Environmental monitoring Regular, comparable measurements or time series of data on the environment.
Environmental performance Environmental performance relates to action by governments and other actors, including implementation of processes that support environmentally sustainable economic growth. Essentially, environmental performance is a measure of the gap between the actual state of what is being measured and targeted policy goals.
Environmental pressure Pressure resulting from human activities which bring about changes in the state of the environment.
Environmental quality A state of environmental conditions in environmental media, expressed in terms of indicators or indices related to environmental quality standards.
Environmental sustainability Refers to the capacity of economic growth processes and social change to ensure that natural resources are not depleted faster than they can be regenerated and that ecological systems remain viable. Economic growth must stay within existing carrying capacities. Mounting environmental pressures cannot be handled successfully, through a sole focus on improving environmental performance. A closer look needs to be taken at the environmental sustainability of an economic system. As applied to economic growth refers to the capacity of economic growth processes and social change to ensure that natural resources are not depleted faster than they can be regenerated and that ecological systems remain viable.
Epidemiology
The branch of medicine which deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health.
Equity Fairness of rights, distribution and access. Depending on context, this can refer to access to resources, services or power.
Erosion
The wearing away of the land by running water, rainfall, wind, ice or other geological agents, including such processes as detachment, entrainment, suspension, transportation and mass movement.
Eutrophication
The degradation of water or land quality due to enrichment by nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorous, which results in excessive plant (principally algae) growth and decay. Eutrophication of a lake normally contributes to its slow evolution into a bog or marsh and ultimately to dry land. Eutrophication may be accelerated by human activities that speed up the ageing process.
136 GEO for Cities
Exposure The presence of people, livelihoods, species or ecosystems, environmental functions, services, and resources, infrastructure, or economic, social, or cultural assets in places and settings that could be adversely affected.
Feedback Where non-linear change is driven by reactions that either dampen change (negative feedbacks) or reinforce change (positive feedbacks).
Feed-in tariff A feed-in tariff is an energy policy focused on supporting the development and dissemination of renewable power generation. In a feed-in tariff scheme, providers of energy from renewable sources, such as solar, wind or water, receive a price for what they produce based on the generation costs. This purchase guarantee is offered generally on a long-term basis, ranging from 5 to 20 years, but most commonly spanning 15–20 years.1 The cost of the tariff payments are typically shared with the electricity consumers.
Flood
Usually classified into three types: river flood, flash flood and storm surge. River floods result from intense and/or persistent rain over large areas. Flash floods are mostly local events resulting from intense rainfall over a small area in a short period of time. Storm surge floods occur when flood water from the ocean or large lakes is pushed on to land by winds or storms.
Food security
Physical and economic access to food that meets people’s dietary needs as well as their food preferences.
Food system Food systems are usually conceived as a set of activities ranging from production to consumption. It is a broad concept encompassing food security and its components – availability, access and utilization – and including the social and environmental outcomes of these activities. Food systems in developing countries have been largely transformed by globalization. This change offers tremendous opportunities for food workers to access new and better employments. Yet, small scale food producers and other food workers are still too often excluded from the benefits generated by food businesses.
Forest Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 metres and a canopy cover of more than 10 per cent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban use.
Fossil fuel Coal, natural gas and petroleum products (such as oil) formed from the decayed bodies of animals and plants that died millions of years ago.
Gender Gender refers to the roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society at a given time considers
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