Map Of India Reflection and Comparison

 Compare all three of your maps

a)   How do physical features, climate and elevation relate to each other

After closely looking at the two maps, I realized some key similarities and relations between each map. The closes linked maps are the Elevation map and the physical features map. They are basically the same map except that the elevation map is flat and the physical features map is three dimensional. Now the real challenge was finding the relationship between the climate map and the other two. First I observed that the elevated regions seem to have a colder climate in general. Once I goggled it, I found out that I was not mistaken. The higher regions or the highlands have a much colder climate than the flat area, this is in general. The upper region of India, especially near the Himalayas is higher than the rest and is therefore colder. It is estimate that the Highland lapse rate is 10 degrees Celsius per kilometer in elevation.  On the elevation map the northwest region of India appears to be quite low, and looks as if it’s hot. More detail was found on the physical features map, where the region towards Pakistan is partially dessert. The Thar Dessert is mostly in an arid region but also stretches across the semi-arid part of India.  The interesting thing is that the Gulf of Kutch has the same climate as the dessert even though it is closer to the ocean.

The early settlers settled along the Indus River and the Ganges River, because they offered irrigation for the crops the farmers grew. Most of the civilizations started out that way, The Egyptian civilization also began in the Nile river valley.  The natural resources that were used the most in that time were wood and water, later rock was used to make tools. People settled according to the natural resources in the region. Therefore the first Indian settlers came to the Ganges river valley because they saw that the soil there was good for growing crops.

The civilizations in river valleys strived and expanded because they could grow crops better than in other regions, the enabled them to have a surplus of food. The two largest river side cities were Mohenjo- Daro and Harappa. Mohenjo-Daro especially used the water to their advantage and built drainage systems and irrigation systems. This is one of the examples of how early settlers moved into certain areas because of the natural resources.

What conclusions can you draw?

What I was able to conclude about these maps is that they may not seem similar at first. But if you know about the different climates and their relation to elevation, you can conclude that the colder climates are usually closer to the poles or are on elevated ground.  As I found out, in the Himalaya region is not that cold until the mountain range. Once you climb higher on the mountains the temperature becomes lower, above 4880 meters is a coat of permanent snow and ice, and here the temperature is constantly below zero. In other regions such as the Thar dessert, which is low, the temperature is hotter than in other parts of India. 

To back up my knowledge about the climates, together with my mom I researched why is the temperature lower when flying at high altitude or when standing on a high mountain. I found out that the reason behind the temperature is all about air pressure, the higher you are the lower the air pressure is and gasses in lower pressure are colder than ones in high pressure.