Physicogeographical District

the lowest taxonomic unit in physicogeographical regionalization; some geographers equate it with the geographic landscape. The characteristic features of a physicogeographical district are uniformity of geological structure, prevalence of one type of relief, similar climate, and the same combination of hydrothermal conditions, soils, and biocenoses.

A physicogeographical district may encompass a group of high-altitude landscape belts characteristic of a particular part of a mountainous physicogeographical region or province, as well as distinct orographically isolated massifs (for example, the Khibiny Mountains) and intermontane areas. In principle, all types of natural regionalization are combined in a physicogeographical district: it is simultaneously a soil, geomorphological, and climatic district. Physicogeographical districts usually have an area of several thousand sq km, although some are only a few hundred sq km.