Geography - People of the Planet.

Definitions of development:

• Development can be defined in various ways. For example: 'the act or process of change, evolution, maturity and progress' or 'a state of growth or advancment'. 
• Everything developes over time: human develope from babies to adults, seeds grow into forests, villages develope into small towns and valleys develope into gorges. In general, development is seen as a positive process. 
• In a geographical sense, we think of development as being about imporving people's lives. It is oftern assosiated with wealth but is much more complicated than that. For example, you might consider human and environmental health as more important than wealth. 
• Development can happen on a small scale or a large scale affecting small groups of people or whole nations. It can also be a slow process or more rapid. It is greatly influenced by the actions of humans and the decisions that influence people, goverments or companies make. 

Social development is to do with people and society. It is about the improvment that has been made by a country in imporving the quality of life for the people who live there. Thid could include improving literacy levels through access to education, housing conditions, healthcare, reducing infant mortality and increasin life expectancy. 

Economic development is about the improvment that has been made by a country in terms of wealth. This could include the value of goods and services that the country is producing, or the proportion of the population working in primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary jobs. 

Environmental development recognices the importance of the natural world and includes looking at how countries are monitering the emissions of greenhouse gases or what they are doing to imporve water quality. The Environmental Performance Index uses 22 indicators to determine the health of people and the environment, including policies on air pollution, climate change and water quality. 

Sustainable development means that the needs of the present will be met while protecting the needs of the future. 

Social measures are to do with individual people and what it would me like for them living in that place. Sometimes social and economic indicators do not match for example, some countries have excellent healthcare but a low income per person. 

There are lots of other social indicators, including population density (number of people per square km) or the food intake per person. 

Economic measures tend to focus upon monday and the features of a country's economy, such as employment and trade. These indicators are entwined with social measures,  since wothout money it would me impossible to improve features like healthcare and education. Traditionally, countries were evaluated and classified as more or less developed based upon the conomic value of the gross domestic product (GDP) (the yearly value of goods and services produced within the country). It is now considered more accurate to combine multiple sorces of imformation.  

As a country becomes more developed, employment structure will change. The changes can be seen as useful indicators of development because they show how society changes; modern workers prefer tertiary jobs that have improved conditions and pay. This model is useful when geographers wish to classify a country.