A
- 100-percent data
- Information based on a limited number of basic population and housing questions collected from every inhabitant and housing unit in the United States.
- Accuracy 1
- The validity of data measured with respect to an independent source of higher reliability and precision.
- Active Management Areas 2
- Specific geographic areas established to provide long-term management and conservation of limited groundwater supplies. AMA's administer state laws, explore ways of augmenting water supplies to meet future needs, and routinely work to develop public policy in order to promote efficient use and an equitable allocation of available water supplies.
- Age
- Age is generally derived from date of birth information, and is based on the age of the person in complete years.
- Aggravated Assault 3
- Aggravated assault is an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. This type of assault is usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm.
- American Indian Areas
- A Census Bureau term referring to these types of geographic areas: federal and state American Indian reservations, tribal designated statistical area, and state designated American Indian statistical area.
- American Indian Reservation - federal
- Areas with boundaries established by treaty, statute, and/or executive or court order recognized by the federal government as territory in which American Indian tribes have primary governmental authority. The U.S. Census Bureau contacts representatives of American Indian tribal governments to identify the boundaries. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) maintains a list of federally recognized tribal governments.
- Amphibian Species Richness
- - see Species Richness
- Ancestry
- Refers to a person's self-identification of heritage, ethnic origin, descent, or close identification to an ethnic group.
- Aquifer 4
- A water-bearing layer of rock or sediment capable of yielding supplies of water; typically is unconsolidated deposits or sandstone, limestone or granite. Can be classified as confined or unconfined.
- Arc 1
- A line represented as a set of sequential points.
- Area
- The size, in square miles or square meters, recorded for each geographic entity.
- Arson Rates 3
- Any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, personal property of another, etc.
- Attribute 1
- A characteristic of a feature that contains a measurement or value for the feature. Attributes can be labels, categories, or numbers; they can be dates, standardized values, or field or other measurements. An item for which data are collected and organized. A column in a table or data file.
- Average
- The number found by dividing the sum of all quantities by the total number of quantities.
B
- Bird Species Richness
- - see Species Richness
- Border 1
- The area between the neat line and the edge of the medium or display area on which a map is being displayed. Occasionally, information can be placed within the border, but this area is usually left blank.
- Boundary
- The extent or limit of a geographic area such as a block, census tract, county, or place. A boundary may or may not follow a visible geographic physical feature.
- Bounding rectangle 1
- The rectangular region defined by the maximum extent of a map feature in the x and y directions. All parts of the feature must lie within or on the edge of the bounding rectangle.
- Breast Cancer 5
- A malignant (cancerous) growth that begins in the tissues of the breast. Over the course of a lifetime, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer.
- Browse 1
- A method of search involving repeated examination of records until a suitable one is found.
- Burglary Rates 3
- The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft. Attempted forcible entry is included.
C
- Cardiovascular Disease 6
- Refers to conditions and diseases of the heart and blood vessels, including, but not limited to, coronary artery disease, heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure and congenital heart disease.
- Cartographic elements 1
- The primitive component part out of which a map is assembled, such as the neat line, legend, scale, titles, figure, and so on.
- Cartography 1
- The science, art, and technology of making, using, and studying maps.
- Census
- A complete enumeration, usually of a population, but also of businesses and commercial establishments, farms, governments, and so forth.
- Central Arizona Project
- The Central Arizona Project brings approximately 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water to farmers, Indian Tribes, and rapidly growing cities in central Arizona. The 1968 Colorado River Basin Project Act authorized the CAP; construction began in 1973 and was substantially completed twenty years later. The purpose of the CAP is to reduce dependence on dwindling groundwater resources by providing a stable, renewable supply of water.
- Census (decennial)
- The census of population and housing, taken by the Census Bureau in years ending in 0 (zero). Article I of the Constitution requires that a census be taken every ten years for the purpose of reapportioning the U.S. House of Representatives.
- Census designated place (CDP)
- A statistical entity, defined for each decennial census according to Census Bureau guidelines, comprising a densely settled concentration of population that is not within an incorporated place, but is locally identified by a name. CDPs are delineated cooperatively by state and local officials and the Census Bureau, following Census Bureau guidelines. Beginning with Census 2000 there are no size limits.
- Census geography
- A collective term referring to the types of geographic areas used by the Census Bureau in its data collection and tabulation operations, including their structure, designations, and relationships to one another.
