Human-Environment Interaction: Shaping the Landscape
The physical and human characteristics of a place provide an understanding of the relationship between people and their environments. Humans affect their environment and the environment affects humans; it works both ways.
There are three ways in which humans and environment interact with each other.
There are three ways in which humans and environment interact with each other.
1-Humans Depend on the Environment:
The natural environment is made up of living things and non living things. Humans depend on the natural environment for their basic needs; food, shelter, and clothing. Some examples are shown below:
2-Humans Modify the Environment:
People modify (change) the natural environment to meet their needs. For example, they build dams, plow and irrigate fields, and dig mines. They build houses, schools, and shopping centers on land. This also includes human's impact on the earth's health. Creating pollution, litter and carbon dioxide all affect the earth's condition. Some examples are shown below:
3-Humans Adapt to the Environment:
Humans have settled in virtually every corner of the world by successfully adapting to various natural settings.
For example, people who live in the northern United States use heating units to keep their homes warm in winter. People in the southern part of the United States use air conditioning most of the year to stay cool in the heat. In addition, in countries where earthquakes are common homes and buildings are built to survive an earthquake. Some examples are shown below:
For example, people who live in the northern United States use heating units to keep their homes warm in winter. People in the southern part of the United States use air conditioning most of the year to stay cool in the heat. In addition, in countries where earthquakes are common homes and buildings are built to survive an earthquake. Some examples are shown below:
QUIZ:
- What examples of human/environment interaction do you see in your state? Provide 1 example for each category (total of 3).
- Do you see evidence of decreasing resources in your state?
- Do you see changes in the landscape in animal habitats? Are there changes in the air, water, and soil?