A Presentation in the Refresher Course that deals with the 'landscape approach' to the study of Geography.

1. ....goodafternoon everybody…

2. NATURE, STRUCTURE, AND MODELS OF LANDSCAPE —
a geographer’s perspective

3. The Word …. ‘LANDSCAPE’
 6th Century AD: The English word landskift, landscipe,
or landscaef used to mean a system of man-made
spaces in the land.
 It also referred to a natural unit, a region or tract of land
such as a river valley or range of hills, occupied by
a tribe or ruled by a feudal lord.
 The German equivalent is landschaft, meaning a small
administrative unit or region.
 The Dutch painters (1598) introduced the
term, landschap for the paintings of inland ‘natural’ or
‘rural’ scenery.
 Landskip, the original English equivalent was replaced
by landscape in 1725.
 Alexander von Humbolt (1769 – 1859) was the first to
conceptualize the term, ‘natural landscape’ (NL).

4. • It was C. Sauer (1925) who viewed that the
role of geography is to systematically
examine the “phenomenology of landscape".
• He was the pioneer of the ‘cultural geographers
of the Berkeley School’ who distinguished
between the ‘natural’ and the ‘cultural’
landscapes and examined their inter-relationships.
• He considered landscapes as areas
comprising distinct associations of forms,
both physical and natural.
• He also viewed ‘landscape study’ as tracing
the development of natural landscapes (NL)
into cultural landscapes (CL).
The DUO — ‘Landscape’ and ‘Geography’

5.  R. Hartshorne (1939) was the pioneer of the
‘Areal Differentiation School’ in which the
prime concern was ‘region construction’.
 He defined landscape as "the external, visible
surface of the earth in immediate contact with
the atmosphere, of vegetation, bare earth, snow,
ice, or water bodies or the features made by
man."
 He differentiated it from region which is larger
in size, and
 He opined that “… the natural landscape ceases
to exist when man appears on the scene".
Thus, the concept of a NL became increasingly questioned with
increasing human impact on the environment. Hence, modern
geographers are addressing the subjective attributes of a
place within the domain of humanistic geography..

6. Landscapes are multi-dimensional, as it has the following
multiple components —
1. physical (i.e., elements of landforms, viz., mountains, hills,
valleys, rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea),
2. living (i.e., elements of land cover, viz. biomes),
3. human (i.e., different forms of landuse, buildings, transport
network, and structures), and
4. even, the transitory elements such as lighting and weather
conditions.
Attributes of LANDSCAPE
The basic indicators of Landscape Values (G. Brown, 2006 – Mapping
Landscape Values and Development Preferences, Int. J. Tourism Res., 8,
101 - 113): Aesthetic, Spiritual, Intrinsic, Heritage, Biodiversity,
Economic, Life sustaining, Recreation, Learning, Future,
Therapeutic, Wilderness.

7. The Earth has a vast range of landscapes —
the icy, desert, mountainous, plateau, plains, delta, karst, coastal,
badland, island, forest, agricultural, rural, industrial, urban etc
landscapes….

36. Landscapes may be studied as —
Natural Landscape (Potential Resource Base),
Cultural Landscape [CL = f (NL, HA, R*): labour as a
process, culture – technology – resource relations],
Landscape Ecology (environmental approach to maintain
sustainability and environmental equilibrium : a state with
maximum entropy / steady state),
Landscape Planning (designing networks of canals,
electricity grids, highways, expressways, racing circuits,
adventure routes, trekking routes, setting up establishments /
activity spaces, like ports, industries, educational campuses,
housings, golf course, multifunctional stadiums, aerodromes,
racing circuits, sanatoriums, tourist spots, bus terminals, and
developing scenic and aesthetic beauty, i.e., landscaping the
open spaces, parks, islands, strands, promenades, esplanades, etc
of a city, archaeological sites, historical sites, etc)

