Nonetheless, a certain amount of knowledge about particular processes and phenomena is necessary to interpret maps. One must practice the skill of interpretation, however, and our understanding is never complete but a continual learning process. The key to understanding and interpreting these systems is that they are inter-related. Each is, to some extent, a product of the others. Furthermore, these are complex systems and our interpretation of them is dependent on scale and the timeframe we are using.
Maps also are useful monitoring and detecting landscape change.
Nevertheless, certain landforms are characteristic of particular processes and locale. Maps help us sort out information and patterns and lead us to certain conclusions or inferences about the environment. To help you understand the various processes, I have selected a series of various landforms. We will look at each of these and discuss their development. Each of the earth system's provides clues to landform development.