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Place Physical and Human Characteristics Location tells us where, and place tells us what is there. All places have a set of distinctive characteristics, the features that make them different from or similar to other places. Geographers often divide these characteristics into physical and human phenomena that are can be mapped. Characteristics of place often can be explained by the human and physical processes that define the geographic patterns of our planet. Physical Characteristics Landform-are the processes that shape the landscape: erosion and deposition by rivers, waves, glaciers, and wind; mountain building, volcanoes, earthquakes, and plate tectonics. Climate Patterns of temperature, humidity and rainfall, cells of air pressure, wind and ocean circulation: the climate of a place affects landform processes, soils, water availability, vegetation, and animal life. Soils Natural fertility, suitability to agriculture types and crops, and relations to climate are all important factors of soil. Natural Vegetation Type of environment: desert, tropical rainforest, tundra, or savanna, and the relationship to factors of soil and climate. Animal Life its relationship to environment, climate, soils, and vegetation. Water- availability of fresh water, areas of water and surplus Human Characteristics Religion deals with human belief systems and their imprints on places. Languages Human communication and its imprint on places: names of places and features are often geographically descriptive in their original language. Population Factors Description, distributions, density, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, and economic structures, rates of birth, death, and population growth. Settlement Patterns Urban, rural, suburban, wilderness areas, and the form of settlements. Economic Activities How people make a living, including agriculture, industry, forestry, fishing, and providing services, the imprint of an economic system on the landscape. Environmental Limits All environments have limiting factors, such as availability of water, land, and other natural resources, management of environments (coastal zones and lands). Adaptation Humans have many ways of adapting to various environments. People in deserts live differently than people in humid tropics or the Polar Regions. The influence of the environment: ways of making a living, house types, ways of life, and the appearance of the human landscape Different Cultural Attitudes about the Environment and Its Resources Cultures often have different attitudes toward use and conservation of the environment. Regions How They Form and Change Regions are geographical tools. They are mental constructs designed to help us understand and organize the characteristics of our planet. Regions may be larger than a continent or smaller than your neighborhood. Regions can have sharp boundaries that are well defined (such as a state, e.g., California or Illinois), or may have gradational or indistinct boundaries (such as the Pacific Basin, the Great Plains, or Silicon Valley). Many regions are familiar to us because of television or the newspapers, or because they are related to other subjects that we study. For the geographer, regions represent a core element of the discipline and are of fundamental importance. We define our regions by stating criteria and then drawing boundaries. Regions may be based upon crops, types of agriculture, climate, landforms, vegetation, political boundaries, soils, religions, languages, cultures, and economic characteristics. Subthemes include Uniform Region Uniform regions are defined by some uniform cultural or physical characteristic. Examples include the Wheat Belt, Latin America, the Gulf-Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Bible Belt, the Sun Belt, New England, the Rocky Mountains, or a country, township, or Cajun country in Louisiana Functional Region A functional region has a focal point (often a city) and is the organized space surrounding that central location. Examples would be a metropolitan area, such as greater New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, or the San Francisco Bay Area. Other functional regions include market areas served by a particular store and districts around schools. Cultural Diversity Understanding regions can lead to understanding human diversity. Regions are an excellent means for illustrating the cultural differences and similarities between areas of the world and groups of people.