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Acknowledgements: p34 © Crown Copyright 2014 Office for
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Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population
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Get the most from this book
This revision guide has been written to accompany the WJEC GCSE
(A*–G) Geography and WJEC Eduqas GCSE (9–1) Geography A
specifications to help you get the best possible result in your
examinations.
This book aims to give you the essentials that should serve as a
reminder of what you will have covered in your course and allow you
to bring together your own learning and understanding.
Everyone has to decide his or her own revision strategy, but it is
essential to review your work, learn it and test your understanding.
These revision notes will help you to do that in a planned way, topic by
topic. Use this book as the cornerstone of your revision and don’t
hesitate to write in it – personalise your notes and check your
progress by ticking off each section as you revise.

Track your progress

Use the revision planner on pages 4–7 to plan your revision, topic by
topic. Make a note when you have:
• revised and understood a topic
• tested yourself
• practised the exam questions and gone online to check your
answers.
You can also keep track of your revision by noting each topic heading
in the book. You may find it helpful to add your own notes as you work
through each topic.

Features to help you succeed

This guide contains features intended to help you to actively work
through your revision schedule.

Revision activities
These activities have been designed to focus your revision. If you can
complete these activities, congratulate yourself and give yourself a
reward. If you find some of the activities challenging, read over your
notes again and speak to your teacher if you need further help.

Examples
It is vital that you can give specific examples, particularly in the
questions requiring extended answers. This demonstrates the
detailed knowledge examiners are looking for to award the higher
grades. Often, your example does not require lots of detail but should
be used to back up a point being made rather than simply recounted
out of context.

Now test yourself

These activities are designed to help you decide if you fully
understand a topic and are exam ready. If you struggle, then read
over your notes again and perhaps ask to see your teacher or bring
the topic up in revision classes.

Exam practice
These questions closely resemble the style of the question that you
will face in the examination. Use them to consolidate your revision
and practise your exam skills.

Exam tips
Expert tips are given throughout the book, including identifying
common mistakes and suggesting strategies for getting the best out
of the time you have in the examination room. These will therefore
help to boost your final grade.

Definitions and key terms

Here you will find some of the specialist geography terminology that
you need to know. Key terms are highlighted in bold throughout the
book. Clear, concise definitions are provided where the essential key
terms first appear.

Online
Go online to check your answers to the ‘now test yourself’ questions
and the ‘exam practice’ questions at
www.hoddereducation.co.uk/myrevisionnotes
My revision planner

Changing Physical and Human Landscapes

Theme 1 Landscapes and Physical Processes

Distinctive landscapes
What makes landscapes distinctive?
How are physical landscapes affected by human activity?
How can landscapes be managed?

Landform process and change

How do processes work together to create landform features in
river landscapes?
How do processes work together to create landform features in
coastal landscapes?
What factors affect the rates of landform change in river and
coastal landscapes?

Drainage basins of the UK

What physical processes affect stores and flows in drainage
basins?
Why do rivers in the UK flood?
What are the management approaches to flooding in the UK?

Theme 2 Rural–Urban Links

The urban–rural continuum
How are urban and rural areas linked?
How are rural areas changing?
Population and urban change in the UK
What are the causes and consequences of population change?
What are the challenges facing UK towns and cities?
How and why is retailing changing in the UK?

Urban issues in contrasting global cities

What are the global patterns of urbanisation?
What are the consequences of urbanisation in two global cities?
How are global cities connected?

Theme 3 Tectonic Landscapes and Hazards

Tectonic processes and landforms
How do tectonic processes work together to create landform
features?
What is happening at the plate margins?

Vulnerability and hazard reduction

What are the impacts of tectonic processes?
How might the risks associated with tectonic hazards be reduced?

Theme 4 Coastal Hazards and their Management

Vulnerable coastlines
Why are some coastal communities vulnerable to erosion and
flooding?

Managing coastal hazards

How are coastlines managed?
What is the most sustainable way to manage coastlines in the face
of rising sea levels?

Environmental and Development Issues

Theme 5 Weather, Climate and Ecosystems
Climate change during the Quaternary period
What is the evidence for climate change?
What are the causes of climate change?

Weather patterns and processes

What are the causes and consequences of weather hazards?
What factors create variations in weather and climate within the
UK?

Processes and interactions within ecosystems

Where are large-scale ecosystems found?
What are the key processes of ecosystems?

Human activity and ecosystem processes

How do people use ecosystems and environments?
How do human activities modify processes and interactions with
ecosystems?
How can ecosystems be managed sustainably?

Theme 6 Development and Resource Issues

Measuring global inequalities
What are the global patterns of development?
How is economic development measured?

Causes and consequences of uneven development at the global

scale
What are the causes and consequences of uneven development?
What are the responses to uneven development at the global
scale?

Water resources and their management

 How and why is the demand for water changing?
Are water resources being managed sustainably?

Regional economic development

What are the causes and consequences of regional patterns of
economic development in India?
What are the causes and consequences of regional patterns of
economic development in the UK?
How can regional inequalities in the UK be reduced?

Theme 7 Social Development Issues

Measuring social development
How is social development measured?

Uneven social development

What challenges face social development in sub-Saharan Africa
and South Asia?
What are the healthcare issues in sub-Saharan Africa?

Theme 8 Environmental Challenges

Consumerism and its impact on the environment
What are the impacts of increasing consumer choice on the global
environment?
How might climate change affect people and the environment?
How can technology be used and people’s lifestyles changed to
reduce these impacts?

Management of ecosystems
How can damaged environments and natural habitats be managed
and restored?

Glossary
Now test yourself answers and exam practice
answers at
www.hoddereducation.co.uk/myrevisionnotes

Getting to know the specifications at

www.hoddereducation.co.uk/myrevisionnotes

Fieldwork enquiry at
www.hoddereducation.co.uk/myrevisionnotes
Theme 1 Landscapes and
Physical Processes

Distinctive landscapes

What makes landscapes distinctive?

Landscapes are made up of different features and landforms. How
these features and landforms combine is what gives a landscape its
special or distinctive appearance. You need to be able to identify and
locate examples of distinctive landscapes of the UK, including:
• upland and lowland areas
• river and coastal landscapes.
Figure 1 Main types of landscapes in the UK.

Example of a distinctive landscape: Snowdonia

• Geology:
• Diverse upland landscape shaped by volcanic eruptions and
extensive glaciation.
• Numerous glacial features such as corries, U-shaped valleys
and arêtes.
• Mountain range that drops quickly to the sea.
 • Contains the highest mountain in Wales – Snowdon, 1085 m.
• Land use:
• The landscape in many areas has been shaped by slate mining.
• Large areas of agriculture (mainly pastoral) and forestry.
• National Park status – attracts thousands of tourists each year,
which has led to the growth of B&Bs, camp sites and other tourist
facilities.
• Vegetation:
• Diverse range of both plant and animal life due to the varied
physical environments and habitats found.
• Unique and rare species such as the Snowdon lily and the
Snowdon beetle.
• Large areas of natural mixed deciduous forests including species
such as Welsh oak and birch; and planted coniferous trees which
are often harvested.
• People and culture:
• Snowdonia has a rich cultural history with many World Heritage
sites including Celtic shrines and fortresses.
• Welsh language widely spoken.

Exam tip
When asked to consider factors that make landscapes distinctive,
remember to discuss physical and human features such as:
• geology
• people and culture
• vegetation
• land use.

Revision activity
Create a spider diagram to illustrate the distinctive characteristics of a
landscape in the UK that you have studied. Remember to include
both physical and human features.

Now test yourself

1 What do you understand by the term ‘distinctive landscape’?
2 Name four types of distinctive landscape.
3 List four factors that influence landscapes.
4 Explain why Wales and the UK have such a range of distinctive
landscapes.

How are physical landscapes affected

by human activity?
Human activity can have both positive and negative impacts on the
natural environment, for example:
• Positive: visitors to the countryside bring benefits to rural
economies through the money they spend.
• Negative: visitor pressure may adversely affect the landscape and
local communities.
For honeypot sites, where carrying capacity is likely to be regularly
exceeded, this poses environmental challenges.

Example of environmental challenges in

Snowdonia National Park
Snowdonia is a glaciated upland landscape, with a population of
about 25,000. Nearly 4.3 million people visit the National Park each
year, spending £396 million.
Now test yourself
1 Look at the example shown of impacts from human activity in the
Snowdonia National Park. Identify which impacts are positive and
which are negative.
2 Explain why honeypot sites may help to ease visitor pressure in
surrounding parts of the distinctive landscapes.

Revision activity
For a distinctive landscape that you have studied, draw a spider
diagram to show the impacts of visitor pressure. Use colour to code
these impacts into positive and negative.

Exam tip
Make sure you know what makes different landscapes distinctive:
upland, lowland, river and coastal. You also need to be able to
describe:
• the type of landscape it is
• its location (where it is)
• its smaller-scale human and physical features.

Exam practice
1 Outline the human and physical features of a distinctive landscape
that you have studied.
[4]
2 What are honeypot sites and how can they help to protect
distinctive landscapes?
[4]
3 For a distinctive landscape that you have studied, discuss whether
the impacts of human activity are largely positive or negative.
[8]

How can landscapes be managed?

Many distinctive landscapes in the UK are designated Areas of
Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) or National Parks. These areas
are visited by large numbers of people who, through sheer numbers,
may cause damage to the natural landscape. Visitors must be
managed in a way that minimises their impact on the landscape, and
any damage caused must be repaired.

Examples of strategies to manage landscapes:

the Gower and Brecon Beacons
Management of visitors in the Gower AONB
• Designated footpaths provide access for visitors but also protect
sensitive areas.
• Detailed information boards at popular visitor sites inform visitors of
the unique features of the location, for example Oxwich Bay Nature
Reserve.
• Clearly marked car parks reduce parking on grass verges, which
can damage hedgerows and cause congestion on narrow roads.
• Strict control over planning and building within the area ensures
that new developments are restricted, and that extensions or
changes to land use do not spoil the natural beauty of an area.

Footpath maintenance in the Brecon Beacons

National Park
• Volunteer recruitment, for example local environmental groups or
ecotourists help National Park wardens to repair footpaths and
walls that have been damaged.
• Logistical operations, for example a helicopter is used to carry
footpath materials due to the remote location and weight of the
materials used.
• Footpaths are replaced with hard-wearing materials such as stone.
• Once the footpath has been rebuilt, vegetation can be restored on
either side of the path to maintain the unique flora of the area.

Now test yourself

1 List the impacts that visitors have on the natural landscape.
2 Give one method by which these impacts can be addressed.
3 In what way can increased tourism benefit a natural landscape?
4 Create a table to show the advantages and disadvantages of the
ways in which visitors can be managed in a distinctive landscape
that you have studied.

Exam tip
When describing ways in which visitor numbers can be managed,
remember to link the management technique to how it minimises the
impact that visitors have on the landscape.

Exam practice
For a distinctive landscape that you have studied:
1 Identify how that landscape has become damaged due to visitors.
[2]
2 Explain why this damage has occurred due to increased visitor
 numbers.
[4]
3 Describe ways in which the landscape has been repaired.
[4]

Landform process and change

How do processes work together to
create landform features in river
landscapes?
Fluvial processes
River landforms change over time due to fluvial erosion,
transportation and deposition.

Fluvial erosion
The type of erosional process that occurs in a river will depend on a
number of factors including the velocity of the water and the rock and
soil type of the channel. The erosional processes of the river channel
include:
• Abrasion: stones and material carried by the river hitting the river
bed and banks, wearing them away.
• Hydraulic action: the sheer force of water hitting the river bed and
banks, compressing air in gaps in the soil and rock which causes
material to be washed away.
• Solution: the slightly acidic river water dissolves chalk and
limestone rocks which are made from calcium carbonate.
The erosional processes of the river bed load include:
• Attrition: stones carried by the river collide together and are broken
down, becoming rounder and smaller.
• Abrasion: stones and material carried by the river hitting the river
bed and banks become eroded themselves to become rounder and
 smaller.

Transportation
The river transports (moves) its load in a number of ways which
depend on the speed of flow and the weight of the load.

Figure 2 River transport processes.

Deposition
A river deposits material when the speed of flow is too slow for it to
carry the load. This may happen:
• Where there has been a lack of rainfall, so there is less water
moving in the river channel.
• On the inside of a meander because the majority of the water is on
the outside of the bend. Therefore, the water on the inside of the
 bend is moving slowly and cannot transport load.
• At the mouth of the river, where the river water flows against the
direction of the sea.

You also need to know the definitions of the following terms:

abrasion, attrition, hydraulic action, solution

Now test yourself

1 Describe the processes by which a river erodes its channel.
2 What are the factors that determine which method of transportation
material is moved by? Give examples of the conditions when each
type of transportation may occur.

How river landforms develop

V-shaped valleys, waterfalls, gorges, floodplains and meanders
are all river landforms shaped by fluvial processes.

V-shaped valleys
V-shaped valleys are found in the upper course of a river valley,
where the river is usually small and the land is steep.

Exam tip
When asked to explain the formation of a river landform, remember to
describe the sequence of how the landform develops as well as
explaining the processes involved.

Example of a V-shaped valley: Brecon Beacons

Figure 3 Blaen Taff Fawr Stream on Corn Du (Brecon Beacons).

Waterfalls and plunge pools

Waterfalls can be formed in one of two ways: by glacial erosion or by
differential erosion.
Glacial erosion: where waterfalls have formed due to the erosive
power of a glacier during the ice age. Glaciers carved steep valleys
into the landscape, often hanging above one another. Once the glacier
melted, water drains from the smaller valleys and falls into the larger
ones.
Differential erosion: where waterfalls are formed due to a change in
rock structure (hard and soft rock), which leads to the river bed being
eroded at different rates:
• As the river bed crosses on to soft rock from hard rock it is eroded
(hydraulic action and abrasion) at a faster rate and a step is created.
• As the water ‘falls’, hydraulic action continues to erode the rock
underneath the hard rock as it splashes against it.
• As the soft rock is further eroded, the overhang becomes too heavy
 and the rock collapses, causing the position of the waterfall to retreat
upstream.
• A plunge pool is created underneath the waterfall due to the sheer
force of the water hitting the river bed and the abrasion caused by
the rocks from the overhang being moved by the water.

Exam tip
You may be asked about a landform’s associated smaller-scale
features, so make sure you know how the plunge pool is formed.

Gorge
A gorge is a steep-sided narrow valley with a river running along the
bottom of it. A gorge is formed when a waterfall collapses and retreats
upstream, and has characteristic vertical sides.

Exam tip
Remember a slip-off slope (point bar) is a smaller-scale feature of a
meander and you may be asked to explain its formation.
Figure 4 Block diagram of a gorge.
Figure 5 Waterfalls formed by differential erosion.

Meanders
Meanders are usually found in the middle and lower courses of a river
valley. They are bends in the river usually seen when the river is on a
wide floodplain. Caused by both erosion on the outside of the bank
and deposition on the inside of the bank, meanders can often be seen
to ‘move’ or ‘migrate’ across the valley floor as the river channel
changes position.
Figure 6 Characteristics of a meander.

Revision activity
Make two flashcards, one for the outside bank of a meander and one
for the inside bank. On these cards write bullet points of the key
features of both the water and the bank at these points and
remember to use all this information in an explanation of the landform
formation.

Now test yourself

1 Describe how a V-shaped valley is formed.
2 How do river processes lead to the formation of a waterfall?
3 Explain how the smaller-scale feature of a plunge pool is formed.

Exam practice
Explain two different ways that waterfalls can form in Wales.
[6]

Floodplain
• When the river floods, the floodplain becomes covered with water.
• As the water is shallower on the land than it is in the river, material
(silt) is deposited.
• The silt makes the soil fertile.

Figure 7 A meander on the River Severn.

Figure 8 A floodplain.

Revision activity
Make an individual flashcard for each river landform that you have
studied. For each card you should:
• include a diagram of the landform
• label the diagram with key features
• bullet point the processes involved in its formation
• give a located example that you have studied.

Now test yourself

1 Annotate a diagram to explain how a floodplain is formed.
2 Why do meanders migrate across floodplains?

Exam practice
1 Give two factors that influence which method of transportation a
 river’s bed load is moved by.
[2]
2 Describe the formation of a V-shaped valley. Use a diagram to
help your answer.
[4]
3 ‘Erosional processes are the most important factor in the formation
of river landforms.’ To what extent to do you agree with this
statement?
[8]

How do processes work together to

create landform features in coastal
landscapes?
Slope and coastal processes
The coastline is shaped over time both by processes that happen in
the sea and by those that occur on land (slope processes). A cliff
may retreat through weathering, rockfalls and landslides.

Weathering
Rockfalls and landslides
Once rock has been eroded from the upper part of a cliff, the material
moves down towards the beach resulting in mass movement, for
example rockfalls and landslides.

