A  B  C  D E  F  G H  I  J K  L  M 

N  O P  Q  R S  T  U V  W  X Y  Z

A 
Access to decision-makers and politicians: All political representatives have regular time allocated to talking to their electors.  A phone call to their office can secure a time: but go ready to state a clear case and make a clear request within the capacity of the representative, ie ask a State politician for a State action. Administrators and policy officers may be restricted as to information they can share, but you can still ask.

Government: Find out the responsible officer and ask for a time to talk. 

Community: Citizens who also work in the public interest carry a double load.  Their 'free' time will be evenings, weekends and when industry and government are not free.  There will have to be compromise for meetings.

Absorption field: A designated area where effluent is released into the soil. Soil processes, natural organisms and plants in the absorption field further purify the effluent before it enters the wider environment.
Access to Information: The right of access to information which affects our well-being is a constitutional right. Freedom of information requests can be sent to all government departments and agencies (also see Privacy).
Accountability: Taking responsibility for reporting on outcomes.
Advocacy: Presenting a case in favour of meeting the needs of a group, resolving an issue or preventing harm.
Air pollution: An emission into the air of any impurity.
Airshed: A volume of air overlying a distinct geographic region.
Algal bloom: Excessive algal growth triggered by sunlight, warm temperatures, still waters and dissolved nutrients, often from sewage, fertilisers or detergents.
Alliances: Mutually agreed cooperation between two or more parties, usually with a formal agreement.
Area Health Plans: How health services are delivered at a local level.

B 
Bearing witness: Taking a personal, public position on an issue.
Biodiversity: The number and range of species of plants and animals on the planet; the Australian Government, along with all other members of the United Nations, has a commitment to maintain biodiversity.
Bio-region: A naturally occurring region made up of a comparatively self-contained biological system, such as a valley, a river system, a lake or a beach and its hinterland. 
Blackwater: Wastewater from toilets
Buck-passing:  Not taking responsibility.

C 
Case studies: Documentation of a set of events, stories of experiences. Capacity Building: The development of sustainable skills, structures, resources and commitment to environmental health improvement. Capacity building activities may be developed with individuals, groups, teams, organisations, inter-organisational coalitions or communities.
Catchment: The land area drained by a river and its tributaries.
Change agent: A person who acts to change the way things are presently done.
Change management: Time-linked initiatives which lead to immediate and/or strategic change, bringing new skills and new ideas with them and empowering people to change.
Civil rights: The rights of every citizen, as established in legislation and in the Constitution.
Climate change: The predicted changes in climate due to accumulation in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide and other gases produced by human activity.
Collaboration: Working together to a common purpose.
Communication: Telling and listening to stories.
Community: A group of people who recognise a long term shared interest (can be place, issue, hobby based). Common unity. Where you live, not just place-based or geographically bounded. 
Community development: Expansion of skills, resources and power in a community group.  Making things happen on a practical level within a community.
Community partnerships (within community): Holding each others hands.
Community partnerships (from outside community): Treating community with respect.
Consensus: General agreement between all stakeholders.
Consultation: Full and equitable talking and listening to each other. Control: Take charge of, manage, regulate, standardise.
Corporate plan: The forward planning by which councils coordinate all aspects of council activities, usually for the coming year. 
Council: Local government, Councillors and staff.
Council control statutes: Legal basis for Council's ability to control air, water or soil pollution.
Cross-sectoral cooperation: Getting on with all agencies.

D 
Data: A series of observations, measurements, events.
Decision Makers: Those entrusted and empowered to make decisions on behalf of others.
Democracy: All voices being heard (often misapplied to majority rule).
Development: Evolution, growth, expansion.
Dirty Dozen: Twelve toxic chemicals causing cancer in humans now being phased out in Australia. 
Disempowerment: Partial or total loss of power.
Diversity: Accepting we are all different.