- Chlamydia 5
- An infection caused by the organism Chlamydia trachomatis. It is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States. Sexually active individuals and individuals with multiple partners are at highest risk. Chlamydia may be acquired jointly with gonorrhea and/or syphilis. Untreated chlamydia can lead to pelvic infection and infertility.
- City
- A type of incorporated place in 49 states and the District of Columbia. In 23 states and the District of Columbia, some or all cities are not part of any Minor Civil Division (MCD), and the Census Bureau also treats these as county subdivisions, statistically equivalent to MCDs.
- Clarity 1
- The property of visual representation using the absolute minimum amount of symbolism necessary for the map user to understand map content without error.
- Climate 7
- The average of weather over at least a 30-year period. Note that the climate taken over different periods of time (30 years, 1000 years) may be different. The old saying is climate is what we expect and weather is what we get.
- Coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) 8
- An infection in the lungs caused by a fungus (scientific name Coccidioides immitis) that grows in the soil in the southern and central portions of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and the southern portions of Nevada and Utah.
- Color balance 1
- The achievement of visual harmony between colors on a map, primarily by avoiding colors that show simultaneous contrast when adjacent to each other.
- Compression 1
- Any technique that reduces the physical file size of data in a spatial or other data format.
- Coordinate pair 1
- An easting and northing in any coordinate system, absolute or relative. Together these two values, usually termed (x, y) describe a location in two-dimensional geographic space.
- Coordinate system 1
- A system with all the necessary components to locate a position in two- or three-dimensional space: that is, an origin, a type of unit distance, and axes.
D
- Data 1
- A set of measurements or other values, such as text for at least one attribute and at least one record.
- Data dictionary 1
- The part of a database containing information about the files, records, and attributes rather than just the data.
- Data format 1
- A specification of a physical data structure for a feature or record.
- Data retrieval 1
- The ability of a database management system to get back from computer memory records that were previously stored there.
- Data structure 1
- The logical and physical means by which a map feature or an attribute is digitally encoded.
- Database 1
- The body of data that can be used in a database management system. A GIS has both a map and an attribute database.
- Database manager 1
- A computer program or set of programs that allows a user to define the structure and organization of a database, to enter and maintain records in the database, to perform sorting, data reorganization, and searching, and to generate useful products such as reports and graphs.
- Datum 1
- A base reference level for the third dimension of elevation for the earth's surface. A datum can depend on the ellipsoid, the earth model, and the definition of sea level.
- DBMS 1
- Database management system. Part of a GIS, the set of tools that allow the manipulation and use of files containing attribute data.
- Decennial census
- The census of population and housing, taken by the Census Bureau in years ending in 0 (zero). Article I of the Constitution requires that a census be taken every ten years for the purpose of reapportioning the U.S. House of Representatives.
- Default 1
- The value of a parameter or a selection provided for the user by the GIS without user modification.
- Distortion 1
- The space distortion of a map projection, consisting of warping of direction, area, and scale across the extent of the map.
- Download 1
- To move a file across a network for eventual residence locally.
- Dueker's definition (of GIS) 1
- "A special case of information systems where the database consists of observations on spatially distributed features, activities or events, which are definable in space as points, lines, or areas. A geographic information system manipulates data about these points, lines, and areas to retrieve data for ad hoc queries and analyses."
E
- Ecoregions
- A large region, usually spanning several million hectares, characterized by having similar biota, climate, and physiography (topography, hydrology, etc).
- Educational attainment
- Refers to the highest level of education completed in terms of the highest degree or the highest level of schooling completed.
- Elementary school
- A school inclusive of kindergarten through either the eighth or ninth grade, or the first through either the eighth or ninth grade. It can include both elementary and intermediate or middle schools.
- Elevation 1
- The vertical height above a datum, in units such as meters or feet.
- Employed
- Employed includes all civilians 16 years old and over who were either (1) "at work" -- those who did any work at all during the reference week as paid employees, worked in their own business or profession, worked on their own farm, or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers on a family farm or in a family business; or (2) were "with a job but not at work" -- those who did not work during the reference week but had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent due to illness, bad weather, industrial dispute, vacation, or other personal reasons. Excluded from the employed are people whose only activity consisted of work around the house or unpaid volunteer work for religious, charitable, and similar organizations; also excluded are people on active duty in the United States Armed Forces. The reference week is the calendar week preceding the date on which the respondents completed their questionnaires or were interviewed. This week may not be the same for all respondents.
