No Place Like Home - Glossary (text-only)

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No Place Like Home - Glossary (text-only)

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Aeroponics refers to the growing of temperate crops in a tropical climate, by suspending the roots in the air. The seedlings are planted in troughs made of styrofoam with their roots beneath an insulating cover. The air is cooled to simulate temperate conditions. Nutrients dissolved in water are sprayed onto the roots. This method differs from hydroponics in the sense that in the latter, the roots are submerged, not exposed.

Agrotechnology parks are set up by the Primary Production Department to centralise and supervise all agriculture in Singapore, with a view to exporting agricultural expertise to neighbouring countries.

Alluvium are the sedimentary deposits resulting from the action of rivers.

Anaerobic conditions are those in which little or no free oxygen exists.

Basalt is a dark coloured, fine-grained rock, with a high content of iron and magnesium.

A batholith is a large body of intrusive rock, usually granite, which has been formed by the crystallisation and solidification of magma.

A business park is the term used by the Urban Redevelopment Authority [!] to describe specialised information-based workplaces, built alongside residential and recreational land uses.

Capital is one of the factors of production. It refers to the money or other assets with which a company starts business, and is accumulated wealth.

Carrying capacity is the maximum number of users which can be sustained by a given set of land resources. It is used especially with respect to livestock production and to studies of recreational activity. It is a relative concept dependent on the degree of land management as well as on the characteristics of both the original land resources and the users. Actual estimation of capacities therefore often depends on an arbitrarily selected threshold beyond which environmental modification through overuse is considered undesirable.

A centrifugal force pushes households and businesses away from city centres.

Climate refers to the average weather conditions of a place over a period of more than thirty years.

A community is a spatially defined set of interacting face-to-face groups of people.

Culture refers to the custom and civilization of a particular time or people, especially with respect to intellectual achievement.

Decentralisation refers to the process of spatial change generated by centrifugal forces.

The dependency ratio is the proportion of children and elderly to the economically active population. The latter are usually defined as those between fifteen to sixty-four years old.

Development Guide Plans are prepared by the Urban Redevelopment Authority [!] in order to translate broad development strategies into specific planning guidelines for local areas.

The economy refers to the combined wealth and resources of a community.

An ecosystem is a functioning, interacting system composed of one or more living organisms and their environment.

An entrepôt is a transit and bunkering port.

Entrepreneurship is sometimes considered a factor of production, but is more appropriately subsumed under that of labour. It is the willingness to undertake a commercial enterprise, while aware of the chance of loss.

One's environment refers to one's surroundings and circumstances of living. It is the interface between nature and society.

Export Oriented Industrialisation is a policy whereby an economy grows from the revenue derived from the export of (especially) manufactured goods.

Feldspar refers to the most important group of rock-forming minerals, comprising silicates of aluminium linked with those of calcium, potassium or sodium.

Flatted factories are low-rise buildings housing light, non-pollutive industries in areas of high population density.

Fractional distillation is the physical separation of crude oil into simpler hydrocarbon molecules in a fractionating column.

A Free Trade Zone is a port which have a wide range of facilities and services for the storage and re-export of duty-liable and controlled goods. Goods are stored in the zone without any customs documentation until they are released in the market. They can also be processed and re-exported with minimum customs formalities. Such zones promote the handling of transhipment cargo.

Fringing reefs are those which are connected to the shoreline, as opposed to being separated by a lagoon.

Gabbro is a dark, coarse-grained rock of non-acidic composition, formed by the intrusion of magma. It has a high percentage of sodium and calcium feldspars, as well as dark green olivine.

Granite is a grey, medium-grained rock consisting of smoky quartz, pale yellow feldspar and mica.

A halophyte is any salt tolerant type of vegetation.

Hard coral is coral which secretes an external skeleton of limestone around itself.

A hinterland is an area served by a port.

Hydrocracking is the chemical breakdown of very heavy hydrocarbon molecule chains into simpler chains.

Hydroponics is an intensive method of farming, where vegetables are grown without soil, in a nutrient solution.