E 
Ecological footprint: The area of land and sea needed to produce the natural resources that a population consumes, to assimilate the waste that the population produces and to prevent the ill-health that might arise. 
Ecologically sustainable development as a policy:  An intergovernmental policy with a set of guiding principles recognising the need to integrate environmental protection with economic and social development. Health as central to concept.
Ecologically Sustainable Development as a practice: An approach to using, conserving, and enhancing natural resources so that ecological processes, on which all life depends, are maintained, and the total quality of life, now and in the future, is improved. Health as central to concept.
Ecosystem: Communities of organisms of which humans may be a part, and their physical environment interacting as a unit.
Education: Getting/being/staying informed.
Effluent: Liquid discharged from a septic system or sewage treatment facility
Email: The use of computer-phone links called modems which allow messages to be sent from computer to computer instantaneously. 
Emissions: A discharge (substances or noise). 
Empowerment: Feelings of worth, knowing that something matters. enHealth Council: Peak environmental health advisory group for Australia. Provides national leadership and a focus for cooperation on all environmental health issues.
Environment: Includes everything around us - land, house, yard, buildings, water, air, plants, animals, and other people. 
Environmental Health: Refers to the interdependence between the health of individuals and communities and the health of the environment. Connectedness (Community) Those aspects of human health determined by physical, chemical, biological and social factors in the environment (Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care).
Environmental Health Field Officers (WA only): Travel and work with EHWs and EHOs out bush to assist with regional and local coordination and provide additional backup for EHWs.
Environmental Health Officer: The Environmental Health Officer (EHO) aims to manage factors of the environment which impact on the health of the population. Required to be professionally qualified, the EHO is involved in the development and evaluation of environmental health policies, strategies and initiatives. EHOs have legislative responsibilities and may investigate, enforce and monitor laws and regulations.
Environmental Health Practice: Encompasses all measures necessary to deal with the hazards in our environment that threaten human health such as contaminated water and food, chemical exposures, polluted air and soil, and vector-borne dieseases.
Environmental Health Worker: The role of the Environmental Health Worker (EHW) is to inspect and report on the environmental health aspects of the community infrastructure. (Australian Bureau of Statistics glossary) However the role is also to educate. EHWs will have attended a two year training course and have completed Certificate 2 (or 3 and maybe 4).
Environmental Impact Assessment: Answering the question, how will this activity or event affect our environment?
Environmental Monitoring: Regular check-ups on the environment.
Environmental Protection: Protecting the environment, not to be confused with Environmental Health which is about protecting the health of people within the environment.
Epidemiology: Understanding patterns of disease.
Equity of representation: Equal members of consumers to government.
Equity: Equal opportunity to access resources between generations, groups of people, people and the environment. 
Essential Services Officer: ESOs are selected and employed by a community council to look after the community's power, water and sewerage systems under a contract with the Power and Water Authority. They work up to the property line and do not do repairs in the house.
Ethics: Morals/doing what is right. 
Evaluation: Measuring what happened.

F 
Facilitation: Assisting a person, an event, a change process or a group to meet its goals; improving the ability to understand what's going on, and to explain what one needs.
Food security: Refers to the ability of individuals, households and communities to acquire appropriate and nutritious food on a regular and reliable basis, using socially acceptable ways.
Future: Beyond our life-time and those after us - recognition of rights of future generations (inter-generational equity). 

G 
Governance: All members of a nation, region or place working together in a common interest.  The process of making/changing decisions.
Government: Bodies empowered by the constitution to make and administer laws.  Australia has 3 tiers of government: local, state and federation. The people that make decisions that affect us.
Greening Australia: A non-government organisation which undertakes revegetation programs throughout Australia.
Grey water: (sullage), wastewater from the kitchen, laundry and bathroom but not the toilets

H 
Habitat: The type of place where organisms or a community of organisms live (their "address" in the natural system).
Health: WHO definition: optimum personal, physiological, psychological and social well-being 
Health and well-being: The optimum physical, social, and mental well-being (WHO 1948). 
Health hardware: The physical equipment necessary for healthy, hygenic living such as taps, sinks, bore, basin plug, stoves, septics, drains, spouts, hot water systems.
Health infrastructure: larger, community scale facilities and equipment, including the water supply system, roads, common waste disposal systems and rubbish tip.
Health Monitoring: Regular check-ups on the state of health.
Health Promotion: Strategies to reduce disease and improve well-being in communities.
Healthy Cities: A World Health Organization project based on the idea that a healthy city is the outcome of health-oriented education, transport, economic and housing policies; a supportive environment; a strong community; individual healthy lifestyles and preventive services. 
Homeland: A homeland or outstation is a community of Indigenous people that has been established on or near to traditional country, usually remote, and has a highly mobile and variable population of less than 100.
Human Rights: Respecting humanity.

