So, What is it?
The biophysical environment is the symbiosis between the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables that comprise the Earth's biosphere. The biophysical environment can be divided into two categories: the natural environment and the built environment, with some overlap between the two. Following the industrial revolution, the built environment has become an increasingly significant part of the Earth's environment.
Natural Environment
The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a term that encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof.
The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components:
- Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention, including all vegetation, animals, microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries.
- Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from human activity.
The natural environment is contrasted with the built environment, which comprises the areas and components that are strongly influenced by humans. A geographical area is regarded as a natural environment, if the human impact on it is kept under a certain limited level.
Built Environment
This refers to the man-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from personal shelter to neighborhoods to the large-scale civic surroundings.
The term is also now widely used to describe the application of design, management and use of these man-made surroundings and their relationship to the human activities which take place within them. This interdisciplinary study draws upon the individual disciplines of economics, law, management, design and technology in sustainable sense.
(Extracted from: Wikipedia)