Final answer:
Cultural ecology is the geographic approach that emphasizes human-environment relationships, focusing on how cultural practices are influenced by and adapt to the physical environment.
Step-by-step explanation:
The geographic approach emphasizing human-environment relationships is known as cultural ecology. This approach focuses on the interplay between human societal practices and the physical environment. For instance, it looks at how cultural practices are adapted to environmental conditions, such as the ways in which different societies make use of resources like food, clothing, and shelter. This branch of geography bridges the gap between the social sciences and the physical sciences by investigating how human activities are influenced by and, in turn, influence the natural landscape. Important concepts related to this field include cultural landscape and environmental determinism.
Cultural landscape is a term describing the visible imprint of human activity on the earth's surface, reflecting cultural forces like religion, language, and ethnicity. Environmental determinism, another related concept, attempts to explain cultural traits based on local environmental conditions. However, it is the domain of cultural ecology that truly represents the study of the relationship between humans and their environment.