Landforms: Difference between revisions

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===Places===
===Places===
[[file:place_Icon.jpg|left|30px|link=places]] Humans define place using both natural and imaginary boundaries, as well as the extent of their settlements and development.  Our places often contain a mixture of ecosystem sites, and define the focus of our management and governance.
[[file:place_Icon.jpg|left|30px|link=places]] Humans define place using both natural and imaginary boundaries, as well as the extent of their settlements and development.  Our places often contain a mixture of ecosystem sites, and define the focus of our management and governance.
We are currently storing images that describe ecosystem sites, in the [[:category:ecosystem map|ecosystem map category]], displayed below.
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Revision as of 20:18, 7 May 2013

Ecosystemmodel.png

On the wiki, we differentiate between sites and places, and propose a specific definition of ecosystem sites based on current regional planning models:

Our approach suggests seven different types of ecosystem site, each shaped by distinct processes, and potentially providing a distict suite of ecosystem services:

Headwaters[edit]

Headwater Icon.jpg

Headwaters are the steep foothill and mountain valleys, where precipitation falls as snow, and forestry is the primary land use.

Lowland Watersheds[edit]

Lowland Watershed Icon.jpg

Lowland watersheds contain the streams that drain the glacial plateau, with the landform created by glaciers and where precipitation falls as rain. The lowlands are urbanizing rapidly.

Floodplains[edit]

Floodplain Icon.jpg

Floodplains form where the larger rivers and streams create and rework flat areas filled with their own alluvium. These are both the home of agriculture, the core of chinook salmon habitat, and where risk of flooding is highest.

Deltas[edit]

Delta Icon.jpg

Deltas form where large river floodplains enter marine waters. Tidal flows create fluctuating water levels. Many areas are drained for agriculture, and deltas provide unique habitats at the intersection of land, river and sea.

Embayments[edit]

Coastal Inlet Icon.jpg

Embayments are those places along the shoreline where waves are muted by aspect or spits, collecting muddy sediments and marsh, often at the mouths of streams.

Beaches[edit]

Beach Icon.jpg

Beaches form where sediment from eroding shorelines are pushed alongshore by waves, creating bluffs, benches, spits and lagoons. Beaches have been valued as residential property since time immemmorial, provide access to the wealth of the sea, but are vulnerable to storms.

Headlands[edit]

Rocky Icon.jpg

Rocky headlands emerge where bedrock is shallow along shoreines, along Juan de Fuca, San Juan Islands, and along the Seattle Fault. These dry stable shorelines contain pockets of beach.



This system of ecosystem sites is different from the myriad ways that people define place. We use place pages to define all other places.

Places[edit]

Place Icon.jpg

Humans define place using both natural and imaginary boundaries, as well as the extent of their settlements and development. Our places often contain a mixture of ecosystem sites, and define the focus of our management and governance.

We are currently storing images that describe ecosystem sites, in the ecosystem map category, displayed below.

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