1.
Human settlement
–
In geography, statistics and archaeology, a settlement, locality or populated place is a community in which people live. A settlement can range in size from a number of dwellings grouped together to the largest of cities with surrounding urbanized areas. Settlements may include hamlets, villages, towns and cities, a settlement may have known historical properties such as the date or era in which it was first settled, or first settled by a particular people. In the field of geospatial predictive modeling, settlements are a city, town, village ghost or other agglomeration of buildings where people live and work. The oldest remains that have found of constructed dwellings are remains of huts that were made of mud. The Natufians built houses, also in the Levant, around 10,000 BC, remains of settlements such as villages become much more common after the invention of agriculture. Landscape history studies the form of settlements – for example whether they are dispersed or nucleated, urban morphology can thus be considered a special type of cultural-historical landscape studies. Settlements can be ordered by size, centrality or other factors to define a settlement hierarchy, geoscience Australia defines a populated place as a named settlement with a population of 200 or more persons. The Committee for Geographical Names in Australasia used the term localities for rural areas, the Bulgarian Government publishes a National Register of Populated Places. The Canadian government uses the term populated place in the Atlas of Canada, Statistics Canada uses the term localities for historical named locations. The Croatian Bureau of Statistics records population in units called settlements, the Census Commission of India has a special definition of census towns. The Central Statistics Office of the Republic of Ireland has a definition of census towns. There are various types of inhabited localities in Russia, Statistics Sweden uses the term localities for various densely populated places. The common English-language translation is urban areas, the UK Department for Communities and Local Government uses the term urban settlement to denote an urban area when analysing census information. The Registrar General for Scotland defines settlements as groups of one or more contiguous localities, the Scottish settlements are used as one of several factors defining urban areas. A populated place is not incorporated and by definition has no legal boundaries. However, a place may have a corresponding civil record. Census − a statistical area delineated locally specifically for the tabulation of Census Bureau data, civil − a political division formed for administrative purposes
2.
City
–
A city is a large and permanent human settlement. Cities generally have complex systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, housing, a big city or metropolis usually has associated suburbs and exurbs. Such cities are associated with metropolitan areas and urban areas. Once a city expands far enough to another city, this region can be deemed a conurbation or megalopolis. Damascus is arguably the oldest city in the world, in terms of population, the largest city proper is Shanghai, while the fastest-growing is Dubai. There is not enough evidence to assert what conditions gave rise to the first cities, some theorists have speculated on what they consider suitable pre-conditions and basic mechanisms that might have been important driving forces. The conventional view holds that cities first formed after the Neolithic revolution, the Neolithic revolution brought agriculture, which made denser human populations possible, thereby supporting city development. The advent of farming encouraged hunter-gatherers to abandon nomadic lifestyles and to settle near others who lived by agricultural production, the increased population density encouraged by farming and the increased output of food per unit of land created conditions that seem more suitable for city-like activities. In his book, Cities and Economic Development, Paul Bairoch takes up position in his argument that agricultural activity appears necessary before true cities can form. According to Vere Gordon Childe, for a settlement to qualify as a city, it must have enough surplus of raw materials to support trade and a relatively large population. To illustrate this point, Bairoch offers an example, Western Europe during the pre-Neolithic, when the cost of transport is taken into account, the figure rises to 200,000 square kilometres. Bairoch noted that this is roughly the size of Great Britain, the urban theorist Jane Jacobs suggests that city formation preceded the birth of agriculture, but this view is not widely accepted. In his book City Economics, Brendan OFlaherty asserts Cities could persist—as they have for thousands of years—only if their advantages offset the disadvantages, OFlaherty illustrates two similar attracting advantages known as increasing returns to scale and economies of scale, which are concepts usually associated with businesses. Their applications are seen in more basic economic systems as well, increasing returns to scale occurs when doubling all inputs more than doubles the output an activity has economies of scale if doubling output less than doubles cost. To offer an example of these concepts, OFlaherty makes use of one of the oldest reasons why cities were built, in this example, the inputs are anything that would be used for protection and the output is the area protected and everything of value contained in it. OFlaherty then asks that we suppose the protected area is square, the advantage is expressed as, O = s 2, where O is the output and s stands for the length of a side. This equation shows that output is proportional to the square of the length of a side, the inputs depend on the length of the perimeter, I =4 s, where I stands for the quantity of inputs. So there are increasing returns to scale, O = I2 /16 and this equation shows that with twice the inputs, you produce quadruple the output
3.