I 
Implementation: Making it happen, doing it.  Doing things that respect humanity.
Impact: Influence of an effect, result from a cause.
Indicator: Measure or symbol that reflects the status of a system.
Indigenous: Native to a region, First Nations peoples.
Indigenous values: Respected and included - acknowledge local group's spiritual connections to their land. 
Indigenous wisdom: What to build where, where to walk and not to walk. Time honoured ancient knowledge.
Informal network: People talking and working together outside formal structures of work or society.
Integrated Local Area Planning: A management method based on eight core strategies: local governance; inter-governmental cooperation; community partnership; optimum use of resources; integrated social, economic and environmental planning; sustainable change; shared vision and local ownership.
Internet information: "the good, the bad and the ugly" needs careful evaluation and checking.
Intersectoral collaboration: Coordination and cooperation between governments, government departments, the private sector and non-government organisations in developing healthy public policies.
Involvement: Through commitment to the issue, self interest, reward, loyalty to the group. 

J 

K 
Knowledge: Data builds up into information, application of the information turns it into knowledge, and knowledge plus experience sometimes becomes wisdom.

L 
Languages: Ways of being understood.
Leadership: Accepting, or being given the responsibility for others.
Legislation: The rules/laws made by governments and refereed by the law courts.
Listening: Hearing for understanding.
Lobbying: Putting a favourable case to anyone in authority, eg. politicians, heads of organisations.
Local Agenda 21: A shared management program for a locality which incorporates the goals of all stakeholders in the community and balances social, economic and environmental resources. It is one of the more powerful programs emerging from the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Brazil in 1992 and one to which Australia is a signatory.
Local Conservation Strategy: A planning and management document linking all stakeholders in a region managing their local environment. The Municipal Conservation Association publishes Looking forward: a guide to developing a local conservation strategy.
Local Ownership: The way people in a local community take responsibility for what happens in their own locality
Locality: A defined geographic area.
Long-term vision: Start now to achieve a vision - the whole of Australian population is the target. 

M 
Manipulation: Persuasion for an advantage or purpose.
Minority agendas: Plans of a minority.
Meetings: A coming together for some purpose.

N 
National Indigenous Environmental Health Forum: an Indigenous reference group for the enHealth Council
National Toxics Network: A community network, working for pollution reduction in Australia and the Pacific region. Provides support and information towards community actions that support a less toxic environment.
Negotiating: Working things out.
Negotiation: The process of working things out
Networking: Accessing anyone related to benefit a cause.
Networks: Contacts within a group of people in which everyone is connected to everyone else.
Non-violent action: Making a peaceful public statement in support of a cause. 

O 
Organisation: Group of activities formalised by a given structure and set of procedures.
Outstation: A homeland or outstation is a community of Indigenous people that has been established on or near to traditional country, usually remote, and has a highly mobile and variable population of less than 100.
Ownership(individual / collective): Claiming for oneself. 

P 
Partnerships: Joint interests/participation.
People power: The power of every citizen through voting, acting on their rights. Bringing people together who have a common unity/goal/cause.
Petition: A formal request for action on a given issue, usually addressed by citizens to government.
Place: A geographic area that has meaning for people, who may or may not be resident there.
Place Management: Place-based integration of community and government in the management of place. 
Point source pollution: Point of emission of industrial or other polluted gases (as compared with ambient pollution, which is spread over a wide area, such as car exhausts).
 Policy: The agreed goals of the community of people involved: contract for the future between government and community.
Politics: The process of negotiating one's own agenda within all the other agendas.
Pollution: Noise, toxins, bacteria in air, water, etc load on the environment.
Population: The number of inhabitants of a place, town, district.
Power and Water Authority: Organisation in Northern Territory responsible for supply and maintenance of water and power services to major communities.
Power brokers: Source of power; those with political, social or economic power who can influence others.
Power relations: Understanding how power is wielded and by whom. 
Precautionary Principle, community: Take minimal risks with our only environment.
Precautionary Principle, government: The absence of scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for failing to avoid risk, or acting to prevent potentially serious harm. 
Primary Health Care: Delivery of early intervention and preventative health care, by family, community or services.
Process: Method of undertaking a task.
Product: Tangible outcome of a task.
Protocol: Rules for doing the right thing (at the right time).
Public Health: Protecting the health of the community, eg control of infectious epidemics, food borne disease, through vaccination, inspections.
Public relations: Making a good impression on others, as in marketing, lobbying or advertising.
Purpose: Goal or direction.

