kb/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_geography_terms_(A–M)-14.md

title	chunk	source	category	tags	date_saved	instance
Glossary of geography terms (A–M)	15/29	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_geography_terms_(A–M)	reference	science, encyclopedia	2026-05-05T08:06:28.704764+00:00	kb-cron

floodway

1. Another name for a flood bypass.
2. A large-capacity channel or culvert designed to capture and divert floodwaters or excess streamflow from populous or flood-prone areas and eventually drain it into a river or other body of water, e.g. an artificial drainage canal bounded by levees. They often run below street level in larger cities.
3. A road crossing of a flood-prone channel, built at or close to the natural ground level. It is similar to a causeway but crosses a shallow and often dry depression that is subject to flooding, rather than a continuously flooded waterway.
4. A part of a floodplain kept clear of encumbrances and reserved for emergency diversion of floodwaters.

floor The level or nearly level lower part of a valley or basin, or the bed of any body of water, such as a stream, lake, or ocean.

flow regime The general behavior of a river or other watercourse as defined by its average flow conditions throughout the year, including seasonal variations in discharge, size and frequency of floods, and frequency and duration of droughts.

flute A glacial landform created by the movement of a glacier around a boulder, consisting of a lineation or streamlined furrow or ridge parallel to the direction of ice movement. They generally form in newly deposited till or older drift and can reach heights of 25 metres (82 ft) and lengths of 20 kilometres (12 mi).

fluvial Of or pertaining to rivers or streams; produced by the action of a river or stream.

fluvial terrace

focality The characteristic of a place that follows from its interconnections with more than one other place. When interaction within a region comes together at a single place (i.e. when the movement focuses on that location), the place is said to possess focality.

focus Also hypocenter. The point inside the Earth's crust from which an earthquake originates.

foothills A geographic transition zone defined by gradual increases in elevation between plains or low-relief hills and adjacent topographically higher hills, mountains, or uplands.

footslope The part of the profile of a hillslope that forms the concave surface at the base of the slope. It is a transition area between sites of erosion and transport higher up the slope (e.g. the shoulder and backslope) and sites of deposition further down the slope (the toeslope).

ford A place, natural or man-made, where a river or stream is shallow enough to be crossed by wading, or by getting a vehicle's wheels wet (as opposed to crossing a permanently dry bridge). Fords may be seasonal or temporary, becoming impassable during high water.

foredeep A relatively narrow, deep, elongated, and steep-sided trough in the ocean floor, usually near or parallel to a mountainous land area or associated with an archipelago, or such a trough when infilled with sediment. See also foreland basin.

foreland

1. Any land area or territory located in front of something else.
2. A landform projecting into the sea, e.g. a cape or headland.
3. The seaward trading area associated with a particular port or harbor.
4. (glaciology) The area between the current leading edge of a glacier and the moraines of the most recent maximum.

foreland basin A type of structural endmember basin that develops adjacent and parallel to a mountain range as a result of lithospheric flexure during its orogeny. Topographic loading and downflexure creates space in the basin that is filled by sediment eroded from the range. Compare rift basin.

foreshore The part of a seashore located between the lowest low water line and the mean high water line. See also intertidal zone; contrast backshore.

forest Any extensive area dominated by communities of trees.

formal region An area of the Earth that is unified by some measurable physical or human characteristic.

form line A contour line whose precise position on a map has not been accurately surveyed but rather interpolated from surrounding contours.

fresh water Any naturally occurring water characterized by low concentrations (typically less than 0.05% by volume) of dissolved salts and other solids relative to either salt water or brackish water. Sources of fresh water on Earth include glaciers, ice caps, icebergs, bogs, lakes, rivers, streams, and most groundwater.

friction of distance The influence and restraining effect of distance on all forms of movement, based on the fundamental geographical principle that movement necessarily incurs one or more costs, in the form of physical effort, energy, time, and/or other resources, and that these costs are directly proportional to the distance traveled. Such costs effectively resist the propensity for movement, akin to the friction of classical mechanics, and hence the concept of physical distance is a critical factor in determining whether or not a given movement, event, or process occurs.

frontalier Also cross-border worker and frontier worker. Someone who lives in one country and works in a neighboring country, commuting across the international border each workday and returning to their country of residence on a nightly or weekly basis; someone who lives and works across political or geographical frontiers.

frontcountry

frontier

1. The area near or beyond a political or geographical boundary; a march or borderland.
2. The area near or beyond the edge of a settled or civilized area, consisting of sparsely populated or uninhabited wilderness. See also hinterland and edgeland.

frost hollow Also frost pocket. A hollow or depression surrounded on all sides by higher terrain, such as the floor of a deep valley, where very cold, dense air tends to concentrate as strong terrestrial radiation on the slopes above forces the cold air downslope, often at nighttime. Temperatures in these hollows can be tens of degrees colder than the immediate surroundings.

functional diversity The characteristic of a place where a variety of different activities (economic, political, or social) occur, most often associated with urban places.

functional region An area of the Earth's surface that is defined by its interaction with or connectivity to other regions.

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