Geographic Landscape

We explain what the geographic landscape or geographic space is, its elements and multiple examples. In addition, we tell you what types exist.

King penguins walk on South Georgia Island in Antarctica.
In the geographical landscape there are fundamental elements, such as soil, and accessories, such as animals.
Summary of Contents

What is geographic landscape?

The geographic landscape or geographic space is any region of the planet's surface that has similar constitutive features that is, it presents a more or less uniform geographical description. There can, therefore, be many types of geographic landscape, depending on the criteria used for its study. In all cases, it is a way of looking at and understanding the terrestrial landscape; a look constructed by human beings.

All geographic landscape contains morphological and functional elements articulated with each other some of natural origin and others the result of human intervention. To determine which of them belong to a given landscape, however, a scale and location are used:

  • Scale. It refers to the relationship of proportionality between the elements of the landscape and the surrounding regions, especially when it comes to making graphic or visual representations of them.
  • Location. It refers to the location of the landscape within the entire globe, often determined by the coordinate system (meridians and parallels).

The geographical landscape constitutes the essential object of study of geography because through its understanding the earth's surface can be organized according to discernible criteria. This is the reason why “landscape” does not mean the same to a geographer as it does to a painter, a surveyor or a tourist.

See also: Geographic region

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Types of geographic landscape

The city of Pripyat today is abandoned.
The city of Pripyat is a space humanized first by the population and then by radiation.

The geographic landscape can be classified according to the type of elements that predominate in it and the criteria with which these elements are differentiated. Thus, a distinction is normally made between:

  • Geographical landscapes not intervened or natural. They are those in which the human being has not left his mark in an obvious way. That is, they are mainly due to the action of natural forces, and therefore geological, biological and physical elements predominate in them. For example, a segment of the Amazon rainforest or the Sahara desert.
  • Geographic landscapes intervened or humanized. They are those in which human beings have left their mark, transforming or altering the relationships of the landscape directly or indirectly. Cultural or artificial elements predominate in them. For example, an urban residential segment or an industrial park in a city.

Geographic landscape elements

Elements of various kinds can be found in a geographic landscape, which can be classified into three categories:

  • Fundamental elements. Those that determine the landscape in an essential or elemental way, that is, without which the landscape would be dramatically altered and could, therefore, be transformed into a different one. They generally have to do with the topographic and geological aspects of the region. For example: the type of soil and its materials, the relief and topography or the geographical location.
  • Complementary elements. Those that complement the essential ones, that is, they respond to them but at the same time can have a decisive impact on the landscape, transforming it in one way or another. For example: vegetation, precipitation, temperature or water masses.
  • Accessory elements. Those that are found in the landscape in a superficial, transitory or circumstantial manner, that is, whose presence in the landscape is due to the context and the joint action of the fundamental and complementary elements. For example: animal species, human constructions, agricultural fields.
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Examples of geographic landscape

The Yukon River forms canyons and is crossed by bridges.
The Yukon River is a natural geographic landscape, with intervened sectors.

Some examples of geographic landscape are:

  • The tropical forest of the Amazon.
  • The center of the city of Buenos Aires.
  • The frozen desert of Antarctica.
  • The coffee axis in Colombia.
  • The banks of the Yukon River in Canada.
  • The abandoned Pripyat region in Ukraine.

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References

  • “The geographical landscape” (video) at the Polytechnic University of Madrid (Spain).
  • “The geographic landscape” by José María Igual in the CTDE Catalog.

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