G
Gabions: steel wire mesh filled with boulders used in coastal defences.
Gap Town: a town that grows at a gap in the hills.
Gap Town: a town located at a gap between hills, providing a good
defensive site and route centre that led to a trade and market function.
Gap: This is a low point along a line of hills or mountains through
which roads and railways can pass through.
Garrigue: In geography terms, a garrigue is an evergreen vegetation of
the Mediterranean regions. They are xerophytic in nature for instance, rosemary
and thyme.
GATT: It is an acronym for General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Gelifluction: In a geography glossary, gelifluction means downward
movement of rock debris and water filled soil, which moves over the frozen
surface.
General Circulation: The circular motion of the global flow patterns is
called general circulation.
Gentrification: a process by which run-down houses in an inner city or
other neglected area are improved by better off (affluent) people who move
there in order to have easier access to the jobs and services of the city
centre. The 'improving' social group changes attract more people of the similar
wealthier social group.
Geographic Information System (GIS): A geographic information system
(GIS), or geographical information system captures, stores, analyzes, manages,
and presents data of a particular location.
Geologic Time: The time which refers to the formation and development of
the Earth is known as geologic time.
Geological Structure: see bedding planes, angle of dip and fault.
Geomorphology: The study of the arrangement and form of the Earth's
crust and of the relationship between these physical features and the geologic
structures beneath.
Geosphere: The nonliving parts of the Earth: the lithosphere, the
atmosphere, the cryosphere, and the hydrosphere.
Geostationary Orbit: The orbit that is 35,900 km above Earth's equator,
which has the same time of rotation as the Earth's is known as geostationary
orbit.
Geothermal: Geothermal refers to the heat that originates from the
Earth. More on geothermal energy and its advantages.
Ghetto: an urban district containing a high proportion of one particular
ethnic group. The term ghetto comes from the district of Geto in medieval
Venice which was reserved for Jews.
Ghetto: Originally, the section of a European city to which Jews were
restricted. Today, this is commonly defined as a section of a city occupied by
members of a minority group who live there because of social restrictions on
their residential choice.
Glacial Diversion: A shift in the periglacial stream due to a glacial
action is known as glacial diversion.
Glacial Landform: Landforms such as mountains, large plateaus, plains
and valleys that are created by the deposition of ice are known as glacial landforms.
Glacial Movement: The movement of glacier caused by the melting of ice
as there is friction between the ice and the surface is known as glacial
movement due to basal slipping.
Glacial till: The mass of rocks and finely ground material carried by a glacier,
then deposited when the ice melted. This creates an unstratified material of
varying composition.
Glacial Trough: A steep valley forming an U-shape, which comes down from
the cirque is known as glacial trough. These troughs are created by glacial excavation.
Glacial Trough: see Glaciated Valley.
Glaciated Valley a river valley widened and deepened by the action of
glaciers (ice sheets); they become ‘U’-shaped instead of the normal ‘V’-shape
of a river valley.
Glaciated Valley a river valley widened and deepened by the action of
glaciers (ice sheets); they become ‘U’-shaped instead of the normal ‘V’-shape
of a river valley.
Glaciation: Having been covered with a glacier or subject to glacial
epochs.
Glacier: A huge mass of ice formed by accumulation of snow is called a
glacier.
Glacier: A thick mass of ice resulting from compacted snow that forms
when more snow accumulates than melts annually.
Glacier: an sheet of ice that moves slowly down a river valley under the
influence of gravity. This is often described as a river of ice.
Global Dimming: Global dimming is the gradual reduction in the amount of
global direct irradiance at the Earth's surface that was observed for several
decades after the start of systematic measurements in the 1950s.
Global Economy: industrial location is no longer linked to one specific
country; choices of location are global and depend on strategies to sell the
maximum number of products with the lowest costs possible. SeeOverseas
Competition.
Global Warming: The gradual increase in the Earth's temperature due to
entrapment of greenhouse gases is known as global warming.
Globalisation: This is the trend where people are becoming more
interconnected and interdependent. Information technology is driving this trend
by enabling companies to move money and ideas instantly at the click of a
mouse. The ways in which goods and information are moved between countries are
becoming easier.
Globe: A true-to-scale map of the Earth that duplicates its round shape
and correctly represents areas, relative size, and shape of physical features,
distances, and directions.
Goods: Things made by people to sell in a market.
Gorge: A steep and narrow valley, which has steep rocky sides is called
a gorge.
Gorge: a steep-sided, narrow rocky valley marking the retreat of a
waterfall.
Government Disincentives (Controls): include Green Belt and Industrial
Development Certificates.
