| Title | Definition |
|---|---|
| Sustainable Land Management (SLM) |
SLM is defined as the use of land resources, including soils, water, animals and plants, for the production of goods to meet changing human needs, while simultaneously ensuring the long-term... read more |
| Sustainable use |
the uses of the biological products and ecological services of ecosystems in a manner and at a rate that does not reduce the system’s ability to provide those products and... read more |
| System |
In the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, reporting units that are ecosystem-based but at a level of aggregation far higher than that usually applied to ecosystems. Thus the system includes many... read more |
| Threshold |
A point or level at which new properties emerge in an ecological, economic, or other system, invalidating predictions based on mathematical relationships that apply at lower levels. For example,... read more |
| Vulnerability |
Exposure to contingencies and stress, and the difficulty in coping with them. Three major dimensions of vulnerability are involved: exposure to stresses, perturbations, and shocks; the sensitivity... read more |
| Water quality |
The level of purity of water; the safety or purity of drinking water. |
| Water quality testing |
monitoring water for various contaminants to make sure it is safe for fish protection, drinking, and swimming. |
| Water scarcity |
A water supply that limits food production, human health, and economic development. Severe scarcity is taken to be equivalent to 1,000 cubic meters per year per person or greater than 40% use... read more |
| Water Table, Perched (Perched Ground Water Table) |
The upper surface of a local zone of soil water saturation held above the main body of groundwater by an impermeable layer or stratum, (usually clay) and separated from the main body of... read more |
| Watershed |
a region or area over which water flows into a particular lake, reservoir, stream, or river. |
| Well |
a dug or drilled hole used to get water from the earth. |
| Wetland |
land (marshes or swamps) saturated with water constantly or recurrently; conducive to wide biodiversity [fn]... read more |
| Wilderness |
land remaining in basically wild (i.e., undisturbed) condition, with few if any traces of human activities. |