Figure 9 Evidence of erosion in limestone cliffs on the Glamorgan

Heritage Coast.

Figure 10 Cliffs on the Isle of Wight with numerous landslides.

Now test yourself

1 Describe how the sea erodes the bottom of a cliff.
2 Explain the difference between rockfalls and landslides.
3 In what way does weathering break up the upper part of a cliff?
4 What geological characteristics make a rockfall more likely to occur
than a landslide?

Coastal erosion
The processes that erode the cliff are:
• Hydraulic action: the force of waves crashing into cliffs. Air trapped
in the cracks is compressed, which breaks up the rock.
• Abrasion: waves hurl sand and pebbles against the cliff, which
wears the land away.
• Solution: salt water dissolves rocks made of calcium carbonate.
The processes that erode the beach material are:
• Abrasion: waves hurl sand and pebbles against the cliff, which
wears the land away.
• Attrition: pebbles are rolled back and forth. They collide with each
other which makes them smaller and rounder, eventually turning
them into sand.

Coastal transportation and deposition

Once the eroded material, called sediment, falls into the sea, it will be
transported by the power of the waves and currents along the
coastline by longshore drift.

Figure 11 Longshore drift.

Example of sand dunes created by longshore

drift in Ynyslas
Ynyslas sand dunes are located on the west coast of Wales in
Ceredigion and provide an excellent example of how a sand dune
system can be created by longshore drift. The map explains why the
sand dunes are found here, as well as the development of an
offshore bar.

Figure 12 The transportation of beach sediment at Borth and Ynyslas

on the Ceredigion coast.

Revision activity
Draw a mind map to show all the different ways in which a coastline
can be eroded.

Distinctive coastal landforms

The coastal environment has both large-scale and smaller-scale
features.

Headlands and bays

• A headland is an area of land that juts into the sea and is formed
due to harder, more resistant rock being eroded more slowly.
• A bay is formed between the headlands due to softer, less resistant
rock which erodes more quickly. Beaches often form in sheltered
bays.

Cliffs and wave-cut platforms

A wave-cut platform is formed when a cliff face is eroded by the sea:
• As the waves pound the base of the cliff, hydraulic action and
abrasion cut a wave-cut notch into the base of the cliff which makes
the cliff vulnerable to collapse.
• With continued erosion at every high tide, the wave-cut notch will
eventually make the cliff unstable and lead to its collapse.
• The material from the cliff will then be moved by the sea, and in
doing so abrasion will smooth the surface of the wave-cut platform
left behind.
• If the cliff is made from well-jointed sedimentary rocks, then the
wave-cut notch will often occur along the bedding planes as these
are a weak point and will erode much more quickly.

Arches and stacks

Arches and stacks form in headlands made from rock which is
relatively resistant to erosion, for example limestone. Arches form
when two caves are created on either side of a headland. Over time,
the sea is able to cut through the back wall by processes of abrasion
and hydraulic action. Once the sea has broken right through and water
can pass underneath the rock, weathering will erode the roof of the
arch so that the arch becomes higher and the roof thinner. At the
same time, wave-cut notches form on the base of the arch to widen it
further. Eventually, the arch roof will become thinner until it eventually
collapses, leaving a single pillar of rock called a stack.
Figure 13 The formation of cliffs and wave-cut platforms.

Figure 14 Old Harry Rocks, Handfast Point, near Swanage, Dorset.

Revision activity
Create a flashcard for each large-scale coastal landform. Use a
diagram to explain its formation and make note of any smaller-scale
features that may be present.
Beaches and spits
Beaches and spits are formed when the swash is stronger than the
backwash and deposition occurs:
• A beach is a build-up of sand, shingle and pebbles deposited by
waves.
• Longshore drift transports beach material along the coast. Where
the coast changes direction, for example at a river mouth, beach
material is carried out to sea. This creates a new strip of land which
projects out into the sea and remains attached to the land at one
end, called a spit. Spurn Point on the Holderness coastline at the
mouth of the River Humber is an example of a spit.
• Fine silts and sands that are transported by the river are deposited
at the river mouth and form an offshore bar. The mouth of the Dyfi
Estuary (see the longshore drift example) is an offshore bar. This
material can then be washed onshore by the swash action.

Example of Spurn Point, Holderness coastline

• Spurn Point is a narrow spit on the east coast of the UK which has
formed across part of the Humber Estuary.
• The spit is 4.8 km long and as narrow as 46 m in places.
• Sand and shingle are moved along the Holderness coastline by
longshore drift to the mouth of the Humber River.
• Deposition occurs in the more sheltered water and a spit develops.
• As more sand is deposited, colonising plants such as marram grass
begin to grow, which stabilises the spit further.
• Longshore drift continues along the spit, which increases its length.
Figure 15 Formation of a spit.

Revision activity
Make a revision card for a located coastal environment that you have
studied, and include on it:
• a map of the location
• what coastal landforms are found there
• why those landforms are found there
• the direction of longshore drift (if appropriate)
• the source of sediment supply (if appropriate).

Rock pools
• Rocks pools are small hollows in rocks found at the coastline such
as in a wave-cut platform.
• At high tide the pools are covered by the sea, and at low tide some
seawater remains in the hollow, creating a rock pool.
• The rock pools are enlarged by the process of abrasion at high tide
as small rocks within the pool whirl around due to the movement of
the waves and gradually increase the size of the hollow.

Now test yourself

1 What is the difference between a spit and an offshore bar?
2 Explain where the material comes from to create spits and offshore
 bars.
3 Why do rock pools develop?
4 Explain why some spits may become eroded over time.

Exam practice
For a located coastal environment in the UK, explain the processes
that have created the landforms specific to that environment.
[6]

What factors affect the rates of

landform change in river and coastal
landscapes?
Geology, climate and human activity will affect the rate of landform
change (how fast the change happens) in both river and coastal
environments.

Geology
The type of rock that is being eroded and the way in which the rock
types are laid down will affect the rate of change.

Example of rock type: Bishopston River, South

Gower
• The Bishopston River has its source on millstone grit and crosses
on to carboniferous limestone near the village of Kittle.
• Due to the joints in the limestone being easily eroded by solution,
large caverns and sink holes appear which enable the river to run
underground.
• As a result, the river channel on the surface is dry for the majority
of the time, unless there is heavy rainfall, in which case the
underground channels fill up, causing water to flow overland as
well. Far less erosion occurs in the surface river channel as a result
 of the infrequent channel flow.

Figure 16 The Bishopston River, South Gower: sink hole causing the
river to go underground.

Example of concordant and discordant

coastlines: Llyn Peninsula
• Concordant: the north coast of the Llyn Peninsula is a concordant
coastline, where layers of different rock types run parallel to the
coastline. The metamorphic rock erodes at the same rate so the
coast has few headlands and bays.
• Discordant: by contrast, the coastline between the Trwyn
Llanbedrog headland and Abersoch Bay is a discordant coastline.
The headland consists of more resistant igneous rock (erodes
slowly) and the neighbouring Abersoch Bay of less resistant
mudstone and shale (erodes faster). The different erosion rates
result in the formation of headlands and bays.
Figure 17 The geology of the Llyn Peninsula.

Exam tip
If you are asked to ‘explain why’ in a question about geology, make
sure that you link the landform to the geological structure. You need
to make it clear that the landform results because of the geology.

Revision activity
1 For an area of coastline that you have studied, complete the
following bullet points:
 •Name the feature
•Where is it located?
•What coastal processes occur here?
•What are the geological characteristics of this coastline?
•Which factor is the most dominant cause of the landforms
found?
2 Repeat this exercise for a river feature that you have studied.

Now test yourself

1 Explain why both rock type and structure can influence the river or
coastal landforms created.
2 How can geology affect river landforms?
3 How can geology affect coastal landforms?
4 Is geology as important as erosion and deposition in the formation
of coastal landforms?

Climate
Climate will affect the rate of change of river and coastal landforms:
• Coasts: the prevailing wind affects the angle at which the waves
break on to the coastline, and therefore the direction of erosion and
transportation. The waves break on to the beach at this angle,
pushing material up and across the beach. Therefore, the wind
direction determines where depositional features form (for example a
spit).
• Rivers: the more water that is flowing in a river, the higher the
erosion rates will be. The highest erosion rates in UK rivers are
found during the winter months when there is more rainfall.
• Extreme weather events may also alter the landscape. A powerful
storm can change the appearance of a coastline overnight. The
more severe the storm, the more destructive waves it creates. This is
due not only to the increased wind speed, but also to the fetch – the
distance the wave has travelled before breaking onshore. As a
result, the most powerful and destructive storms that hit the UK are
usually from the south-west. This is due to the large distance of open
water that the Atlantic Ocean provides, which increases the fetch of
 the waves.

Figure 18 The river regime of the River Severn shows the variation in
a river’s discharge (the volume of water flowing through a river at any
point) over a year.

Example of winter storms causing coastal

damage: west Wales and East Sussex coastlines
In the spring of 2014, a series of storms hit the UK, causing severe
erosion of the south and west coastlines. In Aberdaron, 30 cm of land
was eroded from the cliffs, and at the Birling Gap on the East Sussex
coast, 9 m2 of cliff crumbled into the sea just metres from a cottage.
This stretch of coastline suffered an estimated seven years’ worth of
erosion in just three months, due to the numerous storms.

Human activity
The impact of human activity on both river and coastal landscapes
may be both intended and unintended:
• Intended human activity includes management strategies to reduce
the impact of erosion of both river and coastal landforms.
• For rivers, an example is the management of meanders in a built-up
area, where people are concerned about erosion on an outside bank
 affecting buildings and services. Management strategies to help
reduce the amount of erosion include gabions (cages filled with
rock), which absorb the power of the water, or reinforced concrete
banks which resist the force of the water. These methods are used
extensively on rivers running through built-up areas, for example the
River Thames throughout central London.
• For coasts, an example is the management of beaches where the
coastline is left exposed to erosion as the process of longshore drift
moves large amounts of beach material along the coastline. As a
result, human settlements close to the coast are vulnerable due to
cliff collapse or flooding, for example St Bees Beach in Cumbria.

Now test yourself

1 Describe the impact of seasonal rainfall patterns on the discharge
of a river.
2 Explain how extreme weather events can cause a change in the
coastline.

Example of intended human activity at the coast:

St Bees Beach in Cumbria
The predominant south-westerly winds drive sediment in a north-
easterly direction along the north Cumbrian coast from St Bees Head
to the Scottish border, leaving the village of St Bees vulnerable to
erosion. A series of groynes were built on the beach to restrict the
movement of the sand and therefore maintain the beach for the
important tourist trade and protect it from flooding and erosion.
Figure 19 Groynes at St Bees Beach in Cumbria.

Example of impact of unintended human activity:

Criccieth coastline
• Criccieth is on the south coast of Gwynedd.
• The cliffs are composed of easily eroded material known as glacial
till.
• The beach is affected by longshore drift which moves the glacial till
from west to east along the coastline.
• Groynes keep the material on the beach so that it continues to
attract visitors and the income they bring.
• The beach also protects the coastline by absorbing the wave
energy.
• To the east of the groynes there is an area of cliff that is very prone
to collapse. This is likely to be due to the lack of beach material
protecting it due to the groynes to the west.

Exam practice
1 Compare the influence of two different types of geological
structures on the shape of coastlines.
 [8]
2 Explain why climate influences the rate of erosion in river
landscapes.
[4]
3 ‘Human intervention at the coastline will always have unintended
consequences.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement?
[8]

Exam tip
When giving an example of the influence of human activity on either a
river or a coastal landscape, make sure you explain the link between
what it is that people are doing and the change in the natural
environment.

Drainage basins of the UK

What physical processes affect stores
and flows in drainage basins?
Flows and stores of water
As water moves through a drainage basin it flows from one store to
the next.

Relationship between drainage basin processes

The movement of water through the drainage basin can be seen in the
diagram. The speed at which water moves through drainage basins
can vary due to:
• The type and quantity of rainfall: rainfall moves more quickly
through a drainage basin in heavy rainstorms than in light drizzle.
Raindrops are larger and falling in a shorter period of time, so less
infiltration and more surface runoff will occur.
• The type and quantity of vegetation cover: more interception
 occurs in a woodland compared to a meadow.
• The size and shape of the drainage basin: round drainage basins
lead to a faster movement of water into the river than elongated
ones. Larger basins have a larger discharge as they drain from a
larger surface area of land.
• The steepness of slopes: steeper slopes mean greater surface
runoff and less infiltration.
• The geology and soil type within the drainage basin:
impermeable soil or rocks lead to less infiltration or groundwater flow
and more surface runoff.

Figure 20 Stores and flows of water in a natural drainage basin.

Now test yourself

Make a list of the characteristics of a river basin that would be likely
to lead to a flood.

Exam tip
When asked to discuss the interrelationships between drainage basin
processes, you will need to explain why a ‘store’ in one part of the
basin may affect the ‘flow’ in another part.

Exam practice
1 Name two stores and two flows in a drainage basin.
[4]
2 Explain the impact on the rest of the drainage basin system of
cutting down a large area of trees.
[6]

Why do rivers in the UK flood?

Climate, vegetation and geology (physical factors) may affect a river’s
discharge and lead to flooding. Urbanisation (human factors) may also
cause flooding.

Why do rivers flood?

Climate
Increased amounts of rainfall will increase the chance of a river
flooding. This may be due to either:
• Seasonal rainfall: continuous rainfall causes the ground to become
saturated, leading to more overland flow and therefore higher river
levels
• A storm event: when a heavy storm brings a high volume of rainfall
in a short period of time this causes a sudden rise in river levels that
can lead to flash floods
Vegetation
• Different types of vegetation intercept different amounts of rainfall,
 which influences how rapidly water moves through the drainage
basin to reach the river channel. For example, broad-leaved trees
intercept more rainfall than grassland and reduce the speed at
which it reaches the ground. In addition, their roots are deeper and
cover a larger area, so taking more of the infiltrated water out of the
soil
• Removal of vegetation: if trees are removed from a drainage basin
then water will reach the river channel much more quickly due to
quicker saturation of the soil
Geology
• Porous rocks have large spaces within the rock which allow water
to pass through. This reduces the flood risk due to increased
groundwater flow
• Impermeable rocks have very few spaces within the rock. Little
water passes through, creating more overland flow and a higher
flood risk
• A rock may not be porous but can be well jointed, allowing water to
pass through these lines of weakness. For example, carboniferous
limestone
Urbanisation
The expansion of towns and cities leads to the ground being covered
with impermeable surfaces such as tarmac, which reduces the
amount of water that is infiltrated. This causes more overland flow
and increases the chance of flooding

Exam tip
When asked to ‘explain why’ a factor increases the risk of flooding,
you must state what it is about the factor that would lead the river to
flood.

Hydrographs
A hydrograph is a good way to see how a river will react to a storm
event. It shows the total rainfall amount represented by a bar graph
and the river discharge as a line graph. These are plotted against
time. The shape of the hydrograph indicates whether a river is likely to
flood after a storm event.

Figure 21 A simple flood hydrograph.

Factor Impact
Urbanisation Decreases lag time, steep rising limb, high peak
Porous rocks Increases lag time, gentle rising limb, lower peak
Impermeable Decreases lag time, steep rising limb, high peak
rocks
Broad-leaved trees Increases lag time, gentle rising limb, lower peak

Example of causes and effects of flooding:

Somerset Levels
The winter of 2013–14 resulted in unprecedented amounts of flooding
on the Somerset Levels.
Causes Effects
Physical • Over 80 roads were
• Large area of flat land blocked
 • Two major rivers run through • Children were not able to
the area – the Tone and the get to school or people to
Parrett work
• Prolonged heavy rainfall • Villages were cut off
causing saturated ground • 600 homes were affected
• Silting up of the river channel and people evacuated
therefore reducing capacity • Due to lack of grazing land,
• High tidal range farmers lost around £10m
Human • Half of businesses in
• Reduction in the frequency at Somerset lost money
which the rivers were dredged • Cost of £19m to local
• Building on the floodplain government and emergency
services

Exam practice
1 List three factors which may affect flooding in the UK.
[3]
2 Describe how porous rocks will influence the shape of a
hydrograph.
[4]
3 ‘Urbanisation is the most important factor in causing flooding in the
UK today.’ To what extent do you think this is true?
[8]

Now test yourself

1 What is meant by the term ‘annual regime’?
2 Describe how climate can affect the discharge of a river.
3 List the different ways in which people can increase the chances of
a river flooding.
4 Explain the different parts of a hydrograph and the factors that can
influence them.