Government Incentives: include Grants, Labour Subsidies, Tax-Free
Periods, Rent-Free Periods, Removal of Planning Controls, improvements in
Infrastructure and Communications, Purpose-Built Factories, Greenfield Sites,
worker Retraining schemes and New Towns.
Government Policy: aims at attracting labour-intensive industries e.g.
assembly plants to areas of high unemployment. UK has been called 'Taiwan of
Europe' with Japanese trans-nationals locating their branch plants in areas of
cheapest labour, taking advantage of government grants. See Government
Disincentivesand Government Incentives.
Graben: It is the layer of Earth's crust which lies at the end of a rift
valley due to subsidence of its two sides.
Gradient: The slope of the land.
Gradient: the slope of the river profile, steep close to the source and
gradually becoming more gentle until the river reaches sea level.
Grain Mountains: huge surpluses of cereal crops in the EU, stored at
very high cost.
Grants: money paid to an industry towards the cost of new machinery,
training etc. These are given in Development Areas to attract new industry.
Gravitational Water: The water in a soil, which percolates to the force
of gravity is known as gravitational water.
Great circle route: The shortest distance between two places on the
Earth's surface. The route follows a line described by the intersection of the
surface with an imaginary plane passing through the Earth's center.
Green Belt: A belt or a large area which is covered with green pastures
is called a green belt.
Green Belt: A protected area of countryside around a city where new
building is not allowed to try and stop the spread of a city.
Green Belt: An area around a city, composed mostly of parkland and
farmland, in which development is strictly controlled. Its purpose is to
prevent the outward growth of the city, preserve countryside for farming,
wildlife and recreation, and, often to prevent two or more cities from merging
to form one huge urban area.
Green Revolution: A major increase in agricultural activity by using
high-yield grains, effective pesticides, and improved management techniques is
known as green revolution.
Green Revolution: the attempt to improve the productivity crops in LEDCs
which began in the 1960s with the breeding of new high-yielding varieties of
wheat and rice.
Greenbelt: a zone of farmland, parkland or open countryside which
surrounds an urban area and is designed to prevent urban sprawl. The zone is
protected from new developments by law.
Greenfield land: a term used to describe a piece of undeveloped rural
land, either currently used for agriculture or just left to nature.
Greenfield Site: an industrial site often located on the edge of of
town, previously used for farming or other rural activity.
Greenhouse Effect: In geography terms, greenhouse effect is a term used
to describe a phenomenon wherein the Earth traps solar radiation due to
atmospheric carbon dioxide, water vapor and methane and radiates the heat back
to the Earth's surface. More on what is the greenhouse effect.
Greenwich Mean Time: Standard time for the British Isles, being the time
of Greenwich Observatory.
Grid References: Any location in the United Kingdom can be described in
terms of its distance from the origin (0,0), which lies to the west of the
Scilly Isles. Grid references are always presented in terms of
eastings(distance east from the origin) and northings (distance north from the
origin). Increasing easting numbers indicate you are heading east; decreasing
indicate you are heading west. Increasing northing numbers indicate you are
heading north; decreasing indicate you are heading south.
Grid: A pattern of lines on a chart or map, such as those representing
latitude and longitude, which helps determine absolute location.
Grid: A grid is a pattern of squares on your map which serve to fix your
position. Coordinates will provide numbers that allow you to find a horizontal
line and also a vertical line and follow them to the point of intersection,
placing you at the bottom left-hand corner (south-west) of a particular grid.
Grinding: see Abrasion.
Gross National Product (GNP) per capita: the total value of goods
produced and services provided by a country in a year, divided by the total
number of people living in that country.
Gross National Product (GNP) per capita: the total value of goods
produced and services provided by a country in a year, divided by the total
number of people living in that country.
Gross National Product (GNP): The wealth of a country. Its total income
divided by its total population.
Ground Moraine: moraine at the base of the glacier, a result of abrasion
and plucking of the valley floor.
Groundwater: It is the reserve or a store of water created by
percolation of water into the soil or into layers of bedrock.
Growing season: The period from the average date of the last frost to
the first frost in the fall.
Groyne: a wooden barrier built out into the sea to stop the longshore
drift of sand and shingle, and so cause the beach to grow. It is used to build
beaches to protect against cliff erosion and provide an important tourist
amenity. However, by trapping sediment it deprives another area, down-drift, of
new beach material (beach replenishment). See Rock Strongpoints.
Guaranteed Prices: a type of farm subsidy: the farmer is guaranteed a
minimum price for everything produced.
Guest-Worker Migration: people leaving their country to work in another
land but not to settle: the term is associated with unskilled/semi -skilled
labour.
