Site and Situation

Read the following material on Site and Situation, and take thorough notes in your blog. Think about what characteristics make your own home a unique site, and include your thoughts in your blog. What you don't complete in class is tonight's homework.


Site 
Site is the physical character of a place. Important site characteristics include climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation. The combination of physical features gives each place a distinctive character. Site factors have always been essential in selecting locations for settlements, although people have disagreed on the attributes of a good site, depending on cultural values. Some have preferred a hilltop site for easy defense from attack. Others located settlements near convenient river-crossing points to facilitate communication with people in other places. Humans have the ability to modify the characteristics of a site. The southern portion of New York City’s Manhattan Island is twice as large today as it was in 1626, when Peter Minuit bought the island from its native inhabitants for the equivalent of $23.75 worth of Dutch gold and silver coins. Manhattan’s additional land area was created by filling in portions of the East River and the Hudson River. In the eighteenth century, landfills were created by sinking old ships and dumping refuse on top of them. More recently, New York City permitted construction of Battery Park City, a 57-hectare (142-acre) site designed to house more than 20,000 residents and 30,000 office workers. The central areas of Boston and Tokyo have also been expanded through centuries of land filling in nearby bays, substantially changing these sites. 

Situation

Situation is the location of a place relative to other places. Situation is a valuable way to indicate location, for two reasons— finding an unfamiliar place and understanding its importance. First, situation helps us find an unfamiliar place by comparing its location with a familiar one. We give directions to people by referring to the situation of a place: “It’s down past the courthouse, on Locust Street, after the third traffic light, beside the yellow-brick bank.” We identify important buildings, streets, and other landmarks to direct people to the desired location. Second, situation helps us understand the importance of a location. Many locations are important because they are accessible to other places. For example, because of its situation, Singapore has become a center for the trading and distribution of goods for much of Southeast Asia. Singapore is situated near the Strait of Malacca, which is the major passageway for ships traveling between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. Some 50,000 vessels, one fourth of the world’s maritime trade, pass through the strait each year.

Honors 102 worked on their maps of North, Central, and South America in class. Plus they practiced with them on the freerice.com website!