Relationships between Physical and Human Features

22 min

Why is each thing where it is?

Describing a photograph answers "what is there?". The highest-level questions ask "why is it there?", and on a photograph the answer usually lies in another feature of the same scene. Houses stand on a ridge because the valley below floods; rice grows in the valley because water collects there; the steep slope is terraced because soil would otherwise wash away. Seeing these links, and showing the evidence for each, is the skill this lesson builds.

Definition

Relationship between physical and human features: a link in which a physical feature (relief, drainage, climate, soil, vegetation) influences what people do, or in which people change a physical feature. Example: a flat, waterlogged valley floor is used for rice, while houses keep to the drier ridge above it.

Common relationships and what to look for

Physical feature	Human response	Evidence on a photograph
Steep slopes	Terraces, rows along the contour, trees kept on the steepest parts, few buildings	Step-like strips across the slope; woodland on the steepest ground
Ridge tops and gentle slopes	Settlement and roads	Lines of houses along the crest; roads following the ridge
Flat, wet valley floors	Rice and other wet-season crops; few houses because of flooding	Level plots divided by banks, standing water, no buildings
Rivers	Bridges, irrigation, water supply	Bridges, canals, pumps
Cool, wet highlands	Tea and forest plantations	Neat rows of tea bushes; blocks of planted trees
People changing the land	Clearing, digging, building	Bare scars, gullies, quarries, drained swamps

Definition

Radical (bench) terrace: a level strip cut into a steep slope like a step, with a bank or riser at its edge. Rain soaks into the level strip instead of running down the slope and carrying the soil away. Example: the step-like strips across the hillsides in the second photograph below.

Worked example 1: relationships in the rice-field photograph

Physical feature (evidence)	Human feature (evidence)	The relationship
Flat valley floor with standing water (foreground and middle ground)	Rice in level plots divided by narrow banks; people working in the plots	Rice needs flooded, level fields; the flat, wet floor provides them, and the banks hold the water in each plot.
Steep slope (centre and right middle ground)	Covered by trees, with no houses	Land too steep for easy farming or building is left under trees, which also hold the soil.
Ridge top (on the line between the middle ground and the background)	A line of houses with metal roofs	The ridge is drier and safer from flooding than the valley floor, so the settlement follows the crest: a linear pattern.
Bare scar of red-brown soil on the steep slope (right middle ground)	None directly	Soil has slipped or been washed from the slope, probably a landslide scar: a reminder that steep, wet slopes are unstable, which is one reason for keeping them under trees.

A field of tall plants along the far edge of the valley floor, in the centre middle ground, looks like maize, grown on slightly higher, drier ground at the foot of the slope. "Looks like" is the honest wording: at this distance the crop cannot be named with certainty.

Worked example 2: an exam answer

Question. "Using evidence from the photograph, explain two relationships between relief and land use." (4 marks)

Answer.

The hillsides in the middle ground are steep, and they have been cut into level terraces planted with rows of a bushy crop (filed as tea). Terracing turns a slope that would lose its soil to runoff into level strips that can be farmed.
The road on the right follows the hillside across the slope rather than running straight up it, so that its gradient stays gentle enough for vehicles.

Each point names the physical feature, the human feature, the evidence and the reason. That is what earns both marks for each.

Warning

Physical features influence; they do not decide. A steep slope does not make people build terraces: people choose to, helped by knowledge, labour, money and government programmes. A good answer says what the physical feature makes possible or difficult, and admits that other causes (markets, land law, policy) cannot be seen on a photograph.

Suggesting where a photograph was taken

A common question asks you to suggest the kind of area or climate a photograph shows. Build the answer from several pieces of evidence, not one. In the rice-field photograph: flooded rice fields and tall green crops (plenty of water at the time), large cumulus clouds (moist, rising air), steep hills with small plots and terraces (a densely farmed highland), metal-roofed houses in a line along the ridge. Together they suggest a well-watered, densely populated tropical highland, which fits the caption's "Rwanda". No single clue would be enough on its own.

Tip

Exam technique. Use a three-part sentence for every relationship: physical feature (evidence) + influence + human feature (evidence). Where the influence runs the other way, say so: "people have removed the forest, so the slope is exposed to erosion".

Rwanda Green Fund: "Promoting Climate Resilient Agriculture through Terracing". A short film of radical terraces built on a hillside by the Green Gicumbi project. Watch for the level strips and their banks, and compare them with the second photograph above.

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Practice

Name the settlement pattern on the ridge in the rice-field photograph and explain its link with the relief.
Explain why the valley floor in the rice-field photograph has no buildings.
What evidence suggests that the steep slope in the rice-field photograph is unstable? Suggest one way people reduce this danger.
Explain why the road in the terraced-hills photograph runs across the slope.
Look again at the Kigali hills photograph (Lesson 2). Explain one relationship between relief and settlement.
Give one example from this unit's photographs of people changing a physical feature.
"The terraces in the second photograph were built because the slopes are steep." Evaluate this statement.

Show answersHide answers

Linear: the houses stand in a line along the crest of the ridge. The ridge is drier and safer from floods than the valley floor, and a crest is a natural line for a road or path to follow.
The floor is flat and waterlogged (standing water in the plots), so it floods; it is also more valuable for rice, which needs flooded, level fields.
A bare scar of red-brown soil on the slope, where soil has slipped or been washed away. People keep steep slopes under trees, build terraces and dig drains to lead water away safely.
A road straight up a steep slope would be too steep for vehicles and would channel runoff; running across the slope keeps the gradient gentle.
The steep upper slopes are under trees with few buildings, while dense housing fills the valley floor and gentle lower slopes, which are easier to build on and to reach.
The terraces (the slope has been cut into level steps); the dug, bare plots; the bare scar in the rice photograph, if it was caused by people.
Partly true: steep slopes lose soil quickly, so terraces are needed if the land is to be farmed. But the slope alone does not build terraces; people's decisions, labour, knowledge and support from programmes are also required, and these cannot be seen on the photograph.

Summary

A relationship links a physical feature and a human feature, with evidence for both and a reason.
Typical links: steep slopes and terraces or trees; ridges and settlement; wet valley floors and rice; people's impact through clearing and digging.
Hedge inferences, combine several clues, and remember that physical features influence but do not decide.

1Why is each thing where it is?

2Common relationships and what to look for

3Suggesting where a photograph was taken

Why is each thing where it is?

Common relationships and what to look for

Suggesting where a photograph was taken