On the Earth's surface, land, air, water, soils, plants and animals all exist together, and the physical reality of any one place is made up of all these elements. Matter and energy pass continually from one to the other. Although the combination of features may vary from one place to the next everywhere there exists a tendency towards dynamic balance or equilibrium, in which a change in one of the elements leads to adjustment in the others. The value of physical geography is not only that it studies the important components of the natural environment, but that it concentrates on the connections between them.
Modern physical geography tries to interpret the natural environment as a dynamic entity. One way of demonstrating this is to use a systems approach. The study of land forms has undergone a significant change of emphasis in the last twenty years. Any understanding of land forms depends on an appreciation of the relative roles of climate, geology, form, process and the time as governing factors. In the first part of the twentieth century, much of geomorphological study placed its emphasis on climate, geology and time. In particular, the subject was dominated by W.M. Davis' cycle of erosion, which stressed the evolution of land forms through time and suggested a classification of land forms based on their stage of development in the cycle. The biggest drawback with this approach was its inability to accommodate effectively the dynamics of present-day processes. In the 1950s and 1960s strong reaction against, Davisian ideas led to their replacement by an emphasis on process/form studies, which are concerned with an examination of the relationship between land forms and contemporary processes. The process/form approach can be usefully placed in a systems framework.
In effect, the Davisian cycle no longer provides an adequate framework for modern geomorphology. However, this does not mean that all Davisian ideas are unsound, or that time is not an important factor in landform study. The current emphasis on process studies has had the benefit of making geomorphology much more relevant to the rest of geography, not least in dealing with applied problems. It is more advantageous that we know, for instance, something of the discharge and sediment load of streams, than that they are 'young' or 'mature', as Davis described them.
Locals hypothesize that the legacy of Italian blood and culture in Cologne, colonized by the Romans more than 1500 years ago, makes the people more jovial and lighthearted. Cologne is the largest city on the Rhine.
Kolsch is not only the dialect spoken here but, also the name of their own top-fermented beer. There are more than 4,000 pubs, restaurant's and brewery taverns in Cologne.
Unlike many of the world's large cities, Cologne, with a population of over a million, gets better every day, there are more things to do and see, more new and innovative buildings... more
Travel is an opportunity to learn, whether geography, languages, history or other subjects.
Cologne is situated on the beautiful Rhine River.