Town
–
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size definition for what constitutes a town varies considerably in different parts of the world, the word town shares an origin with the German word Zaun, the Dutch word tuin, and the Old Norse tun. The German word Zaun comes closest to the meaning of the word. An early borrowing from Celtic *dunom, in English and Dutch, the meaning of the word took on the sense of the space which these fences enclosed. In England, a town was a community that could not afford or was not allowed to build walls or other larger fortifications. In the Netherlands, this space was a garden, more specifically those of the wealthy, in Old Norse tun means a place between farmhouses, and is still used in a similar meaning in modern Norwegian. If there was any distinction between toun and burgh as claimed by some, it did not last in practice as burghs, for example, Edina Burgh or Edinburgh was built around a fort and eventually came to have a defensive wall. In some cases, town is a name for city or village. Sometimes, the town is short for township. A places population size is not a determinant of urban character. In many areas of the world, as in India at least until recent times, in the United Kingdom, there are historical cities that are far smaller than the larger towns. Some forms of settlement, such as temporary mining locations, may be clearly non-rural. Towns often exist as governmental units, with legally defined borders. In the United States these are referred to as incorporated towns, in other cases the town lacks its own governance and is said to be unincorporated. Note that the existence of a town may be legally set forth through other means. In the case of planned communities, the town exists legally in the form of covenants on the properties within the town. Australian geographer Thomas Griffith Taylor proposed a classification of towns based on their age, although there is no official use of the term for any settlement. In Albanian qytezë means small city or new city, while in ancient times small residential center within the walls of a castle
4.
North America
–
North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
5.
United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
6.
Transport hub
–
A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include train stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stop, airports, freight hubs include classification yards, airports, seaports and truck terminals, or combinations of these. For private transport, the parking lot functions as a hub, delta Air Lines pioneered the hub and spoke system for aviation in 1955 from its hub in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, in an effort to compete with Eastern Air Lines. FedEx adopted the hub and spoke model for overnight package delivery during the 1970s, when the United States airline industry was deregulated in 1978, Deltas hub and spoke paradigm was annexed by several airlines. Several airlines around the world operate hub and spoke systems, sections of city streets that are devoted to functioning as transit hubs are referred to as transit malls. Modern electronic passenger information systems and journey planners require a digital representation of the stops, airports have a twofold hub function. First they concentrate passenger traffic into one place for onward transportation and this makes it important for airports to be connected to the surrounding transport infrastructure, including roads, bus services, railway and rapid transit systems. Secondly some airports function as hubs for the airlines, or airline hubs. Airlines have extended the model in various ways. One method is to create additional hubs on a regional basis and this reduces the need to travel long distances between nodes that are close together. Another method is to use focus cities to implement point-to-point service for high traffic routes, there are usually three kinds of freight hubs, sea-road, sea-rail and road-rail, though they can also be sea-road-rail. With the growth of containerization, intermodal freight transport has become more efficient, central station Infrastructure security Intermodal Journey Planner Junction Layover Spoke-hub distribution paradigm
7.
