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mountains > glossary
GlossaryAltitude: Elevation above mean sea level. Usually the altitude of a fixed point, such as a mountain peak, is determined most accurately by triangulation with optical instruments. The altitude of an aircraft, however, is measured most accurately by means of a radio altimeter.
"Altitude (geography)," Microsoft� Encarta� Online Encyclopedia 2001 "Altitude (geography)," Microsoft� Encarta� Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.co.uk � 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Biocultural Reserves: Term coined by Daniel Janzen to describe national parks and protected areas that fully involve local people in the management and education activities conducted within them.
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Biodiversity: The term biological diversity, or biodiversity, refers collectively to the full range of species, genes and ecosystems in a given place.
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Catchment: A drainage basin, or the area drained by a particular river system. Adjacent drainage basins are separated by watersheds. In North America, the term watershed refers to the entire drainage basin, and the height of land between basins referred to as a divide.
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Clear-felling: The removal of an entire stand of trees from an area of forest: also known as clear-cutting.
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Conservation (nature): Protection against irreversible destruction and other undesirable changes, including the management of human use of organisms or ecosystems to ensure such use is sustainable.
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Development: A process of economic and social transformation that defies simple definition. Though often viewed as a strictly economic process involving growth and diversification of a country's economy, development is a qualitative concept that entails complex social, cultural, and environmental changes. There are many models of what 'development' should look like and many different standards of what constitutes 'success'.
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Ecological balance: Stability in an ecosystem achieved through the development of equilibrium among its various components. This does not imply that the community is static. It is subject to natural variations associated with ecological succession and other influences such as fire, disease and climate change, but the system is normally sufficiently elastic to make the necessary adjustments without major displacement of the balance. Human intervention that includes the introduction or removal of plants and animals, pollution of the environment and destruction of habitat is now a main cause of imbalance in many ecosystems.
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Ecology: Originally defined by Ernst Haeckel in 1866, ecology is the study of the relationships that develop among living organisms and between these organisms and the environment.
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Ecosystem: A complex of plants, animals and micro-organisms and their surrounding environment. Ecosystems may be small and simple, such as a small isolated pond, or large and complex, such as a tropical rain forest or a coral reef in tropical seas.
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Endangered species: Species of plants or animals threatened with extinction because their numbers have declined to a critical level as a result of overharvesting or because their habitat has drastically changed. That critical level is the minimum viable population (MVP), and represents the smallest number of breeding pairs required to maintain the viability of species.
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Endemic species: Those species that are native to a certain region with restricted distributions and within in restricted range. Outside that restricted range (such as an ecosystem island, or within country boundaries) an endemic species is found nowhere else on earth.
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Environment: A combination of the various physical and biological elements that affect the life of an organism. Although it is common to refer to �the� environment, there are in fact many environments eg, aquatic or terrestrial, microscopic to global, all capable of change in time and place, but all intimately linked and in combination constituting the whole earth/atmosphere system.
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Environmentally-sound: The maintenance of a healthy environment and the protection of life-sustaining ecological processes. It is based on thorough knowledge and requires or will result in products, manufacturing processes, developments, etc. which are in harmony with essential ecological processes and human health.
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Erosion: Natural physical and chemical processes by which the soil and the rocks of the Earth's crust are continuously abraded and corroded. Most erosion results from the combined activity of several factors, such as heat, cold, gases, water, wind, gravity, and plant life. In some regions one of these may predominate, such as wind in arid areas. Erosion is grouped into two major divisions: geological erosion, which affects rocks as well as soil, and soil erosion.
"Erosion," Microsoft� Encarta� Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.co.uk � 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Fauna: The animal life characteristic of a particular biome. The savanna biome, for example, supports large populations of herbivores, such as wildebeest, antelope and kangaroo, and predators in the form of lions, cheetahs, hyenas and dingoes that prey on them. Any change in a biome, whether natural or human-induced, has the potential to alter the associated fauna.
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Flora: The combination of plants in a particular area. Each biome has a characteristic flora.
