Drawing on the Past, Anticipating the Future
Imagine a force so powerful that it moves 24 times more material across Earth's surface than all the world's rivers combined. This isn't a natural phenomenon from Earth's deep past or a plot from a science fiction movie—it's us. Humanity has become the dominant geological force shaping our planet's landscapes, marking a proposed new epoch in geological time: the Anthropocene.
The relationship between humans and the landscapes we inhabit is one of the most fundamental, yet often overlooked, interactions in our existence.
From the flat plains where our cities sprawl to the river valleys that give us life, we have both adapted to and transformed our surroundings throughout history. This relationship is now at a critical juncture. As we stand at the precipice of unprecedented environmental change, understanding how we have shaped landscapes in the past—and how this shaping in turn affects us—may hold the key to building a sustainable future.
This article explores the fascinating interplay between human societies and the landscapes they call home, drawing on lessons from history, breakthroughs in scientific understanding, and insights from a future where our role as planetary stewards can no longer be ignored.
Metric tons of sediment moved by humans annually
More than all world's rivers combined
Average thickness of human deposits in London
The Netherlands provides an extraordinary case study in long-term human-landscape interaction. Research into the first millennium AD reveals a compelling story of how early societies both adapted to and unintentionally transformed their environment6 .
During this period, the Netherlands transitioned from a predominantly natural landscape to one increasingly dominated by human activity. The Roman period (12 BC to AD 450) saw significant population growth, followed by decline during the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and subsequent revival in the Early Middle Ages (AD 450 to 1050)6 . Throughout these fluctuations, human activities caused major—often unintended—geomorphological changes.
| Region | Primary Change | Human Cause | Environmental Consequence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coastal Plain | Transformation of peatlands to tidal basins | Peat drainage causing subsidence | Large-scale drowning, creation of new tidal areas |
| Rhine–Meuse Delta | Formation of new river branches | Peatland subsidence from drainage | Major river network reorganization |
| Pleistocene Sand Area | Local sand drifting | Agriculture near movement corridors | Increased drift sand intensity after AD 900 |
The most dramatic changes occurred in the coastal plains, where compaction-prone peat was intensively drained for agriculture. This drainage led to subsidence, making the land increasingly vulnerable to storms. Eventually, these areas reached a tipping point where entire regions transformed from peatlands into open tidal basins unsuitable for habitation for centuries6 .
Fast forward to the 21st century, and human impact on landscapes has accelerated at an astonishing rate. Recent studies quantify what many have suspected: humans are now the most significant geomorphological force on Earth's surface.
The numbers are staggering. Humans now move approximately 316 billion metric tons of sediment annually—about 24 times more than the sediment transported by all the world's major rivers combined. To put this in perspective, the production of a single gold wedding ring containing just 4 grams of gold requires the excavation of between 4 and 20 metric tons of rock.
| Source | Annual Sediment Movement (billion metric tons) | Comparative Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Human activities | 316 | 24x river sediment to oceans |
| All world's major rivers | ~13.2 | Baseline comparison |
| London artificial deposits | 6 billion tons (total accumulation) | Equivalent to 3x Wembley Stadiums |
This transformation is particularly visible in our cities. In London alone, human-generated deposits average 3.75 meters thick in some boroughs—the height of an adult elephant—with a total weight of approximately 6 billion metric tons.
As we transform landscapes, they in turn shape us—including our minds and preferences. For decades, the savanna hypothesis has suggested that humans have an innate preference for savanna-like landscapes, shaped by our evolutionary past in the African Pleistocene5 . According to this theory, the combination of perspective and refuge offered by savanna environments solved critical survival problems for early hominids, creating a universal aesthetic preference that persists today5 .
But is this preference truly universal? A compelling 2018 study put this hypothesis to the test across three different environmental contexts in Brazil5 . Researchers showed 12 images representing six major terrestrial biomes plus two urban landscapes to participants from rural communities (one in a deciduous forest area, another in a savanna-like landscape) and an urban community.
The results challenged the notion of a universal savanna preference. Instead, the Rainforest landscape was preferred across all three environmental contexts5 . This suggests that while our evolutionary past may influence our landscape preferences, other factors—including our current environmental context and cultural influences—also play significant roles.
| Environmental Context of Participants | Most Preferred Landscape | Support for Savanna Hypothesis? |
|---|---|---|
| Rural (deciduous forest area) | Rainforest | No |
| Rural (savanna-like area) | Rainforest | No |
| Urban | Rainforest | No |
Understanding the intricate dance between humans and landscapes requires sophisticated research methods. Scientists employ a diverse toolkit to unravel these complex relationships:
Researchers conduct identical experiments across multiple locations within a landscape to understand how the same process varies in different contexts3 .
Scientists move elements between different landscape positions to observe how they respond to new environmental conditions3 .
These controlled environments allow researchers to simulate landscape processes under controlled conditions3 .
Researchers take advantage of naturally occurring events to study landscape processes without direct manipulation3 .
The most powerful insights often come from integrating multiple methods to understand complex landscape systems3 .
| Research "Reagent" | Function | Application Example |
|---|---|---|
| Sediment cores | Archive of past environmental conditions | Reconstructing historical landscape changes |
| Cosmogenic isotopes (¹⁰Be) | Measuring erosion rates | Quantifying tropical denudation in Puerto Rico4 |
| Historical imagery | Documenting landscape evolution | Landslide inventory creation4 |
| Social science surveys | Assessing human perceptions | Testing landscape preferences5 |
| Geospatial models | Simulating future scenarios | Predicting landscape response to human activities |
As we look toward the future of human-landscape interactions, several key insights emerge from our growing understanding of this relationship:
History shows that the same human activities can have dramatically different consequences depending on the underlying landscape. The peatlands of the Netherlands were particularly sensitive to drainage activities, leading to irreversible changes6 . Understanding these sensitivities can help us identify which landscapes require special care and protection.
The experimental approaches developed by landscape ecologists3 provide powerful tools for testing how proposed interventions might affect ecosystems before implementing them at large scales. These methods allow us to move beyond correlation to understand causation in complex landscape systems.
Our relationship with landscapes isn't merely practical—it's deeply psychological5 . Creating sustainable futures requires designing landscapes that resonate with human needs both ecological and aesthetic.
The historical reconstruction of human-landscape interactions6 provides a rich repository of knowledge about what has and hasn't worked. These case studies offer invaluable insights for contemporary landscape management.
With our demonstrated power to reshape the planet comes the responsibility to exercise that power wisely. The future of human-landscape interactions will require balancing our needs with the long-term health of the planetary systems that sustain us.
The story of human-landscape interaction is at a turning point. For millennia, we have adapted to and modified our surroundings, often with limited understanding of the long-term consequences. Today, we possess both the knowledge to understand these consequences and the power to change landscapes at a planetary scale.
The challenge before us is to draw on the lessons of the past while anticipating the needs of the future. From the unintended transformations of the Dutch peatlands to the quantified dominance of human geomorphological activity, the message is clear: we cannot avoid shaping landscapes, but we can learn to shape them more wisely.
The future of human-landscape interactions will be written in the choices we make today—in how we build our cities, manage our resources, and preserve the ecological and aesthetic diversity that sustains both body and spirit. As we continue to become more conscious of our role as shapers of landscapes, we may discover that the most sustainable future lies not in dominating nature or returning to some mythical past, but in cultivating a relationship of mutual adaptation and respect with the landscapes we call home.