The development history of physical geography

Human geographical knowledge originated in ancient times. However, the term "physical geography" was first used in17th century, and it became popular in the second half of18th century. As a discipline in geography, physical geography appeared in the formation period of modern geography. The development of physical geography can be roughly divided into three stages: knowledge accumulation period, modern and modern.

/kloc-before the middle of the 0/9th century, geography was mainly based on descriptive records of geographical knowledge. As an important aspect of geography, physical geography knowledge mainly includes understanding the natural phenomena on the earth's surface, recording the situation of mountains and rivers, traveling around the world, exploring and discovering activities, etc.

As early as 3000 BC, the ancient Egyptians began to observe the changes in the water level of the Nile. In the 5th century BC, Herodotus, an ancient Greek, described the dynamic law of the summer flood of the Nihe River in his book History (also known as the History of the Persian War in Greece), and pointed out that the estuary delta was formed by the accumulation of sediment brought by rivers. Later, Aristotle regarded various natural phenomena on the earth's surface as the unity of four basic elements: soil, water, fire and air. Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth, studied and established the latitude and longitude of the earth's surface and the position of things by mathematical methods, which laid the foundation of mathematical geography and divided the earth into five climatic zones. In Europe, the whole Middle Ages was a period of feudal closed-door policy and prevailing religious ideas, with little geographical progress.

15 ~ 17 century is a period of great geographical discovery, and the geographical vision of human beings has been greatly expanded, which not only finally confirmed the correctness of the spherical earth theory and the existence of a unified world ocean, but also discovered ocean currents, determined the trade winds in the northern and southern hemispheres, and made a scientific explanation for the formation of monsoon. A large number of data of surface natural phenomena collected during this period laid a foundation for discussing theoretical issues such as the origin of land and sea, the classification of animals and plants, and comprehensively studying the natural phenomena on the earth's surface in the second half of the17th century.

Valenius, Germany, summed up a lot of data during the period of geographical discovery and published the book General Geography, which described and explained the general laws of natural phenomena on the earth's surface. /kloc-in the 8th century, Buffon, France, studied the relationship between man and the natural environment, and thought that man has great power to transform nature, and the whole surface of the earth is branded with human functions. All these provide ideological preparation for the establishment of physical geography.

In China, there were records about the weather in Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Dynasty in13rd century BC. The Book of Songs was written in the Zhou Dynasty from 65438 BC to the 6th century BC, describing dozens of landforms. Shangshu Gong Yu, written in the Warring States Period, divided the territory into Kyushu according to the natural boundaries of famous mountains and rivers, and made a regional comparison among the states in terms of mountains, rivers, soil and vegetation. Guanyuan is the first work of land classification. Based on the knowledge of topography, soil and vegetation at that time, the land was systematically divided into five categories and more than 20 subcategories, and the vertical distribution of mountain vegetation was described.

The Mountain Classic, written before the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-25 AD), gave a comprehensive description of the natural conditions in the Yangtze River basin and the Yellow River basin with mountains as the key link. At the beginning of the 6th century AD, Li Daoyuan completed the Notes on Water Classics, and made detailed comments on the source, context and geographical situation of China 1252 rivers and waterways. 1 1 century, Shen Kuo recorded the land and sea changes of Mengqian Bitan, explained the origin of North China Plain from river sedimentation, discussed the formation of Yandang Peak from flowing water erosion, and recorded the phenological phenomena in detail. /kloc-In the first half of the 7th century, Xu Xiake made a detailed record and scientific analysis of karst landforms, volcanic landforms, the development of vertical and horizontal sections of river valleys, and the relationship between plants and environment, especially the karst landforms in southwest China. Among them, the classification of karst depressions, the formation of stalactites and caves, the types and distribution of peak forests and the relationship with geological structures were the highest research level at that time.

Modern geography was founded by Humboldt and Ritter at the beginning of19th century. Physical geography began to become an independent branch discipline. Since then, physical geography has changed from a single, superficial and static study of physical geographical components and phenomena to a comprehensive, internal and dynamic overall study of physical geographical environment. With the deepening of physical geography research, geomorphology, climatology, hydrogeology, soil geography, plant geography, animal geography, glaciology and geocryology have developed rapidly.

