A land system is an area or group of areas with a recurring pattern of landforms, soils and vegetation. The concept of land systems was defined by Australian scientists engaged in reconnaissance land resource inventories (Christian and Stewart, 1953). Land systems have many uses but are particularly valuable (1) as units for summarizing and mapping resources, landforms, soils, vegetation, geology or any other feature of the earth's surface, and (2) as conceptual devices which achieve an integrated overview of the relationships between geologic and climatic history, landforms, soils, and ecology. Use (1) is primarily technical, i.e., land systems constitute a methodological tool which provides a relatively easy way of summarizing a vast amount of otherwise disparate information. Use (2) is primarily scientific, i.e., land systems are a conceptual device which requires a scientist to look at the landscape as an entity in which all components are interrelated.
Land system patterns are the...
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References
Christian, C. A., and Stewart, G. A., 1964, Methodology of integrated surveys, Conference on Principles and Methods of Integrating Aerial Survey Studies of Natural Resources for Potential Development, U.N.E.S.C.O., Toulouse, France, 1964, 145pp.
Mabbutt, J. A., and Stewart, G. A., 1963, Application of geomorphology in integrated resources surveys in Australia and New Guinea, Revue de Géomorphologie, 14(7–9).
Perry, R. A., et al., 1962, Lands of the Alice Springs Area, Northern Territory, Melbourne, C.S.I.R.O., Land Research Series No. 6.
Perry, R. A., et al., 1965, Lands of the Wabag-Tari Area, Papua, New Guinea, Melbourne, C.S.I.R.O., Land Research Series No. 15.
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Wilson, L. (1968). Land systems . In: Geomorphology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31060-6_220
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