Applied Physical Geography and Natural Hazards

The term “application” refers to the introduction of concepts, methods, andtools from one scientific field within a new discipline, with an operational program that delivers benefits to rural and urban communities. In physical geography, application involves the use of methods and research results for evaluating and finding solutions to challenges facing land use, natural resource management plans and the environment. Physical geography eventually seeks to promote life and enhance the well-being of communities. For more than three decades, physical geography has remained a field shrouded in mystery due to the challenges applying its theoretical concepts present. For instance the advantage of dating eroded bedrock surfaces doesnot seem evident to many in the first place. Despite its early unfavorable reception, natural geography, has become recently the subject of much academic inquiries in all branches of Earth Sciences. The mutual interaction of humans and the environment in the context of global change has provedto be the primary source of threat to our physical environment. (Rougeni, 1991) Recent studies have brought to light the pervasive impact of human intervention on the ecology. Along human’s intervention, a permanent cause of damage is climate variability, particularly during the fourth or quaternary period. (Taylor, 1993) As John Tricart, the renowned geomorphology expert indicates, there is no such thing as applied geomorphology and basic geomorphology (Tricart, 1998), and this alsoapplies to all sciences. By and large, by moving beyond the descriptive tradition, chiefly detached from its natural milieu, geography has adopted a critical role, striving to address disharmony and imbalance trough effective techniques and breakthrough research.