Garden design is a major part of landscape Architecture. Study of the landform helps facilitates site planning and landscape design. Topography and slopes determine framing, screening of views, plant growth with which the former is achieved; siting of built surfaces and artifacts in landscape. However, the topography and the associated slopes when based on geology and soil characteristics assist in economic and sustainable landscape design.
All of landscape design ultimately depends on soil and water retention. At large or small scale, the shape of the earth indicates geological forces at work or of modern landuse, hints at the work of our ancestors or of ancient people.