Q

R 
Recycling: The processing of residual or surplus resources into a non-waste product.
Reference groups: A group of individuals selected for their capacity to advise on a topic. Waste boards etc.
Relationships: Links between
Respect: Knowing that recycling is respecting the environment.
Riparian Zone: The banks of a waterway (river or creek). 
Risk communication: An interactive process involving exchange among individuals, groups and institutions of information and expert opinion about the nature, severity, and acceptability of risks and the decisions taken to combat them. 
Risk Assessment: Scientific evaluation of the chances of injury or harm.
Risk Management: Managing the dangers arising from the presence of risks to environment or health.

S 
Salinity: Concentration of salts in soil or water.
Self-interest: Acting only for oneself and one's own advantage.
Senior Environmental Health Worker: Used in Western Australia to include field officers and other coordinating personnel who are at a senior level and have completed advanced EHW training
Septic system: Any kind of sewage management system that stores, treats or discharges sewage on or adjacent to the premises on which it was generated
Septic tank: a container with its top at or near ground level. It stores sewage that is sometimes mixed with sullage and relies on bacteria to break down or decompose the sewage.
Sewage: Toilet waste that passes through a sewer, septic tank or pit toilet.
Sewerage: System of pipes that take sewage from houses to processing plants or sewage ponds
Skilling: The development of skills through specific training.
Social capital: The processes between people which establish networks, norms, social trust and facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit (social commentator Eva Cox).
Social justice: The recognition that many people (for instance, the young, the aged, the disabled, minority groups) can be disadvantaged by mainstream policies or practices, and that action should be taken to ensure that all groups share equitably in national resources. 
Species: A group of organisms which are biologically capable of breeding and producing fertile offspring with each other but not with members of other species.
Stakeholders: Those who have a vital interest in the process.
Statutory declaration: A sworn statement of fact, witnessed by a Justice of the Peace.
Strategy: A plan of action.
Sullage (grey water): water from places like laundries, kitchens and bathrooms.
Sustainable development: Caring for the earth's resources so as to ensure the continuity of the social, economic and natural environments.
Sustainable futures: Caring for natural and social resources so as to ensure a long-term future for life on Earth.
Sustainability principles: Ensure continuity for current and future generations; maintain integrity of ecological life support systems; practise the precautionary principle: monitor social and economic impacts on environmental resources. 
Stakeholder: Anyone who has an interest in an enterprise/activity. May be for personal, social or economic reasons.
Status: Condition, position or standing, socially, professionally or otherwise.
Sustainable development: The management of environmental resources in such a way that the needs of the present generation are met without reducing the capacity of the next generation to meet their own needs. (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.) 
Sustainability: The capacity to continue, as in a community, society or natural system.

T 
Teamwork: A group of people completing a task together.
Transparency: Keeping the process open and honest.
Trust: Having faith in someone/something.

U 
Understanding: Knowing how someone/something feels.
Unity (creating common): Common unity/common goals/bringing together.

V 
Valuing different views: Accepting and valuing diversity.
Vegetation: The structure, cover and species composition of the plants of an area.

W 
Wastewater: sewage and sullage
Weed: A plant growing in a place where it is not wanted.
Wetland: An area of low lying land that is irregularly, regularly or permanently covered with either fresh or salt water.
Wildlife Corridor: Free living populations of native animals inhabiting a portion of land that acts as a passage for migration of those animals.

X 

Y 

Z