Physiographic region
In the period following World War II, the emergence of process, climatic, and quantitative studies led to a preference by many Earth scientists for the term "geomorphology" in order to suggest an analytical approach to landscapes rather than a descriptive one.
A maturely dissected plateau may grade without a break from rugged mountains on the one hand to mildly rolling farm lands on the other.
In 1848, Mary Somerville published her book Physical Geography which gave detailed descriptions of the topography of each continent, along with the distribution of plant, animals and humans.
As the chair of geography (and a geologist by training) in Bonn, Germany, Ferdinand von Richthofen made the study of landforms the main research field for himself and his students.
In 1899, Albert Heim published his photographs and observations made during a balloon flight over the Alps; he is probably the first person to use aerial photography in geomorphological or physiographical research.
The block diagrams of Fenneman, Raisz, Lobeck and many others were based in part upon both aerial photography and topographic maps, giving an oblique "birds-eye" view.
The popular meaning is better conveyed by the word physiography, a term which appears to have been introduced by Linnaeus, and was reinvented as a substitute for the cosmography of the Middle Ages by Professor Huxley.
Physical geography naturally falls into three divisions, dealing respectively with the surface of the lithosphere – geomorphology; the hydrosphere – oceanography; and the atmosphere – climatology.
[9] The 1919 edition of The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge further adjusted the definition to be "Physiography (geomorphology), now generally recognized as a science distinct from geology, deals with the origins and development of land forms, traces out the topographic expression of structure, and embodies a logical history of oceanic basins, and continental elevations; of mountains, plateaus and plains; of hills and valleys.
The same source continues by stating "In a large fashion geodynamics is intimately associated with certain branches of geology, as sedimentation, while geomorphology connects physiography with geography.