An ice age is any period in the Earth's history during which ice-sheets expand considerably and surface temperatures in the temperate latitudes are significantly lowered. These occurred in the decades after the Flood, before the continents were in isostatic equilibrim.

An industrial estate is a planned zone, complete with infrastructure, for industries to set up within.

Intrusion is said to take place when magma is injected into existing crustal rocks.

The Japanese Occupation refers to the period when Singapore was under Japanese rule from December 1941 to September 1945.

Kampung [!] is Malay for 'village'.

The Konfrontasi was a period of cold relations between Indonesia and Malaysia. It officially lasted from 20 January 1963 to 12 August 1966.

Labour is one of the factors of production. It refers to those in a population who are able to contribute actively to a country's economy.

Land is one of the factors of production. It refers to the ground as a basis for agriculture, construction, etc.

Land reclamation refers to increasing the amount of usable land, mainly through terracing, irrigation, landfill, and drainage.

Landscape refers to the features of a land area as seen in a broad view, where not only visible objects are apparent but also invisible symbols as well. Landscape is subjective, and is manifested in linguistic codes, art and architecture, among others. Huh? In reality, landscape is full of meaning (if you know what I mean).

Latent heat is the amount of energy emitted or absorbed when a body changes its state, without any change of temperature within that body. For example, latent heat is emitted during condensation, but absorbed during evaporation.

Life expectancy is the average age at which the people of a country live up to.

Lightning is visible electrical discharge, caused when the increasing electrical charge of a cloud overcomes the insulational property of the air. The first discharge, of low luminosity, is from cloud to ground, and is a line of highly ionized air molecules along which electricity flows for a brief moment of time. This is followed by a highly luminous return stroke which comes up to meet it and continues up the cloud along the ionized channel. In this way, a current of ten thousand amperes can be transmitted, travelling at 0.1 times the speed of light.

Literacy rate is defined as the number of residents for every hundred residents aged ten years and above who can understand a newspaper.

Magma is highly gaseous and mobile molten rock under the Earth's crust, generated at great pressure and depth (below sixteen kilometres), largely as a hot silicate liquid.

Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766 - 1834) published 'An essay on the principle of population' in 1798. His general view was that population tends to increase faster than food supply. His checks on population included war, disease, poverty and famine. He also argued for 'moral restraint', including the postponement of marriage. His model is widely regarded to be fundamentally flawed.

Microclimate is the climate within a few metres of the ground and in a relatively small area.

Mobility is the degree of freedom of movement, both spatially as well as socio-economically.

A nation is a community of people whose members are bound together by a sense of solidarity rooted in a historic attachment to territory, a common culture and by a consciousness of being different from other nations.

Nationalism is a political ideology which holds that the territorial and national unit should be allowed to coexist in an autonomously congruent relationship.

Oceanic crust refers to the section of the Earth's crust beneath the ocean basin floor. It comprises layers of young sediments overlying basaltic lavas and intrusive gabbro. It is between ten to sixteen kilometres thick.

Oil refining is the process of converting crude oil into commercially useful products, such as kerosene and petrol. It is achieved through fractional distillation and hydrocracking.

The okta is a unit of measurement of cloud cover, expressed in terms of the proportion of the sky which is covered by cloud, measured in eighths of the total.

Opportunity cost refers to cost in terms of opportunities forgone, regardless of whether money was paid out to cover them.

Optimum population is the population at which a country's resources are maximally and most efficiently utilized.

Patch reefs are those which are not connected to any visible landmass but are exposed at low tide.

Plankton blooms refer to a sudden increase in the local plankton population due to an unusually high proportion of nutrients in the water.

Pneumatophores are specially adapted roots which enable a plant to absorb oxygen directly from the air.

A population pyramid is a graph which shows the age and sex structures of a population. Age is measured on the y-axis, while the x-axis shows either the proportion of the population or the actual numbers in each age cohort.

The prevailing wind is the wind which blows most frequently.

Quartz is the lustrous, crystalline form of the mineral silicon dioxide.

