environmental feature environmental zone An environmental zone is an environmental feature whose extent is determined by the presence or influence of one or more material entities or processes. An environmental zone may, itself, assume the role of an environmental feature. For example, a intertidal zone is that part of a coast which is exposed to air and water due to tidal processes. It determines the intertidal zone environment. This class is experimental and not suitable for annotation! "Zone" is likely to become some form of BFO:site. It is intended to capture entities from both physiography and human geography. environmental area