How People Shape and Adapt to the Environment

Human-environment interaction is about how people affect their environment and how the environment affects human life. This relationship is central to geography.

Types of Interaction

• Modification: Humans build dams, cities, and farms, altering the landscape.
• Adaptation: People adjust to their environment, like building houses on stilts in flood-prone areas.

Environmental Determinism vs. Possibilism

• Environmental Determinism: The idea that the environment determines human activities.
• Possibilism: The belief that humans have choices and can adapt or modify the environment.

Applications

• Sustainable development seeks to balance human needs with environmental protection.
• Climate change adaptation involves modifying behaviors and infrastructure.