Geographia Polonica (1977) vol. 34

Abstract

Complex landscape research enables us to identify terrain types. Theselatter units, while internally resembling each other in terms of lithology andrelief (cf the definition given by F. N. Milkov 1970), consist each of a numberof smaller units called urotshistshes (or urotshistshe complexes), tat are nonhomogeneous.In the hierarchy of natural surface units the terrain type representsan intermediate form between urotshistche and landscape.

A number of methods are in use for identifying terrain types. For example,in the Opatówka basin of the Sandomierz loess plateau, R. Czarnecki (1969)identified by his detailed mapping of the components of the geocomplex anumber of terrain types: a flat loess plateau, dry valleys and slopes of a mainvalley, areas above flood level in river valleys, flat bottoms of river valleys,and others. The main criterion applied in this identifying is morphogenesis,but the application of this criterion, though sometimes objective, is usuallysubjective and differs among authors. This is particularly the case in areasof glacial accumulation where terms like kames dead ice moraines, endmoraines, frontal moraines, outwash terraces and river terraces can be misleadingand should be avoided in identifying terrain types.

Tadeusz Bartkowski, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań

Eugeniusz Gil, Institute of Geography, Polish Academy of Sciences, Research Station at Szymbark
Leszek Starkel [starkel@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland

Rajmund Galon, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń

Zdzisław Czeppe, Jagellonian University, Cracow

Ivan P. Jolliffe, Bedford College, University of London

Ryszard Czarnecki, Warsaw University
Irena Maria Grzybowska, Warsaw University

Abstract

This first part of this paper reviews the nature and impact of and adjustmentsto bushfires in southeastern Australia. The second part deals with a preliminaryexamination of the manner in which the residents of one high firedangerarea, the Dandenong ranges in Victoria, perceive and adjust to bushfiresas part of their environment.

M. C. R Edgell, University College London
E. H. Brown, University College London

Abstract

Studies of the geomorphology of limestone terrains have, in the last fewyears, been directed towards an understanding of the nature and rate of erosionalprocesses. This has resulted in the need for detailed observations on thehydrology of the areas studies, including observations on the various forms ofwater quality. Since, with the exception of regions of permafrost, limestoneterrains are normally associated with a paucity, or complete lack, of surfacedrainage, such hydrological work has required the tracing of groundwatermovement. Much of this research has been of an academic nature but thereis little doubt that it is also of value in an applied sense. As a background tothe applied studies, a brief review will be given of the erosional and hydrologicalstudies.

David Ingle Smith, Australian National University, Canberra

Anna Kowalską, Warsaw School of Economics, Institute of Statistics and Demography Al. Niepodległości 162, 02-554 Warszawa, Poland

Edmund C. Penning-Rowsell, Middlesex Polytechnic, London

Kenneth John Gregory, School of Geography, University of Southampton Southampton, SO17 1BJ United Kingdom

Zofia Churska, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń

Keith M. Clayton, University of East Anglia

Abstract

The diversity and urgency of land use planning problems throughout theworld have led to a proliferation of reports and recommendations concerningland resource surveys and evaluations. These publications are notable as muchfor their different viewpoints as for their common aims, and recent attemptsto coordinate land classification procedures have not always clarified the issues.Many discussions appear to spring from an implicit assumption that all surveysshould have a common methodology and follow an accepted sequence of operations(Brink et al. 1966; Brinkman and Smyth 1972). Differences of purpose andof scale may invalidate such assumptions (Beckett 1968), but most if not allsuch surveys attempt spatial subdivisions of the land surface and are thereforeconcerned with the delimitation of areas having known properties of importanceto the prediction of land potential and performance under different uses ormanagements.

The identification and mapping of land areas (land units) at varying scalesof enquiry are therefore central aims and problems in land resource surveys.But many reports avoid discussion of issues inherent in such a situation. Furthermore,although most land units have been defined in part on the propertiesof their geological and geomorphological foundations, geomorphologists havecommonly ignored the difficulties underlying this task. Before exploring thissituation in greater depth a number of general principles may be considered.

Michael F. Thomas, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland, UK

Roger S. Crofts, Scottish Economic Planning Department, Edinburgh

Niewiarowski Władysław, Institute of Geography, Nicholaus Copernicus University, Fredry 8. 87-100 Toruń, Poland

Jadwiga Warszyńska, Jagellonian University, Cracow

Henryk Dubaniewicz, Łódź, University

Janusz Janusz, Wroclaw University

Abstract

Most of the industrial nations of the world, together with a large number ofless-developed countries, have designated parts of their land and water resourcesas National Parks. In any hierarchy of regions accorded a special status,these areas are usually the highest element and they thus reflect the high valueput on them by the people of the nation in wich they are found. Most peoplewant firstly to protect such areas against rapid change due to economic expansion:to control the building of industrial establishments or the destruction offorests. At the same time, people wish to visit these areas and pursue a widevariety of activities in them: to walk, camp and have picnics, to climb mountains,to observe flora and fauna, and increasingly to drive through the parks intheir cars with short roadside stops en route.In all National Parks, however, these cultural demands rarely take placein an environment which is capable of manipulation to meet all of man's wishessince the very nature of the terrain's values for Park purposes are often theresult of a relatively vigorous physical environment. In such areas, as elsewhere,there is, and has been, a constant interplay between the influences of topography,climate, and vegetation, and the response of particular peoples bothto the opportunities offered and the constraints exerted by the environment. Soeach nation responds in its own way and this paper attempts to describe thesituation in England and Wales, looking first at the role of physical geographyin the choice of areas to designate as National Parks, and then at the ways inwhich it affects the management of them.1 First a brief description of the parksand their history will be attempted.

I. G. Simmons, University of Durham