Patterns of Human Settlement and Industrialization

This chapter treats a variety of human interactions with the land that trace their origins more to political and commercial drivers rather than directly to geology, topography, soils and local biota. Examples of land subdivisions are taken mostly from the United States, which illustrates a variety of land-use patterns that result from property surveys. Land hunger and government policies have also contributed to wars, which have altered landscapes. These have characterized the history of most parts of the world, having major repercussions on the environment as well as on people. Examples range over time and space. Industrialization increased the ability of people to travel and thus trade quickly over long distances thus intensifying and extending the impact of humans on the land, especially as industrialization further separated local land use from resource protection. Cities have flourished, often along trade routes, perhaps even before the development of agriculture Some all but disappeared, but all have had both local and regional effects on the land. Examples are discussed of effects both within cities today and resulting from cities that no longer exist.