- EPA Regions 9
- There are 10 EPA Regional Offices covering the United States. Each EPA Regional Office is responsible within its states for the execution of the Agency's programs.
- Export 1
- The capability of a GIS to write data out into an external file and into a non-native format for use outside the GIS, or in another GIS.
- Extent
- The coordinates defining the minimum bounding rectangle (that is, xmin, ymin and xmax, ymax) of a data source. All coordinates for the data source fall within this boundary. For example, to view a map at "full extent" means that you will see the entire map zoomed out as far as it can go.
F
- Family
- A group of two or more people who reside together and who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption.
- Family household (Family)
- A family includes a householder and one or more people living in the same household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. All people in a household who are related to the householder are regarded as members of his or her family. A family household may contain people not related to the householder, but those people are not included as part of the householder's family in census tabulations. Thus, the number of family households is equal to the number of families, but family households may include more members than do families. A household can contain only one family for purposes of census tabulations. Not all households contain families since a household may comprise a group of unrelated people or one person living alone.
- Fault
- A fracture or break in the Earth's crust along which one side of the break is pushed up, down, or sideways.
- Feature
- A representation of a real-world object in a layer on a map.
- Field 1
- The contents of one attribute for one record, as written in a file.
- Firearm Deaths 10
- Firearm related fatalities include unintentionally inflicted firearm injuries, suicides, homicides, fatal injuries inflicted by the police or other law-enforcement agents, and firearm fatalities of undetermined intent.
- Flood 11
- An overflow of water onto lands that are used or usable by man and not normally covered by water. Floods have two essential characteristics: The inundation of land is temporary; and the land is adjacent to and inundated by overflow from a river, stream, lake, or ocean.
- Flood, 100-year 11
- A 100-year flood does not refer to a flood that occurs once every 100 years, but to a flood level with a 1 percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.
- Format 1
- The specific organization of a digital record.
G
- Geographic coordinates 1
- The latitude and longitude coordinate system.
- Geographic entity
- A geographic unit of any type, legal or statistical, such as a state, county, place, county subdivision, census tract, or census block.
- Geographic information science 1
- Research on the generic issues that surround the use of GIS technology, impede its implementation, or emerge from an understanding of its capabilities.
- Geographic Information Systems Information 13
- Computer hardware and software for storing, retrieving, manipulating, and analyzing spatial data.
- Geographic pattern 1
- A spatial distribution explainable as a repetitive distribution.
- Geographic search 1
- A find operation in a GIS that uses spatial properties as its basis.
- Geographic(al) information system 1
- (1) A set of computer tools for analyzing spatial data
- (2) A special case of an information system designed for spatial data
- (3) An approach to the scientific analysis and use of spatial data
- (4) A multibillion- dollar industry and business.
- Geography (census)
- A collective term referring to the types of geographic areas used by the Census Bureau in its data collection and tabulation operations, including their structure, designations, and relationships to one another.
- Geography 1
- The science concerned with all aspects of the earth's surface, including natural and human divisions, the distribution and differentiation of regions, and the role of humankind in changing the face of the earth.
- GIF 1
- An industry standard raster graphic or image format.
- Gonorrhea 5
- A sexually transmitted disease (commonly known as "the clap") caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhea. Gonorrhea is one of the most common infectious diseases. Anyone who has any type of sex can catch gonorrhea. The infection can be spread through the mouth, vagina, penis, or anus.
- Grade in which enrolled
- The level of enrollment in school, nursery school through college and graduate or professional school.
- Grandfathered Groundwater Rights Irrigation Non–expansion 2
- Grandfathered Rights are derived from past water use. INE is a geographic area that has been designated as having insufficient groundwater to provide a reasonably safe supply for the irrigation of the cultivated lands at the current rate of withdrawal.
- Grandfathered Groundwater Rights AMA 2
- Unless agricultural irrigation occurred between 1975 and 1980 and the user received an irrigation grandfathered right for those historic agricultural acres, no land may be put into production within an Active Management Area. Only those lands that have been certified, based on historic water use, may continue to be irrigated with groundwater.
