Named Landforms of the World

Prior to the current era of digital geomorphological mapping, global and regional-scale land surface characterization was advanced by qualitative interpretations that relied on human visualization aided by disciplinary knowledge of geophysical processes combined with extensive field study. In the early twentieth century, Fenneman proposed to devise systematic physiographic divisions of the United States and in 1916 produced what is still regarded as an authoritative map of these divisions. His physiographic regions were developed to provide context when describing land surface characteristics of smaller areas using well-known regional characteristics and descriptors. In 1968, geographer Richard E. Murphy published a large-format map of the “Landforms of the World” to fill a gap in the suite of standard classroom maps. In 1990, the British geomorphologist E. M. Bridges published World Geomorphology, providing the first global treatment and description of divisions, provinces, and sections—the same hierarchical land partitioning concepts that Fenneman used decades earlier. In the twenty-first century, geographic information systems (GIS) technologies are nearly ubiquitous, yet neither Murphy’s nor Bridges’s work existed as GIS data. To further illuminate their pioneering work, we (1) recompiled Murphy’s landforms as a spatial combination of modern existing data layers, and (2) used the recompiled Murphy’s landforms as a basis for the boundaries of the divisions, provinces, and sections described by Bridges. Our aggregation yields a new resource, Named Landforms of the World, version 2.0, which provides a reference-level, basemap-quality data layer that can significantly facilitate mapping, assessing, and understanding Earth surface features

Archaeology · Cartography · Context (archaeology · Geographer · Geographic information system · Geography · Geomatics · Geomorphology · Landform · Physical geography · Physiographic province · Scale (ratio · Geochemistry and Geologic Mapping · Geographic Information Systems Studies · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Geology

• Mapping landscape characters through spatial data and multivariate analysis

  Vincenzo Cribari, Stefania Staniscia et al.•Landscape Research•2025

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• Physiographic Divisions of the United States

  Nevin M Fenneman•Annals of the Association of…•1916

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• Small-Scale Continental Landform Maps

  Edwin H Hammond•Annals of the Association of…•1954

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• Annals Map Supplement Number Nine Landforms of the World

  Richard E Murphy•Annals of the Association of…•1968

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• Analysis of Properties in Land Form Geography

  Edwin H Hammond•Annals of the Association of…•1964

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• The Physiographic Method of Representing Scenery on Maps

  Open Access•Erwin Raisz, Erwin J Raisz•Geographical Review•1931

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• The Geographical Cycle

  William M Davis•Geographical Journal•1899

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