Military base
–
A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. In general, a military base provides accommodations for one or more units, but it may also be used as a command center, in most cases, a military base relies on some outside help in order to operate. Bases are usually extra-legal jurisdictions not subject to civil law and they can range from small outposts to military cities containing up to 100,000 people. Some military bases may belong to a different nation or state than the territory surrounding it, the name used generally refers to the type of military activity that takes place at the base. Alternatively, the term may refer solely to an establishment which is used only by an army to the exclusion of a used by either an air force or a navy. This is consistent with the different meanings of the word military, other examples of non- or semi-permanent military bases include a Forward Operating Base, a Logistics Base and a Fire Base. A military base may contain large concentrations of military supplies in order to support military logistics. Most military bases are restricted to the public and usually only authorized personnel may enter them, Military bases usually provide housing for military personnel, a post office and dining facilities. Bases used by the United States Air Force Reserve tend to be active USAF bases, however, there are a few Air Reserve Bases, such as Dobbins ARB, Georgia, and Grissom ARB, Indiana, both of which are former active-duty USAF bases. Support facilities on Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve installations tend to not be as extensive as active bases, i. e. they usually do not have on-base billeting, clinics, or commissaries. Petersburg area including training schools, commissioning institutes, the academy. An overseas military base is a base that is geographically located outside of the territory of the country whose armed forces are the principal occupants of the base. The overseas military base has, throughout its history of usage, been an issue of debate. In the 18th and 19th Centuries the Royal Engineers were largely responsible for erecting military bases in the British Isles, in 1792 the Chief Engineer was instructed to prepare the Barrack Construction estimates for Parliament and at the same time the Department of the Barrackmaster-General was established. In 1959 the Corps Work Services was transferred to the civilian War Department Works Organization and by 1965 the were formed to plan, British naval bases are traditionally named, commissioned, and administered as though they were naval ships. For this reason they are sometimes called stone frigates, lists of military installations Military installations of NATO Official Directory of US Military bases. Royal Engineers Museum Military Works New US Military Bases, Side Effects Or Causes Of War, by Zoltan Grossman US Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Outposts of Empire - Booklet and map of the American military bases in the world. Transnational Institute, March 2007 MyMilitaryBase. com - Directory of Military Installations
8.
Wilderness
–
Wilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. Some governments establish them by law or administrative acts, usually in land tracts that have not been modified by human action in great measure, the main feature of them is that human activity is restricted significantly. These actions seek not only to preserve what already exists, but also to promote and advance a natural expression, Wilderness areas can be found in preserves, conservation preserves, National Forests, National Parks and even in urban areas along rivers, gulches or otherwise undeveloped areas. These areas are considered important for the survival of species, biodiversity, ecological studies, conservation, solitude. Wilderness is deeply valued for cultural, spiritual, moral, some nature writers believe wilderness areas are vital for the human spirit and creativity. They may also preserve historic genetic traits and provide habitat for flora and fauna that may be difficult to recreate in zoos. The word wilderness derives from the notion of other words. The mere presence or activity of people does not disqualify an area from being wilderness, many ecosystems that are, or have been, inhabited or influenced by activities of people may still be considered wild. This way of looking at wilderness includes areas within which natural processes operate without human interference, the WILD Foundation states that wilderness areas have two dimensions, they must be biologically intact and legally protected. The World Conservation Union classifies wilderness at two levels, Ia and Ib, activities on the margins of specific wilderness areas, such as fire suppression and the interruption of animal migration also affect the interior of wildernesses. Especially in wealthier, industrialized nations, it has a legal meaning as well. Many nations have designated wilderness, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, looked at through the lens of the visual arts, nature and wildness have been important subjects in various epochs of world history. An early tradition of landscape art occurred in the Tang Dynasty, the tradition of representing nature as it is became one of the aims of Chinese painting and was a significant influence in Asian art. In the 13th century, Shih Erh Chi recommended avoiding painting scenes lacking any places made inaccessible by nature, for most of human history, the greater part of the Earths terrain was wilderness, and human attention was concentrated in settled areas. The first known laws to protect parts of nature date back to the Babylonian Empire, Ashoka, the Great Mauryan King, defined the first laws in the world to protect flora and fauna in Edicts of Ashoka around 3rd Century B. C. In the Middle Ages, the Kings of England initiated one of the world’s first conscious efforts to natural areas. They were motivated by a desire to be able to hunt wild animals in private hunting preserves rather than a desire to protect wilderness, nevertheless, in order to have animals to hunt they would have to protect wildlife from subsistence hunting and the land from villagers gathering firewood. Similar measures were introduced in other European countries, the idea of wilderness having intrinsic value emerged in the Western world in the 19th century
9.
