NZ Scholarship Geography key terms

The arrangement of features or events across Earth's surface, such as clustered, dispersed, linear or random. Geographers describe patterns first, then test explanations for why they occur and how they change.

The level of detail or extent at which a phenomenon is studied, from local to global. Changing scale alters which patterns become visible and which explanations appear reasonable.

The tendency for interaction between two places to fall as the distance between them increases, because movement costs time and money. It helps explain trade flows, migration and the spread of ideas.

The spread of an idea, innovation, disease or product from one place to another over time, through relocation, expansion, contagious or hierarchical processes.

How an individual or group understands and feels about a place, shaped by experience, culture and media. Different groups can hold conflicting perceptions of the same location.

Analysing a place or environment as interconnected parts with inputs, stores, flows, outputs and feedbacks, so that a change in one part can be traced through the whole.

A process where an output of a system returns to affect its own inputs. Negative feedback reduces change and stabilises a system; positive feedback amplifies change and can push it past a threshold.

Meeting present needs without reducing the ability of future generations to meet theirs, balancing environmental limits, social wellbeing and economic activity.

The capacity of a system, community or environment to absorb disturbance and reorganise while keeping its essential functions, and to adapt to new conditions.

A map that shades whole administrative or statistical areas in proportion to a value, such as population density. It reveals broad patterns but hides variation inside each area.

Software that stores, combines and analyses spatial data layers to reveal relationships, answer queries and produce maps for planning and decision-making.

Selecting a subset of sites, people or events to represent a larger population, using random, systematic or stratified methods. The sampling choice strongly shapes how reliable fieldwork conclusions are.

A statistical relationship in which two variables change together. Correlation does not prove causation, because a third factor may drive both or the relationship may be coincidental.

The theory that Earth's rigid outer shell is broken into plates that move over the mantle, causing earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain building and the slow rearrangement of continents and oceans.

A boundary where one tectonic plate sinks beneath another, generating deep earthquakes, volcanic arcs and ocean trenches, as where the Pacific Plate descends beneath the North Island of New Zealand.

The breakdown or chemical alteration of rock in place by water, temperature change, frost, salts or living organisms. Unlike erosion, weathering does not itself transport the broken material away.

The downslope transfer of soil and rock under gravity, as creep, slump, slide, flow or fall. Water content, slope angle, vegetation cover and rock structure control when it happens.

The area of land drained by a river and its tributaries, bounded by ridges. Rainfall, land use, soil and catchment shape together determine river flows and flood behaviour.

A graph of river discharge over time after rainfall, showing lag time, peak discharge and recession. Steep high peaks indicate a flashy catchment; gentle curves indicate a slow, buffered response.

Erosion, transport and deposition by rivers. Discharge, gradient, load size and channel shape determine whether a river cuts down, carries material onward or builds features such as floodplains and deltas.

The movement of sediment along a coast by waves arriving at an angle, with swash carrying material up the beach and backwash returning it at right angles, building spits and reshaping shorelines.

The local climate of a small area, such as a valley floor, city street or shaded slope, differing from the surrounding region because of aspect, shelter, surface cover or built form.

A vertical section through soil showing horizons from surface litter down to weathered parent material. Colour, texture and depth of each horizon reflect climate, vegetation, relief and time.

The sequential change in plant and animal communities at a site over time, from pioneer species towards a more stable community, driven by soil development and competition for light and nutrients.

A natural event or process that threatens people, property or environments. It becomes a disaster only when it intersects exposed and vulnerable communities.

A recurring shift in Pacific Ocean temperatures and atmospheric pressure that alters rainfall, drought and storm tracks worldwide, strongly influencing New Zealand's winds and seasonal weather.

A model describing how birth and death rates change as countries develop, moving from high–high to low–low, producing stages of rapid, then slowing, then negative natural increase.

Conditions that drive people away from a place, such as conflict or unemployment, and conditions that attract them elsewhere, such as work, safety or family ties.

The rising share of a population living in towns and cities, driven by rural–urban migration and natural increase, and associated with changing land use, housing demand and infrastructure pressure.

The movement of people from cities to smaller towns and rural areas, often for lifestyle, housing cost, retirement or remote work reasons, reshaping both the places left and the places settled.

The in-migration of wealthier residents and businesses into a low-income neighbourhood, raising rents and property values and often displacing existing residents and changing local culture.

Low-density outward expansion of a city into surrounding rural land, typically car-dependent, consuming farmland and costly to service with roads, pipes and public transport.

An unequal spatial relationship in which wealth, investment and decision-making concentrate in core regions, while peripheral regions supply resources and labour and remain less developed.

The growing interconnection of economies, cultures and people across national borders through trade, investment, migration, information flows and transport, producing both convergence and inequality.

A company that runs production, services or sales in more than one country, shaping employment, investment and regional development through decisions made at its headquarters.

The sequence of activities and locations that produce a good or service, from raw material through components, assembly and retail, with profit and control concentrated at particular stages.

The meanings, attachments and identity people associate with a location, formed through lived experience, memory, culture and shared stories, and often contested between different groups.

A Māori concept of guardianship: the responsibility of people to care for and protect the environment, its resources and people, including for future generations, grounded in relationships of reciprocity.

The maximum population or level of use an environment can support without irreversible degradation, given available resources, technology and patterns of consumption.

Housing built outside formal planning and tenure rules, often with insecure land rights and limited services, typically sheltering low-income residents in rapidly growing cities.