Places: A Unique Location (Site and Situation)

Site

• A way that geographers describe the location of a place
• Physical character of a place
• Important characteristics: climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation
• Physical features gives each place a distinctive character
• Essential in selecting locations for settlements, although people have disagreed, depending on cultural values
• Some preferred a hilltop site for easy defense from attack
• Other located settlements, near convenient river-crossing points to facilitate communication with people in other places
• We have the ability to modify characteristics of a site
• NYC's Manhattan Island is twice as large today as it was in 1626
• Peter Minuit bought the island from its native inhabitants for the equivalent of $23.75 worth of Dutch gold and silver coins
• Additional land area was created by filling in portions of the East river and the Hudson river
• In 18th century landfills were created by sinking old ships and dumping refuse on top of them
• More recently, NYC permitted construction of Battery Park City
• a 57 hectare (142 acre) site designed to house more than 20,000 residents and 30,000 office workers
• Central areas of Boston and Tokyo have been expanded through centuries of land filling in nearby bays
  

Situation

• The location of a place relative to other places
• A valuable way to indicate location for two reasons
• Finding an unfamiliar place
• Understanding its importance
• Helps us find an unfamiliar place by comparing its location with a familiar one
• We give directions to people by referring to the situation of a place
• "It's down past the courthouse on Locust Street, after the third traffic light, beside yellow-brick bank"
• We identify important landmarks to direct people to a desired location.
• Many locations are important because they are accessible to other places
• Ex: Singapore has become a center for the trading and distribution of goods for much of Southeast Asia. Singapore is situated near the Strait of Malacca, which is the major passageway for ships traveling between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. Some 50,000 vessels, one fourth of the world’s maritime trade, pass through the strait each year.

Some characteristics that make my home a unique site is 

• the exterior look of it
• we have a large rock outside of the house
• size of land
• cars
• what my backyard consists ex: a trampoline and playground
• location of neighborhood