Just in time
Production system in which parts are delivered as needed to the assembly line so that parts are not warehoused, stored, or overproduced.
Fordist
Manufacturing system in which raw materials are brought into a central location and component parts and the final product are produced at the same location and then shipped globally.
Mesas
A mountain or hill with a flat top and steep sides that is formed by erosion of horizontally layered rock in arid to semi-arid regions.
Forced migration
Movement of people across country borders where the migrants are coerced to relocate.
Gentrification
Renewal or rebuilding of a lower income neighborhood into a middle to upper class neighborhood, which results in driving up property values and rents and the dispossession of lower income residents.
Megalopolis
A urban agglomeration that stretches from Washington, DC, the to south to Boston, Massachusetts, in the north.
Land cover
Categories of vegetative and physical properties of earth, for example, forest or grassland.
Central business district (CBD)
The zone of a city where businesses cluster and around which a city and its infrastructure are typically built.
Fall line
A change in the bedrock under a river, typically designated by falls. Divides the navigable part of the river (below the fall line) from the interior.
Assimilation
A policy used to change the culture of indigenous peoples by encouraging or forcing indigenous peoples to end their cultural practices and adopt the cultural practices of the assimilator.
Sovereignty
A legal authority to have the last say over a territory.
Step migration
A migration flow in which the migrants stay for short periods of time at different locations or steps along the path to their final destination.
Plateaus
An elevated, flat region created by uplift along a fault, by glacial erosion, or by pooling of magma in volcanic eruptions.
Striations
Cuts in bedrock carved by glaciers that run the same direction as a glacier advanced.
Push factors
Circumstances a migrant considers when deciding where to migrate.
Mid-oceanic ridge
Parallel mountain ridges formed where two plates are diverging or pulling apart on the ocean floor.
Urban sprawl
The expansion of low-density urban areas around a city.
Tree line
The transitional border beyond which (either at higher elevations or higher latitudes), trees no longer grow.
Voluntary migration
Movement of people across country borders where the migrant chooses to cross the border after weighing push and pull factors.
Mountaintop mining
Method of surface coal mining where the ridge or top of a mountain is blasted off to reach an underlying coal seam.
Post-Fordist
Just-in-time production where component parts are manufactured around the world, shipped to a single location, assembled, and then shipped anywhere in the world.
Treaties
Agreements between two or more countries, which are binding under international law.
Three major topographical regions of North America
mountains, the Canadian Shield, and lowlands
Orographic
relating to mountains, especially with regard to their position and form. Also refers to their influence on weather patterns.
