5 Themes Assignment - Madagascar - Part B

Location

Absolute Location: 20.000° S, 47.000° E

Relative Location:
It is about 2,740 km from South Africa. The Indian Ocean is directly east of Madagascar and to the west of the country is the Mozambique Channel.

Place

Human Characteristics:
-The official languages of Madagascar are Malagasy and French
-The population is about 22 million people
-The largest ethnic group is Malagasy, making up 90% of the population.

Physical Characteristics:
-The size of Madagascar is about 592,800 km2
-There are mountains, forests, rivers and lakes. The highest mountain is the Maromokotro at 2,876 m
-The climate varies in the island. The coast is tropical, it is temperate inland and arid in the south.

Movement

For human transportation there are several dozen roads, 2 railways, 6 ports/harbours and over 100 airport with 29 airports having paved runways.

For the transportation of information there are several privately owned newspapers. The main national TV station is Television Malagasy (TVM) and the main national radio broadcast is Radio Nationale Malagasy (RNM). There are over 100,000 main phone lines and about 8.6 million cell lines. The Internet is also prevalent as there are over 450,000 internet users in the country.

Region

There are 5 geographical regions of Madagascar:
1. Central highlands - The central highlands consist of hills, plains, marshes and outcrops.
2. Tsaratanana Massif - This region is in the north part of the island and is the highest region.
3. East Coast - This is made up of narrow lowlands and used for transportation and fishing.
4. Southwest - It is composed of a desert section and a plateau area.
5. West Coast - This was created by sedimentary formations and includes harbours for trade.

Human Environment Interaction

The people of Madagascar interact with the environment in the following ways:

They depend on: The soil for agriculture and farming which makes up around 25% of their GDP. They also rely on their rivers for water and use the Ocean and other bodies of water around the island for fishing.

They modify: the land with deforestation to create more agricultural land. It may result in more space for farming but it leads to water degradation, decreased biodiversity and soil erosion.

They adapt: to the ever present danger of a cyclone hitting the country by establishing early warning systems, creating refuge shelters, using cyclone resistant construction techniques and by educating communities on what to do when a cyclone may hit.