includes the inland area whose trade flows through that port. | 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 605. |
| Holistic management | Simply put, Holistic Management is a specific, practical, common-sense approach to management that guides organizations, businesses and institutions to decisions that are sound in all aspects: financial, social and ecological. Based on the concept of Holism (the whole is greater than the sum of the parts), and consistent with modern theories of physics, it sees all organizations, civilizations, the natural world and indeed the universe, as an inter-relating series of wholes, rather than in interconnected series of parts. Based on a goal that includes the needs of the people, finances, and the resource base, it is perhaps the most revolutionary approach to management in the last 500 or more years. Holistic Resource Management is a simple (but not necessarily easy), common-sense, yet revolutionary decision-making “mental model”. One can start at almost any point in the decision-making “cycle”, but it is described here in order from “defining the whole” to “monitoring actions”. “Holism” is the theory that with any organism, or “whole”, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The theory of holism also suggests that the universe does not consist of separate “things”, but rather sets of patterns, or relationships, each of which is a “whole”. The universe is really a multitude of wholes within wholes, so it follows that consciously managing “wholes” is likely to be more successful than managing parts in relative isolation from each other. | 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 605. |