Topography and Climate Overview

Topography

• Topography is the physical features of a land area
• Topography describes natural formations such as mountains, rivers, lakes, and valleys
• Topography describes manmade features such as roads, dams, and cities
• Topography includes landforms
• Topography includes elevation, this is the height of geographical features such as mountains, valleys, hills, plateaus, glaciers, lakes, and rivers
• Latitude is the north/south position of a location in reference from the equator, a horizontal line drawn around the middle of the Earth
• Longitude is the east/west position of a location, generally measured in degrees from the Prime Meridian

Topographic Maps

• Topographic maps are geographical tools
• Topographic maps show the physical features of an area
• Topographic maps can be downloaded from namria.gov.ph/downloads.aspx#maps and gp (geoportal.gov.ph)

Climate

• Climate is the average measurements of temperature, wind, humidity, snow, and rain in a place over the course of years
• Climate zones are categorized by temperature and precipitation

Climate Zones

• Polar and subpolar zone: cool summers or not so hot summer days and very cold winters (places found in this zone usually have treeless tundra, glaciers, or a permanent or semi-permanent layer of ice)
• Temperate zone: no extreme temperature and precipitation, change or shifting of summer to winter and vice versa is generally smooth (not too cold and not too hot)
• Subtropical zone: has a relatively high temperatures, it usually experiences evenly distributed rainy days in a year
• Tropical zone: has only two seasons, the dry season and the wet season

Natural Resources

• Natural resources are naturally-made materials that can be used by humans for economic advantages
• Natural resources can be renewable or nonrenewable

Four Types of Natural Resources

• Renewable: they can be reproduced/replicated (example: planting of coconuts will make you produce another source of coconuts)
• Living: living resources such as plants and animals (sources of food and other materials)
• Nonrenewable: cannot be replaced once used/gathered (example: gold, silver, diamond, etc.)
• Fossil fuels: these are sources of power/energy sources (example: oil, coal, and diesel)

Explore the physical features of land with this quiz on topography and climate. Understand the importance of elevation, latitude, and longitude, and learn about topographic maps as geographical tools. Test your knowledge on natural and manmade features that shape our environment.