What are the management approaches

to flooding in the UK?
Strategies for river channel and drainage basin
management
Hard engineering Soft engineering Land-use zoning
strategies strategies
Involve constructing Work with the Planning what the land
defences to control environment rather is used for within a
natural processes than trying to river basin so that less
control it valuable land is closer
to the river, for
example grazing land
and playing fields
They are often large Often cheaper than Housing and key
scale, expensive and hard engineering services are usually
relatively effective and have less put on higher ground
impact on the away from the river to
environment, but lessen the chance of
can be less these being flooded
effective once the
river has flooded
Examples include: Examples include: This method is not
dams, artificial restrict building on always straightforward
levees/embankments, flood plains, to carry out, as in
artificial river channels afforestation, many towns and cities,
(channelisation), ecological flooding, housing and key
gabions, dredging the warning systems services were built
river channel, creating a close to rivers many
flood relief channel years ago

Conflicting views
Different groups of people often have very different views when
considering the best way to manage a floodplain or when considering
future development on a floodplain.

Example of floodplain management: Somerset

Levels
After serious flooding in early 2014, there has been much debate
about flood prevention in the future. It was reported that a lack of
dredging of the river channels was a major cause of the flooding and
many people thought dredging would prevent flooding in the future.
Others disagreed:
• The Somerset Wildlife Trust: ‘We must allow the rivers to flood
naturally. Some of the wetland habitats are unique.’
• The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB): ‘Dredging
has an impact on the habitat in and around the river.’

Floodplain development
An increase in the demand for housing is leading to more pressure to
build on floodplains. Houses built on floodplains are at a higher risk of
flooding.

Revision activity
Make a table of the advantages and disadvantages of dredging as a
method of floodplain management.

Example of floodplain development conflict

In 2013, local councils in England and Wales granted 87 planning
applications for new housing developments on floodplains, all of
which caused conflict in their local communities.
• Insurance broker: ‘Over 80 new developments to be built on
floodplains is a ridiculous amount, there should be none! If people
don’t want their homes to be flooded, don’t build on floodplains!’
• Young family on low income: ‘We need more homes to be built so
that the price of houses falls low enough for us to be able to afford
 them.’

Exam practice
Evaluate the effectiveness of soft engineering as a strategy for
managing UK floodplains in the future.
[8]
Theme 2 Rural–Urban Links

The urban–rural continuum

How are urban and rural areas linked?

The human landscape of the UK is as diverse as the physical
environment. Rural areas are characterised by sparse or low
population densities whereas urban areas are busy built-up
environments with a higher population density. Both of these types
of environments are linked and influenced by each other.
The map shows the location of significant areas of population in the
UK.
Figure 1 Population distribution in the UK.

Urban–rural continuum
Often, the concept of a settlement hierarchy is difficult to apply
because of the changing nature of many villages and towns. An
urban–rural continuum allows us to consider the two extremes and
then place all other types of settlements in between. We can then
describe a particular settlement as ‘more rural’ or ‘more urban’ in
character. The diagram below illustrates this.
Exam tip
It is important that you are able to describe the location of areas of
high population density in Wales and the rest of the UK.

As a settlement moves along the continuum from rural to urban it

develops more functions and provides more services. For example, a
small village is likely to provide the following:
• a post office
• a small shop
• a bus stop
• a pub
• a church
whereas a city is likely to provide:
• shopping centres with many chain stores
• entertainment centres such as theatres and cinemas
• a variety of restaurants and bars
• a range of medical facilities including a hospital.
The services that are actually provided in any city will depend on the
individual city and its location in relation to other urban areas.

Now test yourself

1 Make a table like the one below to list locations of high and low
population density in the UK.
Areas of high population Areas of low population
density density

2 Pick two areas of high population and describe their location.

3 Give reasons as to why the high-density populations are located
 there.

Urban sphere of influence

The function and services of a city serve not only the residents of the
city but also the smaller settlements that may surround it. This is
referred to as a city’s sphere of influence and its strength is mainly
due to:
• The infrastructure and transport links between the urban and rural
areas: the more widespread and efficient the road and rail networks
are, the wider the sphere of influence.
• The distance from the urban area: the influence is greater the closer
a rural settlement is to the city.
• The size of the urban area: the sphere of influence will be greater for
a large city than a small town.

Example of a city’s sphere of influence: Liverpool

and Glyn Ceiriog
• Liverpool is a large city on the north-west coast of England, close to
the north-eastern border of Wales.
• It is the closest, largest urban area to north-east Wales, with a
population of 467,250.
• Its sphere of influence over the region includes Glyn Ceiriog, a
small village of 800 people in north-east Wales.
The services available in Glyn Ceiriog include:
• two shops (including a post office)
• a pharmacy
• a GP’s surgery
• two places of worship
• a hotel
• a pub.
It is likely that the residents will need to go outside the settlement for
many services, for example to buy anything that the local stores
could not provide. Wrexham and Chester offer a variety of retail
stores, but for a larger choice Liverpool city centre has a range of
major shopping areas.
In rural areas, access to healthcare is also restricted and for
specialist health services the residents of Glyn Ceiriog would need to
travel to Wrexham and Liverpool.
Figure 2 Urban and rural places on the border between England and
Wales.

Now test yourself

1 Explain why a large urban area would have a sphere of influence
over a neighbouring rural area.
2 Why does the sphere of influence lessen with distance from the
urban area?
3 Make a list of the retail and healthcare services that an urban
centre could provide to rural areas.
4 Make a list of factors other than retail and healthcare for which
urban areas could have an influence over rural communities.

Revision activity
Draw a spider diagram to illustrate the influencing factors that a large
urban area that you have studied has over its neighbouring rural
community.

Counter-urbanisation
Since the 1980s, the UK has been experiencing counter-
urbanisation. This process involves the movement of people, such as
young families or retired people, away from the inner cities to either:
• the urban–rural fringe
• suburbanised villages in rural areas that are easily accessible to the
city, or
• remote rural areas.

Reasons for counter-urbanisation

• Housing: the type and style of homes people want are more
available and affordable in rural areas.
• Family status: with increased income or family size, people may
look for larger properties in rural locations.
• Transport: improved road and rail links, together with the increase
 in car ownership, enable people to live in a different location and
travel to their place of work.
• Employment: a decline of industry being located in central urban
areas and an increase of industry on the rural–urban fringe improves
access from rural locations.
• Social factors: factors such as a low crime rate and good schools
often lead to people moving out of urban areas.
• Environmental factors: increased noise and air pollution in urban
centres cause people to seek ‘cleaner’ environments to live in.

Now test yourself

1 What do you understand by the term ‘remote rural area’?
2 Why does counter-urbanisation take place?
3 What impact does counter-urbanisation have on rural settlements?
4 For a rural settlement that you have studied, describe the physical
impacts of counter-urbanisation.

Impact of counter-urbanisation on rural

settlements
The impact of counter-urbanisation varies greatly and depends on the
type of rural area that people are moving to. For example, if the
movement is to an accessible rural area then a ‘dormitory’ or
‘commuter’ village may result. The impacts of this may include:
• An increase in house prices due to higher demand.
• A decrease in traditional services (village shops) due to residents
doing their shopping at larger urban supermarkets. There may be an
increase in non-traditional village services such as a crèche.
• Fewer people in the village during the daytime.
• An increase in the numbers of children attending rural schools.
• Increased amounts of traffic and associated pollution on rural roads.
• Loss of villager ‘identity’ as the majority of residents do not work in
the village.

Revision activity
For a rural settlement that you have studied, create a fact file to
explain the reasons for and describe the consequences of people
moving into the village. Try to include:
• location and population size
• what attracts people to the village
• changes to buildings
• changes to the occupations of the residents
• changes to the local school
• changes to the services the village offers
• issues related to transport.

Patterns of commuting
Commuting significant distances to work is common for many people.
As cities such as London and Cardiff offer many more job
opportunities than the rural areas that surround them, many people
commute to the city to work. People often choose to live in a cheaper
rural area and travel a longer distance to work rather than pay the
higher house prices that are found in cities. For others, the internet
and mobile phones remove the necessity to commute as they allow
them to work from home. The table below shows the factors that both
encourage and discourage commuting.

Exam tip
When describing issues that arise from commuting, refer to specific
information for an urban area that you have studied so you can show
your depth of knowledge.

Factors leading to Factors leading to decreased

increased commuting commuting
Cities have more job Rapid growth of the internet and email
opportunities than rural areas removes the need to be in the same
physical office as co-workers
People choose to live in rural Increased coverage and quality of
housing, which is often mobile phone network providers
cheaper than inflated city enable people to stay constantly in
house prices touch with co-workers
Improvements in road and rail Rapid growth of broadband has led to
links have cut journey times many companies encouraging
employees to work from home
Improvements in car safety
and comfort have encouraged
more people to travel longer
distances

Example of transport issues arising out of

counter-urbanisation: Cardiff
Cardiff is located in south-east Wales. As Wales’ largest city and its
capital, Cardiff attracts many industries and has a wide sphere of
influence. This influence is strongest in south-east Wales. People
travel to Cardiff to work, shop and attend sporting events. The pattern
of commuting in south-east Wales involves:
• 78,000 people travelling into Cardiff every weekday.
• 33,900 people travelling out of Cardiff every weekday.
• The Vale of Glamorgan is the highest source and destination region
for commuters in and out of Cardiff.
• The M4 motorway together with main access roads into Cardiff
have been improved over the past twenty years.
With around 112,000 people travelling either to or from Cardiff every
weekday, issues arise from the large number of people on the move:
• The main routes into and around Cardiff (A470, M4 and A48)
become very congested during the rush hour, leading to long delays
and increased journey times.
• Increased amounts of air and noise pollution affect Cardiff and the
roads on its periphery where traffic congestion builds up.
• Roads within the city become congested and dangerous to cyclists
and walkers.
• Trains arriving in Cardiff during the rush hour are packed with
commuters having standing room only.

Exam practice
1 Give the definition of the term ‘counter-urbanisation’.
[2]
2 Suggest and describe two examples of economic impacts of
counter-urbanisation.
[4]
3 For an example that you have studied, describe the pattern of
commuting.
[4]
4 Explain the issues created by commuting in your named example.
[6]

Revision activity
For an urban area that you have studied, use a spider diagram to
illustrate the issues that have resulted from commuters travelling to
that town or city.

How are rural areas changing?

Impacts of urban spheres of influence and
technological change on service provision
We have already seen how urban spheres of influence have an impact
on retailing and health services in rural communities, but these are
just some of the changes that are happening. Coupled with changes in
technology (improved broadband coverage and mobile phone
reception), many rural areas are changing in both size and character.
Some of the changes include:
• Reduction and/or change in employment opportunities in the rural
area, for example a reduction in traditional primary jobs and an
increase in tertiary jobs.
• Closure of rural banks and post offices, centralising services in
urban areas in addition to an increase in online banking.
• Increase in house prices in accessible rural areas within the
‘commuter belt’.
• An increasing number of second homes in picturesque parts of the
countryside, for example Pembrokeshire in Wales and the Lake
District in England.
• Local people being unable to afford to buy a home due to the
increase in prices, forcing them to move away from the village.
• Closure of village shops. With the increase of online grocery
shopping and home delivery services by many supermarkets, village
shops are under even more pressure to close.
• Reduction or removal of bus services due to few people using them.

Rural poverty, depopulation and deprivation

Remote rural areas have experienced a lot of negative change in
recent years. This has led to depopulation in many villages and a
high level of poverty and deprivation experienced by the villagers
who remain. Deprivation in rural areas is usually characterised by a
lack of public transport, healthcare and education services. It is often
referred to as the cycle of deprivation due to the nature of the
impacts that are created becoming a cause for further depopulation
and deprivation.

Figure 3 The cycle of deprivation.

Now test yourself

1 What do you understand by the term ‘technological change’?
2 How has technological change impacted on service provision in
 settlements?
3 Explain why it is difficult to break out of a cycle of deprivation.

Revision activity
Draw a double-bubble diagram like the one below and decide which
of the changes are caused by technological change, which are
caused by the urban sphere of influence and which are the result of
both. Colour code your diagram.

Creating sustainable rural communities

A sustainable community is the aim of all local planners. Proposals
for new housing or roads, and decisions on what transport, education
and health services to provide, need to be considered in terms of the
impacts on local people and the environment. In a rural setting,
providing access to services can be challenging due to the smaller
number of people using those services, and the resulting higher cost
per person.
Strategies that could be used to create a sustainable rural community
are:
• Reliability and frequency of transport: ensuring that public
transport is available when the rural community needs it.
• Availability of jobs: securing investment from companies to
develop jobs based in the rural area.
• Internet connections: ensuring the availability of fast and reliable
broadband.
• Education: ensuring that village schools remain open and
secondary schools offer a wide range of subjects taught by specialist
staff.
• Healthcare: ensuring access to all aspects of healthcare with a
provision of transport if needed.
• Village services: encouraging village shops, pubs and post offices
to remain open for residents to use.
• Green technologies: promoting the use of renewable energy within
the rural area.
Implementing these strategies will depend on their cost but using them
as a target will help to make communities more sustainable.

Exam tip
Link the strategy employed to how it makes the community
sustainable. For example, if a new bus service was to go through a
remote rural community three times a day, this would make the
community more sustainable because it is enabling people to
continue living there while they may work in a nearby urban area,
therefore reducing the number of cars on the road and increasing
sustainability.

Now test yourself

1 What do you understand by the term ‘sustainable community’?
2 Suggest strategies that could be taken to make rural communities
more sustainable.

Revision activity
For a rural community that you have studied, pick one of the above
strategies and research how that rural area is addressing the issue.
Then write a proposal to the local planning office to show how it could
be made more sustainable.

Exam practice
1 What do you understand by the phrase ‘rural poverty and
deprivation’?
[2]
2 Explain why some rural communities suffer from rural deprivation.
[4]
3 Discuss the challenges that are faced in creating sustainable rural
communities.
[8]

Population and urban change in

the UK
What are the causes and
consequences of population change?
Changing rate of population
The population in the UK is always changing. In 2014, the UK
population was 64.8 million while in Wales the population was 3.12
million. Between 2004 and 2014, the population in the UK grew,
although the rate of change varied in different areas.
Growth Wales UK
Highest Cardiff +1.7 per cent Tower Hamlets +34.5 per
growth rate change (increase) cent (increase)
Lowest Ceredigion –0.5 per cent Redcar & Cleveland –2.6
growth rate change (decrease) per cent (decrease)
While the population is increasing in some areas of the UK, elsewhere
it is decreasing. A change in population can be the result of natural
population change or migration.

Figure 4 Annual UK population change, 1992–2013.

Factors affecting population change

Social factors:
• Healthcare: as the UK has a freely accessible health service (NHS)
href a#re able to access the care they need, leading to a longer life
expectancy and low infant mortality rates.
• Marriage: people are marrying later in the UK, which may affect
when they start a family.
• Culture: it is widely acceptable in the UK for women to delay
starting families until their 30s, and this may reduce the total number
of children they have.
• Ageing population: with a greater proportion of people in the UK
being past their child-bearing age, this will naturally lead to a lower
birth rate.
Economic factors:
• Cost of raising a family: this has increased in the UK and may
discourage people from starting a family.
• Maternity pay: the longer period of statutory maternity pay may
encourage more births.
• Career: many women choose to continue with their careers and
increase their incomes rather than start families.
Political factors:
• Contraception: contraception is widely available in the UK and
education is provided so that unwanted pregnancies may be
restricted.
• Maternity/paternity rights: changes to maternity and paternity
leave and pay for parents may encourage people to have more
children.
• Migration: both into and out of the UK. In 2015, 333,000 more
people moved to the UK than moved out, mainly from
Commonwealth countries and the European Union (EU).
• Vaccination programmes: the UK has a programme of vaccinating
children, which reduces the death rate.

Now test yourself

Look at the graph showing the annual UK population change.
1 Describe the trend of natural change seen in the UK.
2 Describe the trend for migration in the UK.
3 Explain why the way that population changes is altering in the UK.

Migration into and within the UK

In 2015, 630,000 people moved into the UK. The UK is a country of
choice destination for many people, but this is only half the migration
story. Many people also migrate within the UK. This may be rural to
urban or urban to rural migration, within the same urban area or to a
different part of the UK altogether.
Reasons for people moving Reasons for people moving
into the UK within the UK
Availability of jobs Cost of housing: move to an area
 where they can afford to buy a
property
Stable political system Change of lifestyle: people may
retire to a rural location
Good health service In search of work: people move for
work or in order to further their
career
Better rates of pay; therefore a The need to live close to your
higher income place of work is increasingly
becoming less important
Good education system Locate near family for care needs
Already established network of
family or people of similar ethnic
or cultural origin
The impacts of both types of migration may include:
• an increase in the number of young adults who are able to work and
pay taxes
• an increase in the birth rate due to migrants having children
• an increase in the number of languages that are spoken in the UK
• a strain on schools due to the number of non-English-speaking
pupils that they have
• many low-paid, unskilled jobs that UK citizens may not wish to do
are filled
• house prices in more desirable areas increase
• diversity of culture means the UK has a greater range of foods,
restaurants and so on.

