Cultural Landscapes Practice Test

A historian describes a river valley where Indigenous irrigation terraces remain visible beneath later Spanish mission churches, followed by 19th-century rail depots and 20th-century suburban cul-de-sacs. This layering is used to argue that cultural landscapes preserve evidence of successive groups. Which concept is being applied?

Secondary source excerpt (elements of cultural landscape, 75–125 words): Infrastructure is a key element of cultural landscapes because it reflects economic priorities and political decisions. The placement of highways, ports, transit lines, and utility corridors shapes daily mobility and can connect some communities while isolating others. Infrastructure also leaves durable marks: rail embankments, street grids, and bridge networks can persist long after the original economic boom ends. Because infrastructure projects require funding and approval, they often reveal power relationships—who can secure investment and whose neighborhoods bear the costs of noise, pollution, or displacement.

Which observation most directly supports the claim that infrastructure reveals power relationships?