RBSE Class 12 Geography Notes Chapter 10 World: Transport and Network

Rajasthan Board RBSE Class 12 Geography Notes Chapter 10 World: Transport and Network

Introduction :

Transport is an important economic activity driven by humans. It is included in tertiary activities.
Transport is the movement of goods or persons from one place to another place through a physical mode.
An spatial exchange of messages, thoughts etc. is called communication.
The modern means of transport can be divided into three major categories – land routes, air routes and water routes.
Land route is again divided into roads and railways.
The regional model of a state transport system in known as transport – network.

Land Transport :

The development of land transport in a country is the symbol of a developed economy.
Road transport is valuable in door-to-door movement, but in commercial terms railways always win.

Road Transport :

Road transport includes all simple straight tracks and paved roads for motors and other fast speed vehicles.
There are two types of roads – unpaved roads and paved roads.
(Unpaved) roads are commonly found in rural areas of developing countries.
Paved roads mostly join the distant places.
The roads which are 80-meter wide with separate traffic lanes, bridges, flyovers and dual carriageways to facilitate uninterrupted traffic flow are called highways.
Every city and port in the countries of the world are connected with the highways.
Road – density of America is about 0.65 per square kilometer.
The total length of roads in America is 63 million km which is highest in the world.
The most important highways in the world are Pan American Highway, Trans-Canadian Highway, Alaska Highway and Stuart Highway.
The industrial development of a country depends on the available transportation facilities.
The industrial complex located in the west of Ural, Russia, has developed a very dense network of highways.
Roads in China are the main means of traffic which is spread in the plains of the eastern part.
There are about 14.6 million km long roads in India out of which the length of unpaved and paved roads is 3.3 million km with 230 national highways. The longest highway of the country is highway number 7, which joins Varanasi to Kanyakumari.

Rail Transport :

The railways are roughly classified as broad guage, meter gauge and narrow gauges on the basis of the width of railways track.
Europe has the most dense railway network in the world, 1.21 lakh km in length.
North America has one of the most extensive railway networks accounting for nearly 40 per cent of the world.
Some of the most important railways are Canadian Pacific Railways, Canadian National railways, Trans-Siberian railways, United States Inter-continental railways (Northern Inter-continental Railways, Middle Intercontinental railways, South-Intercontinental railways), Australian Inter-continental railways, the Orient Express railways and Cape Cairo railways.

Water Transport :

Water-Transport is the cheapest and most convenient means of transport among all the modes of transportation.
The waterways are classified into internal waterways and oceanic waterways.
The most important internal waterways in the world are Europe’s Internal waterways, North America’s Internal waterways, Inland waterways in India, Inland waterways of South America, etc.
North Altantic sea route, Mediterranean sea and Indian Ocean sea route, the Cape of Good Hope route, South Atlantic route, etc. are some of major oceanic water Routes.
The North ports and the South ports in America are linked through Panama Canal.
Great Lakes located between Canada and USA have full facilities for water-transport.
The river Hwang-Ho is the most important internal water route in China.
River Amazon is the major internal water route in South America.
Nile, Congo, Zaire and Niger rivers provide special internal water route in Africa.

Air Transport :

Air transport is the fastest but the most expensive means of transportation.
It was developed after the First World War.
Air transport is not suitable for carrying heavy goods.
In the areas where land and water transport cannot be developed, air transport plays important role, such as in hilly areas. Air transport is the most convenient during Natural Disasters. In case of surrounded with mountains, ice bergs and deserted territorial areas. Air transport play very important role. At present, Air transport played very important role in flood affected Kerala State.
America provides more than 250 commercial airlines and uses around 60% airways, which offer regular services to different parts of the world.
There are five types of airways – Inter-continental Global Airways, Continental Airways, Regional Airways, Local-Airplanes and Local airways for short distance.
Some of the major airports in the world are New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles (U.S.A), Montreal Ottawa (Canada) Indira Gandhi International Airport (India) etc.

