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Ecosystem Integrity Implies completeness or wholeness and infers capability in
an ecosystem to maintain all its components as well as functional relationships
when disturbed.
Ecosystem Management An approach to maintaining or restoring the composition,
structure, function, and delivery of services of natural and modified ecosystems
for the goal of achieving sustainability. It is based on an adaptive, collaboratively
developed vision of desired future conditions that integrates ecological, socioeconomic, and institutional perspectives, applied within a geographic framework, and defined primarily by natural ecological boundaries.
Ecosystem Services The direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human
well-being. The concept “ecosystem goods and services” is synonymous with
ecosystem services.
Ecosystem A dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities
and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit. For practical
purposes, it is important to define the spatial dimensions of concern.
Efficiency and Sustainability Planning Urban and environmental planning processes and strategies that go beyond the consideration of the availability, safety,
and affordability of FEW resources to also consider efficiency and sustainability
factors.
El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) The warm phase of an irregular fluctuation
in sea surface temperature compared to the atmosphere in the central and eastcentral Equatorial Pacific Ocean. The cool phase is called La Niña. Events typically occur every 2–7 years and usually last for about 12 months, but sometimes
longer. ENSO is associated with significant weather variations in the Americas.
Embedded Energy The energy used to create a product or provide a service, the
consequences of which (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions) are implicitly “embedded” within the product. See virtual water.
Energy Balance The difference between energy input and energy output of a system. This is often applied to the earth system and to specific human energy systems, such as biofuels where it refers to the difference between all of the energy
inputs to delivering a unit of biofuel and the energy obtained from that unit.
Energy The ability to do work which usually delivers services such as the operation of machines, mobility, heating and cooling, lighting, and commercial and
industrial activity.
Energy Return on Investment (EROI) A metric to determine the relative effectiveness of energy delivery technologies by comparing the amount of energy
delivered to the amount of energy that society must invest in the technology.
Energy Security The ability of people to have access to adequate supplied of reliable and relatively inexpensive energy for consumption. See Food Security and
Water Security.
Environmental Flows Flows in streams that are maintained for the purpose of
protecting the biological health of the stream ecosystem.
Erosion The physical removal of particles, such as by a stream, river or glacier.
Eroded particles may then be transported and deposited by the same or a different process than the one that caused the erosion.
Glossary
Ecosystem Integrity Implies completeness or wholeness and infers capability in
an ecosystem to maintain all its components as well as functional relationships
when disturbed.
Ecosystem Management An approach to maintaining or restoring the composition,
structure, function, and delivery of services of natural and modified ecosystems
for the goal of achieving sustainability. It is based on an adaptive, collaboratively
developed vision of desired future conditions that integrates ecological, socioeconomic, and institutional perspectives, applied within a geographic framework, and defined primarily by natural ecological boundaries.
Ecosystem Services The direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human
well-being. The concept “ecosystem goods and services” is synonymous with
ecosystem services.
Ecosystem A dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities
and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit. For practical
purposes, it is important to define the spatial dimensions of concern.
Efficiency and Sustainability Planning Urban and environmental planning processes and strategies that go beyond the consideration of the availability, safety,
and affordability of FEW resources to also consider efficiency and sustainability
factors.
El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) The warm phase of an irregular fluctuation
in sea surface temperature compared to the atmosphere in the central and eastcentral Equatorial Pacific Ocean. The cool phase is called La Niña. Events typically occur every 2–7 years and usually last for about 12 months, but sometimes
longer. ENSO is associated with significant weather variations in the Americas.
Embedded Energy The energy used to create a product or provide a service, the
consequences of which (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions) are implicitly “embedded” within the product. See virtual water.
Energy Balance The difference between energy input and energy output of a system. This is often applied to the earth system and to specific human energy systems, such as biofuels where it refers to the difference between all of the energy
inputs to delivering a unit of biofuel and the energy obtained from that unit.
Energy The ability to do work which usually delivers services such as the operation of machines, mobility, heating and cooling, lighting, and commercial and
industrial activity.
Energy Return on Investment (EROI) A metric to determine the relative effectiveness of energy delivery technologies by comparing the amount of energy
delivered to the amount of energy that society must invest in the technology.
Energy Security The ability of people to have access to adequate supplied of reliable and relatively inexpensive energy for consumption. See Food Security and
Water Security.
Environmental Flows Flows in streams that are maintained for the purpose of
protecting the biological health of the stream ecosystem.
Erosion The physical removal of particles, such as by a stream, river or glacier.
Eroded particles may then be transported and deposited by the same or a different process than the one that caused the erosion.
Glossary