- Ground Water
- The supply of fresh water found beneath the Earth's surface, usually in aquifers, which supply wells and springs. Because ground water is a major source of drinking water, there is growing concern over contamination from leaching agricultural or industrial pollutants or leaking underground storage tanks.
- Groundwater Basin 12
- An area underlain by permeable materials capable of furnishing a significant supply of groundwater to wells or storing a significant amount of water.
H
- Habitat13
- The place where a population (e.g. human, animal, plant, microorganism) lives and its surroundings, both living and non-living.
- Hepatitis A 14
- A liver disease caused by a virus found in the stool (bowel movement) of infected people. This disease is usually spread by household or sexual contact with a person who is infected with hepatitis A or by eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water.
- Hepatitis B 14
- An infection of the liver caused by a virus. This virus causes a flu-like illness with loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, rashes, joint pain and jaundice (yellowing of the eyes and skin). Hepatitis B usually spreads through contact with blood or other body fluids from someone who is acutely or chronically infected. This can happen through sexual contact, by sharing a razor or a toothbrush, by sharing needles used to inject drugs, or by being tattooed with a shared needle.
- High school
- Includes schools with either the ninth through the twelfth grade or the tenth through the twelfth grades.
- Homicide
- - see Murder
- Household
- A household includes all the people who occupy a housing unit as their usual place of residence.
- Household size
- The total number of people living in a housing unit.
- Housing unit
- A house, an apartment, a mobile home or trailer, a group of rooms, or a single room occupied as separate living quarters, or if vacant, intended for occupancy as separate living quarters. Separate living quarters are those in which the occupants live separately from any other individuals in the building and which have direct access from outside the building or through a common hall. For vacant units, the criteria of separateness and direct access are applied to the intended occupants whenever possible.
I
- Image map 1
- A map that in two dimensions shares many of the characteristics of a map, that is, cartographic geometry, some symbols, a scale and projection, and so on, but is a continuous image taken from an air photo, a satellite image, or a scanner. A scanned paper map used as a backdrop in a GIS becomes an image map.
- Import 1
- The capability of a GIS to bring data in an external file and in a non-native format for use within the GIS.
- Incidence Rate
- Depends on the statistic, but usually per 100,000 population
- Income
- "Total income" is the sum of the amounts reported separately for wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, or tips; self-employment income from own nonfarm or farm businesses, including proprietorships and partnerships; interest, dividends, net rental income, royalty income, or income from estates and trusts; Social Security or Railroad Retirement income; Supplemental Security Income (SSI); any public assistance or welfare payments from the state or local welfare office; retirement, survivor, or disability pensions; and any other sources of income received regularly such as Veterans' (VA) payments, unemployment compensation, child support, or alimony.
- Incorporated place
- A type of governmental unit incorporated under state law as a city, town (except the New England states, New York, and Wisconsin), borough (except in Alaska and New York), or village and having legally prescribed limits, powers, and functions.
- Intensity 1
- The amount of light emitted or reflected per unit area. A map that has high intensity appears bright.
- Irrigation Non-Expansion 2
- A geographic area that has been designated as having insufficient groundwater to provide a reasonably safe supply for the irrigation of the cultivated lands at the current rate of withdrawal.
L
- Labor force
- The labor force includes all people classified in the civilian labor force, plus members of the U.S. Armed Forces (people on active duty with the United States Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard). The Civilian Labor Force consists of people classified as employed or unemployed
- Related terms: Employed, Unemployed
- Lake
- A body of fresh or salt water entirely surrounded by land.
- Land-cover map 1
- A map showing the type of actual surface covering at a given time. Categories could be grassland, forest land, cropland, bare rock, and so on.
- Land-use map 1
- A map showing the human use to which land is put at a given time. Categories could be pasture, national forestland, agricultural land, wasteland, and so on.
- Larceny Theft 3
- The unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another. Examples are thefts of bicycles or automobile accessories, shoplifting, pocket-picking, or the stealing of any property or article which is not taken by force and violence or by fraud.
- Latitude 1
- The angle made between the equator, the earth's geometric center, and a point on or above the surface. The south pole has latitude -90 degrees, the north +90 degrees.
- Legend
- The part of a map that lists and explains the colors, symbols, line patterns, shadings, and annotations used on the map.
- Line 1
- A one-dimensional (length) map feature represented by a string of connected coordinates.
