What is highlighted about Sauer's Berkeley School legacy?

• A. It focused on cultural landscapes and human modification of nature
• B. It ignored cultural landscapes
• C. It was exclusively about meteorology
• D. It started in the 1990s

Answer: (A)

The focus here is the idea that landscapes are expressions of human culture and activity—the way people modify, manage, and interpret the land over time. Sauer’s Berkeley School shows that a landscape is not just a natural backdrop, but a record of cultural decisions: farming methods, settlement patterns, irrigation, roads, and other practices that leave tangible traces on the environment. This view shifts geography toward studying how cultural choices shape the physical world, producing what we call cultural landscapes.

That means the Berkeley School’s legacy isn’t about ignoring culture, nor is it centered on meteorology, and it didn’t begin in the 1990s. It emerged in the early to mid-20th century, emphasizing how human action transforms nature and how those transformations reveal a society’s values and history.