Beautypically

The page shows an overview of the European economic area.

In the background, surface signatures indicate the intensity of human use of space. In accordance with the concept of the “human footprint” (“ecological footprint”), spatial levels were superimposed on the factors of population, traffic, transport, mining and land use to determine it.

Different room types can be hidden behind a category. The natural landscapes include the tundras of northeast Europe as well as the mountain ranges of the Alps and Carpathians, the semi-deserts and deserts of Kazakhstan and large parts of Asia Minor. In addition to the large agglomerations such as Randstad and Rhine-Ruhr, the Po Valley in northern Italy and large parts of the Spanish Mediterranean coast, which is used intensively for agriculture and tourism, are represented as densely populated and intensively used agglomerations. In addition to Germany – with the exception of a few low mountain ranges – areas of intensive use also include such contrasting rural areas as Brittany, large parts of the Czech Republic and the black earth zone in Ukraine. In addition, rooms with less intensive use are designated, for example large parts of Ireland or Spain. There, the natural landscape has been greatly changed and reshaped by human interventions, presently or in historical periods, the intensity of agricultural use there is lower today than in other agricultural areas on the continent.

In order to be able to characterize the economic centers, their orientation with regard to the local industries and the formative services is first considered. Since some economic centers are more industrial, others more characterized by high-level services, a twin signature is used. An important economic center with a maximum of three industrial and three service focuses can be listed.

In addition to the industry structure, its importance in the global city hierarchy, i.e. its spatial charisma, is shown. The map shows in four levels whether an economic center is of global or continental importance, whether it is at least important for several countries or whether it is only of national economic importance. A reading example for Munich introduces the map statements about the economic centers.

With these two categorizations of economic centers – that is, orientation in terms of industry and services as well as spatial charisma – a location like Zurich can quickly become a center of continental importance with a diverse sector structure, both for industry (heavy industry, high-tech industry) and services (finance, business-related services, political-cultural center), which lies at the transition between intensively used and near-natural landscapes (Alps).

Outside of the economic centers, the overview map also shows tourist locations and mining centers, which are often spatial in the peripheral areas. As a rule, these labels refer to regions, not to individual cities or locations. Examples are the German North Sea islands or the Balearic Islands as tourist locations or the Lower Rhine lignite area, oil and gas production areas in the North Sea and Eastern Turkey (Ores, coal, petroleum) as mining centers.

Polycentric spatial structure

Within Europe, Germany and Poland are examples of states with a polycentric spatial structure, in which a division of tasks can be observed between the economic centers. France, Denmark and Hungary, for example, have a clearly monocentric spatial structure – here the capital region is of paramount economic and political importance. Check COUNTRYAAH to see other countries in Europe.

Current processes in the dynamically developing economy must always be taken into account. Spatial development in Ireland, Portugal, Spain and especially Greece has been heavily influenced by the euro and debt crisis since 2009. Between subregions of the continent there are borders with a strong isolating effect, for example some states in the Balkans belong to the EU, others do not; The EU’s external border runs right through the region. Serious conflicts can arise that hinder or even prevent economic exchange (for example the armed conflict in Ukraine that began in 2014).

Europe – soil types

As soil types bottoms are designated with the same horizon sequences and with consequent same characteristics and properties. Soil types are the result of soil-forming processes, which in turn are controlled by the interaction of a large number of factors such as the rock and climate, flora and fauna, the relief and the influences of water, people and time and are collectively referred to as geofactors.

A further classification option within the soil types is the classification of soils according to the so-called factor system. If the climate or vegetation are determining factors in soil formation, zonal soils are created ; If, on the other hand, other factors dominate, intra-zonal soils are present. Azonal soils are mainly characterized by a low profile development. Their formation is largely determined by the geofactors water or relief.