Revision activity
Using the double bubble that you have drawn for the Now test
yourself activity, construct a table similar to the one below to help you
revise impacts of migration.
Factors Inward migration Domestic migration
Social impacts
Demographic impacts
Economic migration

Now test yourself

1 Draw a double-bubble diagram like the one on page 32 to show
the impacts of inward migration and domestic migration.
2 Colour code these impacts to illustrate which are social,
demographic (impacts that affect the structure of the population of
an area) and economic impacts.

Challenges of an ageing UK population

Due to the low birth and death rates in the UK, an increasing
proportion of the population is aged over 65. As the percentage of this
group of people is increasing compared to the rest of the population,
the UK is said to have an ageing population. In 1995, there were less
than 9 million people aged over 65, whereas in 2030 it is projected
that there will be 13 million. Such a large proportion of elderly people
in a population presents economic, health and social challenges which
need to be addressed.
Economic Health Social challenges
challenges challenges
A reduced Increase in Older people have a wealth of
number of health issues as knowledge and skills that will be
economically people live lost if not passed on to the
active people in longer younger generation
the UK to pay
taxes
More money Large increase in Increasingly, working-age people
needed to pay care services are caring for their children and
for state required to look their elderly parents
pensions after people in
the community
More people Increase in the number of elderly
are dependent people living on their own, which
on the state may lead to feelings of isolation
and also decrease the amount of
housing available

Revision activity
• On an A5 revision card, draw a two-column table.
• List the challenges in the left-hand column.
• In the right-hand column explain what impact these challenges may
have on the UK.
• Then colour code the challenges: red for positive and blue for
negative.
• Recommend possible solutions to the challenges that you have
listed.

Exam tip
Ensure that you are able to identify the difference between economic,
health and social challenges as the exam question may just ask
about a specific type of challenge.

The need for new housing

Increased immigration, longer life expectancy and an increase in
single-occupancy households all lead to an increase in the number of
homes required. The government set a target to build a million new
homes by 2020. In August 2016, the government admitted that it was
going to miss this target by 266,000 homes. In missing this target the
price of existing housing is likely to increase due to demand and
supply problems. The demand for housing will vary across Wales and
the UK, and is highest usually where the economy is strongest. In
Wales, the south-east region has one of the highest demands for
housing due to the jobs that the capital city of Cardiff attracts. In the
UK as a whole, it is the south-east of England that attracts most
people to move there for employment, therefore creating the highest
demand for houses. The graph in Figure 5 shows how house prices
have changed since 2007.

Figure 5 The change in house prices in England and Wales since

2007.

Exam tip
When a question asks you to ‘describe a trend’, you must focus your
answer on describing how the trend is changing, giving the highest
and lowest points and an overall statement about the trend rather
than explaining why this trend is occurring.

Now test yourself

Look at the graph in Figure 5:
1 Describe the trend in house prices between 2007 and 2013.
2 Explain the variations that can be seen between London and the
whole of England and Wales.
3 Explain why building new housing developments may lead to a
decrease in house prices.
Exam practice
1 List three different examples of migration that the UK is
experiencing.
[3]
2 Explain two housing issues that the UK is currently experiencing.
[4]
3 Evaluate the various options available to alleviate the current
housing crisis in the UK.
[8]

What are the challenges facing UK

towns and cities?
Challenges of creating urban sustainable
communities
The guiding principle of building sustainable communities is to ensure
that any new developments (roads, housing, industry, communications
and so on) benefit both the community and the environment in the
short and long term. The characteristics of a sustainable community
are illustrated in Egan’s wheel in Figure 6.
It is not always as simple as building a brand new community. Usually
an existing urban area is being added to or being renewed, making it
difficult to achieve the goals set out above. The challenges include:
• Building on greenfield land is often necessary to increase the
number of homes.
• Community differences: not everyone in the community wants the
same thing.
• Existing community: people often do not want change in their local
area.
• Eco-housing often costs more to build and may not be affordable.
Figure 6 Egan’s wheel.

How the planning authorities overcome these challenges will vary from
place to place.

Example of a greenfield site: Oxford’s green belt

Green belts were put in place around UK cities as early as 1935 to try
to stop the expansion of towns and cities. They occupy thirteen per
cent of total land area in England but are coming under increasing
pressure to be built on because of the high demand for new homes.
An example of greenfield sites that have been identified for potential
development is on the green belt surrounding Oxford. The map in
Figure 7 shows possible locations.

Figure 7 Development areas suggested by Oxford City Council that

are within Oxford’s green belt.

The challenges that are faced by planners when considering building

on greenfield land are:
• Environmental sustainability: the destruction of rural land that has
 not previously been developed. Also, if the development is within a
green belt area this could lead to even more urban sprawl.
• Economic sustainability: the cost of the new housing
developments may be too high for existing local residents in the rural
area to afford. Additionally, where are the new residents going to
work? High proportions of people are likely to commute and
therefore leave the new developments empty during working hours,
which will not help rural services.
• Social sustainability: new greenfield developments may
encourage urban residents to move to the countryside and therefore
change the way of life of the rural area. In addition to this, local
services such as schools and GPs’ surgeries will be put under
pressure.

Example of a brownfield site: Ipswich Waterfront

Development
Building on brownfield sites has become very fashionable in the
past 30 years for two main reasons. First, as these sites have
previously been built on (unlike greenfield sites), they do not destroy
areas of countryside. Second, many people now like to move back to
revitalised inner-city areas – a process known as re-urbanisation.
Many cities with old industrial waterside locations are regenerating
those areas into highly desirable living and entertainment locations.
An example of such a development is in Ipswich with its Waterfront
Development. The key features of this are:
• The site was formerly an industrial dockland area with warehouses
and factories.
• It had been left derelict since the 1970s.
• Warehouses have been refurbished into shops, entertainment
locations and housing.
• The land is more expensive than greenfield land to develop due to
having to clean it up before building could take place.
• Remains of archaeological value needed to be conserved at a cost
of £1.2 million per hectare.
• A former derelict part of the city has been transformed into a vibrant
location.
Now test yourself
Draw a table similar to the one below and fill in as many challenges
as you can think of for the different approaches to creating a
sustainable urban area.
Brownfield sites Greenfield sites

Exam practice
1 Describe any two Egan’s wheel parts.
[4]
2 ‘Achieving a sustainable community is equally as difficult on a
greenfield site as on a brownfield site.’ Discuss why this statement
may be true.
[8]

Exam tip
For any examples of developments that you learn, ensure that you
can describe where they are located or even draw a sketch map.

How and why is retailing changing in

the UK?
The traditional shopping hierarchy of the central business district
(CBD), with its large shopping centre or mall, the local high street
offering a smaller range of shops and the corner shop selling
convenience goods, has for some time been under threat from the rise
of the out-of-town retail parks and internet shopping.
Factors leading to a change in retailing
Economic factors Cultural Technological factors
factors
Increase in the number Car-dependent Development of wide
of home delivery firms, society coverage of high-speed
making delivering goods broadband
cheaper
Congestion in city Habit of bulk Sophisticated websites
centres buying and which can show you your
weekly or goods from any angle
monthly shops before you buy
Large areas of free Rise of many retailers that
parking in out-of-town are only online
retail parks
High city-centre parking Internet banking
costs
Wages being paid
monthly rather than
weekly

Costs and benefits of out-of-town shopping

centres
Benefits Costs
Large free parking areas for Attracts shoppers away from city
customers centres, which could cause their
decline
Quick and easy access for Can cause congestion on the
customers and deliveries due surrounding access roads
to being located near major
road junctions
Out-of-town location usually Tends to be the same chain stores
means less congestion that populate shopping centres and
 retail parks and therefore they do not
support smaller independent stores
Often room for expansion due Land use conflict – the edge-of-city
to edge-of-city location location is in high demand for other
uses such as golf courses and
business parks
Land values are cheaper than
city-centre locations and
therefore the shops are larger,
holding more variety of stock
Near suburban housing
estates and therefore close to
customers and workforce

Costs and benefits of internet shopping

The area of retailing that is growing most rapidly is that of internet
shopping. In 2014, almost three-quarters of all adults reported buying
goods or services online, an increase of 21 per cent since 2008. The
majority of this activity was carried out on desktop computers but very
quickly this is moving to mobile devices such as smartphones and
tablets.
Benefits Costs
Convenient and often Not everyone, particularly the elderly,
cheaper method of browsing has internet access
and buying goods
Customers can buy products Goods may not be as expected when
not available locally delivered and it may be difficult to
return them
Customers can buy at any City centre shops lose trade, which
time from any location may lead to job losses and eventually
closure of shops
It is less time consuming More delivery vans increase traffic
congestion and pollution
Traffic congestion in city Storage of bank or credit card details
centres is reduced online can leave customers vulnerable
to fraud
Jobs are provided for those
delivering products

High street change in towns and cities

In the past ten years the UK has seen a decline of its high streets with
an increasing number of vacant outlets and the disappearance of well-
known retailers such as BHS. Using a variety of strategies, the high
streets are changing, with the aim of tempting the shoppers back.

Example of high street change: Lancaster

After experiencing a reduction in the number of shoppers to the city
centre, Lancaster’s local council has made improvements to the
shopping environment to attract shoppers:
• New paving in some of the pedestrianised areas giving a fresh,
clean look and reducing trip hazards.
• New street furniture made from stronger materials to ensure it looks
new for longer.
• New signs in pedestrianised areas to help shoppers and visitors to
find their way around.
• Trees planted in the pedestrianised area to enhance the natural
environment.
• New secure bike racks to encourage cyclists to visit more easily.
• A market day to attract new traders to add to the variety of
independent retailers.

Now test yourself

1 Give three economic factors that cause a decline of the traditional
CBD shopping centres.
2 Describe the benefits of internet shopping.
3 Choose two strategies that are used to encourage people back to
CBD shopping and explain how they attract people to shop on the
 high street.

Revision activity
Think about your closest urban town or city centre retail area. What
changes have taken place there in the past five years? List these
down the left-hand side of a piece of paper. On the right-hand side
explain why each change will encourage more people to shop in that
area.

Exam practice
‘The characteristics of a sustainable urban community as shown by
Egan’s wheel are not all achievable in one urban area.’ Give reasons
for and against this statement.
[8]

Urban issues in contrasting global

cities
What are the global patterns of
urbanisation?
Patterns of urbanisation
The size of urban areas across the world is growing in terms of both
physical area and number of people (urbanisation). Just over half of
the world’s population now live in urban areas, and this percentage is
set to increase further. Cities in newly industrialised countries
(NICs) are growing at a particularly fast rate. The table below shows
the world’s largest mega-cities in 2015.
City and country Population in 2015
Tokyo, Japan 38 million
Delhi, India 26 million
Shanghai, China 24 million
São Paulo, Brazil 21 million
Mumbai, India 21 million
The distribution of the largest mega-cities is overwhelmingly in Asia.
Europe does not appear even in the top ten mega-cities as they tend
to be more frequent in NICs. In the future, it is expected that both
China and India will continue to have a greater number of mega-cities,
which is not surprising as these countries have the largest
populations. Nigeria is also projected to add a further 212 million
urban dwellers by 2050.

Exam tip
When answering a question where you need to describe the
distribution in relation to data given in a table, remember to:
• give the overall pattern
• give examples of the highest and lowest
• quote some of the figures from the table.
Spotting anomalies in the data is also creditworthy.

Why global cities are important

As a result of globalisation, places around the world are now more
connected than ever before in terms of economics, trade, society and
culture, and politics. Global cities have become key places of
connection, often with the following features:
• finance and trade: location of stock exchange and bank
headquarters
• governance: location of central government, international
organisations such as the United Nations and the EU, and the
headquarters of multinational corporations (MNCs)
• diversity: global cities attract large numbers of migrants from within
the country and beyond
• media: location of media corporations
• cultural centres: location of a wide range of entertainment venues
• innovation: location of top-rated universities and research.

Distribution of global cities

Although global cities are distributed widely across the world this is not
an even distribution. There are areas where they are clustered and
other parts of the world where there are very few. For example:
• North America, Western Europe and South Asia have clusters of
global cities
• Africa has very few global cities, with just six of them
• India has eight
• China has fourteen.

Figure 8 Global cities.

Changing pattern of global cities over time

The pattern of global cities is not static and is subject to change. To
keep their global city status, each city must continue to develop and
strengthen its links with other places around the world. As cities grow
and develop within NICs, they are hoping to become new global cities.
They look to exploit new trade routes by becoming a vital connection.
If an existing global city does not continue to develop then it may well
lose its global city status.

Now test yourself

1 Explain the difference between a mega-city and a global city.
2 What do you understand by the term ‘globalisation’ and why does
this cause urbanisation to occur?
3 Why might a city lose global city status?

Revision activity
Pick three global cities and make a list of the characteristics that you
think make them global cities.

Exam practice
1 Look at Figure 8, showing the locations of global cities. Describe
their distribution.
[4]
2 Explain why cities in NICs are growing at the fastest rate.
[4]
3 Describe the characteristics that cities need to have to become
classified as a global city.
[4]

What are the consequences of

urbanisation in two global cities?
The rate and timing of urbanisation vary across the world. In many
high-income countries (HICs) the period of rapid urbanisation
occurred in the 1800s, whereas many low-income countries (LICs)
are going through rapid urbanisation at the moment. How a country
embraces urbanisation may influence the development of its cities.
For example, some view the growing urban population as a burden, a
drain on services which could lead to a decrease in the economic
progress of the country. Others see this population as a resource
which will encourage investment and entrepreneurship, so that the
country is able to develop at a faster rate.

Example of a city in an NIC: Mumbai

Mumbai is located in northern India on a low-lying island in the
Arabian Sea. It is India’s largest city, with 21.04 million people in
2015.

Reasons for growth

The percentage population change from 1971 to 1981 was 38 per
cent, whereas the percentage population change from 2001 to 2011
was 4.7 per cent. The reasons why Mumbai has grown to become a
global city are:
• Natural population change: the fertility rate of women in Mumbai
in 1974 was 4, which has reduced to 1.8 in 2013. Natural change
would have been a contributing factor in the 1970s and 1980s, but
less so now.
• Migration: the pull factors for Mumbai are cheap rail travel, jobs
and better training opportunities. The push factors from the
surrounding countryside areas are poor standard of housing,
healthcare and sanitation.
• Connections: Mumbai is the financial capital of India as it is home
to India’s stock exchange. It is also home to large MNCs such as
Tata Steel and home to the Bollywood film industry. It has an
international airport and the major port of Nhava Sheva.
• Historic or recent change: the growth is largely historic. The city
is still growing, but not as rapidly as it was between 1971 and 1991.

Way of life
Mumbai is a city of contrasts and as such it has a varied social and
cultural pattern. The contrast is between rich and poor people. The
emerging educated middle classes have expensive properties while
the majority are living in extreme poverty in slums and bustees and
work in the informal economy in such roles as street vendors and
rubbish recyclers.

Current urban challenges

There are two challenges that face Mumbai:
• Reducing poverty and deprivation: with such a large proportion
of people living in slums, Mumbai has millions of people who are
stuck in a cycle of deprivation.
• Housing: the majority of people in Mumbai live in slums, are
pavement dwellers or live in chawls (old four- or five-storey
tenement buildings with very basic shared facilities). These
dwellings suffer from overcrowding, and are at risk of collapse,
flooding or fire. Two possible solutions are:
– Self-help projects which involve giving the residents help to
improve their own living conditions, for example connecting to the
mains water supply.
– Wholesale clearance by demolishing the existing dwellings and
building purpose-built high-rise buildings.

Example of a city in an HIC: Cardiff

• Cardiff is located in south-east Wales and is Wales’ largest city and
its capital.
• It has a population of 346,000 and a large sphere of influence, with
1.49 million people living within 32 km of its city centre.
• It is very well connected, with a mainline railway and bus station in
addition to the M4 motorway running north of the city.

Reasons for growth

Cardiff has been the fastest growing core economic city (outside
London) in the UK over the past decade. Cardiff is projected to grow
by a further 26 per cent (or 91,500 people) over the next twenty
years. The reasons for this are:
• Natural population change: the fertility rate was falling in the UK
 until 2001–02. However, it has been rising since then and this,
coupled with the increase in life expectancy, leads to an increase in
natural population change.
• Migration: the pull factors attracting people to Cardiff are the
availability of jobs, good education and research facilities, and a
thriving tourist industry. The push factors from the surrounding
region are mainly due to lack of jobs in the south Wales valleys.
• Connections: being the capital city of Wales, Cardiff has well-
developed connections to the local region and to the rest of the UK
and Europe. Its port was the main point of exporting south Wales’
coal early in the twentieth century. It has an international airport and
the M4 links it to London in just over two hours.
• Historic or recent change: the rate of growth of Cardiff has
increased in recent years, with an increase of 40,000 people
between 2001 and 2011.

