Habitable zone

“ The normal unit of food and labour in a zone is to be determined by the normal, that is, average-sized farm-household in one of the districts (or any other administrative and farming unit, equal in size) of the zone, having a density of population which is the lowest in the zone, and such a proportion of various kinds of lands (arable, pasture, alluvial, dried-up, meadow, waste, kitchen-garden, etc.) ”

“ At the base of the mountains themselves, where the bold relief begins, is always a piedmont zone of hilly surface but gentler grade, at whose inner or upland edge every phase of the historical movement receives a marked check. Here is a typical geographical boundary, physical and human. It shifts slightly in different periods, according to the growing density of population in the plains below and improved technique in industry and road-making. ”

“ Regions subject to overflow and excess of stagnant water present obstacles to cultivation and comfortable living which it was beyond the power of primitive man to overcome, and would repel habitation for a long time. But once made habitable, the plain, with its mellow, fertile soil and its rivers offering easy ways of communication, would become attractive and draw population down from the hills, the chief value of which would henceforth lie in their adaptability to purposes of defense against attack. ”

“ Climate and Habitability.—In the main, regions that are inhabited by human beings produce either food-stuffs or something of value that may be exchanged for food-stuffs; and inasmuch as food and shelter are the chief objects of human activity, regions that will not furnish them are not habitable. ”

“ No application, perhaps, of human skill and labor tends so greatly to vary the state of the habitable surface, as that employed in the drainage of lakes and marshes, since not only the stations of many animals and plants, but the general climate of a district, may thus be modified. It is also a kind of alteration to which it is difficult to find anything analogous in the agency of inferior beings ”

“ THE EARTH-LODGE
As an example of the modifying power of geographic influence exercised upon the arts, we may consider the style of architecture or domiciliary structure prevailing in the Plains region. In each geographic province, which also constitutes a culture area, the style of housing is different according to natural resources and climatic conditions. In the Plains area the permanent dwelling was the earth-covered structure; while the temporary dwelling was the skin tent. ”

“ A variety of architecture and material, however, appears in the many villages and cities of the Zone, and the daily sweeping of floors shows a desire for cleanliness unknown to other zones. The men are the chief supporters of their families, and woman enjoys a liberty elsewhere universally denied her. ”

“ Specific area: an area designated by the central competent authority as having particular natural, economic, cultural significance or other properties. Sectoral spatial development strategy: a development strategy that has been established by the competent authority after consultation with the relevant authorities. Functional zone: demarcation of environmental conservation zones, marine resource zones, agricultural development zones and urban-rural development zones consistent with the characteristics of land resources to facilitate conservation, utilization and management of the land. ”

“ The physical causes of zonation are by far the most important. They arise from differences in temperature, water, and light. In the large, temperature differences are the most important, producing the great zones of vegetation. In a particular region or habitat, variations of water-content and humidity are controlling, while light, as shown above, is important in the reactions of forest and thicket. Physical factors produce zonation in a habitat or a series of habitats, when there is either a gradual and cumulative, or an abrupt change in their intensity. ”

“ Zoning not only controls the use and development of land but also regulates the height and bulk of buildings, the open spaces which must be provided for light and ventilation, and the density and distribution of population. ”

“ As one effect of the subdivision of the land, the soil, so far as nature permits, is highly cultivated, its appearance fertile, finished, beautiful, and in striking contrast with the dominating vast, bare mountain rocks and snowbeds. The many towns and cities bear abundant signs of a general prosperity, their roads, bridges, stores, residences, and public buildings betokening in the inhabitants industry and energy, and freedom to employ these qualities. ”

“ This littoral zone was a propitious environment where sea and fresh water, earth and air all meet, where there is stimulating change, abundant oxygenation and a copious supply of nutritive material in what the streams bring down and in the rich seaweed vegetation. ”

“ And perhaps the most singular feature in this varied landscape, is the vast chain of human habitations, which, like a whitened irregular stratum may be seen stretching out as far as the eye can reach in opposite directions, along the whole slope of the southern elevations just adverted to. They contain a large population, principally constituted of the cultivators of the adjacent plain and hills, the slopes being chiefly occupied by pretty white villas belonging to the better classes, while in the abrupt intermediate precipices of rock, the poor have scooped out their indestructible dwellings. ”

“ Small, naturally defined areas, whether their boundaries are drawn by mountains, sea, or by both, always harbor small but markedly individual peoples, as also peculiar or endemic animal forms, whose differentiation varies with the degree of isolation. Such peoples can be found over and over again in islands, peninsulas, confined mountain valleys, or desert-rimmed oases. The cause lies in the barriers to expansion and to accessions of population from without which confront such peoples on every side. ”

“ Our fields are divided by wooden fences; wooden bridges cross our rivers; our village streets and highways are being paved with wood; the engines that carry us on our way by land and by water are fed with wood; the rural dwellings without and within, their walls, their floors, stairways, and roofs are almost wholly of wood; and in this neighborhood the fires that burn on our household hearths are entirely the gift of the living forest. ”

“ The suburbs glow with beauty, as the light gleams on bright roofs, snug gardens, young plantations, and dark green masses of pine and cedar. The domain below, with its wild entanglement of natural bush, fern-trees and dark undergrowth, looks cosy, cool, and refreshing; everywhere is the glint of water, relieving the tumbled masses of scoriæ, the circling outlines of extinct volcanoes, and fortuitous jumble of buildings. ”