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Glacier: Large, usually moving mass of ice formed in high mountains or in high latitudes where the rate of snowfall is greater than the melting rate of snow. Glaciers can be divided into four well-defined types � alpine, piedmont, ice cap, and continental � according to the topography and climate of the region in which the glacier was formed.
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Habitat: The particular environment (e.g. tropical moist forest) in which a species or breeding population naturally lives.
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Landslide: Descent of a mass of earth and rock down a mountain slope. Landslides may occur when water from rain and melting snow sinks through the earth on top of a slope, seeps through cracks and pore spaces in underlying sandstone, and encounters a bed of shale inclined towards the valley. The water collects along the upper surface of the shale, which it softens to form slippery clay. If the support is sufficiently weakened, a mass of earth and rock slides down along the well-lubricated bedding of shale. Some great landslide masses move slowly and spasmodically for years, causing little destruction.
"Landslide," Microsoft� Encarta� Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.co.uk � 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Mountains: Name usually applied to any region of land that is raised rather steeply above the surrounding terrain. Mountains are distinguishable from plateaux by their usually limited summit area; and they are distinguishable from what are comonly called hills by their generally higher elevation. The elevation, or altitude, of a mountain is given as the height of the summit above sea level. Therefore, a mountain with an elevation of, say, 4,000 m (13,100 ft) may rise to only 3,000 m (9,840 ft) above the surrounding land.
Mountains are normally found in groups or ranges consisting of peaks, ridges, and intermontane valleys. Apart from certain mountains that occur singly, the smallest unit is the range, comprising either a single complex ridge or a series of ridges generally alike in origin, age, and form. Several closely related ranges in a parallel alignment or chain-like cluster are known as a mountain system; an elongated series of systems forms a mountain chain; and an extensive complex of ranges, systems, and chains is known as a belt, or cordillera.
"Mountains," Microsoft� Encarta� Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.co.uk � 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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National conservation strategies: Plans that highlight country-level environmental priorities and opportunities for sustainable management of natural resources, following the example of the World Conservation Strategy published by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in 1980. Though governments may support preparation for the strategies, they are not bound to follow IUCN's recommendations.
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Plateau: In geology, extensive land formation. The top is flat or sloping; the elevation, from a few hundred to several thousand metres. A plateau is larger than a mesa or butte. Plateaux are often riven by erosion into deep canyons. Major plateaux in North America are the Columbia and Colorado plateaux.
"Plateau," Microsoft� Encarta� Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.co.uk � 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Proper resource pricing: The pricing of natural resources at levels which reflect their combined economic and environmental values.
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Sustainable development: Sustainable development has as many definitions as subscribers. In essence, it refers to economic development that meets the needs of all without leaving future generations with fewer natural resources than those we enjoy today. It is widely accepted that achieving sustainable development requires balance between three dimensions of complementary change:
- Economic (towards sustainable patterns of production and consumption)
- Ecological (towards maintenance and restoration of healthy ecosystems)
- Social (towards poverty eradication and sustainable livelihoods)
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Upland: Higher or inland parts of a country.
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Valley: Depression in the land surface often occupied by a river. In geology, the chief agency in the formation of a valley is erosion carried on by the running streams and assisted by the natural decay or weathering of the rocks in which the channels lie.
"Valley," Microsoft� Encarta� Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.co.uk � 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Watershed: A watershed is an area of land that is drained by a river system and its tributaries. Watersheds can be visualised as physical basins, the "rims" of which are ridges of high land that separate adjacent watersheds.
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World Commission on Environment and Development: Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1983 to examine international and global environmental problems and to propose strategies for sustainable development. Chaired by Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, the independent commission held meetings and public hearing around the world and submitted a report on its inquiry to the General Assembly in 1987.
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World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD): The World Summit on Sustainable Development takes place from 26 August - 4 September 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Governments, UN agencies, and civil society organisations will come together to assess progress since the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio in 1992 (hence the title 'Rio + 10' for the Johannesburg meeting). Sustainable development is defined in the report from the Rio meeting as being 'economic progress which meets all of our needs without leaving future generations with fewer resources than those we enjoy'.
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