Humboldt regards the natural geographical environment as a whole, and makes a comparative study of different regions and geographical environments by using empirical and inductive comparison methods. He believes that there is a causal and regional correlation between various natural phenomena on the earth's surface. Based on a large number of field investigation data, he demonstrated the relationship between horizontal and vertical distribution of plants and climate, and founded phytogeography; He also initiated the world isotherm map and studied the formation and distribution of climate, which became the beginning of modern climatology research. Humboldt's contribution laid the foundation for physical geography to become an independent branch discipline.

From 65438 to the 1960s, Paicheur advocated studying the natural characteristics of the earth's surface from the perspective of genetics, which established the position of a branch of geography. Richthofen established the general concept of the world distribution of natural phenomena, and led the research topic of physical geography to geography, that is, to clarify the causal relationship between things in a specific region. The concept of geography was supported by Hertner and discussed in detail. His thoughts had a far-reaching influence on the progress of German physical geography, and the important result was to turn his attention to the study of the relationship between human beings and their surrounding natural and biological environment. /kloc-from the end of 0/9 to the beginning of the 20th century, punk explored the causes and formation process of terrain and coined the term "surface morphology". He also divided the Quaternary glacial period in Alps into three interglacial periods and four glacial periods, which made important contributions to glaciology and Quaternary geology. At the beginning of the 20th century, Schroeder put forward that landscape research is the central purpose of geography, and discussed the phenomenon and process of cultural landscape evolution from primitive (or natural) landscape with the method of historical geography. He directed the attention of physical geography research to the study of human settlements created by human activities. In the late 1930s, Troll founded landscape ecology, which also had a far-reaching impact on the development of German physical geography.

/kloc-in the second half of the 0/9th century, the United States was in the era of western development. Under the influence of evolution theory, Davis put forward the theory of erosion cycle, and advocated that the process of geomorphology development should be explained by "explanatory description of geomorphology", which played an important role in the establishment and development of geomorphology. Later, German punk put forward the theory of geomorphology evolution.

/kloc-In the late 9th century, under the influence of German geographical thought, Russian Voikov engaged in the study of the balance of earth's heat and water, and advocated paying attention to the impact of human beings on the environment. Dokuchaev, the founder of Russian physical geography, put forward the concept of natural complex and established the theory of natural zone when discussing soil formation. Later, he also put forward the concept of geographical landscape, recognizing that people are a major changing force on the earth's surface.

The first half of the 20th century. Berger and Grigorev developed the theory of natural zone and landscape, and made important contributions to the development of the basic theory of physical geography. Different from Europe and America, Soviet geographers attach great importance to the study of physical geography, usually focusing on various elements of the natural environment. The internal differentiation of physical geography is obvious, and remarkable progress has been made in the research of natural zoning, landscape mapping, geochemical landscape, biogeographic community and paleogeography.

Modern geography in China was gradually formed on the basis of introducing modern geography from Europe and America. From 65438 to 0908, Zhang compiled the earliest physical geography textbook "Geographical Literature" in China, which initiated the modern geography education in China. Since the 1920s, Zhu Kezhen has made extensive and in-depth research on climatology. China geographers have made extensive investigations on China's topography, climate, hydrology, soil and vegetation. Since the 1950s, they have systematically investigated the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Loess Plateau, Xinjiang, the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain and the coastal zone, as well as glaciers, frozen soil and deserts. The study of natural areas has developed rapidly.

Since the 1960s, great changes have taken place in geography, and the theory of geographical system has been established, moving from discipline differentiation to new synthesis. On the basis of comprehensive research, a new branch discipline has been developed. In the research method, computer and remote sensing technology are introduced, and quantitative analysis and research are strengthened.

Physical geography in this period paid attention to quantitative analysis and closely combined quantitative analysis with qualitative analysis. Mainly through the establishment of a comprehensive experimental station, the use of remote sensing technology to observe the transformation form and dynamic process of energy and substances in the natural geographical system, to obtain large-scale continuous natural geographical information, to apply mathematical methods and computers to process and analyze all kinds of information, and to establish a system structure model and dynamic mathematical model through simulation experiments, so as to deeply study the structural characteristics of the natural geographical system and predict the changing trend.

Pay attention to the study of physical geography system from the perspective of ecology, pay attention to the consequences of human activities on the environment, and thus develop ecological geography and landscape ecology.

Strengthen applied research. Using the research results of physical geography, we participated in solving the problems of agricultural production, engineering construction, resource development and utilization, geographical environment pollution and treatment, and thus developed applied disciplines such as applied climatology, applied geomorphology, resource geography, environmental geography and medical geography.