The character of a place Flashcards
What are endogenous factors?
The internal factors shape the character of a place. These could be physical, e.g. location, topography, and physical geography, or they could be human e.g. land use, built environment, infrastructure, and demographic and economic characteristics.
what are exogenous factors?
the external factors which shape a places character, including the relationship to other places and the flows in and out of a place e.g. the flows of people, resources, money and ideas.
What are some examples of physical characteristics of the landscape that are considered endogenous factors?
Location:
1) Location refers to where a place is e.g. on the coast or inland, in a rural or urban area, at a bridge point, or at a confluence of roads.
Topography:
1) Topography refers to the shape of the landscape
2) In a valley places character = Flat
Mountainous regions character =
steep slopes + hilly
3) Topography also affects other factors that give places their character. e.g. land use - flat places may be suitable for large-scale farming, whilst mountainous regions may be suitable for certain types of pastoral farming (grazing animals).
Physical geography:
1) Physical geography refers to the environmental features of a place e.g. altitude, soil, and rock type.
2) Places could have igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic rocks, which form different landscapes.
3) Have an effect on economic characteristics - a place that is rich is natural resources such as iron and coal may be characterised by the industries that can exist there, such as mining or smelting.
How do the human characteristics of a place and the activities that occur there contribute to endogenous factors?
1) Land use refers to the human activities that occur on the land e.g. farming, industry, and leisure.
2) Land use is one of the most important human factors in defining the character of a place e.g. a place could be thought of as rural if the land use is farming.
3) Land use changes over time. For example, processes such as deindustrialization can lead to industrial land use being replaced by other land uses, such as housing or recreation.
Built environment and infrastructure:
1) The built environment refers to aspects of places that are built by humans.
2) Infrastructure specifically refers to the structures built for transport, communications, and services, e.g. roads, phone and broadband.
3) Places can be characterised directly by their built environment and infrastructure e.g. towns and cities = more tower blocks and higher-density buildings
villages = fewer smaller buildings at lower density and complexity.
Demographic and economic characteristics:
1) Demographic characteristics are about who lives in a place and what they’re like. Demographic factors include things like age, gender, education level, religion, birth rates, ethnicity, and population size.
2) Many people retire to seaside area locations, which means they have higher proportions of old people. Seaside areas are characterised as ‘old’.
3) Economic Characteristics can directly contribute to the character of a place e.g. Kensington in London has a higher proportion of above average earners and low unemployment and such are characterised as wealthy.