Sense of place refers to subjective human reactions to places. With roots in early forms of humanistic geography, the concept appears in various forms in a considerable body of works expanding on human experience, memory, imagination, emotion, and meaning; accordingly, it is a core value in a broad and varied range of endeavors from theory (i.e., placing humans in Earth's time-space continuum) to practice (e.g., building “green” or selling places as commodities). In sum, the sense of place contributes depth and understanding to what it means to be human.

Among myriad approaches to sense of place, a key strand begins with the individual. Each person brings his or her own personality, background, and previous experiences into the process of forming a sense of place. People draw ...