– Types of Landscapes:
– Prairie in Badlands National Park, South Dakota
– Tropical rainforest on Fatu Hiva Island, French Polynesia
– Tundra in Siberia
– Taiga (boreal forest) in Alaska
– Savanna in the rainshadow region of Tirunelveli, India
– Diverse Land Features:
– Aletsch Glacier, the largest in the Swiss Alps
– Wetland in Lahemaa National Park, Estonia
– Large fields of modern farmland in Dorset, England
– Mountains
– Rivers, lakes, ponds, and seas
– Components of a Landscape:
– Geophysical landforms like mountains and hills
– Water bodies such as rivers, lakes, and ponds
– Living elements like indigenous vegetation
– Human-made features including buildings and structures
– Transitory elements such as lighting and weather conditions
– Aesthetic Appeal:
– Landscapes are often considered for their aesthetic beauty
– The integration of natural and human-made features
– Cultural overlay of human elements
– Varied land use forms
– Unique lighting conditions and weather effects
– Importance of Landscapes:
– Landscapes provide habitats for diverse flora and fauna
– They offer recreational opportunities for people
– Landscapes contribute to ecological balance
– Cultural significance in art and literature
– Economic value through tourism and agriculture
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal. A landscape includes the physical elements of geophysically defined landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of land use, buildings, and structures, and transitory elements such as lighting and weather conditions. Combining both their physical origins and the cultural overlay of human presence, often created over millennia, landscapes reflect a living synthesis of people and place that is vital to local and national identity.
The character of a landscape helps define the self-image of the people who inhabit it and a sense of place that differentiates one region from other regions. It is the dynamic backdrop to people's lives. Landscape can be as varied as farmland, a landscape park or wilderness. The Earth has a vast range of landscapes including the icy landscapes of polar regions, mountainous landscapes, vast arid desert landscapes, islands, and coastal landscapes, densely forested or wooded landscapes including past boreal forests and tropical rainforests and agricultural landscapes of temperate and tropical regions. The activity of modifying the visible features of an area of land is referred to as landscaping.