Land development
–
In an economics context, land development is also sometimes advertised as land improvement or land amelioration. It refers to investments making land more usable by humans, for accounting purposes it refers to any variety of projects that increase the value of the property. Most are depreciable, but some improvements are not able to be depreciated because a useful life cannot be determined. Home building and containment are two of the most common and the oldest types of development and this profit enhancement means identifying and developing the best scheme for the local marketplace, whilst satisfying the local planning process. Development Analysis puts development prospects and the development process itself under the microscope, development analysis can add significantly to the value of land and development, and as such is a crucial tool for landowners and developers. It is a step in Kevin A. Lynchs 1960 book The Image of the City. The landowner can share in additional planning gain via an awareness of the development potential. This is done via a residual development appraisal or residual valuation, the residual appraisal calculates the sale value of the end product, and hypothetically deducts costs, including planning and construction costs, finance costs and developers profit. The residue, or leftover proportion, represents the land value, therefore, in maximising the GDV, land value is concurrently enhanced. Land value is highly sensitive to supply and demand, build costs, planning and affordable housing contributions, understanding the intricacies of the development system and the effect of value drivers can result in massive differences in the landowners sale value. Land improvement in the economic sense can often lead to degradation from the ecological perspective. Land development and the change in land value does not usually take into account changes in the ecology of the developed area, new creation of farmland will rely on the conversion and development of previous forests, savannas or grassland. Recreation of farmland from wasteland, deserts or previous impervious surfaces is considerably less frequent because of the degraded or missing fertile soil in the latter, starting from forests, land is made arable by assarting or slash-and-burn. Agricultural development furthermore includes, Hydrological measures Soil improvement, road construction Because the newly created farmland is more prone to erosion than soil stabilized by tree roots, such a conversion may mean irreversible crossing of an ecological threshold. The resulting deforestation is not easily compensated for by reforestation or afforestation. Examples of land restoration/land rehabilitation counted as land development in the strict sense are still rare, however, renaturation, reforestation, stream restoration may all contribute to a healthier environment and quality of life, especially in densely populated regions. The same is true for planned vegetation like parks and gardens, but restoration plays a particular role, because it reverses previous conversions to built and agricultural areas
10.
Floodplain
–
In other words, a floodplain is an area near a river or a stream which floods when the water level reaches flood stage. Flood plains are made by a meander eroding sideways as it travels downstream, when a river breaks its banks and floods, it leaves behind layers of alluvium. These gradually build up to create the floor of the flood plain, floodplains generally contain unconsolidated sediments, often extending below the bed of the stream. These are accumulations of sand, gravel, loam, silt, and/or clay, and are often important aquifers, geologically ancient floodplains are often represented in the landscape by fluvial terraces. These are old floodplains that remain relatively high above the present floodplain and it is probable that any section of such an alluvial plain would show deposits of a similar character. The floodplain during its formation is marked by meandering or anastomotic streams, oxbow lakes and bayous, marshes or stagnant pools, and is occasionally completely covered with water. When the drainage system has ceased to act or is diverted for any reason. The floodplain differs, however, because it is not altogether flat and it has a gentle slope downstream, and often, for a distance, from the side towards the center. The floodplain is the place for a river to dissipate its energy. Meanders form over the floodplain to slow down the flow of water, in terms of flood management the upper part of the floodplain is crucial as this is where the flood water control starts. Artificial canalisation of the river here will have a impact on wider flooding. This is the basis of flood management. Floodplains can support particularly rich ecosystems, both in quantity and diversity, tugay forests form an ecosystem associated with floodplains, especially in Central Asia. They are a category of riparian zones or systems, a floodplain can contain 100 or even 1,000 times as many species as a river. Microscopic organisms thrive and larger species enter a rapid breeding cycle, opportunistic feeders move in to take advantage. The production of nutrients peaks and falls away quickly, however the surge of new growth endures for some time and this makes floodplains particularly valuable for agriculture. River flow rates are undergoing change following suit with climate change and this change is a threat to the riparian zones and other flood plain forests. These forests have over time synced their seedling deposits after the peaks in flow to best take advantage of the nutrient rich soil generated by peak flow
11.
