Landscapes, Environmental Impact, and Natural Resources
Topic 9: The Landscape
The landscape is an environment we have around us in which our members are elements. It is something which depends on the value of a criterion being. The relief is an aspect of the landscape.
Forms of Relief:
- Mountains
- Plains
Factors Influencing the Landscape:
- Weather
- Human presence (natural or humanized)
- Density, type of vegetation, and wildlife (desert, meadow, forest)
- Extent of ground (small or large)
- Perspective of the viewer (we see a line of peaks or a cut of ground)
- Subjective aspects (smell or sound triggers)
Weathering
Weathering is the process of alteration and disintegration experienced by rocks exposed to the elements.
Types of Weathering:
- Chemical Weathering: Composition causes changes in the chemistry of minerals.
- Mechanical Weathering: Raised disintegration or wear without altering the rock’s composition of minerals that form it.
- Biological Weathering: Produced by living organisms and is the result of combining the previous two.
Maps
Types of Maps:
- Topographic: Representation facilitates a very precise view of the relief.
- Weather: Represent the values of atmospheric pressure through isobars that facilitate the location of anticyclones and depressions.
Forms of Modeling
Types of Modeling:
- River: Rivers produce molded features when diminishing the relief, which stack to form deep gorges.
- Torrential: Wild water erosion produces a very intense and very rugged rise in relief, such as sinkholes and canyons.
- Ice-producing: Rugged landscape, typically found in high mountain areas where human occupation is low.
- Karst: Areas formed by limestone or chalk, where groundwater dissolves the rocks, causing both surface and underground formations.
- Coastline: Very effective in terms of erosion and sediment, mobilizing huge quantities of sand.
- Wind: Operates in the transport of sand accumulated on the beaches by the waves, and causes coastal dunes.
Topic 10: Environmental Impact
Environmental impact is a significant change in the environment caused by human activity.
Types of Impact:
- Positive: Leads to an improvement in the environment or human well-being.
- Negative: Produces a deterioration of the natural environment or human well-being.
Impact Scope:
- On the Environment: Changes in other living beings in the sun, air, etc.
- On the Human Environment: Directly affect the lifestyle of people (e.g., the social environment, health, economy).
- Local: Consequences perceived only in the affected area.
- Regional: Affect large areas, often far removed from the site where the action that produced the impact was conducted.
- Global: Consequences that affect the entire planet (e.g., climate change).
Negative Impacts on the Natural Environment:
- On the Air: Causing loss of air quality or an alteration of the properties of the atmosphere.
- On the Hydrosphere: Involving a reduction in the quality of water masses and sometimes alteration of aquatic ecosystems.
- On the Natural Landscape: Human works sometimes profoundly alter the natural landscape.
- On the Soil: Removing vegetation leaves the soil unprotected and exposed to erosion.
- On the Biosphere: The greater the dependency of a population living on a specific habitat, the more sensitive the population is to changes in this habitat.
Topic 11: Natural Resources
Natural resources are all natural elements that humans take from nature to obtain benefit.
Types of Resources:
- Natural resources
- Cultural resources
Resource Classification:
- Renewable (e.g., wind and rivers)
- Non-renewable (e.g., coal, uranium)
Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is essential because if we continue living as we are, we could face resource depletion. When natural resources are exploited at a rate lower than the rate at which they are updated, human activity is respectful of the environment and sustainable development occurs. It meets the needs of present generations without damaging the living conditions of future generations.