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In Defense of Crappy Landscapes (Core Tenet #1)

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The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Physical Geography

Abstract

Many landscapes abused, degraded, despoiled, or otherwise impacted by people carry the stigma of being somehow unnatural and are overlooked by physical geographers. While some human impacts intentionally reshape environments, other traces result from concussive ripples generated as human forces resonate throughout biophysical systems. An explicit focus on environmental problems associated with the increasing imprint of human agency augments our ability to delineate both historical problems and to manage future challenges. An even more compelling rationale is that these composite environments more accurately represent how most systems function. Acknowledging social and biophysical forces, Critical Physical Geography reorients our science away from the pristine and centralizes the tainted. It reasserts the practical and philosophical importance of “crappy landscapes” to the future of Geography and environmental science.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In Strahler’s (1980) description of systems analysis in Physical Geography, he delineates five distinct types of approaches delimited by their level of complexity. The fifth and most complex approach is defined by intelligent feedback being used to intentionally control process-response variables within systems. This he defined as cybernetic feedback related primarily to human perception and decision-making.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA

    Michael A. Urban

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  1. Michael A. Urban
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Rebecca Lave

  2. University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Christine Biermann

  3. Université de Lausanne, Gryon, Switzerland

    Stuart N. Lane

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Urban, M.A. (2018). In Defense of Crappy Landscapes (Core Tenet #1). In: Lave, R., Biermann, C., Lane, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Physical Geography. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71461-5_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71461-5_3

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