Character Of Place Flashcards
What is an endogenous factor?
The internal factors which shape a places character. These could be physical eg its location, topography, physical geography or human eg land use, built environment, infrastructure and demographic and economic characteristics
What is an exogenous factor?
The external factors which shape a places character including the relationship to other places and the flows of people, resources, money and ideas.
Endogenous factors - location (physical)
Location refers to where a place is eg in a rural or urban area
Places can be characterised by the features that are present because of their location eg a coastal place may be characterised as a port due to its direct proximity to the sea - an inland place may not be a port but could be a local centre of trade if it was located at a confluence of road routes
Endogenous factors - topography (physical)
Topography refers to the shape of the landscape
Places can be characterised directly by their topography eg in a valley places would be characterised as flat whereas in a mountainous region places would be characterised by steep slopes
Topography also affects other factors that give a place its character such as land use ed flat = suitable for farming whereas mountainous = pastoral farming and grazing animals
Endogenous factors - physical geography (physical)
Physical geography refers to the environmental features of a place eg soil and rock type
Places can be characterised directly by their physical geography eg a place could have different rock types they could form different landscapes
Physical geography also affects other factors that give place their character eg economic characteristics such as a place being rich in natural resources such as coal may be characterised by industries that can exist there such as mining
Endogenous factors - land use (human)
Land use refers to the human activities that occur on the land eg farming, leisure, residential use
This is one of the most important human factors in directly defining the character of places eg place could be thought of as rural if the land use is farming or urban if the land use is commercial businesses
Land use also affects other factors eg built environment eg urban area have high rise buildings whereas rural residential use may require low density
Land use changes over time eg deindustrialisation such as industrial land turned into housing
Endogenous factors - built environment and infrastructure(human)
The built environment refers to aspects of places that are built by humans
Infrastructure refers directly to the structures built for transport, communications and services
Places can be characterised directly by their built environment and infrastructure eg towns have higher density buildings and are likely to have complex and dense networks of roads and rail tracks but villages will have smaller buildings at lower density and less complex infrastructure networks
Endogenous factors - demographic and economic characteristics (human)
Demographic characteristics are about who lives in a place ans what they are like eg age, race, ethnicity, gender. This may contribute to character of place eg many people retire to seaside locations so they have higher proportions of older people and therefore may be characterised as old places where older people feel like insiders and young feel like outsiders
Economic characteristics are are factors to do with work and money eg income, employment rates
This can contribute to character of place as places such as Kensington in London have a high proportion of above average earners and low employment which is characterised as wealthy
Exogenous factors are external to places - character of place, tourism, flows of investment and migration
Character of place can be influenced by relative location to other places eg villages outside major cities may be characterised as commuter settlements
Tourism influences are h character of many places eg land use and economic characteristics of Las Vegas are affected by tourism with casinos and hotels for tourists
Flows of investment affect the character of place eg Japanese cat manufacturer Nissan has a factory in Sunderland. Flow of investment in Japan has influences some characteristics in Sunderland eg land use around factory and built environment
Migration can influence character of places eg parts of UK have ethnically diverse populations due to migration from other parts of the world giving some places their unique demographic characteristics eg 27% of Birmingham are of Asian descent
