Within in my discipline area, IDT, Google maps or earth could be used to examine factors such as situations of industrial estates in relation to geography and environmental factors etc. Similarly these websites could also be used to identify commonalities in topography in relation to timber plantations etc.
Google maps
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&q=define%20topography&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
Google Earth
http://earth.google.com/