- Line feature 1
- A geographic feature recorded on a map as a sequence of locations tracing out a line. An example is a stream.
- Location 1
- A position on the earth's surface or in geographic space definable by coordinates or some other referencing system, such as a street address or space indexing system.
- Longitude 1
- The angle formed between a position on or above the earth, the earth's geometric center, and the meridian passing through the center of the observing instrument in Greenwich, England, as projected down onto the plane of the earth's equator or viewed from above the pole. Longitudes range from -180 (180 degrees West) to +180 (180 degrees East).
- Lung Cancer 5
- Cancer that begins in the lungs, the two organs found in the chest that help you breathe. When you breathe, air goes through your nose, down your windpipe (trachea), and into the lungs where it spreads through tubes called bronchi. Most lung cancer begins in the cells that line these tubes. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer.
M
- Mammal Species Richness
- -see Species Richness
- Map 1
- A depiction of all or part of the earth or other geographic phenomenon as a set of symbols and at a scale whose representative fraction is less than 1:1. A digital map has had the symbols geocoded and stored as a data structure within the map database.
- Map projection 1
- A depiction of the earth's three-dimensional structure on a flat map.
- Map title 1
- Text that identifies the coverage and content of a map. This is usually a major map element and can be worded to show the map theme or the map's content.
- Map type 1
- One of the set of cartographic methods or representation techniques used by cartographers to make maps of particular types of data. Data, by their attributes and dimensions, usually determine which map types are suitable in a map context.
- Maximum daily temperature 7
- The highest temperature reached at any point during a 24 hour period defined as midnight to midnight local standard time rounded to the nearest whole degree.
- Mean 1
- A representative value for an attribute, computed as the sum of the attribute values for all records divided by the number of records.
- Mean # of Days >=90 degrees Fahrenheit 16
- The mean monthly values were computed by taking the 30-year mean of the count of days where the maximum temperature was at or above 90 degrees Fahrenheit for a given month.
- Mean # of Days <=32 degrees Fahrenheit 16
- The mean monthly values were computed by taking the 30-year mean of the count of days where the minimum temperature was at or below 32 degrees Fahrenheit for a given month.
- Mean Daily Temperature 7
- The average of the highest and lowest temperatures during a 24-hour period.
- Mean Relative Humidity 16
- The mean monthly values were computed by taking the 30-year mean of the monthly means.
- Mean Total Snowfall 16
- The mean monthly values were computed by taking the 30-year mean of the sum of daily snowfall values for a given month.
- Motor Vehicle Theft 3
- The theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle. A motor-vehicle is defined as self-propelled and runs on the surface and not on rails. Excluded are motorboats, construction equipment, airplanes and farming equipment.
- Median
- This measure represents the middle value (if n is odd) or the average of the two middle values (if n is even) in an ordered list of data values. The median divides the total frequency distribution into two equal parts: one-half of the cases fall below the median and one-half of the cases exceed the median.
- Meridian 1
- A line of constant longitude. All meridians are of equal length on the globe.
- Metadata 1
- Data about data. Index-type information pertaining to the entire data set rather than the objects within the data set. Metadata usually includes the date, source, map projection, scale, resolution, accuracy, and reliability.
- Mine
- A pit or excavation in the earth from which mineral substances are taken; an ore deposit
- Mineral
- A naturally occurring inorganic element or compound having an orderly internal structure and characteristic chemical composition.
- Minimum daily temperature 15
- The lowest temperature reached at any point during a 24 hour period defined as midnight to midnight local standard time rounded to the nearest whole degree.
- Motor Vehicle Thefts 3
- The theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle. A motor-vehicle is defined as a self-propelled and runs on the surface and not on rails. Excluded are motorboats, construction equipment, airplanes and farming equipment.
- Murder 3
- The willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another. Deaths caused by negligence, attempts to kill, assaults to kill, suicide, and accidental deaths are excluded.
N
- National Spatial Data Clearinghouse 1
- A World Wide Web resource that serves as a cross-reference point for the distributed database of all U. S. government public-domain and other geographic information.
- National spatial data infrastructure 1
- The set of base geographic data necessary for effective operation of the federal government and its suppliers, made accessible as a distributed database.
- Nationality
- The status of belonging to a particular nation by birth, origin or naturalization.
