VCE Geography flashcards
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32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Land use change
- The conversion of land from one use or cover class to another, such as forest to cropland or farmland to housing, measured by area and rate over time.
- Deforestation rate
- The percentage of forest area lost per year, calculated as area cleared in a period divided by the starting forest area, multiplied by 100.
- Land cover
- The observed physical surface of the land, such as forest, grassland, water or built-up area, mapped from satellite imagery rather than from legal use zones.
- NDVI
- Normalised Difference Vegetation Index, a ratio of near-infrared to red reflectance used to detect vegetation greenness and monitor change between image dates.
- Fragmentation
- The break-up of a continuous habitat patch into smaller, isolated remnants, reducing interior habitat and increasing edge effects on species.
- Urban growth boundary
- A statutory line limiting outward urban expansion, used in Victoria to direct new housing into designated growth areas and infill sites.
- Land use conflict
- A situation where two or more stakeholder groups hold incompatible goals for the same land, differing in interests, power and the scale at which they operate.
- Stakeholder analysis
- Identifying each group affected by a land decision, their interests, their influence, and whether their concern is local, regional or national in scale.
- Fire-stick farming
- Indigenous land management using frequent low-intensity burns to create habitat mosaics, reduce fuel loads and encourage favoured plant and animal species.
- Biodiversity hotspot
- A region with exceptional numbers of endemic species that has already lost a large share of its original vegetation, making it a conservation priority.
- Edge effect
- Altered conditions along the boundary of a habitat patch, including more light, wind and predators, which changes species composition near the edge.
- Land degradation
- A decline in the productivity and condition of land caused by processes such as erosion, salinity, nutrient loss or overgrazing.
- Rewilding
- Restoring ecological processes and missing species to a landscape, often by removing barriers, reintroducing species and allowing natural regeneration.
- Spatial scale
- The size of the area being analysed; a change obvious at local scale may be averaged out and invisible at regional or global scale.
- Remote sensing
- Collecting data about the Earth's surface from satellites or aircraft, allowing repeat coverage and comparison of the same area over time.
- Growth rate
- The annual percentage change in population, equal to natural increase plus net migration, divided by total population, multiplied by 100.
- Doubling time
- The number of years a population takes to double at a constant growth rate, approximated as 70 divided by the annual growth rate percentage.
- Total fertility rate
- The average number of births a woman would have across her lifetime at current age-specific rates; replacement is roughly 2.1 births per woman.
- Natural increase
- The surplus of births over deaths in a population, calculated as the crude birth rate minus the crude death rate per 1000 people.
- Net migration
- Immigration minus emigration for a place over a period; a positive figure adds to population, a negative figure subtracts from it.
- Population pyramid
- A paired bar graph of males and females by age group, whose shape reveals growth, ageing or decline and the imprint of migration or mortality shocks.
- Demographic transition
- A model of population change through stages from high birth and death rates to low ones, with the fastest growth occurring in the middle stages.
- Dependency ratio
- The number of people aged under 15 and 65 and over, divided by those aged 15 to 64, multiplied by 100.
- Ageing population
- A shift toward higher median age and a growing share aged 65 and over, driven by low fertility and rising life expectancy.
- Population density
- The average number of people per square kilometre in an area, a measure that hides internal clustering and emptiness.
- Carrying capacity
- The maximum population an environment can support indefinitely given its resources and technology, a concept that shifts as technology or trade changes.
- Ecological footprint
- The area of productive land and water needed to supply a population's resources and absorb its wastes, measured in global hectares per person.
- Life expectancy
- The average number of years a person is expected to live at current age-specific death rates, sensitive to infant mortality and health care.
- Infant mortality rate
- Deaths of children under one year per 1000 live births in a year; a strong indicator of health care, sanitation and nutrition.
- Population momentum
- Continued growth after fertility falls to replacement, because a large cohort of young people is still entering childbearing ages.
- Refugee
- A person forced to cross an international border because of war, persecution or disaster, distinguished from internally displaced people who remain within their country.
- Population policy
- A government measure intended to raise or lower fertility or alter migration, such as paid parental leave, child limits or skilled migration quotas.