“ The effect is a curious one, for often when one is approaching a settlement on the river-banks, the fact that the watercourse and its cultivated surrounding land is far sunk below the level of the plain renders it invisible until one reaches the very edge of the decline. Up to that point one’s eye ranges from the level plain on which one is to where it commences again beyond, its barren appearance and uniform colouring presenting the effect that both join, and it seems impossible that a large colony with gardens and irrigated lands can exist in the neighbourhood. ”

“ There are, in almost all places, in the vicinity of the dwelling, portions of ground which can be appropriated to forest trees without detriment to other economical uses, if applied in the proper way. Any one who passes along 182 a high road and discovers the farm house, seated on the margin or in the immediate vicinity of a pleasant grove, is immediately struck with the peculiarly rural and picturesque air which it presents, and thinks to himself that he should love such a spot for his own home, without reflecting that he might equally as well create one of the same character. ”

“ Plots of bald old trees, bent by the regular breezes, betray the positions of settlements which, generally sheltered from sight, besprinkle the coast in a long straggling line, like the suburbs of a populous city. ”

“ It is so that, our soil being divided into champaign ground and woodland, the houses of the first lie uniformly builded in every town together, with streets and lanes; whereas in the woodland countries (except here and there in great market towns) they stand scattered abroad, each one dwelling in the midst of his own occupying. ”

“ Each zone, besides its own peculiar advantages, has its own distinctive character. Primeval laws of organisation, notwithstanding a certain degree of freedom in the abnormal development of single parts, bind all animal and vegetable forms to fixed ever-recurring types. ”

“ Noticeable among the older structures are a few newer, more modern buildings. On the hill and along the bayside to the north are attractive residences, surrounded by broad, close-clipped lawns, brightened in sea- son by daffodils, rows of irises, blossoming shrubs, roses in profusion, beds of flaming gladioli, and golden autumn leaves; even the sombreness of winter is broken by the sheen of laurel leaves and the orange and red berries of thorn and holly. Between these residential districts and the business and industrial areas are scattered sections where the mass of the population lives. ”

“ Rivers tend always to be centers of population, not outskirts or perimeters. They offer advantages that have always attracted settlement—fertile alluvial soil, a nearby water supply, command of a natural highway for intercourse with neighbors and access to markets. Among civilized peoples fluvial settlements have been the nuclei of broad states, passing rapidly through an embryonic development to a maturity in which the old center can still be distinguished by a greater density of population. ”

“ In the centre of the square was laid out a circle of twelve acres of ground, to be cast into streets for inhabitants to build on as their ability would permit—all that would build to have ground gratis for twenty years, timber out of the forest, and convenient yards, gardens, and orchards allotted to every house. ”

“ The residences recently built have a more eastern and conventional aspect, and some are very imposing; but, big or little, old or new, it is rare to find a house not ensconced in trees and shrubs and climbing plants, while, smooth, rich, well-shaven lawns greet the eye everywhere in town, in brilliant contrast to the bleak hills towering overhead just without the city. As for flowers, no town east or west cultivates them more universally and assiduously. ”

“ The outward pressure of one zone upon another involves the slow advance of the banking and office section into the older retail or wholesale districts, the continual following along of the lighter wholesale houses into the buildings vacated by the retail shops, the close pursuit of the best residence sections by the best retail shops, with normally a mixed zone of institutions, etc, acting as a buffer between them, and the steady march of residences into the outlying country, first utilized for gardens or cottages. ”

“ First comes the choice of a very healthy site. Such a site will be high, neither misty nor frosty, and in a climate neither hot nor cold, but temperate; further, without marshes in the neighbourhood. For when the morning breezes blow toward the town at sunrise, if they bring with them mists from marshes and, mingled with the mist, the poisonous breath of the creatures of the marshes to be wafted into the bodies of the inhabitants, they will make the site unhealthy. ”

“ The cultivators of the soil live, not, as in America, in little farm-houses built along the road-sides and dotting the slopes of the hills, but in compact villages, consisting of ancient dwellings of brick or stone, densely packed together along a single street, from which the laborers issue, in picturesque dresses, men and women together, every morning, to go miles, perhaps, to the scene of their daily toil. ”

“ Local populations are likely to be more or less isolated from others by areas where the habitat does not exist. Even in an area [142] of favorable habitat such as a wooded hillside of several acres, the population is not at all evenly distributed, but concentrations occur along rock outcrops, and about decaying logs, or stone piles. In intervening areas lacking such abundant shelter, and less productive of food, the population is sparse, or there may be no permanent residents. ”

“ After that came the first gardens of the outer suburb, black of soil, the coarse mortar in the low farm buildings, villas closely shuttered in the midst of their little gardens reduced by the winter to copses as dry as the bare wood of the kiosks and arbors, and then, farther on, the country roads broken up by puddles, where one saw files of overflowing tanks—a horizon the color of rust, and flights of crows over the deserted fields. ”

“ Permanent settlement encourages accumulation in every form, and under growing pressure of population slowly reveals the possibilities of every foot of ground, of every geographic advantage. These are the fibers of the land which become woven into the whole fabric of the nation's life. ”

“ Settlements are not exclusively of the city, but the stress of life is sternest in the cities, and most of the experiments have been made there. They are oases in the desert of the buildings and pavements of brick, with their grime and monotony, and if the people of the desert will camp for an hour and drink of the spring, those who have planted the oasis will be well pleased. ”