Population & Environment Flashcards
Agricultural Productivity
The ratio of agricultural outputs to agricultural inputs.
Agriculture
The practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the
rearing of livestock, to provide food and other products.
Asylum Seeker
Someone who has fled their country of origin because of persecution, war or violence and is
seeking safety in another country. They have applied for sanctuary, but it is yet to be
processed or determined.
Carrying Capacity
The maximum population size that an area or environment can sustain indefinitely.
Demographic Dividend
The economic growth potential that can result from shifts in a population’s age structure,
mainly because the percentage of the working-age population increases compared with that
of dependants.
Ecological Footprint
A measure of the demand humans place on ecosystems; the amount of productive land and
water required to produce the resources a population consumes and to absorb the waste it
produces.
Economic Migrant
A person who has left their country to seek employment in another country in order to
improve their living conditions and life chances.
Epidemiological Transition
The changing patterns of population age distribution, mortality, fertility and life expectancy
associated with the control of infectious diseases and their replacement by chronic disease as
leading causes of mortality.
Health
A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity, as defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Malthusian
This term refers to perspectives on human population related to those of Thomas Malthus
who believed that there are inevitably limits to human population growth imposed by
“positive checks” on such as famine, disease and conflict.
Morbidity
A term related to and used to describe the incidence of illness and disease within a society.
Mortality
A term related to and used to describe the incidence of death within a society and its different
elements. It is commonly measured by death rate and infant mortality rate, case mortality and
attack rate.
Neo-Malthusian
This term refers to perspectives on human population which hold that there are
environmental limits to population growth, control of which can be achieved by adjustments
to lifestyle, consumption and contraception.
Non-Communicable Disease
A medical type of disease that is non-infectious and non-transmittable between people.
Optimum Population
The concept of an ideal number of people that can make the best use of all available
resources within an area, ensuring that everyone has an adequate standard of living.
Overpopulation
Too many people for the space, resources and technology available in a given area to support
an adequate standard of living.
Refugee
Someone who has been forced to flee their country because of persecution, war or violence
and seek safety in another country and are unable to return.
Salinisation
The build-up of salts in soil diminishing its capacity to support thriving.
Vector Borne Disease
Disease caused by vectors which are organisms that transmit infectious pathogens between
humans or from animals to humans. For example bloodsucking insects, such as mosquitoes,
which ingest disease-producing microorganisms during a blood meal from an infected host
and later transmit it into a new host, after the pathogen has replicated.
Well-being
The state of being comfortable, healthy or happy which is variable between populations,
places and time.
Zonal Soils
A soil which has experienced the prolonged impact of climate and natural vegetation upon
the parent rock.
