Difference between natural and cultural landscapes

Our planet is enormously rich and varied, in all aspects, and obviously it is also in landscapes. Next we will talk more in depth about this phenomenon, the different landscape typologies and the factors involved in their formation and transformation.

The landscapes represent large (or not so large) extensions of land that are formed by physical and natural elements that, either because of their peculiarities or characteristics, capture our attention and represent the geographical expression of a specific region.

We traditionally understand that the factors that most influence the landscape are vegetation and reliefsince they are the ones that are perceived more easily. For example, the relief is the one that exerts control over temperature and precipitation, and vegetation is the visual element that is most perceived. However, for centuries, man and his action It is also an inalienable factor in the formation and transformation of landscapes.

When we observe a passage, in it, we can see the differences and the variety of climates, reliefs and ways of life of the different human societies, through the world and through history. That is why we talk about Natural landscapes and cultural or humanized landscapes. Do you want to know your differentiates? In the following sections we explain each of them.

All landscapes are different, the view that offers us the top of a New York skyscraper is not the same as looking around us in the Sahara desert. Beyond the natural differences that may be, there are spaces in which the intervention of man is maximum and others in which the action of nature is fully preserved. That is the difference between the natural landscape and the humanized or cultural landscape.

While decades ago much of the Earth was formed by natural landscapes, today it is more difficult to find a site where man has not intervened And I have modified it. However, it is still possible to find sites in which Human intervention is minimal or zerothose are precisely the natural landscapes. Thus, we could establish the definition of natural landscape as that territory that has not been modified or altered by the action of man, which has its own characteristics product of the action of weather, geological and natural factors. Today, natural landscapes are found in high mountainous areas, the two poles, certain coastal areas, the tropical forest or deserts. All of them have in common that they are complicated access zones or that conditions are so extreme that human life is unfeasible.

As we have just explained, the natural landscape is the one that has been formed without man has intervened, that is, that only consists of natural elements. Here are the Natural Landscape Components:

• Area: That is, the land space that remains within specific limits. For example, Niagara cataracts are in a specific area of ​​the border between the United States and Canada, and the Amazon jungle in a delimited, although extensive area, from South America.
• Relief: They are all the shapes and accidents that we find on the earth’s surface. Some examples of relief are the mountains, the mountain ranges, the valleys or the plains.
• Water: We all know what water is, this combination of oxygen and hydrogen that enables life on our planet. As it could not be otherwise, being the main component of the land surface, it is very important in the formation of the climate, since it is essential for both the flora and the fauna.
• Climate: They are the atmospheric conditions of a specific area. Here, we include both temperature, wind, pressure or rainfall.
• Floor: It is the upper area of ​​the earth’s surface, that is, the cape of the cortex with which we are in contact. This is formed by the rocks that are decomposing, either by the action of water, wind, living beings such as changes in temperature. Similarly, depending on the type of soil a type of vegetation will grow or not.
• Minerals: They are the inorganic matter found in the different layers of the earth’s crust, some examples are silver, copper or gold, but we also find minerals that are not metallic, such as salt or sulfur.
• Flora and fauna: That is, both plants, trees and shrubs and animals that live in a specific geographical area. On the other hand, these depend on the weather and the characteristics of a landscape to be able to inhabit it, but in turn they influence it and transform them.

But although the natural landscape can be admirable to contemplate and immeasurable beauty, most of the time it is too hostile for the human being to live in it. This is the reason why humans have been modifying these landscapes to adapt them to our needs and be able to survive: this is how the cultural landscape is born. Housing constructions, roads and electrical networks, agriculture and other actions have Modified the natural landscape until it becomes a humanized landscape.

Here are the components that constitute a cultural landscape:

• Population: That is, anyone who lives on earth, the human groups that live on this planet. However, the population is not distributed in a homogeneous way, but is concentrated in certain points with more density than others. Thus, the cities brings together the majority of the population, being the places where the cultural landscape highlights more.
• Dwelling: The covered constructions made so that people inhabit them. There are many styles and shapes depending on the population and the place they occupy, since they adapt to the materials, climate and use that can be given. For example, a house built in a tropical area is not the same as mountainous areas.
• Production: They are all those elements built or created by the human being with the will to transform certain natural elements in order to adapt them to their uses. An example of them are the factories, where from raw materials a product is transformed until it becomes a different product that has different uses.
• Communication: Everything that has been built to connect people, villages or countries, that is, railways, roads, airports, ports, electric lines, telephone cables, and so on.
  

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