Glossary

A
Abrasion (in rivers) erosion caused by the river picking up stones and rubbing them against the bed and banks
of the channel in the flow
Accessible countryside within easy reach of urban areas
countryside/rural
areas
Adaptation changes that take place to react to a situation or condition. (They may or may not be successful)

Ageing population a population with a rising average age

Agribusiness commercial agriculture that is owned and managed by large corporations
Air masses large bodies of air (many thousands of km2 in area) that form over polar or tropical source regions
such as North Africa
Alternative energy energy sources that provide an alternative to fossil fuels
Altitude the height of the land
Alternative fuels fuel sources that provide an alternative to fossil fuels.
Amenities things like restaurants, health clubs, shops and cinemas that people want access to
Anti-natalist policies that seek to limit population growth by birth control.
Appropriate equipment that the local community is able to use relatively easily and without much cost
technology
Aquaculture commercial fish farming, e.g.: rearing fish or prawns in ponds or submerged cages
Aquifer an underground store of water, formed when water-bearing (permeable) rocks lie on top of
impermeable rocks
Asteroid collision a large extra-terrestrial object - such as a meteor - passes intact through the atmosphere and impacts
with the Earth's surface
Asthenosphere the upper part of the Earth's mantle, where the rocks are more fluid
Atlantic depressions weather systems that bring stormy conditions and frontal rainfall to the western coastlines of
Europe. (Depressions form when polar and continental air masses meet over the Atlantic ocean.)