IB Geography SL flashcards
IB Geography SL · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Place
- A location given meaning by human experience, identity or attachment, such as a home village or sacred site, as opposed to abstract geometric space.
- Scale
- The level at which a phenomenon is observed or analysed, from local to regional, national and global; the same process can look different at different scales.
- Open system
- A system that exchanges both matter and energy across its boundaries, such as a drainage basin receiving precipitation and losing water as runoff.
- Positive feedback
- A mechanism that amplifies an initial change, moving the system further from equilibrium, for example permafrost thaw releasing methane that increases warming.
- Physiological density
- Population divided by the area of arable land, indicating the pressure placed on food-producing land rather than on total territory.
- Demographic Transition Model
- A five-stage model describing the shift from high birth and death rates to low ones as a country develops, with population growth peaking in stages two and three.
- Rule of 70
- A method for estimating doubling time by dividing 70 by the annual percentage growth rate; for example, 2% growth gives a doubling time of about 35 years.
- Human Development Index
- A composite measure combining life expectancy, years of schooling and gross national income per capita, used to compare development between countries.
- Core–periphery model
- A model in which wealthy core regions accumulate capital and skilled labour while peripheral regions supply raw materials and cheap labour, reinforcing inequality.
- Push factor
- A condition in a source area that drives people away, such as conflict, unemployment, drought or persecution, contributing to out-migration.
- Refugee
- A person who has crossed an international border to escape persecution or conflict and is entitled to protection under the 1951 Refugee Convention.
- Internally displaced person
- A person forced from their home who remains inside their own country and therefore lacks the legal protection granted to refugees.
- Old-age dependency ratio
- The number of people aged 65 and over divided by the number aged 15 to 64, multiplied by 100, indicating pressure on pensions and health services.
- Anti-natalist policy
- A government policy designed to reduce birth rates, historically through propaganda, incentives or coercion such as China's former one-child policy.
- Enhanced greenhouse effect
- The additional warming caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases, which trap outgoing long-wave radiation beyond the natural greenhouse effect.
- Mitigation
- Action that reduces the causes of climate change, such as switching to renewable energy, improving efficiency or planting forests to absorb carbon dioxide.
- Adaptation
- Action that reduces the harm caused by climate change, such as building sea defences, developing drought-resistant crops or improving early warning systems.
- Ice–albedo feedback
- A positive feedback in which melting ice exposes darker land or ocean, which absorbs more solar radiation and accelerates further warming and melting.
- Paris Agreement
- A 2015 international treaty in which states submit nationally determined contributions aiming to hold global warming well below 2 °C and pursue 1.5 °C.
- Resource security
- A condition in which a reliable, affordable and environmentally acceptable supply of a resource meets demand, covering availability, access, affordability and acceptability.
- Virtual water
- The volume of water used in producing a good or service, such as the water embedded in crops, meat or manufactured products traded between regions.
- Food security
- Reliable access for all people to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, resting on availability, access, utilisation and stability over time.
- Resource curse
- The paradox in which resource-rich countries experience slower growth, corruption or conflict because their economies depend on volatile commodity exports.
- Storm hydrograph
- A graph of river discharge over time after rainfall; a short lag time and high peak indicate impermeable rock, steep slopes or urbanisation.
- Sediment cell
- A self-contained coastal unit bounded by headlands within which sediment moves, so that intervention in one part affects the whole cell.
- Hard engineering
- Coastal defence using built structures such as sea walls, groynes and riprap, which are costly and can shift erosion further along the coast.
- Glacial mass balance
- The difference between accumulation and ablation on a glacier; a positive balance causes advance, a negative balance causes retreat.
- Liquefaction
- A process during earthquakes in which water-saturated sediment loses strength and behaves like a fluid, causing buildings to sink or tilt.
- Hazard risk equation
- Risk equals hazard multiplied by vulnerability divided by capacity to cope, so the same hazard produces different risk in different places.
- Tourism Area Life Cycle
- Butler's model of tourism development through exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation and then decline or rejuvenation.
- Nutrition transition
- The shift from traditional diets to energy-dense processed foods, associated with rising obesity and diet-related disease in developing countries.
- Sampling strategy
- The justified method of selecting fieldwork sites or respondents, such as random, systematic along a transect, or stratified by subgroup, with a stated sample size.