Way of life
Cardiff is a multicultural city and as such people across the city can
live very different lives. Two of the causes of this are:
• Ethnic minorities: economic migrants have been coming to Cardiff
since the 1800s. This has led to eight per cent of Cardiff’s present
population being from ethnic minorities, giving a great mix of food,
culture, religion and language.
• Income levels: the range of incomes that people earn when
working in Cardiff is vast, from the minimum wage up to six-figure
salaries.

Current urban challenges

The main urban challenges for Cardiff are:
• reducing poverty and deprivation, for example in Butetown
• reducing traffic congestion, for example the A470 road
• regeneration of the CBD; shop closures on Queen Street.

Now test yourself

1 Describe the locations of Mumbai and Cardiff.
2 Give four factors as to why Cardiff and Mumbai have grown into
 global cities.
3 Think of as many differences as you can to show how life is
different for the rich and poor of Cardiff. Repeat this for Mumbai.
4 What are the similarities and differences between the
consequences of urbanisation in Cardiff and Mumbai?

Revision activity
Using an A5 card, create a fact file for Cardiff so that you can learn
the specific facts about that city and the issues affecting it. Repeat
this for Mumbai.

Exam tip
If an exam question asks you to compare, try to use connective
words that link the two aspects in the same sentence, for example,
whereas, compared to, however and so on.

Exam practice
1 What is meant by the term ‘global city’?
[2]
2 Why are challenges in informal settlements difficult to overcome?
[6]

How are global cities connected?

The term globalisation was first used in the 1950s to refer to the
telephone making global communications much easier. Today
globalisation is much more than global communication and relies on
global cities to make connections for trade, movement of people,
media and so on. It is only through multiple types of connections that
goods can be sold internationally, cultures can be shared and people
can migrate. There are three main types of connection: through
transport, trade and tourism, and media and communications.
Connections through transport
The world’s major logistical companies have developed an elaborate
and flexible transport system which includes airports, ports, airlines,
shipping and rail to move goods and people to any part of the globe.
As the number of routes has increased, a more sophisticated method
of connecting places has emerged through using transport hubs.
These enable greater flexibility within the transport system, through a
concentration of flows. For instance, a point-to-point network involves
sixteen independent connections, each to be serviced by vehicles and
infrastructure. By using a hub-and-spoke structure, only eight
connections are needed.

Figure 9 A point-to-point network and a hub-and-spoke structure.

Connections through trade and tourism

Locations around the world have been connected by trade for
hundreds of years. With the growth of trade and the development of
MNCs these connections have become much stronger. For example
Tata Steel, an Indian MNC with its headquarters in Mumbai, has
manufacturing plants all over the world including the UK.
Tourism has also led to countries becoming more connected. Long-
haul flights to remote destinations are far more common these days.
Tourists can even travel to Antarctica for a holiday. The number of
short-haul flights has also increased in terms of the frequency of
flights and number of destinations reached. This has been greatly
aided by the increase in budget airlines which fly to smaller regional
airports as well as the central hubs in many countries. This movement
of people leads to a rich exchange of culture and understanding of
other people’s way of life, which enables us to feel more connected to
each other.

Connections through media and communications

The media has seen the fastest change of connections in the twenty-
first century. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
allow anyone with an internet connection to broadcast to the world
what is happening to them 24 hours a day. As such, people across the
world can connect at the touch of a button and exchange information.
This increases awareness of events around the world and also
different cultures. This has been enabled largely through the
development of the internet and high-speed broadband connections
so that people can communicate in real time.

How Mumbai and Cardiff are connected to the

world
Infrastructure Mumbai’s connections Cardiff’s connections
Airport Chhatrapati Shivaji Cardiff International
International Airport: Airport: with over 25,000
carrying over 36 million flights in 2015 going to
passengers to 45 different 60 different countries
countries in 2015
Port Mumbai Harbour: handles Port: handles 2.5 million
57 million tonnes of cargo tonnes of cargo annually
annually
Internet Broadband coverage of Superfast fibre-optic
varying speeds broadband widely
available
Media Bollywood film industry is BBC Cymru Wales is
based in Mumbai and its based in Cardiff making
 movies are seen all over the TV programmes
world broadcast to the whole
of the UK

Now test yourself

1 What is a transport hub?
2 Why are transport hubs a more efficient way of moving goods and
people around the world?
3 For two cities you have studied, make a list of the key transport
connections that they have.

Revision activity
Draw a double-bubble diagram like the one on page 32 to show how
people’s lives in Cardiff and Mumbai benefit from global connections
through: a) trade and tourism and b) media and communications.

Exam practice
1 Describe what a transport hub is.
[2]
2 Explain why tourism enables global cities to be connected.
[4]
3 For two global cities that you have studied, describe the
connections that they have to the rest of the world and decide
which type of connection is most important to that city.
[8]
Theme 3 Tectonic Landscapes
and Hazards

Tectonic processes and landforms

How do tectonic processes work

together to create landform features?
Plate movement and boundaries
The outer layer of the Earth is called the crust. The crust may be
divided into two types:
• continental crust, which on average is 35 km thick
• oceanic crust, which is much thinner at between 6 and 8 km thick.
The crust and the uppermost mantle, which make up the hard and
rigid outer layer of the Earth, is known as the lithosphere. The
lithosphere is split into tectonic plates.
Tectonic plates move relative to one another. High temperatures in the
Earth’s core cause convection currents and a plume of hot magma
rises through the mantle. The oceanic plate is forced upwards by the
rising magma and torn apart to produce a mid-ocean ridge. The semi-
molten rock then spreads out, carrying the plate above with it. Oceanic
crust converges with continental crust and flexes downwards under
the continental crust, forming an ocean trench. Magma then cools and
sinks back into the mantle.

Global distribution of tectonic activity

Plate movement causes earthquakes and volcanoes. The point where
two plates meet is called a plate boundary or margin. The map in
Figure 2 shows the world’s tectonic plates and plate margins.

Figure 1 The processes that drive plate movement.

Figure 2 Plate margins and the direction of plate movement.

Large-scale tectonic processes at the plate

margins
Earthquakes and volcanoes are most likely to occur near plate
margins:
• Where plates converge a destructive margin is formed.
• Where plates diverge a constructive margin is formed.

Convection, subduction, convergence and

divergence
The processes that cause plate movement are:
• Radioactive decay in the Earth’s core heats the magma in the
mantle above and creates convection currents like water boiling in a
saucepan. The convection currents move the plates. Where
convection currents diverge near the Earth’s crust plates move
apart. Where convection currents converge plates move towards
each other.
• When an oceanic plate and continental plate collide the denser
oceanic crust is forced underneath the continental crust. The
process where the oceanic plate pushes under the continental crust
and slides back into the mantle is known as subduction.

Figure 3 Constructive and destructive margins

Now test yourself
1 Explain why the knowledge of the asthenosphere is vital to our
understanding of the theory of plate movement.
2 What is the difference between a constructive and destructive plate
margin?
3 Outline the processes that take place at a destructive plate margin
where an oceanic plate meets a continental plate.
4 ‘Ocean crust is created and destroyed. Continental crust is folded,
crushed and compressed, but not destroyed.’ Use evidence from
Figure 3 to explain this statement.

Revision activity
1 On a sheet of A5 card make a copy of Figure 2. Annotate your
diagram to explain why plates move over the surface of the Earth.
2 Draw a table and list the names of the seven large plates.
3 Describe the location of the constructive and destructive plate
boundaries.

Exam tip
It is important to focus on the command word when answering a
question. The two most commonly used command words are
describe and explain. Describe invites you to ‘paint a picture’ of what
something is like by using lots of adjectives. Explain directs you to
say why it is like that.

What is happening at the plate

margins?
Large-scale features formed by tectonic
processes
Tectonic processes result in the formation of distinct landscapes.
Examples of the features formed by these processes include:
Large-scale How formed Location Example
feature
Ocean Where subduction takes place Destructive Mariana
trench plate margin Trench,
Western
Pacific
Ocean
Fold The continental crust is Destructive Andes
mountains crushed and folded upwards plate margin Mountains,
South
America
Explosive As the oceanic plate sinks, it Destructive Mount
volcanoes melts and the molten magma plate margin Merapi,
finds its way to the surface Indonesia
New crust Where two oceanic plates Constructive Mid-
move apart, the space plate margin Atlantic
between the diverging plates
is filled with magma
Ocean ridge As lava cools, a ridge is Constructive Mid-
formed under the sea plate margin Atlantic
Ridge
Submarine Submarine volcanoes Constructive Surtsey,
volcanoes sometimes rise above the plate margin Iceland
and volcanic surface of the sea to create
islands volcanic islands
Rift valley Where two continental plates Constructive Thingvellir,
pull apart plate margin Iceland

Example of an ocean trench: Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench is located at a destructive plate boundary where
the oceanic Pacific Plate subducts under the oceanic Philippine
Plate. The trench is the deepest spot in the world’s oceans and
includes the Challenger Deep which reaches a depth of 10,994 m.

Figure 4 The Mariana Trench.

Example of a rift valley: Thingvellir, Iceland

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is located along the floor of the Atlantic
Ocean. Iceland is one of the few places where it juts out of the
surface of the ocean. Iceland is being gradually torn in two as the
North American and Eurasian Plates diverge. This is best seen in
Thingvellir National Park:
• a rift valley 7.7 km long has been formed
• the valley walls are pulling apart at an average of 7 mm a year
• the valley floor is subsiding by 1 mm a year.
Figure 5 Formation of the rift valley at Thingvellir, Iceland.

Now test yourself

1 Give the names of two landforms found at a destructive plate
margin and two landforms found at a constructive plate margin.
2 Explain why the type of volcano found at a destructive margin is
different from one found at a constructive plate margin.
3 Explain why rocks get increasingly older the further away from the
ocean ridge you travel.

Revision activity
Sketch a diagram of a destructive plate margin. Label the following
features:
• fold mountains
• subduction zone
• ocean trench
• magma
• explosive volcano
• ocean crust
• continental crust.

Volcanic hotspots
A hotspot is a small area of the Earth’s crust which has an unusually
high amount of volcanic activity. Iceland has formed above a hotspot
on the Mid-Atlantic ridge, although most hotspots are located away
from plate boundaries, for example the Hawaiian Islands. One
suggestion about the way in which hotspots form is:
• Intensive radioactivity in the Earth’s interior creates a huge column
of upwelling magma, known as a mantle plume.
• The plume pushes upwards, melting and pushing through the crust
above.
• The plume lies at a fixed position under the tectonic plate. As the
plate moves over this ‘hotspot’, the upwelling magma creates a
succession of new volcanoes that migrate along with the plate.

Example of a hotspot: the Hawaiian island chain

The Hawaiian Islands are the tops of volcanic mountains formed by
eruptions of fluid lava over millions of years. Some of these
mountains are more than 9000 m above the seafloor. The islands
represent the visible part of an ocean ridge, the Hawaiian Ridge.
Over 70 million years the movement of the Pacific Plate over a
stationary hotspot has left a chain of volcanoes and the creation of
the Hawaiian Islands.
Figure 6 Hotspot formation of volcanic island chains.

Distinctive features of a volcanic landscape

Volcanoes occur where weaknesses in the Earth’s crust allow magma,
gas and water to erupt on to the land and sea bed.

Larger-scale features
These include shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes and caldera.
Feature Shield volcano Stratovolcano
Example Mauna Loa, Hawaii Mount Merapi,
Indonesia
Location Constructive plate margins and Destructive plate
above hotspots margins
Shape Circular shape, gently sloping Conical shape, steep-
sides sided
Formation Basaltic magma, high in Lava is acid, has high
temperature, with a low silica viscosity and cools
and gas content finds its way to quickly. Explosive
the Earth’s surface through eruptions of ash, lava
cracks in the crust. Magma and lava bombs form
produces fluid lava which flows a cone-shaped
long distances before volcano with steep
solidifying. Frequent eruptions, sides as the lava
gentle oozings of lava form doesn’t flow very far
large cone-shaped mountains before it solidifies
Composition Lava with no layers Alternate layers
(strata) of ash and
lava
A caldera (from the Spanish word for cauldron) is a large-scale
volcanic crater that could be several kilometres in diameter. It is
formed either:
• when a magma chamber is emptied and the roof collapses
• through a massive explosive volcanic eruption.

Figure 7 Stratovolcano.

Smaller-scale features
Smaller-scale features include:
• Hot cinders released when lava erupts cool quickly and build up
around the vent forming a steep, round hill known as a cinder cone.
• A lava tube forms beneath the surface of the ground when low-
viscosity lava develops a hard crust through which lava flows.
• A geyser is a vent in the Earth’s surface that periodically ejects a
column of hot water and steam. A geyser erupts when superheated
groundwater, confined at depth, becomes hot enough to blast its way
to the surface. Old Faithful, located in Yellowstone Park, USA, is the
world’s best-known geyser.

Revision activity
Make a copy on a sheet of A5 card of a stratovolcano, as shown in
Figure 7. Label this diagram with the following features: ash, lava
flow, main vent, secondary vent, magma chamber, crater, secondary
cone.

Now test yourself

1 Complete the following table giving two ways in which a
stratovolcano is similar to a shield volcano and two ways in which it
is different.
Similar Different

2 Name and explain the formation of one large-scale feature of a

volcanic landscape and one small-scale feature.
3 Explain why secondary impacts may last for several years after the
event.

Exam practice
Describe how tectonic processes at a destructive plate margin have
resulted in the formation of any large-scale feature, such as an ocean
trench or a volcano.
[4]
Exam tip
Diagrams need to be clear and detailed and must highlight important
features. Annotation is more than labelling, it is a command word that
demands that you add explanatory notes to your diagram.

Vulnerability and hazard reduction

What are the impacts of tectonic

processes?
Tectonic processes may cause earthquakes, tsunamis or volcanic
eruptions. The immediate consequences of an event are its primary
impacts, such as people inside a collapsing building during an
earthquake. Secondary impacts result from the primary event, for
example destroyed buildings lead to people becoming homeless.
Secondary impacts may last for many years after the event.

Magnitude of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes

Measuring the strengths of volcanic eruptions is challenging since
they produce different materials and have different durations. In 1982,
the volcanic explosivity index (VEI) was devised. The index
measures the volume of pyroclastic material ejected by the volcano,
the height of the eruption column and the duration of the eruption.
The strength, or magnitude, of an earthquake was traditionally
measured using the Richter scale. The largest earthquake ever
recorded was 9.5 on the Richter scale in 1960 in Chile. The moment
magnitude scale (MMS or MW) was introduced in 1979 as a successor
to the Richter scale. It measures the distance moved by a fault and
multiplies it by the force needed to move it.
Each of these measures uses a logarithmic scale, with each number
on the scale ten times the magnitude of the one before it.
Physical factors that increase vulnerability to
volcanic hazards
Volcanic activity results in a number of localised and large-scale
hazards.
Hazard Characteristics Scale
Lava flows Molten rock flows down the sides of a Local – may
volcano. Lava from shield volcanoes travel several
flows more quickly and travels further kilometres and
threaten towns
and villages in
their path
Lahars Volcanic mudflows consisting of a Local – may
mixture of ash and water, from rain, travel several
melted snow and ice, which travel at kilometres and
great speed down the mountain threaten towns
and villages in
their path
Ash Ash thrown high into the atmosphere Large – may
clouds shuts out the sun and when it settles reach 10–15 km
covers the ground, buildings, crops high and spread
and power lines in a layer of ash over thousands
which could be over a metre thick of kilometres
Pyroclastic Burning clouds of gas and ash, with Local – may
flows temperatures up to 1000 °C, travelling travel several
down the mountain at speeds of up to kilometres
200 km per hour

Revision activity
Research the news reports on the Merapi eruption. Imagine you are a
reporter covering the after-effects of the eruption, and write a script
for a 60-second TV news report on how the eruption is affecting a
family that once lived close to the volcano.
Example of a volcanic eruption: Mount Merapi,
Indonesia
Mount Merapi is a stratovolcano located in Java. Merapi erupted in
2010 with a magnitude of 4 on the VEI. The region is densely
populated.
Impacts Social Economic and environmental
Primary • Ash clouds caused • Ash falls destroyed crops
breathing problems and 1900 farm animals died
• 353 deaths, largely • Ash clouds caused
from pyroclastic hundreds of flights to and
flows from Indonesia to be
• 570 people injured cancelled
• 320,000 people • 27 million m3 of ash and
evacuated from the rock were deposited in the
area River Gendol
Secondary • An area 20 km • 1300 ha of farmland were
around the volcano abandoned
was declared a • Food prices rose. The
danger zone people of Indonesia are poor
• Thousands of and could not afford the
people spent weeks higher prices
living in 700 • $700 million revenue was
emergency shelters lost due to agricultural losses
• There were not and fewer tourists
enough toilets or
clean drinking water

Now test yourself

1 Describe two tectonic hazards faced by people who live close to an
active volcano.
2 Why is Merapi described as a dangerous volcano?
Physical factors that increase vulnerability to
earthquakes
Most earthquakes are associated with movements along a plate
margin. Earthquake hazards include:
• Ground movement and shaking cause bridges and buildings to
collapse and underground pipelines to rupture.
• Soil liquefaction damage buildings’ foundations and results in them
sinking.
• Landslides bury people, livestock and buildings.
• Tsunamis cause severe damage and death in low-lying coastal
areas.
How vulnerable to tectonic activity a region is depends on:
• Magnitude: the stronger the hazard the more severe the impacts.
• Duration: the longer a hazard lasts the more severe the impacts are
likely to be.
• Predictability: hazards that hit with no warning are going to have
more serious results.
• Regularity: if hazards happen often and in quick succession, for
example an earthquake followed by multiple aftershocks, then the
severity is likely to be greater. Communities do not have the
capacity to recover before the next earthquake hits.

