University Lands: Glossary

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Glossary

This section provides definitions of key technical terms and measures used in this report. Definitions of technical terms are generally adapted for the current work and for brevity, reference sources are provided.

Technical terms

• Adaptation: Actions, adjustments or strategies that reduce the risks from the current or expected effects of climate change and increase resilience of social and ecological systems. (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC))
• Afforestation: The deliberate establishment of forest through planting or seeding on land that previously was not forest. (Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO))
• Biodiversity: The variability among living organisms from all sources, including diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. (Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD))
• Built environment: The human-made surroundings where people live, work and recreate, including buildings, infrastructure and urban systems. (UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat))
• Carbon: Elemental carbon and its compounds that circulate through the atmosphere, biosphere, oceans and lithosphere as part of the carbon cycle (often referred to in climate change contexts as greenhouse gases, which include carbon dioxide, methane and other carbon compounds). (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC))
• Carbon emissions: Release of carbon-containing greenhouse gases (chiefly carbon dioxide) to the atmosphere from human activities, typically reported as tonnes of “CO2-equivalent” or “CO2e” which refers to combined quantity of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. (Greenhouse Gas Protocol)
• Carbon flux: The rate of transfer of carbon in various forms between reservoirs (such as the atmosphere, soil, oceans, plants and animals), measured as the flow of carbon per unit time between pools. (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC))
• Carbon sequestration: The process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in carbon pools or sinks (such as vegetation, soils, geological storage) for long periods. (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC))
• Climate-related risks: Risks that arise from the physical impacts of climate change (acute and chronic) and from the transition to a low-carbon economy. (IPCC; Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD))
• Decarbonisation: The process of reducing carbon intensity of an economy, sector or activity. (International Energy Agency (IEA))
• Ecoregion: A relatively large unit of land or water containing a geographically distinct assemblage of natural communities and species, with similar environmental conditions and ecological dynamics. (World Wildlife Fund (WWF))
• Ecosystem: A dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and the non-living environment interacting as a functional unit. (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment)
• Ecosystem services: The benefits people obtain from ecosystems, commonly classified as provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services. (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment)
• Exposure: The presence of people, assets, ecosystems or other systems in places that could be affected by hazards; a key component in risk alongside hazard and vulnerability. (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC))
• Externality: A cost or benefit from an activity borne by others and not reflected in market prices, which can be positive or negative (e.g., pollution is a negative externality). (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); United Nations System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA))
• Flow: A quantity measured over a period of time (for example finance, provision of ecosystem services, carbon from the biosphere to the atmosphere), representing the dynamic movement of resources or benefits. The opposite of a stock. (United Nations System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA))
• Footprint: A measure of the pressure an activity places on the environment, for example “carbon footprint” (GHG emissions attributable to an actor) or “ecological footprint” (the land area required to support consumption). (Greenhouse Gas Protocol; Global Footprint Network)
• Habitat: The physical environment and conditions in which a species or biological population normally lives, characterised by features such as vegetation, soil, topography and water. (International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); European Environment Agency (EEA))
• Hazards: Potentially damaging physical events, phenomena or human activities (for example extreme weather, floods, droughts) that may cause harm when they interact with exposed and vulnerable systems. (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC))
• Heat islands: Areas that are warmer than surrounding areas due to factors such as land use, built form, surface materials, reduced vegetation and anthropogenic heat emissions. Most common in urban environments. (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC))
• Heat stress: Physiological strain on humans and other organisms resulting from exposure to high temperatures and humidity, which can be exacerbated by heatwaves and heat islands. (World Health Organization (WHO))
• Geospatial data: Data that include a geographic component (location reference), allowing them to be linked to a place on the Earth’s surface and used in GIS, mapping and spatial analysis. (United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM))
• Natural capital: The stock of renewable and non-renewable natural resources (e.g., soil, water, air, biodiversity, minerals) that yield a flow of ecosystem goods and services beneficial to people. (Capitals Coalition; United Nations System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA))
• Natural capital accounting: The application of standardized accounting methods to measure changes in natural capital stocks and flows and link them to economic activity (e.g., SEEA). (United Nations (SEEA))
• Natural capital assessment: A structured process to identify, measure and value an organisation’s dependencies and impacts on natural capital to inform decision-making. (Capitals Coalition)
• Nature-based solutions: Actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, while providing benefits for biodiversity and human well-being. (International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN))
• Nature-related risks: Risks to economic actors, institutions and the financial system that arise from degradation of nature (physical risks) or from the transition and misalignment of economic actors with actions to protect and restore nature (transition risks). (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD))
• Opportunity cost: The value of the best alternative foregone when an economic decision is made; the next-best use of resources that is sacrificed. (HM Treasury (UK Government))
• Physical risks:  Risks arising from the physical impacts of climate change and nature degradation (including acute event-driven hazards like storms or floods, and chronic long-term shifts like sea-level rise and higher temperatures). (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD); Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD))
• Public good: A good or service that is non-excludable (cannot exclude beneficiaries) and non-rivalrous (one person’s consumption does not reduce availability for others), e.g., clean air or national defence. (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD))
• Resilience: The capacity of social, ecological and infrastructure systems to anticipate, absorb, accommodate or recover from hazardous events and stresses while maintaining essential functions and structure. (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR))
• Solar irradiance: The power per unit area received from the sun as electromagnetic radiation; often used in climate modelling and estimating solar energy potential. (National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA))
• Stock: A quantity measured at a point in time (such as standing biomass, soil carbon, or the area of a wetland) that represents the asset from which flows arise. The opposite of a flow. (United Nations System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA))
• Use value: The value that people derive from directly using a natural asset or ecosystem service (including consumptive and non-consumptive uses), as distinct from “non-use” or “existence” values. (Capitals Coalition)
• Value transfer: A valuation method in which economic values estimated in one context (site, study) are transferred to another context to estimate values where primary valuation is not feasible. (Capitals Coalition)
• Vulnerability: The propensity or predisposition of a system, community or asset to be adversely affected by hazards, determined by sensitivity and adaptive capacity. (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC))

Technical measures

• Ha (Hectare): A unit of area equal to 10,000 square metres (100 m × 100 m), commonly used to measure land size.
• kWh/kWp/year (Kilowatt hours per Kilowatt peak per year): A measure of the annual energy output of a solar power system relative to its peak installed capacity. It reflects how efficiently the system converts available solar irradiance (sunlight energy received per unit area) into electricity and indicates the potential solar generation for a given location or installation.
• MWh/year (Megawatt hours per year): A measure of total energy produced or consumed over a year; one megawatt hour equals 1,000 kilowatt hours.
• GWh/year (Gigawatt hours per year): A larger measure of total energy produced or consumed annually; one gigawatt hour equals 1,000 megawatt hours (or one million kilowatt hours).
• tCO₂e/year (Tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year): A measure of total greenhouse gas emissions expressed as the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted per year. It includes gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and fluorinated gases (HFCs, PFCs, SF₆, NF₃). The “equivalent” means that the impact of each gas is converted to the amount of CO₂ that would cause the same global warming effect, using Global Warming Potentials (GWPs).
• W/m² (Watts per square metre): A measure of power intensity – how much power is generated, received, or transmitted per unit area. In this report it is used to refer to wind power density (the kinetic energy of moving air available over a given area).