Landforms and Life

Mountains, plateaus, plains, deserts and islands, and how people adapt their homes, farming and work to each landform.

Key ideas

• The three main landforms are mountains, plateaus (raised land with a fairly flat top) and plains (wide, flat, low land, often made by rivers).
• Few people live in high mountains: slopes are steep, it is cold and there is little flat land.
• Mountain farmers cut steps into slopes (terrace farming) to grow crops and stop the soil washing away.
• Glaciers and snow store water and release it slowly into rivers, so mountains are called the water towers of the world.
• Plains are crowded because their flat land and fertile river soil suit farming and building.
• In deserts people store rainwater, use wells and oases, grow crops that need little water and keep camels.
• The higher you go, the colder it gets: temperature falls about 6 °C for every 1,000 m of height.

Remember

Watch out

• Mixing up a plateau (raised, flat top) and a plain (low and flat).
• Adding the temperature drop instead of taking it away when going up a mountain.
• Calling a peninsula an island: an island has water on all sides, a peninsula on three.

Worked example