37.  Landscapes, their character and quality, help define the self
image of a region, its sense of place that differentiates it from
other regions.
 Landscapes reflect the living synthesis of people and places
vital to local and national identity.
 As information technology advances, transportation improves;
demands for ‘rural residential development’, ‘periurban
development’, ‘recreationally-oriented land use development’
and ‘special economic zone development’ on the rise
(Marcouiller, 2002).
 All these need ‘specific landscape policy’ for planning and
regional development; ‘The 2007-2013 EU Rural Development
Program’ put a huge emphasis on these (Dissart, 2007).
1. Thus, landscapes form the most dynamic backdrop to people’s lives.
2. As human elements change with time, landuse / land cover changes.
3. Naturally, lying at the interface of man and environment, landscapes
form the mainframe of planning and development.

38. LANDSCAPE PLANNING
In India, the history of landscape planning can be traced to the Vedas and
Vaastu Shastras dealing with the principles for planning settlements,
temples and other structures in relation to the Natural Landscape.
Relationships with mountains (the home of the gods) and with rivers
(regarded as goddesses) were particularly important. A square form
represented the earth and a circular form represented heaven.
A mandala explained the relationship between heaven and earth. Square
plans were set out with their sides facing north, south, east and west.
The earliest surviving stone temple set out in this way is Sanchi.
In China, landscape planning originated with Feng Shui, that described a
set of general principles for planning development in relation to natural
landscape.
The aim was to find the most auspicious environment possible in
harmony with nature, and the physical and psychological needs of man'.

40. LANDSCAPE CHAGES: EXPANSION OF COLLIERIES NEAR SAWANG DURING
1976-2006
The 1976 SOI topographical map
shows:
there were only 6 quarries, all
on the right bank of the Konar
river. The Konar - Gantiko
interfluve was mostly forested.
The 2006 Google Image shows:
both number and areal coverage
of quarries have increased,
5 new quarries can be easily
pointed out, 4 of them belonging
to the left bank of the Konar
river.
The vegetal cover on the
interfluve has disappeared due
to mining activities.
The drainage channels have been
tampered badly due to the
expansion of collieries.

41. LANDSCAPE CHANGES: EXPANSION OF SETTLEMENTS
( BOKARO TPPT AND ADJOINING AREA)

42. LANDSCAPE CHANGES: FORESTS SHRINK

43. Landscape Changes as drainage pattern changes with time

48. HIERARCHY OF LANDSCAPES
Landscapes = {Natural, Human}
Natural Landscape = {NL i}, where, i = 1,2,…. n
Natural Landscape
(1) mountainous, (2) plateau, (3) plains, (4) floodplain, (5) delta, (6) valley,
(7) lake, (8) forest, (9) grassland, (10) glacial, (11) arid, (12) desert,
(13) coastal, (14) lagoon, (15) island, ……. n
Human Landscape = f (NL, Human Actions, R*)
Human Landscape
Economic Landscape
Agricultural Landscape, Mining Landscape, Industrial, etc
Social Landscape
Rural Landscape, Urban Landscape, Tribal Landscape, etc
Cultural Landscape
Political Landscape
All Thematic Layers of Human Landscape are structurally, and
functionally related to Natural Landscape.

49. The beauty of a landscape lies in the richness and variety of forms, its
large-scale patterns and its intricate micro-scale detail.
1. Scale increases as Order decreases
2. Detail increases as Scale increases
3. Pattern clarity increases as Order decreases
Structure
Hierarchy
Organization
System

50. SOME OBSERVATIONS …..
Landscapes are highly and even, infinitely complex.
A complete understanding is beyond our reach.
It must be viewed at all spatial scales, because —
1. it contains a huge number of components,
2. the interactions of which determines how the
landscape functions, evolves and responds to
‘disturbances’, both internal and external.
Complexity arises because of the huge number of interactions
between the simpler ‘components’:
“… the smaller the parts (that must be described to describe
the behaviour of the whole), the larger the complexity of the
whole system (Bar-Yam, 1997)".

