659
International Treaty “An international agreement concluded between States in
written form and governed by international law”—1980 Vienna Convention on
the Law of Treaties.
Interval-Scale A micro-temporal data that records the rapid changes in a process’s
function, often at scales of seconds or minutes.
Intrinsic Value The value of someone or something in and for itself, irrespective
of its utility for someone else.
Inventory Data Data that tracks and accounts for how much of a product is available at an establishment, on order, or en route, and is a central component of
private sector supply chain management.
ISO The International Organization for Standardization (or Organisation
Internationale de Normalization), which maintains many essential metadata
standards.
Isoquant Curve A curve that shows all the combinations of inputs that yield the
same level of output. Thus, for example, the following two points would appear
on the same isoquant: suppose 2 acres of land and 10 h of labor produces a
given amount of output, while one gets an equal output when using 1.5 acres
of land and 15 h of labor. This reveals possible substitutions of inputs as prices
change.
Joule (J) A metric unit of energy, defined as the energy required to move a mass
of 100 g a distance of 1 m in Earth’s gravitational field, approximately 10 m/s
2
,
roughly the energy to lift an apple from the floor onto a desk.
Knightian Unknowns Design factors, error factors, or risk factors that cannot in
principle be quantified with sufficient precision and accuracy to make a decision;
unknowable unknowns; for instance, if you have a probability distribution or
estimate of precision and accuracy, this is a constrained unknown and is ∗not∗ a
Knightian uncertainty. Compare to Knowable Unknowns.
Knock-on Effect Something such as an event, process, or action that causes
another event to happen, but indirectly.
Knowable Unknowns Factors that are known to exist and can be quantified in
principle but which have not yet been measured with sufficient precision and
accuracy to be estimated with sufficient confidence to make a decision.
Knowledge System A social system for thinking, remembering, and communicating knowledge.
Kriging In geostatistics, kriging is an interpolation technique that is used to predict
values at locations without observations using the weighted average of the values
from locations with observations. These weights are calculated by a variogram
model which takes the distance into account. Thus, closer locations will have a
higher weight than distant locations.
LEAP (Model) The Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning modeling system is
a software tool for energy policy analysis and climate change mitigation assessment developed at the Stockholm Environment Institute.
Least Developed Countries (LDCs) Countries defined by the UN as “low-income
countries confronting severe structural impediments to sustainable development” which are “highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks and
Glossary
International Treaty “An international agreement concluded between States in
written form and governed by international law”—1980 Vienna Convention on
the Law of Treaties.
Interval-Scale A micro-temporal data that records the rapid changes in a process’s
function, often at scales of seconds or minutes.
Intrinsic Value The value of someone or something in and for itself, irrespective
of its utility for someone else.
Inventory Data Data that tracks and accounts for how much of a product is available at an establishment, on order, or en route, and is a central component of
private sector supply chain management.
ISO The International Organization for Standardization (or Organisation
Internationale de Normalization), which maintains many essential metadata
standards.
Isoquant Curve A curve that shows all the combinations of inputs that yield the
same level of output. Thus, for example, the following two points would appear
on the same isoquant: suppose 2 acres of land and 10 h of labor produces a
given amount of output, while one gets an equal output when using 1.5 acres
of land and 15 h of labor. This reveals possible substitutions of inputs as prices
change.
Joule (J) A metric unit of energy, defined as the energy required to move a mass
of 100 g a distance of 1 m in Earth’s gravitational field, approximately 10 m/s
2
,
roughly the energy to lift an apple from the floor onto a desk.
Knightian Unknowns Design factors, error factors, or risk factors that cannot in
principle be quantified with sufficient precision and accuracy to make a decision;
unknowable unknowns; for instance, if you have a probability distribution or
estimate of precision and accuracy, this is a constrained unknown and is ∗not∗ a
Knightian uncertainty. Compare to Knowable Unknowns.
Knock-on Effect Something such as an event, process, or action that causes
another event to happen, but indirectly.
Knowable Unknowns Factors that are known to exist and can be quantified in
principle but which have not yet been measured with sufficient precision and
accuracy to be estimated with sufficient confidence to make a decision.
Knowledge System A social system for thinking, remembering, and communicating knowledge.
Kriging In geostatistics, kriging is an interpolation technique that is used to predict
values at locations without observations using the weighted average of the values
from locations with observations. These weights are calculated by a variogram
model which takes the distance into account. Thus, closer locations will have a
higher weight than distant locations.
LEAP (Model) The Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning modeling system is
a software tool for energy policy analysis and climate change mitigation assessment developed at the Stockholm Environment Institute.
Least Developed Countries (LDCs) Countries defined by the UN as “low-income
countries confronting severe structural impediments to sustainable development” which are “highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks and
Glossary