Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
T
Tornado Alley
: Those areas of the Great Plains, including Oklahoma, Kansas,
Nebraska, South Dakota, western Missouri, and northern Texas, that are frequently
swept by tornadoes, especially in the spring.
Township
: Proposed by Jefferson, the 1784 Land Ordinance provided for the
division of land west of the Appalachian Mountains, and based on parallels and
meridians. Redrafted in 1785 and 1787, the Land Ordinance was the basis for the
management of federal lands until the 1862 Homestead Act. Land was divided into
square townships, six miles (10 km) along each side. Each of these townships were
subdivided into 36 sections of one square mile (259 ha) or 640 acres (1 acre is about
0.4 ha). These sections could then be further subdivided for sale to settlers and land
developers. Of the US territory, three-quarters was divided according to a geometric
pattern that was clearly different from other modes of colonization such as the
Louisiana French
longlot row
that runs alongside the river.
Transcendentalism
: A romantic philosophical movement that emerged in New
England as part of Harvard University and the Unitarian church. The publication by
Ralph W. Emerson of the essay “Nature” in 1836 [EME 36] is regarded as the
movement's manifesto. Transcendentalism promotes individualism and communion
with nature. Transcendentalism is seen as the matrix of the nineteenth-century
American society's early form of sensitivity to the environment, as well as another
manifestation of the society's mistrust of the city as the foundation of civilization.
Transit oriented development
: The use of public transport, trams, buses, and
subways as a structuring element of urban planning. One of the policies advocated
by New Urbanism, and which was progressively adopted by many American cities
(including Houston, see Chapter 8). Transit-oriented developments are mixed-use
residential, commercial, and shopping areas located within a radius of 400 to 800
meters (one-quarter to half a mile) from subway stations, bus or tram stops. The
policy goes against the principle of zoning which dominated postwar urban planning
and seeks to restore urban centrality and density (walkable neighborhoods). It is a
form of smart growth designed to counteract the urban sprawl.
U
Uplands
: Literally “high land”, the term refers to the middle-sized mountain
ranges of the southern United States. The Appalachians are the best known, but the
