Topography and Climate Overview

Study Notes

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 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 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

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

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)