- NBII
- National Biological Information Infrastructure
- Neat line 1
- A solid bounding line forming the frame for the visually active part of a map.
- NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) 1
- A part of the Department of Commerce that is a provider of digital and other maps for navigation, weather prediction, and physical features of the United States.
P
- Per capita income
- Average obtained by dividing aggregate income by total population of an area.
- Percentage
- This measure is calculated by taking the number of items in a group possessing a characteristic of interest and dividing by the total number of items in that group, and then multiplying by 100.
- Place
- A concentration of population either legally bounded as an incorporated place, or identified as a Census Designated Place (CDP). Incorporated places have legal descriptions of city, town, or village.
- Point 1
- A zero-dimensional map feature, such as a single elevation mark as specified by at least two coordinates.
- Point feature 1
- A geographic feature recorded on a map as a location. Example: a single house.
- Polygon 1
- A many-sided area feature consisting of a ring and an interior. An example is a lake on a map.
- Population
- All people, male and female, child and adult, living in a given geographic area.
- Precipitation 4
- Moisture falling from the atmosphere in the form of rain, snow, sleet or hail
- Precision 1
- The number of digits used to record a measurement or which a measuring device is capable of providing.
- Prime meridian 1
- The line traced out by longitude zero and passing through Greenwich, England. The prime meridian forms the origin for the longitude part of the geographic coordinates and divides the eastern and western hemispheres.
- Privacy Act (US Bureau of Census)
- A 1974 act that places restrictions on the collection, use, maintenance, and release of information about individuals. It gives individuals the right to see records about themselves, to obtain copies of their records, to have records corrected or amended with Census Bureau approval, and to have a statement of disagreement filed in their records if the Census Bureau does not approve the correction or amendment.
- Privacy Notice (University of Arizona)
- The University of Arizona (UA) provides online information and services to students, employees and the public to supplement services provided on campus. This privacy statement provides information required by Arizona law about privacy, confidentiality and related policies for individuals who use our official websites and other electronic services. This statement applies to all information collected by or submitted to UA. It is not to be construed as a contractual promise. UA encourages its colleges, schools, departments, divisions and other units contributing to its official web pages to provide specific notices about the collection and use of any personal information associated with those pages. The following information is therefore general, and we encourage you to read page-specific notices to ensure that you understand precisely the applicable privacy policies and practices. Additional UA Policies provides information about the use of computing and communications systems at UA can be found at http://security.arizona.edu/privacy_statement.
- Property Crime 3
- Includes the offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.
- Public domain 1
- Information that has been made available to the general public and is distributed and redistributed without copyright or patent.
R
- RCRIS (Resource Conservation and Recovery Information Systems) now RCRAInfo.18
- RCRAInfo is the EPA’s comprehensive information system providing access for data supporting the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976 and the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) of 1984. The RCRAInfo characterizes facility status, regulated activities, and compliance histories and captures detailed data on the generation of hazardous waste from large quantity generators and on waste management practices from treatment, storage, and disposal facilities.
- Range 1
- The highest value of an attribute less the lowest, in the units of the attribute.
- Rape 3
- Rape is the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will. Rapes by force and attempts or assaults to rape regardless of the age of the victim are included.
- Rate
- This is a measure of occurrences in a given period of time divided by the possible number of occurrences during that period.
- Ratio
- This is a measure of the relative size of one number to a second number expressed as the quotient of the first number divided by the second.
- Reach 19
- The length of channel uniform with respect to discharge, depth, area, and slope.
- Recharge Area
- For decades, more groundwater has been pumped from Arizona’s aquifers for agricultural, municipal, and industrial uses than has naturally recharged back into the aquifers. This imbalance has left some aquifers significantly depleted. Recharging is the act of adding water to an aquifer. Recharge areas hold excess water supplies so that they may be used in the future.
- Record 1
- A set of values for all attributes in a database. Equivalent to a row in a data table.
- Reference map 1
- A highly generalized map type designed to show general spatial properties of features. Examples are world maps, road maps, atlas maps, and sketch maps. Sometimes used in navigation, often with a limited set of symbols and few data. A cartographic base reference map is often the base layer or framework in a GIS.
- Remote sensing
- A process of detecting or monitoring an area usually from the air or from space by measuring reflected or emitted radiation. Some satellites carry special instruments while orbiting the Earth to detect the amount of heat being emitted by the planet.