Ecological economics
–
Ecological economics was founded in the 1980s as a modern discipline in the works of and interactions between various European and American academics. The related field of economics is, in general, a more politically applied form of the subject. According to ecological economist Malte Faber, ecological economics is defined by its focus on nature, justice, issues of intergenerational equity, irreversibility of environmental change, uncertainty of long-term outcomes, and sustainable development guide ecological economic analysis and valuation. Positional analysis, which attempts to time and justice issues, is proposed as an alternative. Ecological economics shares many of its perspectives with feminist economics, including the focus on sustainability, nature, justice, the first principles, deriving from the radiochemist FA Soddy, were laid out in his 1926 book Wealth, Money and Debt in 1926. Early modern interest in ecology and economics dates back to the 1940s in the work of K. William Kapp and Karl Polanyi, however, the first organized meetings of modern ecological economists occurred in the 1980s. These began in 1982, at the instigation of Lois Banner, most were ecosystem ecologists or mainstream environmental economists, with the exception of Daly. In 1987, Daly and Costanza edited an issue of Ecological Modeling to test the waters, a book entitled Ecological Economics, by Juan Martinez-Alier, was published later that year. 1989 saw the foundation of the International Society for Ecological Economics and publication of its journal, Ecological Economics, Robert Costanza was the first president of the society and first editor of the journal, currently edited by Richard Howarth. European conceptual founders include Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, K. William Kapp, some key concepts of what is now ecological economics are evident in the writings of E. F. Other figures include ecologists C. S. Holling, H. T, odum and Robert Costanza, biologist Gretchen Daily and physicist Robert Ayres. CUNY geography professor David Harvey explicitly added ecological concerns to political economic literature and this parallel development in political economy has been continued by analysts such as sociologist John Bellamy Foster. The antecedents can be traced back to the Romantics of the 19th century as well as some Enlightenment political economists of that era, concerns over population were expressed by Thomas Malthus, while John Stuart Mill predicted the desirability of the stationary state of an economy. Mill thereby anticipated later insights of modern ecological economists, but without having had their experience of the social and ecological costs of the Post–World War II economic expansion. As Martinez-Alier explores in his book the debate on energy in systems can also be traced into the 19th century e. g. Nobel prize-winning chemist. His magnum opus, The Entropy Law and the Economic Process, has been highly influential, in addition, the journal Ecological Economics has itself been criticized for swamping the field with mainstream economics. Once consumed, natural inputs pass out of the economy as pollution, the sink function describes an environments ability to absorb and render harmless waste and pollution, when waste output exceeds the limit of the sink function, long-term damage occurs. Some persistent pollutants, such as organic pollutants and nuclear waste are absorbed very slowly or not at all
12.
Environmental history
–
Environmental history is the study of human interaction with the natural world over time. In contrast to other disciplines, it emphasizes the active role nature plays in influencing human affairs. Environmental historians study how humans both shape their environment and are shaped by it, Environmental history emerged in the United States out of the environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and much of its impetus still stems from present-day global environmental concerns. The field was founded on conservation issues but has broadened in scope to more general social and scientific history and may deal with cities. As all history occurs in the world, environmental history tends to focus on particular time-scales, geographic regions. It is also a strongly multidisciplinary subject that draws widely on both the humanities and natural science, the subject matter of environmental history can be divided into three main components. The first, nature itself and its change over time, includes the impact of humans on the Earths land, water. The second category, how humans use nature, includes the consequences of increasing population, more effective technology. Finally, environmental historians study how people think about nature - the way attitudes, beliefs and values influence interaction with nature, especially in the form of myths, religion and science. In 1967 Roderick Nash published Wilderness and the American Mind, a work that has become a classic text of early environmental history. In an address to the Organization of American Historians in 1969 Nash used the expression environmental history, the 1959 book by Samuel P. Hays is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Pittsburgh. Brief overviews of the field of history have been given by John McNeill in 2003, Richard White in 1985. In 2014 Oxford University Press published a volume of 25 essays entitled The Oxford Handbook of Environmental History and this collection was edited by Andrew C. There is no accepted definition of environmental history. Donald Worsters widely quoted 1988 definition states, Environmental history is the interaction between cultures and the environment in the past. In 2001 J. ” and, in 2006, as, History that seeks understanding of human beings as they have lived, worked and thought in relationship to the rest of nature through the changes brought by time. As a method, environmental history is the use of analysis as a means of understanding human history. An account of changes in societies as they relate to changes in the natural environment. ”Environmental historians are also “interested in what people think about nature
