Ecumenism (geography)
Ecumenism (from the Greek oikoumene - earth circle , whole inhabited earth; here: permanent settlement area ) is the part of the earth's surface that is constantly populated and fully usable for agriculture . These include urban landscapes , settlement landscapes , cultural landscapes and economic landscapes . At the beginning of the 21st century, around 50 percent of the land surface can be counted as part of the ecumenical movement.
Almost all of the ecumenical movement includes Europe , South and East Asia , large parts of Africa , Central and South America , as well as the east of the USA and south-east Australia . Since the beginning of the population explosion after European expansion , ecumenism has expanded exponentially through the reclamation of huge areas.
The term is used together with the terms subecumens , anecumens and periocumens as a rule in the context of geosciences - especially in settlement geography - on the global scale .
The ecumenical movement includes all areas that are or would be (fully) usable for arable farming and / or are permanently populated, i.e. also areas that are currently uninhabited, unused or undeveloped, but would be usable.
From a local point of view there are also different areas within the ecumenical movement that cannot be settled; These include, for example, bodies of water, glaciers, moors, areas at risk of flooding, high mountains, areas at risk of falling rocks or simply areas free of sunshine, difficult to access and karstified and therefore waterless areas.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ The area share was determined and extensively verified when the area-based map Ökumene-Subökumene-Anökumene.png was created . See sources there.
- ↑ Keyword: ecumenism . In: Lexicon of Geography on Spektrum.de, accessed on October 31, 2014.