Altitudinal zonation

Articles

• Section, Transect
  19 December 2005, by M.-C. R.

  The word section, or rather transect, designates a system for land observation or the representation of a space, along a linear path and following the vertical dimension, aimed at emphasising a superposition, a spatial succession or relations between phenomena: geological section, bio-geographical section or transect. The notion of transect, recently entered into French geographical vocabulary, probably through bio-geography, therefore implies the horizontal dimension of observation better (...)

• Mountain
  29 September 2005, by B. E.

  Attempts to provide a general and universal definition of a mountain either become bogged down in vagueness (a mass rising above the surrounding lands) or run into multiple exceptions (high plateaux, island volcanism) whenever slope and altitude are considered separately. Definitions of an administrative type emphasise limits (thresholds) (the French ‘Mountain’ law of 1985 stipulating an average municipal altitude above 700 metres and a slope steeper than 20%), as well as the (...)