L

Question 0

Labour flexibility

Answer 0

How easy it is for a company to change the work that its staff does.

Question 1

Labour

Answer 1

Literally work or the workforce.
An input to any production system.
It is important to geographers as many aspects of labour have spatial variations:
1. Availability: certain types of industry may require certain types of labour and companies may locate into areas where they can find the right kind of workers in the right numbers.
2. Cost: regional and international differences in living costs leads labour to demand different wages for the same work.
3. Expertise: many modern industries locate into areas with a high level of expertise in a particular field such as near universities.
4. Politics: companies may avoid highly unionized workforces backed with strict labour laws in favour of areas with little or no protection for workers rights.

Question 2

Labour-intensive

Answer 2

An economic activity where labour is the largest input by value, as opposed to capital.

Question 3

Labour mobility

Answer 3

Two kinds:

1. Ability or propensity of labour to move from place to place to seek employment - geographical mobility.
2. Ability or propensity of labour to move between different kinds of employment - occupational mobility.

Question 4

Lacustrine

Answer 4

Literally of lakes.

Used to refer to waters, deposits and biota.

Question 5

Lagoon

Answer 5

Calm, protected area of water between a barrier beach or coral reef and a coastline, or in the centre of an atoll.

Question 6

Lag time

Answer 6

Time that passes between the point when precipitation is at its highest over a particular drainage basin during a particular precipitation event, and the point when discharge in the river channel is at its highest in that drainage basin for that precipitation event.

Question 7

Lahar

Answer 7

Mudflow associated with volcanic activity.

Surface water mixes with volcanic ash to produce the lahar.

Question 8

Laissez-faire

Answer 8

The belief that markets should be left to run free from government intervention as business and consumer needs will find their balance in the market place.

Question 9

Lake

Answer 9

A body of water on a continental mass. Usually refers to surface water stores which are still and composed of fresh water. However, can be used for saltwater bodies or underground stores if they are in cavities such as caverns.

Question 10

Laminar flow

Answer 10

Parallel flow of different portions of an overall flow.

Question 11

Land breeze

Answer 11

A wind blowing from the land towards the sea.
Often found at night under anticyclonic conditions when heat is lost rapidly from the land and the air above is cooled and increases in pressure.
The relative warmth of air over the sea leads to rising air which draws wind from the land.

Question 12

Landfill

Answer 12

A location for the disposal of human waste be it domestic, commercial or industrial.
May be a brownfield site such as an old quarry which is filled in, or a purpose-built hole in the ground.

Question 13

Land reform

Answer 13

Imposed redistribution of land and / or changes in land ownership designed to increase agricultural productivity under the philosophy that owner-occupiers make more of an effort therefore as much agricultural land as possible should be owner-occupied.

Question 14

LandSat

Answer 14

A remote-sensing satellite program run by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. The first satellite was launched in 1972 and lasted until 1978. In total, six LandSat vehicles have been put into orbit and two remain today (L5 and L7, L6 failed to launch).

Question 15

Landscape

Answer 15

Comprises the visible features of an area of land, including physical elements such as landforms, living elements of flora and fauna, abstract elements such as lighting and weather conditions, and human elements.

Question 16

Landslide (also landslip)

Answer 16

A rapid downslope mass movement where water in the soil and rock has accumulated to sufficiently increase stress and lubricate bedding planes. The bedding planes will usually be (near) parallel to the angle of slope.

Question 17

Land reclamation

Answer 17

The improving or recovering or even creation of land for human use. Marshy land may be drained; derelict land may be cleared; rock material may be dumped into shallow coastal waters to extend existing land out into the sea.

Question 18

Land use

Answer 18

The dominant activity taking place on an area of land.

Question 19

La Nina

Answer 19

Opposite of El Nino.

Question 20

Lapse rates

Answer 20

The rates at which air temperature decreases with altitude.
Three types:
1. Environmental lapse rate (ELR).
2. Dry adiabatic lapse rate (DALR).
3. Saturated adiabatic lapse rate (SALR).

Question 21

Latent heat

Answer 21

Release of heat during a change of state.
Condensation of water releases latent heat to the atmosphere because it no longer needs the heat energy that was put in to change it from liquid to gas in the first place.

Question 22

Lateral plate margin

Answer 22

See conservative plate margin.

Question 23

Laterite

Answer 23

See hardpan.

Question 24

Latifundia

Answer 24

System of landholding found most commonly in Latin America.
Land is held in ownership on a large, estate scale by a small elite class.
The work is carried out by local people employed as farm labourers.

Question 25

Latitude

Answer 25

The angular distance north or south of the equator on any meridian.
Joining points of the same angle on all the meridians creates a line of latitude encircling the globe.
Measured in degrees, minutes and seconds.
Excellent explanation at http://www.phy6.org/stargaze/Slatlong.htm.

Question 26

Lava

Answer 26

Molten rock flowing on the surface. Until it reaches the surface it is still called magma.

Question 27

Leaching

Answer 27

The removal of minerals in solution from soils when water moves down through the soil and drains away.

Question 28

Least-cost location

Answer 28

The place where raw material and transport costs are minimized for a particular business, according to Weber.

Question 29

Lee

Answer 29

Sheltered side of a slope.

Question 30

Leeward

Answer 30

The downwind area from a slope.

Question 31

Leisure

Answer 31

Time free from work or other obligation.
In the EMDW, average time available for leisure is increasing as income thresholds are more easily reached and as priorities change.