51. In geomorphology, a landscape or a part of a landscape is
viewed as a system (Chorley, 1962), that forms the basis of
the principle of the ‘landscape modelling’.
The main objective of landscape modelling is —
1. to test theories,
2. to organize knowledge and data,
3. to develop new insights,
4. to obtain new knowledge of landscape, and how
they come to be, and finally
5. to forecast and predict process rates and landform
geometry, both for the present and near future
and for long periods of time.
MODELLING PHYSICAL LANDSCAPES ….

52. Since QR (1960s), the quest for ‘better’ and ‘better’ models has made the
‘modelling’ more and more ‘difficult and complex’.
A model should be as simple as possible but not any simpler. It is a
simplified version of reality or the prototype, retaining its all essential
and desired features. If it is too complex, it will be difficult to
comprehend.
Problems arise because of —
(1) incomplete knowledge of the physics of landscape-forming
processes.
(2) several of these are described in a empirical way, and
(3) some inputs can not be measured independently and extracted
from curve fitting exercises.
The success of a model is assessed on two criteria —
1. theoretical ― it is highly valued if it is physically based
because the laws of physics are universally applicable; and
2. pragmatic ― how well the model estimates match with the

53. Just now, we have two ‘better’ landscape models –
(1) deterministic chaos (Ruelle, 2001) and
(2) self-organization (Waldrop, 1994; Holland, 1998).
THE DC MODEL
The relevance of deterministic chaos to landscape modellers
is summed up as :
“does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado
in Texas?”
In other words, can a large effect has a tiny cause?
The DC Model is based on fractal pattern formation (i.e.,
scale-independent), inherent in a wide variety of geographical
situations (Evans and McClean, 1995).
LANDSCAPE MODELS

54. Such models are dynamic, in which the results at the end of
one iteration are fed back into the model and used to
calculate results for the next iteration, producing a feed
back loop.
Hence, for particular values of model’s parameters,
1. the output eventually settles down to a static equilibrium
value, or
2. the model may settle down to cycle forever between a
finite number of end-point values, or
3. the model may switch unpredictably between output
values in an open random way.
Thus, complex systems often result from simple underlying relationships;
hence, for physical geographers, the model may not prove very useful
(Beven, 1989).

55. A landscape may be viewed as an assemblage of
systems that can each be sub-divided into smaller sub-
systems and which, in turn, are part of larger systems.
This hierarchy of systems is thermodynamically open,
since clear fluxes of energy and matter move through
these systems at all levels, e.g., tectonic, volcanism,
precipitation, solar energy, etc.
Thus, a landscape fulfills the conditions for a
dissipative system, which is not only complex but,
may be viewed as a self-organizing one.
THE SELF ORGANIZATION MODEL

56. In self-organization, complex and highly structured responses
may result from simple interactions between the
components of the systems.
1. interactions between smaller components are governed by
‘local’ rules, but
2. the ‘whole-system’ (i.e., global) response is a manifest of
higher-level ‘emergent’ organization, following the
formation of ordered structures within the system.
Thus, the system moves from a more uniform and
symmetrical state to a less uniform – but more structured –
state.
The self-organizing systems have three underlying concepts,
in particular, viz., feedback, complexity and scale, and
emergence.

57. Positive feedback
when erosion locally lowers the surface, resulting in an
increased concentration of water and still more erosion,
until at some point a valley is formed which ultimately
becomes part of a larger channel network.
Negative feedback prevents the valleys from becoming
overly deep, by the deposition of sediment in the low spots
in the drainage network.
Thus a balance is maintained —
1.while ‘successful’ channels are deepened, no channel
can become too deep too quickly;
2.it is this non-linear recursive interplay which leads to
the emergence of channel networks.

58. The notion of complexity is closely tied to our
conceptualization of scale —
When viewed at a ‘component scale’, the most complex of
systems become simpler, and thus more mathematically
tractable.
Aristotle (c. 330 BC): the whole is more than the some of its
parts.
1. An emergent response is synergistic.
2. Ordered structures ‘emerge’ as a result of interactions
between the system’s sub-components.
3. As these structures grow more common within the system,
the system as a whole, ‘self–organizes’.

