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A French term, ‘terrain’ (terrain / ground / field) , used in social science and in natural science to designate elements of the lithosphere (e.g., ‘sedimentary terrains’) as well as the place, and by extension the subject,of research. For numerous researchers, ‘in the field’ activity represents one of the essential dimensions of their disciplinary method. In these disciplines, there has been a transfer from the lithologic, ‘terrestrial’, and (...)

The word section, or rather transect, designates a system for land observation or the representation of a space, along a linear path and following the vertical dimension, aimed at emphasising a superposition, a spatial succession or relations between phenomena: geological section, bio-geographical section or transect. The notion of transect, recently entered into French geographical vocabulary, probably through bio-geography, therefore implies the horizontal dimension of observation better (...)

Water balance is assessed for a given place and a given period of time by comparing water inputs and outputs in that place and during that period. The assessment also takes into account the existing supply of stocks and future appropriation of these stocks. Water inputs are brought by precipitation. Outputs are from the combination of evaporation and the transpiration of plants, called evapotranspiration. Both quantities are estimated in terms of the amount of water per surface unit, but (...)