Human-Environment Systems

• Human-Environment Systems (HES)


  An approach primarily concerned with the discipline of human geography (study of human-natural environment interactions)
• HES


  • Examines the ways the environment shapes and constrains human behavior
  • Examines the ways that human activities in the environment construct the built landscape, which also shapes and constrains behavior
• Landscape


  Refers to how an area appears
• Types of landscape


  • Physical landscape
  • Cultural landscape
• Physical landscape


  Includes the attributes of a given area like the terrain features, landforms, climates, bodies of water (mountains)
• Cultural landscape


  Landscapes that are characterized by human modification or activity (example: rice terraces)
• Space


  Where things are located and where activities and social relations take place (example: a market)
• Place


  Spaces that have acquired meaning because of human activity (example: a market as a place of interaction; or a market as a prison, etc.)
• Placemaking


  Transformation of spaces into places
• Example of placemaking


  • A market has multiple meanings for each individual
• HES can be used to explain as long as one determines the space and the place given in a scenario