People in the Mountains - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 495

tain areas since preindustrial times and continues today at an unprecedented scale (Fox
1997; Schweizer and Preiser 1997). The exploitation of rock, gravel and sand, and re-
lated industries also continues to be of great economic importance in many mountain
areas.
Topography
Mountain regions are defined by their altitude, local relief, slope gradient, slope aspect,
and orientation and density of ridges and valleys, all of which influence other environ-
mental factors. Two features of mountain topography, the magnification of gravitational
effect and the barrier to movement, are of particular importance. Steep slopes magni-
fy the influence of gravity: The steeper the slope, the greater is the gravitational ef-
fect on stationary and moving objects. Cultivation and construction of houses, roads,
and all other structures must take into account this tendency for downslope movement.
When cultivated or exposed during construction, soil moves downslope through tillage
erosion and water erosion. Thus, steep slopes often require alteration of the slope mor-
phology to produce stability. Examples include terracing for agriculture, contour plow-
ing, and cut-and-fill landscaping for construction of roads and structures (Figs. 10.2,
10.20). These adaptations require large investments initially and for maintenance, but
their widespread and longstanding use in mountain areas suggest that the benefits far
outweigh the costs.
The mountain barrier effect influences the movement of air, water, plants, animals,
and people in two main ways: physical obstruction to easy movement by high ridges,
steep slopes, and deep valleys; and increasingly harsh weather and climate with in-
creasing altitude. Historically, this has favored the isolation of mountain people and
communities, while limiting their movement and constraining their use of higher alti-
tudes. Isolation may have been protective and influenced the development of unique
cultural, socioeconomic, and political arrangements. Examples include the diversity of
indigenous cultural groups in the Canadian Cordillera and the Andes, and a diversity of
languages, such as in the central Karakoram where Shina, Urdu, Waki, and Burashaski
are spoken, and in the Swiss Alps, where many dialects of German, French, Italian, and
Romansh can be identified. Relative isolation and local coherence have contributed to
strong social systems and some political autonomy, the small independent state of An-
dorra in the Pyrenees, the states of the Caucasus, and semiautonomous areas such as
South Tyrol in Italy being examples. Himachal Pradesh, Arunanchal Pradesh, and Ut-
tarakhand, all in India, are examples of political entities that have been justified, in
part, by their distinctive geographic and topographic settings. Isolation and restricted
accessibility have, on the other hand, predestined such mountain areas as operational
bases for guerilla groups, such as, historically, the maquisards in the Atlas Mountains
during the Algerian uprising against the French rule of North Africa, the revolutionaries
in the Sierra of eastern Cuba, or the Shining Path in the Cordillera of Peru.
Mountain topography presents challenges to movement and transportation that dif-
fer from those in other environments, requiring innovative and costly adaptations such
as: graded and cobble-paved tracks, as in Inca and Roman times in the Andes and Alps;
large cantilevered bridges on traditional trails in the Himalaya; cogwheel mountain rail-
ways, cable cars, and helicopter services; and long suspension bridges, pylon-supported