Dubai was the 10th most-visited city in the world in Asia has a number of state-of-the-art engineering marvels that solve complex infrastructural problems. The dam stands at meters feet high and stretches for 2, meters 7, feet across the Yangtze River. It supplies millions of homes, businesses, hospitals, and schools with safe, affordable electricity.
The massive project, however, has had a devastating effect on the human and natural environment. The damming of the Yangtze River created a reservoir that flooded square kilometers square miles , taking out hundreds of towns and villages and displacing more than 1. It submerged hundreds of factories, mines, and waste dumps, allowing industrial pollutant s and garbage to enter the reservoir. The reservoir has also threatened the habitats of birds, fish, and other wildlife populations.
An oil refinery is a factory where crude oil is processed and refined into useful products, such as gasoline, kerosene, and diesel oil. The factory covers an area larger than the city of London, England. Shinkansen links most major cities on the islands of Honshu and Kyushu. Since the railway lines were laid in the mids, it has transported roughly 5 billion people. The facility opened in the late s, when the steppes of Central Asia were part of the Soviet Union. Today, the Baikonur Cosmodrome is in southern Kazakhstan, although it is lease d to and maintained by Russia.
The state-of-the-art facility allows for the launch of both manned and unmanned spacecraft, and is vital to the support and maintenance of the International Space Station ISS. Low-pressure systems are often associated with storms. Monsoon usually refers to the winds of the Indian Ocean and South Asia, which often bring heavy rains. Also known as petroleum or crude oil. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.
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Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives. Individuals, communities, and countries depend on a variety of different resources to help them thrive: electricity, timber, oil, water, and food to name a few. Because these basic resources are such a large part of our daily lives, it is important that we manage them responsibly to ensure future generations have what they need.
Human civilization heavily impacts the environment and the rich natural resources we depend on. All communities face the challenge of managing resources responsibly, not only for themselves, but for the sake of the world around them.
Learn more about how individuals and communities can manage their resources to support themselves and the world around them. Everyone around the globe relies on natural resources to support their lives as well as their local and national economies. However, not all communities have access to the same kinds of resources in the same amounts. Many natural resources that are very common in one part of the world are almost nonexistent in others. For instance, while many countries have systems in place to treat and distribute clean drinking water, in many other countries around the globe, communities may only have access to untreated or contaminated water.
Understanding the distribution of resources around the world helps us understand regional and global economies, and helps us think critically about how to make sure that all communities have the resources they need to thrive. Explore patterns of resource distribution with this curated collection. Encyclopedic entry. Europe's rich agricultural and industrial diversity has made the continent a center of commerce and culture for centuries.
It can be divided into five major physical regions: mountain systems; plateaus; plains, steppes, and deserts; freshwater environments; and saltwater environments.
Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students. Though it does not have many recognized native speakers, it is recognized as an official or regional language in Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Singapore.
Other populous national languages include Indonesian million speakers , Bengali million speakers , Japanese million speakers , and Filipino 90 million speakers , though most other countries in Asia also have their own national languages. Burma: Military authorities have promoted the name Myanmar since as the conventional name for their state.
That decision was not and is not approved by any sitting legislature in Burma , and is not accepted by the U. However, Myanmar is widely accepted by numerous countries, and by the United Nations. European Russia: The Russian landmass west of the Ural Mountains is commonly referred to as European Russia in most educational atlases, and by the vast majority of geography experts.
It is not a separate country , but rather called that because of its political, cultural and geographical blendings with Europe. For reference purposes it is shown above to the west of the dashed-line, however, the entire country as a whole is still considered part of the continent of Asia. Note that they are all still a part of the continent of Asia. Opinions vary as to what countries make up the modern definition of Asia and the Middle East.
Historically, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been long associated with the Middle East, but in recent years, some sources now consider them to be more closely aligned with Europe based on their modern economic and political trends. We have moved in that direction, and the same can be said for the island country of Cyprus.