- Remotely sensed data 1
- Data collected by a sensor that is not in direct contact with the area being mapped. Active remote sensing involves transmitting a beam that is detected after reflection; passive remote sensing simply measures light from the sun being reflected by objects being sensed. Similar instruments for remote sensing can operate from aircraft or satellites.
- Representative fraction 1
- The ratio of a distance as represented on a map to the equivalent distance measured on the ground. Typical representative fractions are 1:1 million, 1:100,000, and 1:50,000.
- Reptiles Species Richness
- - see Species Richness
- Reservoir 11
- A pond, lake, or basin, either natural or artificial, for the storage, regulation, and control of water.
- Riparian 17
- Relating to or living or located on the bank of a natural watercourse (as a river) or sometimes of a lake or a tidewater.
- Riparian Habitat 13
- Areas adjacent to rivers and streams with a differing density, diversity, and productivity of plant and animal species relative to nearby uplands.
- Robbery 3
- The taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.
S
- Sample data 1
- Population and housing information collected from the census long form for a one in six sample of households in the United States and Puerto Rico, and on a continuous basis for selected areas in the American Community Survey.
- Sampling error
- Errors that occur because only part of the population is directly contacted. With any sample, differences are likely to exist between the characteristics of the sampled population and the larger group from which the sample was chosen. Sampling error, unlike nonsampling error, is measurable.
- Scale 1
- The geographic property of being reduced by the representative fraction. Scale is usually depicted on a map or can be calculated from features of known size.
- School District
- Geographic entities within which state, county, or local officials provide public educational services for the area's residents. The boundaries and names are provided by state officials.
- School enrollment
- Enrollment in regular school, either public or private, which includes nursery school, kindergarten, elementary school, and schooling which leads to a high school diploma or college degree.
- Sex
- An individual's gender classification - male or female.
- Shapefile
- A shapefile is a digital vector (non-topological) storage format for storing geometric location and associated attribute information. The Shapefile format is created by ArcView and can be used by ArcView, ARC/INFO, ArcGIS and other widely used GIS software (from USGS CMG InfoBank Definitions at: http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/infobank/programs/html/definition/shapefile.html).
- Spatial data 1
- Data that can be linked to locations in geographic space, usually via features on a map.
- Spatial data transfer standard (SDTS) 1
- The formal standard specifying the organization and mechanism for the transfer of GIS data between dissimilar computer systems. Adopted as FIPS 173 in 1992, SDTS specifies terminology, feature types, and accuracy specifications as well as a formal file transfer method for any generic geographic data. Subsets for the standard for specific types of data, vector, and raster, for example, are called profiles.
- Spatial distribution 1
- The locations of features or measurements observed in geographic space.
- Species 13
- 1. A reproductively isolated aggregate of interbreeding organisms having common attributes and usually designated by a common name.
- 2. An organism belonging to belonging to such a category.
- Species Richness
- The number of species of a particular interest group found in a given area.
- Spring
- Ground water seeping out of the earth where the water table intersects the ground surface.
- Standard parallel 1
- A parallel on a map projection that is secant and therefore distortion- free.
- State plane 1
- A coordinate system common in utility and surveying applications in the lower 48 United States and based on zones drawn state by state on transverse Mercator and Lambert conformal conic projections.
- Stream 11
- A general term for a body of flowing water; natural water course containing water at least part of the year. In hydrology, it is generally applied to the water flowing in a natural channel as distinct from a canal.
- Subsidence Areas 11
- Subsidence is a dropping of the land surface as a result of ground water being pumped. Cracks and fissures can appear in the land. Subsidence is virtually an irreversible process.
- Suicide 5
- Suicide is the act of deliberately taking one's own life.
- Superfund 13
- The program operated under the legislative authority of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (1980) (CERCLA) and the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA) that funds and carries out EPA solid waste emergency and long-term removal and remedial activities. These activities include establishing the National Priorities List, investigating sites for inclusion on the list, determining their priority, and conducting and/or supervising cleanup and other remedial actions.
- Surface water
- Water on the surface of the Earth exposed to the atmosphere, such as rain, snow, sleet, or hail.