Example of an earthquake: Italy

An earthquake of 6.2 magnitude on the Richter scale struck in central
Italy at 03.36 (local time) on 24 August 2016. The earthquake was
caused by a continental collision between the African and Eurasian
tectonic plates. The focus was at a shallow depth of approximately 6
km.
Impacts Social Economic and
environmental
Primary 295 deaths and 400 The cost of repairs,
injuries including rebuilding costs, is
The earthquake hit during estimated at around $11
billion
 the summer holiday A 4.8 magnitude
season, the population of earthquake followed at
the region was much 06.28 (local time) on 26
higher than at other times August, causing more
of the year and the death damage to collapsed
toll included tourists buildings and hampering
rescue efforts
Secondary Over 500 aftershocks left The tourist industry is likely
over 2500 people to take many years to
homeless recover
In Amatrice, a village near Following the earthquake,
the epicentre, over half the Italian press has
the buildings were criticised the government
destroyed, including the over building regulations,
historic town since historic towns do not
have to conform to anti-
quake building laws

Social and economic (human) factors that

increase vulnerability
• Wealth: poor people are less able to afford housing that can
withstand extreme events and are less likely to have money or
insurance policies that can help recovery.
• Education: when populations are literate, written messages can be
used to spread information either before the event or to issue
warnings and give advice during an event.
• Governments: can support education and awareness, and can pass
building regulations.
• Age: children and elderly people are more vulnerable. They have
fewer financial resources and are frequently dependent on others for
survival.
• Health: a healthy person is more able to escape the dangers and
recover after the event.
• Population density: the greater the number of people who live in the
area, the more severe the impact.
• Time of day or day of the week: influences whether people are at
home, at work or travelling. An earthquake at rush hour in a densely
populated urban area could have devastating effects.
• Emergency services: richer countries usually have well-trained and
well-resourced response teams that can rescue and treat people
following a disaster.

Revision activity
On a sheet of A5 card, build up a Five Ws case study of the Italy
earthquake.
The Five Ws are questions which will help you to gather information
or problem-solve. They will provide you with a complete story of the
earthquake.
• What happened?
• When did it take place?
• Where did it take place?
• Why did it happen?
• Who did it affect?
Each question should have a factual answer.

Now test yourself

1 Explain why the shallow depth of the Italian earthquake was
important to the amount of damage that was caused.
2 Suggest why the time of day (and time of year) an earthquake
strikes is important.
3 Describe the primary and possible secondary impacts of the Italian
earthquake.
4 Italy is considered a wealthy country. If the same event occurred in
a less developed country how would the short-term and long-term
impacts be different?
Figure 8 Impact of the tsunami on the coast of Japan.

Example of an earthquake and tsunami: To–hoku,

Japan
On 11 March 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake occurred off the coast
of Tōhoku, Japan. Less than half an hour later the coast was hit by a
tsunami. Waves reached 10 m high and travelled 10 km inland. Over
20,000 people died. The earthquake happened because of a build-up
in strain energy as the Pacific Plate subducted under the Eurasian
Plate.

Revision activity
Complete a diagram, such as the one below, summarising the
physical and human (social and economic) factors that affect
vulnerability. Use different colours for physical and human.
Now test yourself
1 What is a tsunami?
2 ‘People who live in low-income countries (LICs) are likely to be
more vulnerable to tectonic hazards than people who live in high-
income countries (HICs).’ To what extent do you agree with this
statement?

Exam practice
Study the photograph which shows the impact of the tsunami on the
coast of Japan.
Use evidence in the photograph only to describe two ways in which
the tsunami affected the lives of people who live in the coastal areas
of Japan.
[4]

Exam tip
You must only use evidence in the photograph. Make sure you
develop points so that you gain all of the marks available in a
question.
How might the risks associated with
tectonic hazards be reduced?
Prevention is not an option. This leaves two possible ways of
managing tectonic hazards: prediction through monitoring and
hazard mapping, and preparation including new building technology
and emergency planning.

Monitoring earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic

eruptions
Earthquakes are difficult to predict. Monitoring techniques include:
• Laser beams are used to detect plate movement.
• A seismometer (or seismograph) is used to pick up the vibrations
in the Earth’s crust. An increase in vibrations may indicate a possible
earthquake.
• Levels of radon gas escaping from cracks in the Earth’s crust can be
monitored. An increase may suggest an earthquake.
Tsunami warning system:
• Following the 1960 Chilean earthquake and tsunami, the nations of
the Pacific decided to set up the Pacific Tsunami Warning System
(PTWS).
• The PTWS uses a network of seismometers and ocean buoys to
detect earthquakes that might cause tsunamis.
• Warnings are given to local centres around the Pacific region, which
warn local people via TV, radio, text messages and sirens, giving
time to evacuate the area.
• In the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed over
230,000 people, the PTWS has taken on additional areas of
responsibility which include the Indian Ocean.

Revision activity
1 Choose five ways in which volcanoes are monitored and five ways
 in which people can prepare for a tectonic event. Draw and label a
picture of each on a sticky note. Stick them where you can see
them until you can remember each one.
2 Complete a wheel of knowledge for the topics in this theme (see
www.hoddereducation.co.uk/myrevisionnotes).
Monitoring techniques used to predict volcanic eruptions include:
• Remote sensing: satellites monitor gas emissions and use thermal
imaging to study changes in the temperature of the volcano.
• Visual signs: cameras are used to look for visual signs of change in
the volcano.
• Seismometers measure earthquake activity. Activity increases
before an eruption due to rising magma.
• Tiltmeters monitor changes in the shape of a volcano that occur as it
fills with magma.
• Global positioning systems (GPS) detect movements of as little as 1
mm.
• Gas emissions: these increase before an eruption, particularly
emissions of sulphur dioxide.

Hazard mapping
A hazard map highlights areas affected by, or vulnerable to
earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. This allows local authorities to:
• limit access to hazardous areas
• control development in areas at risk from tectonic events.

Exam tip
Questions which require extended writing are marked using a levels
mark scheme. To achieve the top level and gain full marks your
answer needs to demonstrate exceptional application of knowledge
and understanding, a comprehensive chain of reasoning and a
balanced appraisal.

Now test yourself

1 What is a hazard map?
2 Describe two features of an earthquake-resistant building.
3 Explain why these features could reduce the risks associated with
earthquakes.

Example of a hazard map: Soufrière Hills

Volcano, Montserrat
This hazard map divides Montserrat into six zones. Access to areas
is restricted depending on how active the volcano is:
• Zone V is out of bounds to all except scientists.
• The central zones (A–C and E): residents are on a heightened
state of alert, have a rapid means of exit and have hard hats and
dust masks.
• The northern zone: an area with lower risk, suitable for residential
and commercial development.
• The maritime exclusion zones (E and W) exist because pyroclastic
flows can travel out to sea.
Figure 9 Hazard map for Montserrat.
New building technology
Earthquake-proof buildings have been constructed in many major
cities, designed to absorb the energy of an earthquake and to
withstand the movement of the Earth.

Emergency planning
• An exclusion zone can be set up near a volcano.
• Evacuation routes enable residents to leave the area.
• Lava flows can be diverted.
• Emergency services need to be trained and have the necessary
equipment.
• People can be educated through TV and social media on what they
should do to protect themselves in the event of a volcanic eruption,
earthquake or tsunami. Rehearse earthquake drills, for example.
• People may put together emergency kits containing first-aid items,
blankets and tinned food, and store them in their homes.
• Roads and bridges can be designed to withstand the power of
earthquakes.
Figure 10 Features of an earthquake-resistant building.

Exam practice
Explain why people who live in lower income countries are likely to be
more vulnerable to the impact of tectonic hazards.
[6]
Theme 4 Coastal Hazards and
their Management

Vulnerable coastlines

Why are some coastal communities

vulnerable to erosion and flooding?
The coastline is the boundary where land meets the sea. Threats to
coastal communities include extreme natural events such as storms,
tsunamis and landslides, as well as longer-term risks of coastal
erosion and sea level rise.
Vulnerability is the potential to be harmed by a natural hazard. Some
coastal communities are more vulnerable than others.

Physical factors that increase vulnerability

• Magnitude: the stronger the hazard, the more severe the impacts.
• Duration: the longer a hazard lasts, the more severe the impacts are
likely to be.
• Predictability: hazards that hit without warning will have more
serious results.
• Regularity: if hazards happen often and in quick succession, for
example a storm causing coastal flooding followed by further storms,
then the severity is likely to be greater. Communities do not have the
capacity to recover before the next storm hits.
Figure 1 Waves crashing against a sea wall.

Social and economic (human) factors that

increase vulnerability
• Wealth: poor people are less able to afford housing that can
withstand extreme events and are less likely to have money or
insurance policies that can help recovery.
• Education: when populations are literate, written messages can be
used to spread information either before the event or to issue
warnings and give advice during an event.
• Governments can support education and awareness, and can build
sea defences.
• Age: children and elderly people are more vulnerable. They have
fewer financial resources and are frequently dependent on others for
survival.
• Health: a healthy person is more able to escape the dangers and
recover after the event.
• Population density: the greater the number of people who live in the
area, the more severe the impact.
• Time of day or day of week influences whether people are at home,
 at work or at the coastline. A tsunami in the middle of the day when
many visitors are at a beach resort could have devastating effects.
• Emergency services: richer countries usually have well-trained and
well-resourced response teams that can rescue and treat people
following a disaster.

Now test yourself

‘People who live in coastal communities in low-income countries
(LICs) are likely to be more vulnerable to coastal erosion and flooding
than people who live in high-income countries (HICs).’ To what extent
do you agree with this statement?

How severe weather events and climate change

create vulnerability to coastal flooding
Over 1 billion people live in low-elevation coastal zones (LECZs).
Three-quarters of the world’s mega-cities have a coastal location.
Risks to coastal communities are likely to increase in the future
because:
• Sea levels are likely to rise by between 50 and 100 cm by 2100,
which will increase coastal flooding.
• Warmer seas lead to increased frequency and strength of storms
causing increased coastal erosion and storm surges.
• More violent storms will give heavier rainfall and increased risk of
flash flooding.
Economically developing countries are likely to be in the frontline of
the impacts of climate change. These countries are the most
vulnerable to the risks but have the least capacity to react and
recover.

Example of a vulnerable coastal landscape:

Thames Gateway
Figure 2 Location of the Thames Gateway.

One of the most vulnerable coastal landscapes in the UK is the

Thames Estuary to the east of London. This stretch of coastline is
known as the Thames Gateway. It is at risk of severe weather events.
These risks include:
• storm surges: the sea is pushed into the funnel-shaped estuary
• isostatic change: the area is sinking into the sea by about 2 mm
per year
• changing sea levels: the sea level is rising at about 3 mm a year.
The area is particularly vulnerable because:
• 1.6 million people live and work in the area.
• 500,000 properties are at risk.
• 75 per cent of the property value in England and Wales lies on the
Thames Estuary.
• London City Airport is at risk.
• London is the UK’s largest centre of economic activity, contributing
£250 billion to the UK economy each year.
Storm surges are a particular threat because:
• Depressions over the North Sea create lower pressure causing a
rise in sea level.
• Northerly winds push the surface waters of the sea forward, a
motion known as ‘wind drift’.
• The North Sea is shaped like a funnel and as water is forced
southwards it cannot escape through the narrow English Channel;
this increases the height of the sea.
• The funnelling effect is further enhanced by the Thames Estuary.
• Following devastating flooding in 1953, the government decided to
build the Thames Barrier.

Revision activity
Carry out your own internet research. On a sheet of A5 card, build up
a Five Ws case study of the storm surge which hit the east coast of
Britain in December 2013. The Five Ws are questions which will help
you to gather information or problem-solve. They will provide you with
a summary of the winter storm.
• What happened?
• When did it take place?
• Where did it take place?
• Why did it happen?
• Who did it affect?
Each question should have a factual answer.

Now test yourself

1 Why are the risks to coastal communities likely to increase in the
future?
2 What is a storm surge?

Social and economic factors that increase

vulnerability in countries at different levels of
economic development
• Primary impacts are the immediate consequences of an event, such
as people inside a collapsing building during a cliff collapse.
• Secondary impacts are those which result from the primary event,
 for example destroyed buildings lead to people becoming homeless.
Secondary impacts may last for many years after the event.
In the UK, a high-income country, over 20 million people live within 10
km of the coast. Many coastal communities are particularly vulnerable
because of factors such as high numbers of older residents, tourists
and visitors who stay for a short time only, low employment levels,
seasonality of work and poor transport links.
In economically developing countries, agriculture is often the
backbone of their economies and millions of people live on fertile river
deltas such as in Egypt. Many of the world’s largest cities are located
in the coastal areas of economically developing countries. Mumbai, in
India, is one example where 18.4 million people live, many in poorly
built housing on land less than 10 m above sea level in an area at risk
from tropical cyclones.

Example of a coastal community in an

economically developing country: Nile Delta,
Egypt
The Nile Delta is one of the oldest intensely cultivated areas on
Earth. Almost 40 million people live in the delta region, with
population densities up to 1600 inhabitants per km2. The low-lying,
fertile floodplain of the Nile valley and the Nile Delta is surrounded by
deserts.
Alexandria is the largest city in the delta, built in Egypt’s LECZ. It has
a population of more than 4.5 million – half of these people live in
self-built informal housing. These urban poor are at great risk from a
sea level rise because they:
• have few savings and no insurance
• rely on boreholes for drinking water, which is increasingly
contaminated
• live in unhealthy conditions
• live in poorly built multi-storey buildings.
The 50 km wide strip of land along the coast is less than 2 m above
sea level. It is protected from flooding by a sand belt that ranges from
1 to 10 km wide. Rising sea levels will destroy parts of this sand belt.
The impacts would be serious:
• one-third of Egypt’s fish catches are made in lagoons protected by
the sand belt
• fertile agricultural land would be lost
• low-lying parts of Alexandria and Port Said would be destroyed
• beach resorts would be endangered and tourism threatened
• it will cause serious groundwater salination
• 8 million people may become environmental refugees.
Figure 3 Population density of the Nile Delta.
Figure 4 Impact of sea level rise on the Nile Delta.

Revision activity
On a sheet of A5 card complete a summary which highlights:
1 The social and economic factors which increase the vulnerability
of people who live on the Nile Delta.
2 The impacts of sea level rise on the people who live on the Nile
Delta.

Now test yourself

1 Explain why the following factors increase the vulnerability of
coastal communities:
– high numbers of older residents
– tourists and visitors who stay for a short time only
– poor transport links.
2 Describe the possible impacts of rising sea levels on the people
who live on the Nile Delta, Egypt.

Exam practice
Study the photograph.
Use evidence in the photograph only to describe two ways in which
the cyclone affected the lives of people who live in the coastal
communities affected by Cyclone Phailin.
 [4]

Figure 5 Impact of Cyclone Phailin on the coast of the Bay of Bengal,

India.

Exam tip
You must only use evidence in the photograph. Make sure you
develop points so that you gain all of the marks available in a
question.

Managing coastal hazards

How are coastlines managed?
Many different groups of people have an interest in what happens at
the coast including:
• residents
• environmental groups
• developers
• local councils
• national governments
• tourist boards
• National Parks Authorities.
Each of these groups may have a different view about what should be
done to manage the coastline. Management is needed because:
• Homes and businesses need protection from coastal erosion,
landslides and flooding.
• Sea levels are rising, increasing the risk of coastal flooding.
• Litter, pollution from sewage discharge or accidents such as oil spills
need to be cleaned up.
• The magnitude and frequency of storms is increasing, causing storm
surges, flooding and wind damage.
• Natural habitats and heritage sites need preserving and protecting.
There are two main methods of defence used to protect the coastline:
hard engineering and soft engineering.

