The wild species uses are defined through the practices of fishing, gathering, terrestrial animal harvesting, logging, and non-extractive practices. For the purposes of this assessment, the use of wild species have been divided into different categories, which are not mutually exclusive: ceremony and ritual expression, decorative and aesthetic, energy, food and feed, learning and education, materials and construction, medicine and hygiene, recreation and other: companionship.

The process by which villages, towns, cities and other built-up areas grow or by which societies become more urban.

Increase in the proportion of a population living in urban areas; process by which a large number of people becomes permanently concentrated in relatively small areas, forming cities.

The increase in the proportion of a population living in urban areas; the process by which a large number of people becomes permanently concentrated in relatively small areas, forming cities.

A method to evaluate the flows of energy and materials within an urban system, which can provide insights into the system's sustainability and the severity of urban problems such as excessive social, community, and household metabolism at scales ranging from global to local.

The term heat island describes built up areas that are hotter than nearby rural areas.

Any ecological system located within a city or other densely settled area or, in a broader sense, the greater ecological system that makes up an entire metropolitan area (Pickett, 2018).

adj. Pertaining to the built-up, human- inhabited environment (cities, towns, villages, etc.).

A process in which deep, cold water rises toward the surface replacing warmer water pushed away by winds. Water that rises to the surface as a result of upwelling is typically colder and rich in nutrients, which “fertilize” surface waters, meaning that these surface waters often have high biological productivity.

Each of a series of Hindu sacred treatises written in Sanskrit c.800-200 BC, expounding the Vedas in predominantly mystical and monistic terms.