Taiwan is still considered by China to be its 23rd province, and not an independent country. Very few other country governments accept China's claims of sovereignty over Taiwan. Turkey is officially, politically and geographically considered part of both Asia and Europe. The small northwestern portion of Turkey named Thrace is a recognized part of Europe, while the largest part Anatolia is located in the Middle East, a part of Asia. Home Continents Asia. Kuril Islands.
Cultus Lake, British Columbia. Cataract Canyon. Long Beach, California. Glenwood Canyon. Abraham Lake. It is bordered by three mountain ranges: the Satpura Range in the north, and the Eastern and Western Ghats on either side. The plateau and its main waterways—the Godavari and Krishna rivers—gently slope toward the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal.
The Tibetan Plateau is usually considered the largest and highest area ever to exist in the history of Earth. These glaciers contain the largest volume of ice outside the pole s. It extends from north to south about 2, kilometers 1, miles and from west to east about 1, kilometers 1, miles.
Central Asia is dominated by a steppe landscape, a large area of flat, unforested grassland. Mongolia can be divided into different steppe zones: the mountain forest steppe, the arid steppe, and the desert steppe.
The desert is known as the Empty Quarter because it is virtually inhospitable to humans except for Bedouin tribes that live on its edges. Freshwater Lake Baikal, located in southern Russia, is the deepest lake in the world, reaching a depth of 1, meters 5, feet. The Yangtze is considered the lifeblood of China.
The land between the two rivers, known as Mesopotamia , was the center of the earliest civilizations, including Sumer and the Akkadian Empire. Today, the Tigris-Euphrates river system is under threat from increased agricultural and industrial use.
These pressures have caused desertification and increased salts in the soil , severely damaging local watershed habitat s. Saltwater The Persian Gulf has an area of more than , square kilometers 90, square miles. The gulf is subject to high rates of evaporation , making it shallow and extremely salty. The countries that border the gulf have engaged in a number of disputes over this rich resource. The Sea of Okhotsk covers 1. The sea is largely frozen between October and March.
Large ice floe s make winter navigation almost impossible. The Bay of Bengal is the largest bay in the world, covering almost 2. Many large rivers, including the Ganges and Brahmaputra, empty into the bay. The briny wetlands formed by the Ganges-Brahmaputra on the Bay of Bengal is the largest delta in the world.
Because China has such diverse landscapes, from the arid Gobi Desert to the tropical rain forest s of Yunnan Province, many flower s can adapt to climate s all over the world. From roses to peonies, many familiar flowers most likely originate d in northern China. China is the likely origin of such fruit trees as peaches and oranges. China is also home to the dawn redwood, the only redwood tree found outside North America.
In the Himalayas, communities use yak s as beasts of burden. Yaks are large animals related to cattle, but with a thick fiber coat and the ability to survive in the oxygen-poor high altitude of the mountains. Yaks are not only used for transportation and for pulling plow s, but their coats are sources of warm, hardy fiber.
Yak milk is used for butter and cheese. In the Mongolian steppe, the two-humped Bactrian camel is the traditional beast of burden. Bactrian camels are critically endangered in the wild. Its size and ability to adapt to hardship make it an ideal pack animal. Bactrians can actually outrun horses over long distances. These camels were the traditional animals used in caravan s on the Silk Road , the legendary trade route linking eastern Asia with India and the Middle East.
Aquatic Flora and Fauna The freshwater and marine habitats of Asia offer incredible biodiversity. Aquatic life has been able to evolve for millions of years relatively undisturbed, producing a rich variety of flora and fauna. It has 1, species of animals and species of plants. The Baikal seal, for instance, is one of the few freshwater seal species in the world. The Baikal seal feeds primarily on the Baikal oil fish and the omul. Both fishes are similar to salmon, and provide fisheries for the communities on the lake.
The bay also supports healthy tuna, jack, and marlin fisheries. Many wildlife reserve s in and around the bay aim to protect its biological diversity. The Sundarbans is a wetland area that forms at the delta of the Ganges and Brahamaputra rivers. The Sundarbans is a huge mangrove forest.
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