Hard engineering
Hard engineering uses structures or machinery to control coastal
processes. It is an expensive and short-term option. It has a high
impact on the landscape and environment and it is unsustainable.
Image Method Description Advantages Disadvantages
Sea walls Concrete Provide Expensive,
(£6000 per sea walls excellent affect access to
metre) reflect the defence the beach,
energy of where wave recurved sea
waves and energy is walls can
prevent high. Have a increase
flooding. long life erosion of
They are span beach material
often
recurved
which
means
 waves are
reflected
back on
themselves.
They are
often used
to protect
settlements
Groynes Wooden Relatively Beaches further
(£5000 barriers cheap, along the coast
each) (usually), retain a wide are starved of
built down a sandy beach beach material
beach, trap
sand being
transported
by
longshore
drift. The
resultant
wider beach
absorbs
wave
energy,
reducing the
rate of cliff
erosion
Rip rap Large Relatively Unattractive,
(£1000 per boulders of cheap and access to
metre) hard rock efficient beach becomes
are placed difficult, costs
along the increase when
base of a rock is imported
cliff and
absorb the
energy of
the waves
 Gabions Steel cages, Cheap and Visually
(£100 per containing efficient unattractive.
metre) boulders, Shorter life
absorb the span than a
energy of sea wall
the waves
Revetments Traditionally Cheaper Short life span
(£2000 per these are and less and unsuitable
metre) wooden intrusive where wave
fence-like than a sea energy is high
structures wall. Cause
that allow less erosion
seawater of beach
and material
sediment to
pass
through, but
the
structures
absorb
wave
energy. A
beach
builds up
behind the
revetment
and
provides
further
protection

Revision activity
On five sticky notes draw and label a sketch of each method of sea
defence. Label each sketch with two advantages and two
disadvantages. Stick them where you can see them. Look at them
every night and every morning until you can remember them.

Now test yourself

Explain why many people have the viewpoint that hard engineering is
an unsustainable way of managing our coastline.

Soft engineering
Soft engineering involves working with nature. It is often less
expensive than hard engineering, and is usually more sustainable with
less impact on the environment. Examples include:
Method Description Advantages Disadvantages
Beach Beaches are made • It is • Offshore
nourishment higher and wider by relatively dredging of
importing sand and cheap, sand and
shingle from further approximately shingle
along the coast or £20 per m3 increases
dredging it from the • It retains erosion in
sea bed the natural other areas
look of the and affects
beach ecosystems
• Beach
replenishment
is necessary
on a regular
basis,
increasing
costs
Sand dune Sand dunes act as a • Dunes are • Management
stabilisation natural defence left is time
against coastal undisturbed, consuming,
flooding and erosion hence for example
maintaining planting
the natural marram
ecosystem grass and
 • Boardwalks fencing off
are areas
constructed, • Cost is
sections of expensive,
sand dunes around
are marked £2000 per
as out of 100 m
bounds, so
the dunes
become
more
accessible
to tourists
Managed Areas of coast are • It retains • The cost
retreat allowed to erode and the natural depends on
(managed flood naturally, balance of the amount
realignment) creating a new the coastal of
intertidal zone which system compensation
acts as a natural • Eroded that needs
buffer against storms material to be paid to
and rising sea levels. encourages landowners
Usually used in areas the and
where land is low development homeowners
value of beaches • People
and salt lose their
marshes livelihoods
and homes

‘Hold the line’ and ‘managed retreat’

There are contrasting approaches to coastal management:
• Hold the line: where existing coastal defences are maintained.
Hard and soft engineering is used to keep the coastline in the same
place. This is a popular option with local residents.
• Managed retreat (surrender): move people out of danger zones and
let Mother Nature take control. The coastline will move inland, only
being defended when necessary. This is a less expensive option but
 usually less popular.

Example of ‘hold the line’: Borth, Ceredigion

Figure 6 Wooden groynes on Borth Beach in 2009.

The village of Borth is built on the southern end of a pebble ridge that
sticks out into the Dyfi Estuary. Wooden groynes, built in the 1970s,
trapped sand on the beach which protected the village. By the 1990s
these groynes were in poor condition. Ceredigion Council needed to
decide on its future management strategy. Should the council ‘hold
the line’ or carry out a ‘managed retreat’? If it decided on a managed
retreat then:
• Storm waves would flood Borth in the next 10–15 years.
• Property in Borth worth £10.75 million would be lost.
• The peat bog north-east of Borth, recognised by UNESCO and a
Special Area of Conservation, would be flooded and its existing
ecosystem lost.
• The nearby Ynyslas sand dunes which attract thousands of
holidaymakers every year would be cut off from the town.
• Many local businesses would suffer if tourist numbers fell.
It was estimated that new coastal defences would cost £7 million. In
2000 a decision was made to ‘hold the line’. In 2010 work began:
• Four rock groynes were built to trap sediment being moved along
the beach by longshore drift and maintain a wide beach in front of
the village. The rock for the groynes was purchased from the local
quarry.
• An artificial rock reef was built parallel to the shore to break the
power of the waves, hence reducing erosion and encouraging the
deposition of sand and pebbles.
• Beach nourishment was put in place to increase the width of the
beach so that waves will break further offshore.
The scheme was completed in 2015 at an actual cost of £18 million.
The scheme so far has been successful in preventing further damage
and flooding.

Revision activity
Find out where Borth is on the Welsh coastline. On sticky notes make
a list of all of the different groups of people you think would be
involved in making the decision to ‘hold the line’ at Borth. Write each
‘group’ on an individual note. Now move the sticky notes around to
show the following:
• People who would have helped make the decision to protect the
coastline and people who would not have helped.
• People positively and negatively affected by the decision to protect
Borth.
• People affected by the decision in the short term and people
affected in the long term.
Now test yourself
1 Describe the differences between ‘hold the line’ and ‘managed
retreat’ coastal management strategies.
2 Explain why two different groups of people may have different
views about what should be done to manage a stretch of coastline.
3 If you were responsible for devising a management strategy for a
stretch of coastline, how would you take into consideration the
views of all of the different groups of people shown above?
Exam tip
It is important to focus on the command word when answering a
question. The two most commonly used command words are
describe and explain. Describe invites you to ‘paint a picture’ of
what something is like by using lots of adjectives. Explain directs you
to say why in this case people have different views.

The cost-benefit of coastal protection

Cost-benefit analysis involves adding up the benefits of a course of
action, and then comparing these with the costs associated with it.
Where the cost of managing a coastline would be greater than the
benefits likely to be gained from protecting it, particularly in areas
where there are few people and little of ‘value’ to protect, the decision
may be to do nothing and allow flooding and erosion to happen.

Social and economic reasons why some

coastlines are protected
Failure to manage coastlines will have severe economic and social
effects along coastlines used for settlement, tourism and industry.
Management of coastlines is also important to help protect natural
habitats. Governments generally do not engage in coastal
management where there is not an economic risk. Effective coastal
management is expensive and questions are increasingly being asked
as to whether it is worth the money.
Figure 7 Flood zones in England and Wales.

Example of ‘managed retreat’: Medmerry

In 2014, the UK’s largest realignment sea defence scheme was
completed in Medmerry, West Sussex. Problems of flooding from the
sea had affected the area for many years and up to £300,000 was
spent every year repairing the shingle bank protecting the area.
The new defence scheme has redrawn the coastline 2 km further
inland. It involved the construction of 7 km of earth embankments,
four channels to take freshwater through the defences and a breach
in the existing sea wall to allow land to flood.
The completed scheme:
• cost £28 million
• protected 348 properties, the sewage works and the main road into
Selsey serving over 5000 households
• created 183 ha of intertidal habitat, managed by the RSPB as a
 nature reserve
• saved £300,000 a year in maintenance costs
• allowed public access and a boost for green tourism
• allowed cattle to be grazed on the salt marsh, producing highly
valued beef
• provided improved public health with access to the countryside and
wildlife.
Has the scheme worked?
• The scheme performed well during the first year of operation. No
flooding issues were experienced despite the extreme weather in
the winter of 2013–14.
• The habitat is developing well, with good populations of birds and
other wildlife using the site.
• The scheme is delivering benefits to the local economy. The nature
reserve is attracting more visitors to the area, and the large local
caravan park has extended its opening periods by two months,
generating income and job security.

Now test yourself

1 Using evidence from the map, describe the distribution of flood
zones in England and Wales.
2 ‘Governments generally do not engage in coastal management
where there isn’t an economic risk.’ What is meant by this
statement?
3 Identify one group of people who are likely to be in favour of the
Medmerry scheme and one group who would be against. Explain
their viewpoints.
4 Carry out a cost-benefit analysis of the Medmerry scheme and
decide whether in your opinion it has been successful.

Shoreline management plans (SMPs)

The management of coastal areas in the UK is covered by shoreline
management plans (SMPs). It is the responsibility of local councils to
develop SMPs. Each should consider:
• How many people are threatened by erosion and flooding and how
 much would it cost to rehouse these people?
• How much would it cost to rebuild roads and railway lines if they
were washed away?
• Are there historic or natural features that should be conserved and
do these features have any economic value, for example as tourist
attractions?

Example of management strategies: Holderness

Coast, Yorkshire
The Holderness Coast in Yorkshire has some of the highest erosion
rates in Europe:
• Cliffs erode at an average of 2 m a year.
• Rocks are mostly weak boulder clay.
• Erosion rates are highest when spring tides combine with winds
from the north-east.
• Beaches are narrow and offer little protection.
• The coastline has retreated 4 km since Roman times and many
villages have been lost.
Risks include:
• Fertile farmland will be lost to the sea.
• More villages will disappear.
• Major roads will disappear into the sea.
Management strategies:
• Hornsea has been protected with groynes, a sea wall and rip rap.
• Mappleton has been protected with groynes, rip rap and cliff
regrading.
These sea defences have increased erosion further south at Cowden
and Aldborough. Groynes have trapped sand and starved the
beaches downdrift, exposing cliffs to the full force of the waves.
Figure 8 The Holderness Coast.

Co-ordinating coastal management

The Holderness Coast is an example of where protecting the coastline
in one area can cause problems elsewhere. It demonstrates the need
to co-ordinate coastal management at a regional and national level.
Integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) is a concept born in
1992 during the Earth Summit of Rio de Janeiro. It aims to develop
sustainable solutions based on:
• Which areas need protecting and which areas are not cost effective
to protect?
• What type of defence should be used?
• What is best for wildlife and the natural environment?
• What is the best solution for the people who live at the coastline,
taking a balanced view and not favouring one group over another?

Monitoring, hazard mapping and emergency

planning
The capacity of a community to react to and recover from a coastal
hazard depends on how prepared that community is for that hazard.
This depends on:
• Monitoring: being able to predict extreme weather.
• Hazard mapping: being able to know which areas will be affected by
the hazard.
• Emergency services: having the resources and training to react to
the hazard.
In the UK, the Flood Forecasting Centre monitors the weather and
makes flooding forecasts. The Environment Agency and Natural
Resources Wales inform the public of these forecasts and also
produce hazard maps to identify areas at particular risk. A hazard
map alerts the public to the areas at danger of coastal flooding and
gives local authorities information for long-term planning, for example
giving planning permission for new housing developments.

Now test yourself

Describe the main purpose of a shoreline management plan (SMP).
Revision activity
Carry out your own research of the Environment Agency or Natural
Resources Wales website. Follow the link to flooding. Now research
the ‘5 day flood forecast’ and the ‘Flood warnings map’ links.
1 Write down the ‘5 day flood forecast’ summary. Are there any
areas at high risk of flooding in your summary?

Figure 9 Screenshot of the Natural Resources Wales flood hazard

map for Kinmel Bay and West Rhyl.

2 Below the flood warnings map you will find a link to ‘What to do
before a flood’ and ‘What to do during or after the flood’. Imagine
that a forecast has predicted that your area is at high risk of
flooding. Produce a 60-second radio alert informing the public
about what to do in the event of a flood.
3 Draw a labelled sketch map to show areas of Towyn and Rhyl that
are at risk of flooding.
4 Below your map give two ways in which this hazard map would be
useful in reducing the risks to people of coastal flooding.
Exam practice
Describe how hard engineering strategies may be used to reduce the
risk of coastal erosion and flooding in one location you have studied.
[4]

Exam tip
It is important to use examples in your answers to exam questions. In
a points marked question these will give you extra marks. In a levels
marked question they will encourage the examiner to give you a
higher level. Often in a levels marked question a lack of examples will
mean you cannot achieve full marks.

What is the most sustainable way to

manage coastlines in the face of rising
sea levels?
A spokesperson for the Environment Agency says ‘It is important
that we now consider a 100-year timeframe which forces us to look at
the ways in which our coast will change and consider the impact that
climate change will have.’

Reasons for increased vulnerability of coastal

communities in the future
Climate change is placing increasing pressure on coastal regions
which are already seriously affected by intensive human activity. This
raises the question of whether people can continue to live in low-lying
coastal regions. Coastal ecosystems and habitats such as mangroves,
coral reefs, seagrass meadows and salt marshes are also under
threat.
• More than 200 million people worldwide live along coastlines less
than 5 m above sea level.
• By the end of the century, this figure is estimated to increase to
400–500 million.
• These areas could be inundated by rising sea levels which are
forecast to rise by up to 1 m.
• Inhabitants will be forced to find ways of managing rising water
levels or to abandon some areas altogether.
• Governments cannot defend everything at all costs.
Scientists also believe that climate change could lead to increased
coastal erosion, due to more aggressive marine conditions, and to an
increase in the magnitude and frequency of storms. This is a particular
concern for those people who live in regions of the world affected by
tropical storms and the devastation they can bring.

Figure 10 Tropical storm tracks and the areas where they form.

Revision activity
1 What different names are given to tropical storms in different parts
of the world?
2 Carry out internet research and list ten countries affected by
tropical storms.
Why some coastlines are at greater risk than
others
As well as the general rise in sea levels, there are local factors that
mean some coastlines are more at risk than others:
• Some coasts are sinking or subsiding. River estuaries and deltas
sink under their own weight as more sediment is deposited. Parts of
the city of New Orleans in the USA are subsiding by 28 mm per year.
Northern parts of the UK were covered by thick layers of heavy ice
during the last ice age. When the ice melted the land in this part of
the UK began to rise slowly and the southern part of the UK began to
sink.
• Rocks which make the coast may be hard or soft. Clay rocks of the
Holderness Coastline give it some of the highest erosion rates in the
world.
• Coastal storms affect some coastlines more than others. Tropical
storms only affect coastlines in some parts of the world (see Figure
12). Some coastlines such as the Thames Gateway are more
vulnerable to storm surges.
• Some coastlines are threatened by tsunami. In December 2004, the
Indian Ocean tsunami affected thirteen countries and killed over
230,000 people.

Now test yourself

1 Give two reasons to explain why some coastal communities are at
greater risk than others.
2 Give two reasons to explain why these communities will be more
vulnerable in the future.
Perhaps the communities that are at greatest risk are those living on
the world’s river deltas. Millions live on deltas in Bangladesh, Egypt,
Nigeria, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Rising sea level challenges faced by small island

states
Small island developing states (SIDS) are low-lying coastal
countries first recognised as a distinct group in 1992. They share
similar challenges, including small but growing populations, limited
resources, remoteness and fragile environments.

Now test yourself

1 What are small island developing states (SIDS)?
2 Give two examples of how the risks of sea level rise can be
managed in the Maldives.
3 Do you think the suggestion by the Maldivian president that the
population of the Maldives could relocate to Australia is a practical
one?

Exam tip
Questions which demand extended writing are marked using a levels
mark scheme. To achieve the top level and gain full marks, your
answer needs to demonstrate exceptional application of knowledge
and understanding, a comprehensive chain of reasoning and a
balanced appraisal.

Exam practice
‘Small island developing states are more vulnerable to coastal
hazards than any other location.’ Do you agree with this statement?
Explain your answer.
[8]

Revision activity
Complete a wheel of knowledge for the topics in this theme (see
www.hoddereducation.co.uk/myrevisionnotes).

Example of an SIDS and sea level rise: the

Maldives
The Maldives is a nation of 26 coral islands located in the Indian
Ocean. It has a population of 350,000. Eighty per cent of the land
area is less than 1 m above sea level and nowhere is more than 3 m
above sea level.
The Maldives is a poor country, ranked 165th out of 192 nation
states. The main occupation is fishing although tourism has become
increasingly important in recent years. The Maldives is ranked the
third most endangered nation due to flooding from climate change.
Risks include:
• Rising sea levels which threaten the existence of the Maldives. The
islands may disappear in the next century. Inhabitants will become
environmental refugees.
• Flooding of beach resorts, damaging the tourism that the economy
depends on.
• More intense tropical storms.
• Damage to coral reefs due to warmer sea temperatures.
Ecosystems associated with reefs are lost. This will affect diving
tourism. Ninety per cent of government tax revenue comes from
tourism.
• Money will be spent on sea defences at the expense of public
services and development.
• Groundwater sources are increasingly contaminated by saltwater.
Freshwater is scarce; 87 per cent comes from rainwater.
• Agricultural land is being lost and the fishing industry is disrupted.
Figure 11 The location of the Maldives.

