Physical Geography

Uniformitarianism, sometimes called the Doctrine of Uniformity or the Uniformitarian Principle, holds that the natural laws and processes we observe today have operated the same way throughout the history of the universe and apply equally in every part of it. The idea concerns the consistency of the metaphysical foundations of science, such as the steadiness of cause and effe...

The term “geomorphology” is built from three Greek roots: geo (earth), morpho (forms), and logos (study). Taken together, it literally means “the study of earth forms.” Geomorphologists mainly investigate the features found on the Earth’s surface, examining how they originated, how they have changed over time, and how they affect human activities. T...

Recent geomorphology is being reshaped mainly by new technology and by growing concern about environmental change. High-resolution topographic data, remote sensing, UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) and Structure from Motion photogrammetry, and big-data analytics are pushing the field from qualitative description toward quantitative, data-driven methods. Artificial intelligence a...

A morphogenetic region is a theoretical zone that geomorphologists use to link climate, geomorphic processes, and landforms. The underlying idea is that each climatic regime favours certain geomorphic processes, and these in turn give rise to a distinctive landscape. Supporters of the concept argue that climate matters more than rock type in shaping landforms, since how well ...

Lester C. King, a South African geomorphologist, proposed pediplanation as a cyclic model of landscape evolution, especially suited to semi-arid and savanna regions. It was formulated as an alternative to W. M. Davis’s “normal cycle of erosion” (peneplanation). Pediplanation is the process by which a landscape is reduced ...