- Survey 1
- A data collection activity involving observation or questionnaires for a sample of a population. (A census is a 100-percent sample survey; it collects information about every member of a population.) Surveys are normally less expensive to conduct than censuses; hence, they may be taken more frequently and can provide an information update between censuses. Often, they are used to collect a wider variety of information than is collected in a census
- Symbol 1
- An abstract graphic representation of a geographic feature for representation on a map. For example, the feature could be a canal, the symbol a blue line of a given thickness.
- Syphilis 5
- Syphilis is an infectious disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pallidum, which penetrates broken skin or mucous membranes. Transmission occurs most frequently by sexual contact. Congenital syphilis can be transmitted to the fetus during any stage in pregnancy. Syphilis is widespread in the United States and primarily involves sexually active adults between 20-29 years of age.
T
- Temperature 7
- The degree of hotness or coldness as measured on some definite temperature scale
- TIF 1
- An industry standard raster graphic or image format.
- Topology 1
- The numerical description of the relationships between geographic features, as encoded by adjacency, linkage, inclusion, or proximity. Thus a point can be inside a region, a line can connect to others, and a region can have neighbors.
- Tuberculosis 8
- A disease caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria usually attacks the lungs, but TB bacteria can attack any part of the body such as the kidney, spine, and brain. If not treated properly, TB disease can be fatal. TB is spread through the air from one person to another.
- Type of school
- Schools are designated as public or private institutions and are separated by levels of education offered, including: college, pre-primary, elementary or high school.
U
- Unemployed
- All civilians 16 years old and over are classified as unemployed if they (1) were neither "at work" nor "with a job but not at work" during the reference week, and (2) were actively looking for work during the last 4 weeks, and (3) were available to accept a job. Also included as unemployed are civilians who did not work at all during the reference week, were waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been laid off, and were available for work except for temporary illness.
- U.S. Census Bureau
- A part of the Department of Commerce that provides maps in support of the decennial (every 10 years) census of the United States, especially the census of population.
- USGS (U. S. Geological Survey)
- A part of the Department of the Interior and a major provider of digital map data for the United States.
- UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) 1
- A standardized coordinate system based on the metric system and a division of the earth into sixty 6-degree-wide zones. Each zone is projected onto a transverse Mercator projection, and the coordinate origins are located systematically. Both civilian and military versions exist.
V
- Valley Fever (Coccidioidomycosis) 8
- An infection in the lungs caused by a fungus (scientific name Coccidioides immitis) that grows in the soil in the southern and central portions of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and the southern portions of Nevada and Utah.
- Vector 1
- A map data structure using the point or node and the connecting segment as the basic building block for representing geographic features.
- Vegetation
- Plant life; growing plants.
- Violent Crime 3
- Composed of four offenses: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. All violent crimes involve force or threat of force.
W
- Watershed 13
- The land area that drains into a stream; the watershed for a major river may encompass a number of smaller watersheds that ultimately combine at a common point.
- Watershed Area 13
- A topographic area within a line drawn connecting the highest points uphill of a drinking water intake into which overland flow drains.
- Wetland
- A low-lying area that is water-logged and forms when a lake or pond fills with sediment.
Z
- Zone (of a coordinate system) 1
- The region over which the coordinates relate with respect to a single origin. Usually, some part of the earth or a state.
Sources
- Clarke, Keith C. Getting Started with Geographic Information Systems. 4th edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J., 2003.
- Active Management Areas (AMAs) & Irrigation Non-expansion Areas (INAs)
- U.S. Dept. of Justice, Crime in the United States 2000
- EPA Groundwater Primer
- National Library of Medicine, Medline Medical Encyclopedia
- Arizona Dept. of Health Services, Arizona Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Program
- EarthStorm Climatological Atlas Glossary
- Arizona Dept. of Health Services, Communicable Disease Information
- EPA Regional Offices
- Arizona Dept. of Health Services, Firearm Related Deaths
- USGS Water Science Glossary of Terms
- California Dept. of Water Resources Bulletin 18
- EPA Terms of Environment
- Arizona Dept. of Health Service, Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
- NOAH CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center
- National Climatic Data Center. Climate Atlas of the United States. Disk One, Contiguous 48 States [CD-ROM] (2000).
- Encyclopedia Britannica Online
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Waste, A to Z Subject Index
- U.S. Geological Survey, Science in your Watershed
Census-related definitions from American FactFinder Glossary
For other GIS glossaries, see http://www.gis.com/whatisgis/glossaries.html