Using Geography when making plans 11 Imagine you are going to do the Cares river trail in Asturias next Saturday. Analyse the topographic profile of the trail. Where will you start? Where will you finish? How many kilometres are there between the two? In which direction will you walk: north-south, westeast, etc? What is the highest altitude along the walk? Are there any steep parts? Are they at the beginning or at the end of the trail? What is the trail's level of difficulty? Why? Find information about the Cares river. Where is its source? In which basin does it lie? Which national park does it flow through? 12 DIGITAL TASK. Check the Agencia Estatal de Meteorología's (AEMET ) website and decide. What will the maximum and minimum temperatures be on Saturday in Cabrales, near the beginning of the trail? What clothes will you use? What are the forecast weather conditions? Are they good for the walk? Why or why not? Are there any weather alerts? If you're thinking about organising a bike ride or trip to the countr yside, would you find out about the route first? For example, would it be useful to know how many kilometres you' ll need to cover? What about the steepness of the terrain? And maybe the places of interest along the way in order? That way you could plan not only the trip itself, but also the ef fort required . If you were going to canoe down a river, would it help to know the f low? Imagine you were planning to go surfing next weekend , or go swimming in a small cove. You would surely need to know about the high and low tides. Or if, for example, you were planning to go to an open-air concert, compete in a sailing competition , or take a weekend trip abroad , would you check the weather forecast before buying the tickets, signing up, or packing your suitcase? Keep in mind that it would also be extremely useful to share your geographic coordinates with rescue teams just in case there was fog and you got lost at sea or on the mountain . Perhaps you've never thought about it, but your life is full of geography. Topographic profiles of terrain , maps, tide tables, geographic coordinates, etc. are all tools that geography makes available to us. They not only allow us to know about our surroundings, they also make our life easier. G E O G R A P H Y I N M Y L I F E 13 MAKE CONNECTIONS. Remember what these tools are and give examples of situations in which they would be useful. A GPS A satellite photo A map showing the time zones A political map The scale of a map A graphic showing the flow of a river An isobar map A weather station 22
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