Question 32

Leisure industry

Answer 32

The goods and services provided for consumption during leisure. Worldwide, the leisure industry has expanded rapidly since the 1970s as people have more time and more disposable income for leisure activities, as well as a tendency towards consumption rather than saving.

Question 33

Less economically developed country (LEDC)

Answer 33

See economically less developed countries.

Question 34

Lessivage

Answer 34

Downward movement of clay particles through a soil in suspension as water passes through.

Question 35

Levée

Answer 35

The naturally raised bank of a river.
When flooding occurs, the water immediately begins to lose energy and deposits the larger load.
With distance from the channel the deposited load is increasingly smaller.
This leaves the banks higher than the rest of the floodplain.
Deposition in the channel itself can then lead to the river being higher than the floodplain and the Levée may be artificially strengthened and heightened to protect from catastrophic collapse.

Question 36

Lichen

Answer 36

An organism created by the joining of fungus and algae.

Question 37

Life expectancy

Answer 37

Average number of years that individuals are expected to live depending on where and when they are born and spend their lives. May be derived on national, regional or local scale.

Question 38

Light industry

Answer 38

An industry in which the physical mass of raw materials used is relatively low.
This can be misleading for an industry that uses large amounts of electricity drawn from a power grid rather than produced on-site as it removes the need for fuel to be delivered to the site.
Generally however, light industries are low polluting and use fewer resources.

Question 39

Limestone

Answer 39

A sedimentary rock formed from at least 80% calcium carbonate.
This may have been deposited in the skeletal remains of marine creatures or from ooliths.
Examples: chalk, carboniferous limestone, oolitic limestone.

Question 40

Limestone pavement

Answer 40

A flagstone-pattern appearing on exposed, flat upper surfaces of a mass of limestone.
Water runs along joints and cracks in the rock and rapidly enlarges them through carbonation.
These cracks are called grikes.
The blocks they leave defined are called clints.

Question 41

Linear

Answer 41

Literally in or along a line.
In geography, used to describe features of the landscape, both natural and human, which have a clear extension along a linear axis.

Question 42

Linkages

Answer 42

Relationships between industries.

1. Forward to customer.
2. Backward to supplier.
3. Vertical processing to turn raw material to product.
4. Diagonal takes single component to multiple uses.

Question 43

Literacy

Answer 43

The ability to read and write.
More accurately defined by UNESCO as:
“The ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society.”

Question 44

Lithification

Answer 44

The cementing of sediments to form rock.

Question 45

Lithosphere

Answer 45

The crust and upper mantle.

Either solid or highly viscous, this layer is not easily deformed or manipulated.

Question 46

Litter layer

Answer 46

Dead organic matter lying on the surface and waiting for or in the process of decomposition.

Question 47

Littoral

Answer 47

Most properly the area at a coast between the highest and lowest tides.
Generally used simply to refer to the shore.

Question 48

Livestock

Answer 48

Animals domesticated and kept by humans either for food or to do work.

Question 49

Load

Answer 49

Rock material being transported by an agent of erosion.

Question 50

Loam

Answer 50

A soil having roughly equal proportions of clay, sand and silt.

Question 51

Localised

Answer 51

Restricted to a point in space in a landscape.

Particularly used by Weber to describe raw materials.

Question 52

Locational factor

Answer 52

Any factor which has an influence in an entrepreneurial decision to locate industry in a particular place.

Question 53

Location quotient

Answer 53

A statistical measure of concentration.
The quotient indicates the geographical concentration of a particular activity in a particular region as a function of the expected concentration based on national average.
The formula can be presented as:

LQ = % total workforce in region A working in industry X / % total national workforce working in industry X

so if an area has 15% of its workforce in agriculture when only 5% of the national workforce is employed in agriculture, the LQ = 15 / 5 = 3.

LQ > 1 indicates over-representation, or a concentration of that industry.

LQ = 1 indicates expected concentration based on national average.

LQ < 1 indicates under-representation, or a lack of that industry.

Question 54

Loess

Answer 54

In glacial environments there is a large amount of small, fine-grained material found in the outwash plain.
Strong winds often blow out from glacial areas as the cold surface cools the air above creating high pressure.
These winds carry material away and deposit it elsewhere across wide areas to form loess deposits which are easily weathered into well-drained, fertile soils.
Loess is not known to be forming at present and is associated with the Pleistocene.

Question 55

Longevity

Answer 55

Literally long life.

In geography, usually refers to humans living beyond 60 years of age.

Question 56

Longitude

Answer 56

The angular distance east or west of the prime meridian on any meridian.
Joining points of the same angle on all the meridians creates a line of longitude encircling the globe.
Measured in degrees, minutes and seconds.
Excellent explanation at http://www.phy6.org/stargaze/Slatlong.htm

Question 57

Longshore drift

Answer 57

The net movement of sediment along a coast.
The direction of swash is usually not perpendicular to the coastline.
Sediment is thus moved up a beach and across at the same time.
As backwash occurs under gravity, its direction is more directly down to the sea (more perpendicular to the coastline), thus material it carries has a net sideways movement.

Question 58

Long profile

Answer 58

The side view of a river’s course from source to mouth which shows how the gradient of the river changes as it flows.

Question 59

Lorenz curve

Answer 59

A line graph that portrays the (un)evenness of a geographical distribution.
The vertical axis is cumulative percentage of the variable being examined.
The horizontal axis is the rank order of the values.
A perfectly even distribution will give a 45˚ line rising left to right.
The more the line diverges from this, the more uneven, or more highly concentrated, the variable is.

Question 60

Low tide

Answer 60

The lowest point to which the sea falls against the land in its daily vertical movement.