59. All self-organizing systems are thermodynamically open —
…. time rate of change of energy within the system
equals the sum of the rate of production of energy
within the system (Pi) plus the rate of export of energy
through the system boundaries (Ti), i.e.,
…. when the two terms of the above equation are
themselves equal to zero, the system is said to be in steady
state, i.e., in steady state —
(Von Bertalanffy, 1950)
In open systems, different initial conditions produce the same
end product, …. ‘equifinality’.
dQi
Ti Pi
dT
 
0dQi
dT  0i iT P 

60. Self-organization can be easily understood by means
of the ‘cellular automation’ (CA) approach or model
—
1. It discretizes continuous space into a series of cells (regular square or
rectangular grid).
2. Each cell is viewed as an ‘automation’ with its behaviour controlled
by the feedbacks of the model.
3. Interactions are confined to those between adjacent or nearby cells.
Thus, interactions are all ‘local’.
It gives rise to larger-scale responses as patterns on the cellular
grid (Wooton, 2001; Coulthard et al, 2002).
Since 1990s, geomorphologists are steadily believing this idea to explain
the patterns in landscapes and processes.

61. Some important researches with CA model in
geomorphology are —
1. evolution of fluvially eroded landscape over long periods of time at large
spatial scales (Chase, 1992);
2. formation of stone stripes, polygons and nets (Werner and Hallet, 1993);
3. formation of beach cusps (Werner and Fink, 1993);
4. formation of aeolian dunes (Werner, 1995);
5. formation of braided channel patterns (Murray and Paola, 1997);
6. fractal and multifractal properties of channel networks (Rodriguez-Iturbe and
Rinaldo, 1997);
7. RillGrow I model of hill slope rill initiation and development (Favis-Mortlock,
1998);

62. 1. magnitude-frequency distribution of landslides (Hergarten et al, 2000);
2. evolution of drainage networks (Hergarten and Neugebauer, 2001);
3. dynamics of sediment movement in a fluvial drainage network through the Cascade 5
model of evolution of fluvial landscape (De Boer, 2001);
4. dynamics of braided rivers with lateral channel migration, bar erosion and formation
and channel splitting (Thomas and Nicholas, 2002);
5. long term landscape evolution based on small catchments (Coulthard et al, 2002);
6. RillGrow 2 model of hill slope rill initiation and development (Lascelles et al, 2002),
etc

63. 1. A landscape is multi-dimensional.
2. A landscape is multi-variate and multi-functional
3. A landscape represents a thermodynamically open system, in which all
sub-components are structurally and functionally organized.
4. A landscape can be efficiently modelled for better understanding.
5. The recent model-based, field-based and laboratory-based studies
confirm that self organization is a reality in landscape systems.
EPILOGUE …. ?

64. 1. Being mostly polygenetic, landscapes are modelled by taking each ‘forming
phase’ separately, and then ‘chaining’ them so that the outputs of one phase (a
given landscape configuration) become the input of the next.
1. Currently, there has been a clear shift in research emphasis from the primarily
phenomenal (investigating what is found where) to the primarily intellectual
(investigating how and why) one that appreciates the role of self-organization
in creating the general patterns of landscapes.

65. In this approach, the context in geomorphology is of supreme
importance as appreciated by Davis (1910) :
“…. the conviction dawns upon the learner that to attain even
an elementary conception of what goes on in his own parish,
he must know something about the universe; what he kicks
aside would not be what it is unless a particular chapter of the
earth’s history …. had been exactly what it was ….”.
It was Tennyson (1850) who sublimely enlivened the concept
of self-organization of landscapes in ‘In Memoriam’ as —
“The hills are shadows, and they flow
from form to form, and nothing stands;
They melt like mist, the solid lands,
Like clouds they shape themselves and go”.

66. THANK YOU
prof ashis sarkar
Department of Geography
Presidency University
profdrashis@gmail.com