What is the definition of Human-Environment Interaction?

Answer 1

Human Environmental Interaction is basically how we affect and are affected by the environment, and also how we disturb the natural environment.

The Five Themes of Geography were written in 1984. Created by the Joint Committee on Geographic Education of the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) and the Association of American Geographers (AAG), these themes attempt to describe how geography, in terms of location, place, human-environmental interaction, movement (travel; Immigration; emigration), and regions, influences people and how people influences these 5 themes.

The Human-Environment or Environmental Interaction is Theme #3. This theme looks at home geography dictates human's activities, and conversely, how human activities affects or alters geography.

Examples of The Human-Environment Interaction abound in every Country, State / Provence, City/Town, from cities to rural areas. People have changed landmarks in geography throughout history.

Here are just some of the examples of Human-Environment Interaction that I can think of now:

• During travel or migration, historically, people followed trails made by wild animals. In mountain areas, these trails were often along the ridge---meaning, very close to a drop off. Instead of going up and over a mountain, animals went around, using the path of least resistance. But when people moved about to hunt, fish, gather berries, or to migrate from one place to another, these trails were not well-suited to human feet whether bare or in sandals or moccasins. So, as more humans used those pathways, they looked for easier ways to get where they were going. Maybe at first, this just meant that strong men moved a boulder out of the way, to make a path straighter and less distance to travel. But, over time, these muddy paths became roads. Finally, people realized that it would be easier to go through a mountain than to go around it on treacherous paths or roads. So they blasted through the mountain to create tunnels that we have today. But, in looking at history, these changes occurred over many thousands of years. Even in the 1700s-1800s in the USA, people traveled by horse, wagon, and barefoot along deer and bear trails on the outer ridges of mountains. The USA's biggest and most used tunnels didn't get started until the 1940s and 1950s.\
• Water was another "pathway" used by peoples in every country to move from place to place. But a stream or river may have had only one fairly safe crossing through the water. That meant people walked or rode many miles upstream or downstream to get to the safest part. Eventually, people tired of the distance, the difficulties, the hazards. As trade between people or areas increased, people needed easier ways to use the power of water. So they made bridges first so they could cross at the easy places without getting themselves, the animals, or goods all wet. Later, people built locks and dams to control river height so they could raise or lower boats over drops in the river. Boats could be "lifted" or "dropped" many feet, safely, through a lock and dam.

• Dams became very important, not only for control of fast-flowing rivers, but to provide drinking water to increasing populations. People saw for generations how beavers could dam a river; why couldn't people use a similar process. Earthen, wood, and concrete dams and reservoirs quickly became standard in water control and water delivery. The Hoover Dam is likely the most famous in the USA because thousands of men permanently altered an entire area in order to build the dam. Hundreds of men were killed in the process. But like other dry areas, this dam provides water for drinking, irrigation/farming, and other human needs.
• Deserts present a huge challenge, even back through the centuries. The biggest question was how humans could survive travel through such arid places. In some places, humans may have used a positive natural feature to enhance what they needed.
• Rivers have literally been "moved" or "tamed" so that humans changed the riverbed! This is amazing--and it also has many problems. Rivers want to flow in their natural beds or pathways. Humans may have "pushed" the water over by some feet, but during heavy rain or floods, the river seeks its original path. So while some river changes have benefited residents, the changes need constant upkeep.
• Again in the US (as in other countries' lowlying areas near the ocean), residents tried to protect themselves from nature rather than giving up possession of the land that could be hurt by nature. For example, New Orleans, LA has been completely flooded more than once during Hurricanes. One in the early 1900s prompted the survivors to build a great retaining wall to enclose the city. It was a monumental task but they got it built. But, as we all saw on TV, the levies and wall did not hold in the last big hurricane. As in early 1900, survivors want to stay. So they are (still) re-building and putting in even better levies--- again trying to win over the possibility of storm driven water invading the town.

Whether the "human act" is large or small, it can impact the surroundings (geography).

• When a couple buys a house but they don't like the small ravine behind the house, they change geography when they decide to bring in landfill to fill the small ravine and make their backyard bigger and flat.
• When workers remove big boulders so a plan of houses can be built, it changes geography.
• When companies establish mines to get coal from an underground seam, they alter the earth and often, as a consequence of blasting and earthen collapses, the surface geography can change drastically.
• In many southern states of the USA, "sink holes" have suddenly opened, often below an area where cities installed the infrastructure, such as water and gas pipes. Any area that has subways also face risks of sink-holes. Since sink-holes can be 20-40 feet deep or more, humans must either give back the land to nature, or engineers must figure out ways to stabilize and fill the sink-hole (once again, re-changing the geological environment).

Just as Human-Environment Interaction has gone on though eons of time,

The Human-Environment Interaction will continue long after we all are dead and our descendants are living. People will always attempt to influence, control, or change geography. for better or worse. When nature wins, people may finally give in---or attempt once again to put nature and geography under human control. When Valmeyer Illinois suffered a severe flood in 1994, in part because of all the historical changes that people made to the Mississippi River, the majority of the citizens decided to "move the town" to a bluff 400-feet higher than where the town was before. Many states / cities have begun to return "flood plains" to flood plain use, and to forbid new building on these sites.

Other examples

It is when humans and the environment interact, like chopping down a tree, or a forest so that cattle can graze. Or damming a river to make hydro-electricity. Or building a coal-fired power station that will pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Or building a wave motion generator in the sea to harness the power of the waves to produce electricity.

Answer 2

It is the connection between humans and nature.
































Geno <3

Answer 3

Geographers want to explain why things are found in the places they are, and not ... Scholars housed in other departments often do work that falls within the scope of ... Environment: Environment literally means that which surrounds. ... We commonly use "environment" to refer to the natural environment, that is, those aspects ...

Answer 4

Human Environment interaction is how people use, affect, and are affected by our surroundings.

Answer 5

Things that humans do that involve the environment, for example: Chopping forests. Essentially it covers all relationships between humans and the environment.

Answer 6

Human environmental interaction refers to how humans react to and interact with their surrounding environment.