Glossary of Environmental Terms
Ecosystem
A natural system consisting of all living things (community or biocenosis) and their physical environment (biotope), including all relationships among living things and between them and their environment. Example: A forest.
Pedogenesis
The process of soil formation, including bedrock weathering, humus formation, and transport of humus colloids and soluble substances, leading to soil horizons. It depends on climate, topography, bedrock, and biological activity, paralleling ecological succession.
Greenhouse Effect
The natural process that maintains Earth’s average temperature at about 15°C. Gases in the air are transparent to visible solar radiation, but some (greenhouse gases like CO2 and N2O) absorb infrared radiation emitted from the heated Earth’s surface, thus retaining heat.
Monitoring (MTL)
A parameter representing the performance of a trophic level or ecosystem, calculated as input/output. Producer efficiency is measured as absorbed energy/incident energy, typically below 2%.
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
A process to identify and predict a project’s environmental impacts. It aims to detect the impacts a project would have on a specific area if implemented.
Emission
The amount of air pollutants released from a source over a specific time. Emission values are measured at the source’s output.
Wind Energy
Mechanical energy from wind used to generate motion (sailing, windmills) or converted into electrical energy by generators coupled to windmills (turbines, wind farms). It’s clean and renewable but irregular, dispersed, and visually impactful.
Hydroelectric Power
Electrical energy generated using the potential energy of falling water, often retained by dams. Water drives turbines in hydroelectric plants. It’s renewable and non-polluting but impacts river flow and can flood large areas.
Solar Energy
Energy from the sun, converted directly into electricity by photovoltaic systems or used in solar thermal systems (collectors for hot water or power plants where concentrated sunlight heats a liquid to generate electricity). It’s renewable and non-polluting.
Erodibility
A parameter expressing soil’s susceptibility to erosion. It depends on soil type (structure, permeability), slope, and vegetation cover, and is calculated using indices based on these factors.
Erosivity
A parameter measuring the erosion capacity of the predominant geological agent. It depends on weather and is calculated using indices based on precipitation, temperature, etc.
Eutrophication
Nutrient enrichment of waters (rivers, lakes) causing increased productivity in aquatic ecosystems, often due to agricultural and urban contamination with nitrogen and phosphorus compounds. It alters ecosystems, affecting biodiversity and water quality.
Exposure
A risk factor representing the total population, species, or ecosystems at risk (called value). With the same hazard, vulnerability, and risk, damage can vary depending on exposure.
Limiting Factors of Primary Production
Environmental factors limiting the growth of producers in an ecosystem, defining its carrying capacity. Key factors include phosphorus, temperature, and water availability.
Activated Sludge
A biological secondary treatment process in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to remove organic matter from sewage. Aerobic decomposer microorganisms grow in an aerated and agitated tank, producing sludge removed by sedimentation in secondary clarifiers.
Cold Drop (Gota Fría)
A late-summer weather phenomenon in Spain’s eastern region, caused by a cold air mass entering at altitude from the subpolar zone and interacting with warm, moist air from the Mediterranean. It causes heavy rains, hail, and flooding.
Vertical Temperature Gradient (GVT)
The change in air temperature with altitude. The average is a 0.65°C decrease per 100m rise (0.65°C/100m), but it varies with altitude, latitude, season, and time of day. Variations are shown on a performance curve (X-axis: temperature, Y-axis: altitude).
Ecological Footprint
A measure of a population’s total environmental impact, expressed as the land area needed to produce consumed resources and absorb emitted CO2.
Environmental Impact
Any change in the environment caused by human activity, altering its natural state, composition, and conditions. Impacts can be positive or negative, but are usually negative, damaging the environment’s initial quality.
Environmental Indicators
Variables reflecting human pressure on the environment (pressure indicators), the resulting environmental impact (state indicators), or human efforts related to the environment (response indicators). Example: CO2 emissions.
Immission
The amount of contaminant in a specific atmospheric location after release, transport, distribution, mixing, processing, or deposition by chemical reactions. It determines air quality and exposure levels for living things and materials.
Earthquake Intensity
A measure of earthquake size based on observed effects at a specific location, using scales like the Mercalli scale. Intensity varies with distance from the hypocenter.
Temperature Inversion
When tropospheric temperature increases with altitude instead of decreasing, creating stable atmospheric conditions that slow vertical air movement. This occurs during long, cold winter nights.
Trickling Filters
A biological secondary treatment process in WWTPs to remove organic matter from sewage. Sewage passes through tanks with inert material where aerobic decomposer microorganisms adhere.
Earthquake Magnitude
A measure of earthquake size based on the energy released, independent of location. It’s determined by studying seismic waves, often using the Richter scale.
Risk Maps
Cartographic representations showing the severity, geographic distribution, and return time of catastrophic events, often based on historical records. They may also include vulnerability, exposure, or data on all three factors.
Environment
All physical, chemical, biological, and social components and their direct or indirect, short-term or long-term effects on human life and activities, and the interactions between them.
Ecological Niche
The set of environmental conditions, resources, trophic connections, and relationships with other living beings that sustain a species in an ecosystem. It’s the species’ role or function in the ecosystem.
Trophic Level (MTL)
A group of organisms in an ecosystem with the same food source. These include producers (autotrophs), primary consumers (herbivores), secondary consumers (carnivores), tertiary consumers (supercarnivores), and decomposers.
Spatial Planning
Determining the most appropriate use for each area based on its capacity to host activities, delineating areas subject to risks (e.g., earthquakes), and regulating land use accordingly.
Hazard
The probability of a potentially harmful phenomenon occurring in a specific place within a given time, based on its severity, return time, and geographic distribution.