Urban Physical Geography

Urban physical geography (UPG) is an interdisciplinary subject which focuses on the interactions and feedbacks between the Earth's surface and human activities in the urban systems. Urbanization sparks the research on UPG. Due to the rapid urbanization in recent decades, globally cities have become the regions loaded with highly developed economy, dense population, and intensive human–environment interactions. It is clear that urban regions hold the key to the challenges we face in human interactions with the environment. Because of the formation of “the secondary pattern” in artificial environment and effects of intensive urban land use and land cover change, the discipline of UPG has significant theoretical and practical values in understanding the complex and dynamic urban systems. Studies on UPG start from the 1970s and develop from the 2000s. These studies center on urban areas and provide better knowledge about the interactive processes and dynamic mechanisms between human and natural elements in the coupled human–environment systems. Future research on UPG should focus on: (1) improving the theoretical framework research to facilitate the development of the UPG discipline; (2) deepening the knowledge of the material cycling processes to better understand the changes occurred in the urban surface systems; (3) understanding the human–environment interactions within the urban systems to reveal the coupling relationships and driving mechanisms of multiple urban elements; and (4) enhancing the practical application of UPG research to support sustainable urban development decisions.