Landscape, Improved

a geographic landscape that has been altered by the economic activity of human society and reveals the results of man’s labor. Examples of improved landscapes are oases on irrigated land in deserts, plowed-up steppes with shelterbelts, and drained and cultivated polders. There is no sharp distinction between improved and natural landscapes. Improved landscapes preserve the geological structure, the morphostructural relief features, and the basic characteristics of the natural climate. They are subject to important geographic laws —zonality and azonality. The conscious creation of improved landscapes is based on a knowledge of the relationships among the elements of the landscape and among its morphological components (natural boundaries and facies). Its aim is the maximum reproduction of natural, primarily biological, resources, the prevention of unfavorable natural processes, the creation of a healthy environment for human life, and the rational organization of areas (a scientific correlation between protected elements of the natural landscape, farmland, housing developments, and industrial enterprises). Unplanned human alteration of the landscape often results in the destruction of the landscape’s natural structure and undesirable secondary processes, such as soil erosion, packing of sand, and pollution of the air and natural waters.