Pipeline Transport :

Pipelines are the latest means of transportation.
Water, crude oil, refined oil, gas, etc. are transported through pipeline transport.
The highest density of pipelines is seen in Europe. The middle-east-countries stand second.
It is rapidly growing as an inland means of transport for transporting liquid and gaseous substances. It also connects various countries.
Pipeline transport is used to supply LPG in many countries of the world like USA. In New Zealand, milk is also supplied through pipelines.
The leading pipelines in the world are Big inch pipe lines, Tap line, Comacon pipe line, I.O.C. pipe line, H. V. J. pipe line, Tapi project etc.
Communication through satellites emerged as a new area in communication technology.
Artificial satellites are now successfully deployed in the earth’s orbit to connect even the most remote corners of the globe with limited site verification.
Cyber space is the world of electronic conputerised space communication. It is encompassed with internet such as the world wide web (www).
Cyber space will expand the contemporary economic and social space of humans through e-mail, e-commerce, e-learning and e-governance.
Internet, together with fax, television and radio, will be accessible to more and more people cutting across place and time.
These modern communication systems have developed the concepts of global village more than physical transportation.

Glossary :

Transport : Transport or transportation is the movement of human, animals, and goods from one place to another place by various types of modes.
Communication : Communication is an act of transferring information or thoughts from one location to another location.
Transport Network : Transport network generally refers to a set of links, nodes and lines that represent the infrastructure or supply side of the transportation.
Flood : A flood is overflow of water that submerges land that is usually dry. Sometimes, a water resource (river lake or pond) gets flushed with too much water. Unusually heavy rain sometimes causes floods.
Highways : A highway is any public road or other public way on land whch connects distant places and on which means of transportation operate quite smoothly.
Urbanization : It refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas. The gradual increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas and the ways in which each society adapts to the changes.
Continent : A continent is a very large area of land, which is surrounded by water, such as Asia or Africa.
Border Roads : The border roads are vital road links along the frontiers of any country. These roads are of strategic importance.
Pampas : The Pampas (from Quechua, Pampa meaning plain) are fertile grasslands in South America covering more than 750000 square km that include the Argentina, province of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Rios and Cordoba, all of Uruguay and southernmost Brazilian state Rio Grande do Sul.
Desert : A desert is a landscape form or region that receives very little precipitation, has little vegetation cover and in which streams dry up unless they are supplied water from an external source.
Trans Continental Railways : Trans continental railways run across the continents and link their two ends. These railways join the places on the opposite coasts of continents.
Intra-continental Railways : The rail routes that join two or more continents are called Intra continental Railways.
Valley : A valley is an extended depression in the Earth’s surface that is usually bounded by hills or mountains and normally occupied by a river or streams. Since valleys are usually occupied by a river, they can also slope down to an outlet which can be another river, a lake or an ocean.
Industry : An economic activity concerned with processing of raw materials and manufacture of goods in factories.
Export : Exports are the goods and services produced in one country and purchased by the citizens of another country. Goods are produced domestically and sold to someone from a foreign country.
Trade : The act or process of buying and selling or exchanging commodities, at either wholesale or retail within a country or between countries.
Port : A town or city with a harbour or access to navigable water where ships load and unload.
Internal waterways : Internal waterways is a network in the form of rivers, canals, lakes, backwaters and creeks that can be used for transportation in addition to roads and rails.
Sea Routes : A sea route, sea lane, sea road, or shipping lane is a regularly used route for
vessels on oceans and large lakes.
Harbour : A part of a body of water where ships, boats and barges seek shelter from stormy weather or are stored for future use. Ports usually include one or more harbours.
Squall : A squall is a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed that is usually associated with active weather such as rain showers, thunder storms or heavy show.
Island : An island is a body of land that is surrounded by water. Some islands are found in rivers, lakes and ponds but most islands are in oceans.
Strait : A strait is naturally – formed, narrow, typically navigable waterway that connects two larger bodies of water.
Earthquake : An earthquake (also known as a quake tremor, or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the earth, resulting from the sudden release of energy in the earth’s lithosphere that creates seismic waves.
Landslide : A landslide also known as a landslip or mudslide, is a form of mass shifting that includes a wide range of ground movements such as rockfalls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows.
Satellite Communication : Satellite communication is the use of satellite technology in the field of communcations. The services provided by satellite communcations are voice and video calling, internet, fax, television and radio channels.
Cyber space : Cyber space is a domain characterised by the use of electronics and the electro magnetic spectrum to store, modify and exchange data via network systems and associated physical infrastructures.
Internet : The internet sometimes called simply “The net” is a global system of inter-connected computer network that uses internet protocol site to link devices worldwide.
Global Village : Global village is a term used to express relation between Economies and societies throughout the world.
Pollution : Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into natural environment that cause adverse changes. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light, etc.
Agriculture : The science or practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for growing of crops and rearing of animals to provide food, wool and other products.
Mineral : A solid, naturally occurring inorganic substance with a definite physical and chemical composition.