Physical Geography

Author: Meng Jijun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: This course introduces the research objects, content, objectives, characteristics of comprehensive physical geography, and its relationship with various disciplines of departmental physical geography. The book consists of 11 chapters and approximately 450,000 words. First, it explores the spatial and temporal geographical laws of natural geographical environments, where the spatial geographical laws primarily focus on the regional differentiation and combination patterns of natural geographical environments, while the temporal geographical laws mainly examine the causal, developmental, evolutionary, and changing patterns of natural geographical environments. Second, it discusses the theory and methods of natural regionalization at the regional scale, emphasizing the principles, methods, and hierarchical systems of comprehensive natural regionalization. Third, it explores the classification of natural geographical units at the local scale—land type classification, focusing on the principles and research methods of land grading, categorization, and evaluation. Fourth, it systematically introduces the frontiers of comprehensive physical geography, mainly covering land change science, comprehensive ecosystem assessment, and landscape ecology. Fifth, it examines the dialectical relationship between humans and natural geographical environments from the perspectives of the development of human-environment relationships and sustainable development. Finally, it analyzes the applications of comprehensive physical geography in agricultural development, landscape ecological design, tourism development, urban planning, regional development, and the prediction of natural environmental development. Compared to similar textbooks published domestically, this book features a systematic content, clear structure, fluent language, and moderate difficulty level. It integrates the content of previously published domestic textbooks, particularly incorporating regional combination patterns and temporal geographical evolutionary laws, making it comprehensive and logically rigorous. Based on an analysis of existing issues in the systems of domestic textbooks, this book constructs a well-structured and rational system. Additionally, its content is novel, with a focus on cutting-edge research, which is one of its key features. It incorporates and references the latest domestic and international research findings, adding core issues of contemporary comprehensive physical geography—land change science, comprehensive ecosystem assessment, landscape ecology, and sustainable development. As a textbook, it lays a foundation for students to pursue careers in geographical science, land science, regional scientific research, natural regionalization, land resource surveys, regional development, resource and environmental studies, tourism geography, and urban planning. It is suitable for students in comprehensive universities, normal universities, and various related disciplines.