Reefs are structures made of calcium carbonate, derived from the external skeletons of coral polyps.

A reef crest is the zone of transition between the reef flat and the reef slope. It is characterised by rich coral growth.

A reef flat is the gently sloping portion of a reef which is exposed during low tide.

A reef slope is the steeply plunging seaward portion of a reef.

A region is a continuous part of space, not necessarily with definite boundaries, but with certain characteristics. It is a dynamic social construction reflecting the collective history of an area and infusing the everyday lives of its inhabitants.

A Regional Centre is a term used by the Urban Redevelopment Authority [!] to describe a settlement which is second only to the Central Business District in the heirarchy of size and function. It will serve the needs of 800000 people, and will be about fifteen times the size of a present HDB town centre. The four Regional Centres in Singapore will be Jurong East [!], Woodlands, Seletar and Tampines [!].

Rent is the net surplus paid to any factor of production, above that amount which is necessary to keep it in its present occupation.

Replacement level is a fertility rate of 2.1, which is the number of children born per woman in order for a population to replace itself.

A resource is any substance or property of the physical environment of which man has the knowledge and technology to utilize. Resources are therefore subjective and dynamic. The perceived resource set alters greatly over time and space to reflect variations in socio-economic and political systems.

Saturation is the state of the atmosphere in which a parcel of moist air is in equilibrim with an open water surface at the same pressure and temperature, that is, there is a balance between the number of water molecules entering the air and returning to the water surface.

Sea level refers to the average level of the surface of the sea, and is determined by averaging all tidal levels recorded at hourly intervals.

Sedimentary rocks are those formed by the accumulation of material derived from pre-existing rocks or from organic sources. They are deposited in a layered sequence.

A shelf is an offshore extension of a continent, gently sloping (with a gradient of less than one degree). It is submerged by a sea usually no deeper than 130 metres.

The site of a settlement is the point at which the settlement is located, with respect to relief, soils, water supply and other natural factors. It is the initial determining factor in the growth of the settlement.

Soft coral is coral with no external skeleton, and is leathery to the touch.

Squatter settlements are spontaneous settlements set up illegally on vacant spaces within the city.

The state is an organised community under one government, or forming part of a federal republic.

Static electricity refers to electricity which is present in a body, but not flowing as current.

A sub-regional centre is a term used by the Urban Redevelopment Authority [!] to describe a settlement in the third level of the heirarchy of size and function. The equivalent of four Centrepoint [!] shopping centres, it will cater to about 270000 residents. They will be Buona Vista, Bishan, Serangoon, Paya Lebar [!], Marine Parade [!] and Tekong.

A suburb is a socially homogenous residential district within an urban area. They are dependent on the city for occupational, shopping and recreational facilities. It is often seen as a way of life which satisfies many family and leisure requirements.

Tariff refers to dutiable taxes.

Technology corridor is a term used by the Urban Redevelopment Authority [!] to describe groupings of future high-technology industrial estates. There will be two in Singapore: the northeast corridor will comprise business parks at Yishun, Seletar, Jalan Kayu, Tampines [!], Bedok [!] and Changi North; the southwest corridor will comprise business parks at Tuas, Jalan Bahar, Jurong River, Jurong East [!], Rochester Park and the Singapore General Hospital [!].

A territory is the area of land and/or sea over which political entities claim to exercise some form of control.

Thunder is due to the sudden heating and expansion of the air by a lightning flash, causing sound-waves. A rough calculation of distance from the flash is that of one kilometre for every three second interval between lightning and thunder.

Total fertility rate is the number of children born to each woman of a country if, during her child-bearing years, she bore children at the current year's rate for women of that age.

Transmigration is the world's largest programme of voluntary migration carried out by the Indonesian government in an effort to reduce population pressures in Java. Potential rural-urban migrants are encouraged to move to Indonesia's so-called Outer Islands instead. The programme was started in 1969, and in the first twenty years, 3.77 million people had participated in it.

Transport cost is the total cost of moving goods, which includes costs of paperwork, packaging, insurance and inventory costs of goods in transit.