ABSTRACT
We remarked in the opening chapter that our environment is partly natural and partly of our own making. Although we have already considered some aspects of our imprint on the surface of the Earth, this imprint is most complete in what we may call the 'built environment'. Whether our focus of attention is a single structure in a rural setting, or some great conurbation, it is here that we find the most unnatural features in the world but also some of the most important for us all, because it is here that we live, and from here that we organize our use or manipulation of our surroundings.
