The Character of Places Flashcards
Define Endogenous Factors?
The internal factors which shape a place’s character. These could be physical. e,g, its location, topography and physical geography, or they could be human, e.g the land use, built environment, infrastructure and demographic and economic characteristics.
Define Exogenous Factors?
The external factors which shape a place’s 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.
How can places be characterised by their location?
Places can be characterised by the features that are present because of their location.
What does topography mean?
It refers to the shape of the landscape.
How can places be characterised by its topography?
Places can be characterised directly by their topography but it also affects other factors that gives their place their character. E.g. flat places may be suitable for large scale arable farming (crops).
How can places be characterised by its physical geography?
Places can be characterised directly from their physical geography and also it affects other factors. E.g. economic characteristics a place that is rich in natural resources such as iron or coal may be characteristics by the industries that can exist there, such a mining or smelting.
How can land use affect the character of places?
A place could be thought of as rural if the land use is farming, or urban if the land is used for commercial businesses.
How can land use changes change over time?
Processes such as deindustrialisation can lead to industrial land use being replaced by other land uses, such as housing or recreation.
How can places been characterised by their built environment?
Town and city centres will have higher density buildings, may have tower blocks and are likely to have complex and dense networks of roads and rail tracks, as well as communication. Whereas villages may have fewer smaller buildings at a lower density and less complex infrastructure.
What does demographic characteristics mean?
It is about who lives in a place and what they’re like. Demographic factors included things like age, gender, education level, religion, birth rates and ethnicity.
How can demographic characteristics affect the character of the place?
Many people retire to the seaside locations, which means they can have higher proportions of older people. They may be characterised as ‘old’ places.
What are exogenous factors about?
They are about how places are related to other places, and how these relationships can affect their character.
How can places be connected?
Places can be connected by things like relative location and by flows of people, resources, money and ideas.
How can tourism influence the character of a place?
The land use and economic characteristic of Las Vegas are affected by tourism - the casinos and hotels are there for the tourists, and these create employment opportunities for local people.
How can flows of investment affect the character of a place?
For example, Japanese car manufacturer Nissan has a factory in Sunderland. The flow of investment from Japan has influenced some of the characteristics of Sunderland, including the land use around the factory, the built environment of the factory and the type of employment available.
