Landscape
A
landscape is the visible features of an area of
land, its
landforms, and how they integrate with
natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal. A landscape includes the physical elements of
geophysically defined
landforms such as
mountains,
hills,
water bodies such as
rivers,
lakes,
ponds and the
sea, living elements of
land cover including indigenous
vegetation, human elements including different forms of
land use, buildings, and
structures, and transitory elements such as
lighting and
weather conditions. Combining both their physical origins and the
cultural overlay of human presence, often created over millennia, landscapes reflect a living synthesis of people and place that is vital to local and
national identity.
The character of a landscape helps define the self-image of the people who inhabit it and a sense of place that differentiates one region from other regions. It is the dynamic backdrop to people's lives. Landscape can be as varied as farmland, a
landscape park or
wilderness. The
Earth has a vast range of landscapes including the icy landscapes of
polar regions,
mountainous landscapes, vast arid
desert landscapes,
islands, and
coastal landscapes, densely
forested or
wooded landscapes including past
boreal forests and
tropical rainforests and
agricultural landscapes of
temperate and
tropical regions. The activity of modifying the visible features of an area of land is referred to as
landscaping.
Provided by Wikipedia