HUMANIZED LANDSCAPE: CHARACTERISTICS, EXAMPLES - GEOGRAPHY - 2024

A humanized landscape refers to those spaces or lands that have been transformed by the intervention of human hands. These changes are generally caused to meet their basic needs and improve their living conditions.

This transformation is a consequence of the evolution and modernization of societies over the years, which has led to positive and negative situations for the environment.

Cities, with their buildings and roads, are examples of humanized landscapes. Source: pixabay.com

The territorial occupation developed by man includes the construction of roads and houses, the exploitation of forests and mines, the practice of livestock and agriculture, the construction of cities and much more.

This transformation process has caused worrying damage to the environment, which today has large eroded and worn areas, high levels of pollution and unpredictable climate changes, as a consequence of the emission of toxic gases.

This has influenced the natural development of flora and fauna, which have also been negatively affected.

Characteristics of the humanized landscape

The concept of landscape refers to an extension or part of a territory that can be observed from a certain point or place.

The French geographer Georges Bertrand defines it as "the result of the dynamic combination, therefore unstable, of physical, biological and anthropic elements, which react dialectically one on the other and form a unique and inseparable set in continuous evolution".

This idea includes man as a transforming element, but which in turn is also transformed by the environment. In this way, the main characteristic of the humanized landscape is the presence of a population, understood as the set of people who occupy a defined space.

As part of their development, the members of these communities carry out activities such as plowing the land, cutting down trees, diverting rivers and exploiting natural resources, which affect and modify the area in which they live.

Different classifications

The term humanized landscape is often used in geography, biology, ecology, anthropology, and sociology, among other sciences and fields of study. In addition, it is also used in the world of the arts.

Many authors classify these landscapes taking into account the characteristics in which the intervention of man occurs.

For example, it can be classified as "spontaneous" or "planned"; in "rational" or "irrational" according to the use that is given to natural resources; or "sudden" or gradual ", based on the period of time in which it occurs.

Examples of humanized landscape

There are many examples of changes that men can make in a field to turn it into a humanized landscape.

One of them is the case of agriculture, where the cultivation and tillage of the land modify the natural environment. Other similar cases are those of livestock and fishing, in which the raising of animals for their consumption and use, and the extraction of fish from the water alter the environment.

The same happens with logging, with cutting down trees and burning forests and jungles; as well as the development of road networks, with the construction of roads, streets and train tracks.

Also mining and industry, which use and extract natural resources and generate all kinds of waste, and tourism, whose exploitation of places often leaves its mark.

In turn, each existing city in the world is another example of a humanized landscape.

The hand of man and technology

The development of technology has also increased human capacity to transform landscapes.

A specific case is that of the North Sea, in the Netherlands, where water was pumped into certain areas and it was discovered that there was fertile soil under it. After that, dikes and dams were built and that land reclaimed from the sea is now used for agriculture and other purposes.

Similarly, in China the flow of the Yangtze River was permanently altered to irrigate certain areas and, today, the world's largest electric power plant operates there.

Differences between humanized and natural landscape

Humanized landscapes differ from natural landscapes in that they have not been modified by man. Source: pixabay.com

Humanized landscapes are distinguished from natural landscapes in that the latter are those spaces and lands that have not been transformed by human action.

Among them are the North Pole and the South Pole, some mountains, forests, jungles, plains, valleys and deserts that due to their climatic or physical characteristics are uninhabitable or difficult to access, or do not have raw materials that can be exploited.

Another difference between natural and humanized landscapes is that in the former, changes usually occur gradually, as a result of the erosion of the wind or water, the action of temperature, the evolution of vegetation, the modification of river courses. or the renewal of species.

On the contrary, when man intervenes in a field, the transformations occur more quickly and in many cases they are immediate.

Other examples of natural landscapes

Natural landscapes are also considered those places that, although they may be inhabited or contain human structures, were not altered or modified by his hand.

This is the case of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in the United States; the Iguazu falls in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay; the Amazon River in Peru and Brazil; the Milford Sound fjord in New Zealand; the Black Forest in Germany; Mount Vesuvius in Italy; the Uluru rock formation and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia; and the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador.

Other examples are parks or nature reserves and other protected areas to guarantee their preservation and the development of their flora and fauna.

References

1. Bertrand, Georges (1968). Global paysage et géographie physique: esquisse methodologique. Révue de Géographie des Pyrenées et Sud-Ouest. Toulouse.
2. National Geographic. Landscape. Resource Library.
3. Atkins, Peter, Ian Simmons, and Brian Roberts (1998). People, Land and Time: An Historical Introduction to the Relations between Landscape, Culture and Environment. London.
4. Horton, John, and Peter Kraftl (2014). Cultural Geographies: An Introduction. London, Routledge.
5. Wettstein, G., (1972), Towards a typology of humanized landscapes. Geographic magazine of Mérida, Venezuela. Vol. XIII, No. 28.
6. Culture landscape. Wikipedia. Available at: es.wikipedia.org