Discover How Landscapes Change Around You

A landscape is the natural features of an area of land, such as mountains, rivers, forests, and plains. When you look outside and see hills, valleys, or rivers, you are looking at a landscape. Landscapes are always changing sometimes slowly over thousands of years, and sometimes very quickly.

You can explore Geographic Features to learn more about the different natural features that make up landscapes around the world.

Many powerful natural forces shape and change the land around you. These forces have been at work for millions of years, slowly reshaping Canada's rivers, coasts, and plains.

Erosion and Weathering

Erosion is the wearing away of land by wind or water, which moves soil and rock from one place to another. Weathering is when wind and water slowly break rocks into smaller pieces over many years. Together, erosion and weathering are two of the most powerful forces that change landscapes.

Deposition and Flooding

Deposition happens when material carried by water or wind is dropped in a new place, building up the land. Flooding spreads water and sediment over the land, changing its shape. When a river slows down at its mouth, it drops sediment and builds a fan-shaped landform called a delta.

Glaciers

A glacier is a large, slow-moving body of ice on land. Glaciers carve out valleys and lakes as they move slowly across the land. The Great Lakes in Canada were carved out by massive glaciers during the last Ice Age, thousands of years ago.

Other Natural Events

A landslide moves large amounts of soil and rock down a slope, quickly changing the shape of a hillside. Earthquakes crack the ground and cause land to shift or rise. Large storms can wash away sand from coastlines, changing them dramatically. You can learn more about these forces in Natural Processes.

Humans change landscapes in many important ways. Deforestation is the removal of large areas of trees and forest, often for farming, logging, or building. Urbanization is the growth of cities into surrounding natural areas, replacing forests and fields with roads and buildings.

Farmers change the landscape by clearing land and removing plants to create fields for crops. Mining removes rock and soil, leaving large holes in the ground. Building a dam on a river creates a large reservoir of water where land once was. You can explore more about this in Human Effects and Human Geography.

You can help protect landscapes too! Planting trees is one important way tree roots hold soil in place and prevent erosion. Canada creates national parks to preserve natural areas and protect wildlife from development.

People also repair damaged landscapes by restoring wetlands and planting new trees in areas affected by logging or pollution. Indigenous peoples in Canada have traditionally managed the land carefully to keep it healthy and balanced for thousands of years. Learn more about these efforts in Sustainable Environmental Protection Practices and Sustainable Development.

Landscape: The natural features of an area of land, such as mountains, rivers, forests, and plains. When you look at a hillside or a river valley, you are looking at a landscape.

Erosion: The wearing away of land by wind or water. Erosion moves soil and rock from one place to another, slowly changing the shape of the land.

Weathering: The process where wind and water slowly break rocks into smaller pieces over many years. Weathering is one of the main ways landscapes change naturally.

Deposition: When material carried by water or wind is dropped in a new place, building up the land. Deposition can create new landforms like sandbars and deltas.

Flooding: When water spreads over land, carrying sediment with it and changing the shape of the landscape. Flood plains are flat areas beside rivers that get covered by water during floods.

Glacier: A large, slow-moving body of ice on land. Glaciers carve valleys and shape the land as they move, and they shaped much of Canada's landscape thousands of years ago.

Sediment: Small pieces of rock, sand, and soil that are moved and dropped by water or wind. Sediment builds up over time and can form new landforms like deltas.

Delta: A fan-shaped landform that builds up where a river meets a larger body of water, formed by deposited sediment. The Fraser River Delta in Canada is a famous example.

Landform: A natural feature of the Earth's surface, like a hill, valley, mountain, or plain. Canada has many different landforms, including the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains.

Deforestation: The removal of large areas of trees and forest by humans, often for farming, logging, or building. Deforestation is one of the biggest ways humans change Canada's natural landscape.

Urbanization: The growth of cities into surrounding natural areas, replacing forests and fields with buildings and roads. Urbanization reduces natural habitats and changes landscapes significantly.

Landslide: A fast natural event where large amounts of soil and rock slide down a slope, dramatically changing the shape of the land.

Flood Plain: Flat land beside a river that gets covered by water during floods. Flood plains are often very fertile because floods deposit rich soil there.

Wetland: A wet, marshy area that filters water and supports wildlife. Wetlands are important because they prevent flooding and provide habitat for many plants and animals.

Natural Change: Changes to a landscape caused by nature, not by people. Natural changes include erosion, glaciers, landslides, and earthquakes.

You can practice identifying natural and human-made landscape changes by looking at pictures of valleys, deltas, and cities. Try to name the force erosion, deposition, or human activity that caused each change.

You can also explore Parks and Conservation to discover how people protect natural landscapes, and visit Community Environmental Effects to see how communities impact the land around them.

Before exploring changing landscapes, you learned about Caring for Our World and Human Effects on Nature, which gave you a strong foundation for understanding how people and nature interact. You also studied Types of Landforms: Mountains, Valleys, and Plains and Climate and Geography Impact, which help you recognize the features that get changed.

You also built knowledge through Where People Live, Environmental Consequences of Economic Activities, and Community Environmental Protection Values, all of which connect to why landscapes change and why protecting them matters.

This topic connects to many other important areas of geography. In Communities and Their Environments, you will see how the places where people live are shaped by the landscapes around them. Regional Characteristics shows you how different regions of Canada look different because of the forces that shaped them.

You can use Understanding Maps and Using Geography Tools to track and study landscape changes across Canada. Sustainable Development and Parks and Conservation show you how people work to protect landscapes from damage.

This topic also prepares you for more advanced learning in Earth's Features, Ecosystems, Major Landforms and Water Bodies: Mountains, Rivers, Oceans, Natural Resource Types and Distribution Patterns, and Geographic Areas. Understanding how landscapes change is the foundation for all of these exciting topics ahead.