How can the risks be managed?

• A 3 m high wall has been built around Malé, the capital, at a cost of
$63 million, funded by Japan.
• The smaller islands could be evacuated. This is a temporary
solution because eventually all the islands would also have to be
abandoned. The United Nations predicts that the Maldives will be
uninhabitable by 2100.
• Dykes could be built to hold back the sea. The cost of building a
dyke depends on its length, so this is a very expensive option in an
island state.
• The height of the islands could be increased; this will require a lot
of sand and coral.
• The Maldivian president has suggested that the population could
be relocated to Australia.
Revision activity
1 Consider the impact of sea level rise on the Maldives and complete
a table such as the one below:
Impacts Social Economic and
environmental
Primary (Impacts on the community and well- (Impacts on wealth
being of individuals and families) and ecosystems)
Secondary
2 Use a mind mapping technique to summarise how coastal hazards
can be managed.
Theme 5 Weather, Climate and
Ecosystems

Climate change during the

Quaternary period
What is the evidence for climate
change?
What is climate change?
The weather can change from hour to hour. Climate is the average
weather conditions over a long period of time. Climate change is a
natural phenomenon and over the past 11,000 years the Earth’s
surface temperature has changed a great deal.

Figure 1 Average surface temperature changes of the northern

hemisphere during the past 11,000 years.

During the Medieval Warm Period ice-free seas allowed the Vikings to
colonise Greenland. The Little Ice Age was a colder period in northern
Europe where temperatures were on average 1–1.5 °C colder than
today.
Over a longer period of time, the past 400,000 years, there have been
natural cycles of cooling and warming. The periods of cool
temperatures, where average global temperatures are below 15 °C,
are known as glacials and periods of warmth are known as
interglacials.

Evidence for climate change

Evidence that climate has changed in the past includes:

Figure 2 Temperature change in the atmosphere over the past

420,000 years.

• Fossils of plants and animals found in places where they could not
live today.
• Ice cores from the Antarctic show that the amounts of carbon
dioxide (CO2) and methane in the atmosphere have changed over
the past 420,000 years.
• Glaciation in places now free of ice.
• Studies of tree rings, known as dendrochronology, show that
growing seasons have varied in length in the past.
• Historical records such as diary extracts, crop yields for local
registers and paintings, such as of ice fairs on the River Thames
 during the Little Ice Age.
Recent evidence of climate change includes:
• Increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.
• Shifting seasons leading to changes in the migration patterns of
birds and insects.
• Glaciers and ice sheets melting and retreating.
• Measurements by the Met Office show that average global
temperatures have increased by 0.6 °C in the past 100 years.

Example of the Pasterze Glacier

The Pasterze Glacier in Austria has retreated by about 8 km in the
past 160 years.
Figure 3 The Pasterze Glacier photographed in 2015 showing its
retreat since 1980.

Figure 4 The Keeling curve plots the change in the amount of CO2 in
the Earth’s atmosphere. Measurements started in 1958.

Now test yourself

Look at the Keeling curve and answer these questions:
1 How much CO2 was in the atmosphere in 1960?
2 Describe the change in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere
between 1960 and 2000.
3 Explain the annual cycle of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Exam practice
Figure 5 Average monthly Arctic sea ice extent, March 1979–2016.

Describe the change in the extent of Arctic sea ice between 1979 and
2014.
[4]

Revision activity
On a sheet of A5 card, complete a spider diagram summarising the
evidence for climate change. Include drawings to help you to
remember each point.

Exam tip
If a question asks for a description of change in a graph, use figures
to back up your description.

What are the causes of climate

change?
Scientists believe natural climate change is caused by:
• changes in the Earth’s orbit
• changes in the tilt of the Earth
• changes in the output of solar radiation
• volcanic activity.

Example: Milankovitch cycles

The Serbian astronomer Milutin Milankovitch explained long-term
climate change through changes in the Earth’s orbit and rotation,
known as Milankovitch cycles.

Figure 6 The Milankovitch cycles.

Warmer and cooler periods are caused by:

• The orbit of the Earth: it is sometimes closer and sometimes further
away from the Sun.
• The tilt of the Earth: affects the amount of energy it receives from
the Sun.

Now test yourself

1 Describe how the orbit of the Earth changes.
2 Explain why changes in the Earth’s tilt could cause changes in the
amount of energy received from the Sun.
3 Explain why large-scale destruction of forest areas will increase
the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
4 Explain why carbon is transferred more rapidly between some
stores.

The carbon cycle process

What is the carbon cycle?
All living things are made of carbon. Carbon is also a part of the
ocean, air and rocks. Carbon moves or flows between the stores in
the environment through a process called the carbon cycle:
• In the atmosphere, carbon is stored as CO2.
• Plants use CO2 and sunlight to make food by a process called
photosynthesis during the day. The carbon flows from the
atmosphere and is stored in the plant.
• Plants and animals give out CO2 during respiration. The carbon
flows back to the atmosphere.
• When plants and animals die, carbon is recycled, decomposers
return it to the atmosphere as CO2 or they may be buried and over
millions of years turned into long-term stores as fossil fuels such as
coal, gas and oil.
• When fossil fuels are burned the carbon is released and flows back
to the atmosphere as CO2.
• There is about 30 per cent more CO2 in the air today than there was
150 years ago.

Figure 7 The carbon cycle, showing fast and slow transfers.

What is the greenhouse effect?

The greenhouse effect is the natural process by which the
atmosphere warms up. Without it life would not be possible on Earth.
Figure 8 The greenhouse effect.

Revision activity
1 Complete a set of flashcards with questions and answers on the
causes of climate change, the carbon cycle and the greenhouse
effect. Test yourself using these cards.
2 Complete a spider diagram on a piece of A5 card to add to your
set. Use the information in Figure 7 and your own research to show
how the actions of people are increasing the level of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere, for example cattle release methane as
they digest their food.

Now test yourself

1 Cover the diagram above showing the greenhouse effect. Explain
in your own words how the natural greenhouse effect warms the
Earth’s atmosphere.
2 Explain why the greenhouse effect is vital to life on Earth.

How human activity affects the carbon cycle

Greenhouse gases occur naturally. There is increasing evidence that
people’s actions are adding to the amounts of these gases in the
atmosphere through:
• Burning fossil fuels, for example coal, gas and oil releasing CO2.
• Deforestation: trees absorb CO2 during photosynthesis.
• Dumping waste in landfill: when waste decomposes it produces
methane, which is a greenhouse gas.
• Farming causes the release of methane, for example as part of the
digestive process in cattle.
The enhanced greenhouse effect leads to global warming.

Global cooling due to volcanic activity

Volcanic activity is known to cause climate change. Large eruptions
eject dust and sulphur dioxide (SO2) into the lower stratosphere.
The mixture of ash and SO2 forms an aerosol – tiny droplets that
scatter sunlight back into space. This reduces the amount of solar
energy reaching the Earth’s surface, causing a global cooling effect.

Example: Mount Pinatubo

On 15 June 1991, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted:
• 10 km3 of ash was ejected, blocking solar radiation.
• 15 million tonnes of SO2 went into the stratosphere and formed a
layer of sulphuric acid droplets which absorbed and scattered solar
radiation.
• Mean world temperatures decreased by 0.5 °C.
Figure 9 Mount Pinatubo erupting.

Exam practice
Figure 10 Global temperature changes, 1880–2015 (source:
GISS/NASA).

1 Calculate the rise in the global average temperature between 1880

and 2000.
[2]
2 Describe how one piece of evidence, other than rising
temperatures, suggests that climate is changing.
[4]
3 ‘People’s actions are the major cause of recent climate change.’
To what extent do you agree with this statement?
[8]

Exam tip
Questions worth less than 6 marks are usually marked using a point
marking scheme. You will score 1 mark for every relevant point that is
made. Look to develop points to gain full marks and use a ‘chain of
reasoning’ to build an answer.

Now test yourself

How are human activities affecting the carbon cycle?

Weather patterns and processes

What are the causes and

consequences of weather hazards?
Global circulation of the atmosphere
The global circulation is a worldwide system of winds which transports
heat from tropical to polar latitudes:
• At the equator insolation heats the Earth which in turn heats the air
above.
• Hot air rises, creating low pressure. When the air reaches the
tropopause it cannot go any further and travels north and south.
• This air becomes colder and heavier, and at around 30° north and
south it falls, creating high pressure.
• Air from the north and south then returns to the equator and meets
in an area known as the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ).
• A large circulation of air is thus created, known as the Hadley cell.
• Air rises again at around 60° north and south and descends again
around 90° north and south, creating a further two less distinct cells:
the Ferrel cell and the Polar cell.
Figure 11 Global circulation system.

Now test yourself

Read the information on the global circulation of the atmosphere.
Cover up the information once you have read it. Now decide which of
the following statements are true:
1 Immediately to the north and south of the equator is a cell known
as the Ferrel cell.
2 Air rises at the equator creating low pressure.
3 Winds from the north and south meet at the equator in an area
known as the intertropical divergence zone.
4 Air rises at around 30° north and south of the equator creating high
pressure.
5 There are a total of three large circulations of air north of the
equator.

Changing patterns of tropical storms (low-

pressure systems) over time
Globally, 80–100 tropical storms form over tropical oceans every
year. There is an annual seasonality to their development. In the
northern hemisphere, most tropical storms occur between June and
November with a peak in September. In the southern hemisphere, the
season lasts from November to April.
Evidence for long-term changes in the frequency and magnitude of
tropical storms, as a result of climate change, is the subject of ongoing
research. Some evidence suggests a recent increase in tropical storm
activity. Others argue that variations in activity – on a regional and
time scale – are part of natural cycles.

How low-pressure systems lead to weather

hazards
Tropical low-pressure systems are among the most powerful and
destructive weather systems on Earth. Tropical storms (low-pressure
systems) are known as hurricanes, typhoons or cyclones in different
parts of the world.
Tropical storms form over tropical seas, when sea temperatures are
over 27 °C. They move westward, can travel 600 km a day and have
wind speeds that can reach over 120 km an hour. They give heavy
rainfall, which can cause severe flooding, and die out when they reach
land. High winds and low pressure generate large waves and storm
surges which can cause flooding in coastal areas.
Figure 12 The global distribution of tropical storms.

Now test yourself

1 What general name is given to tropical storms that affect places in
the Caribbean?
2 Describe the distribution of areas of the world that are affected by
tropical storms.
3 Explain why the majority of tropical storms occur between June
and November in the northern hemisphere and from November to
April in the southern hemisphere.

Example of a low-pressure hazard: tropical

cyclone Pam
Tropical cyclone Pam hit the island chain of Vanuatu in the South
Pacific in March 2015. Pam was a category 5 cyclone where wind
speeds reached over 250 km an hour.
Social, environmental and Responses
economic impacts
Eleven people died Emergency aid was sent by
Australia, Fiji, France, New
Zealand and the UK
90,000 people were made homeless Repairs provided safe drinking
 water
Winds destroyed hospitals and Blankets were distributed to
schools the homeless to keep people
warm
80 per cent of subsistence crops 153 temporary schools were
were flattened set up
Coastal areas were flooded by a Foreign medical teams arrived;
storm surge; freshwater wells were 19,000 children were
contaminated by seawater vaccinated against measles

Example: the South Asia monsoon

Figure 13 Circulation of the atmosphere over South Asia during July.

In South Asia the impacts tropical storms can be heightened by the

monsoon climate. In July 2015, more than 200 people lost their lives
and more than 1 million were made homeless when cyclone Komen
hit the region.
A monsoon climate is characterised by a seasonal change in the
direction of the prevailing winds which leads to distinct wet and dry
seasons. In South Asia, the ITCZ moves northwards across India
during July. Low pressure develops over Asia which pulls air in from
the Indian Ocean, leading to heavy rains. During the northern
hemisphere’s winter, a large area of high pressure builds over Asia,
pushing cool, dry air south, providing the region with its dry season.

Revision activity
Imagine you live in an area affected by hurricanes. Devise a
‘Hurricane Action Plan’.
• Discuss the type of hazards that could affect your family.
• Locate the safest places in your home or community for each
hazard.
• Decide on a place to meet and actions you need to take once the
storm has passed.
• Make up a slogan for your local council that will help people.

Global distribution of areas affected by heatwaves

and drought
A heatwave is an extended period of hot weather relative to the
expected conditions at that time of year. It is usually associated with
high pressure which has become stationary over an area. Met Office
research shows that in Europe, heatwaves are now ten times more
likely than they were before the year 2000.
Figure 14 Location of key areas of drought since 2000.

A drought is a lack of precipitation in an area for a long period of time,

often several months or even years. Droughts can happen anywhere,
although in recent decades the most severe droughts have been
located in:
• Australia
• South America – Brazil
• Africa – the Sahel (south of the Sahara Desert)
• Asia – areas of China and India
• The Mediterranean.
Climate change is predicted to lead to more frequent and severe
droughts.

How high-pressure systems lead to weather

hazards
High pressure leads to light winds, dry weather conditions and
sometimes drought. Droughts develop slowly, over a large area, with a
beginning and end often difficult to identify. They are the result of:
• a lack of rainfall
• an environment, soil or bedrock which is poor at storing and
retaining water
• hot weather which increases evaporation of water.

Exam practice
Explain why tropical low-pressure systems are described as the most
destructive of weather hazards.
[6]

Exam tip
Identify key terms in a question and plan your answer to address
each one. In this question the key terms are ‘tropical low-pressure
systems’, ‘weather hazard’, ‘destructive’. You could split your answer
into three paragraphs, each addressing one key term.

Example of a high-pressure hazard: drought in

the California
Figure 15 The extent of the drought across the USA in July 2015.

A drought lasting three years affected California between 2012 and

2015. An area of high pressure blocked low-pressure areas from
bringing winter rainfall.
Social, environmental and economic Responses
impacts
Low river levels meant most hydroelectric Compulsory water
power stations stopped producing restrictions including a
electricity ban on watering gardens
and washing cars
California usually grows half the fruit and Toilets, washing
vegetables produced in the USA. Crop machines and showers
failure led to shortages and price rises must use modern, low-
 water technologies
17,000 agricultural jobs were lost A reduction in the amount
of electricity generated
through hydroelectric
power
Salmon and trout died as river levels fell Investment into
and water temperatures rose desalination plants that
remove salt from
seawater
Groundwater supplies were not Farmers began growing
recharged. This could have serious long- crops that do not need so
term impacts on farming which relies on much water
this water to irrigate crops

Revision activity
Build up a Five Ws case study of the California drought. The Five Ws
are questions whose answers are considered basic in information
gathering or problem-solving. They constitute a formula for getting
the complete story on a subject.
• What happened?
• When did it take place?
• Where did it take place?
• Why did it happen?
• Who did it affect?
Each question should have a factual answer. Use the information you
have gathered to complete your own newspaper-style report on the
California drought.

Now test yourself

1 Locate the Pacific island of Vanuatu and the US state of California
on a blank map of the world.
2 Give three impacts of the low-pressure hazard in Vanuatu and
three impacts of the high-pressure hazard in California.
What factors create variations in
weather and climate within the UK?
Weather describes the atmospheric conditions at a particular place
and time. These include temperature, precipitation, wind and
sunshine. Climate is the average weather conditions measured over a
long period of time, at least 30 years.

What factors affect climate in the UK?

The UK has a temperate maritime climate heavily influenced by
latitude and the sea. The prevailing wind direction in the UK is from
the south-west. This brings moisture and frequent rainfall.
Factors affecting climate include:
• Latitude: the north of the UK has cooler temperatures than the
south.
• Altitude: mountain areas have colder temperatures. Temperatures
decrease by 1 °C for every 200 m of elevation.
• Aspect: south-facing slopes are warmer.
• Ocean currents: the North Atlantic Drift brings warmer water to the
UK’s shores and keeps the climate mild in winter and cool in
summer.

How maritime and continental climates affect the

UK
Wind direction brings different air masses to the UK which have an
important effect on the weather:
• north-westerly brings polar maritime air: cool and showery
• south-westerly brings tropical maritime air: mild and wet
• south-easterly brings tropical continental air: hot and dry
• easterly brings polar continental air: hot in summer and cold in
winter
• northerly brings Arctic air: cold with snow in winter.
The west of the UK experiences a more maritime climate than the
east, particularly in the winter months.

Weather associated with low-pressure

• Low-pressure systems, or depressions, produce cloudy, rainy and
windy weather, and often affect the UK, particularly in winter months.
• Depressions begin in the Atlantic, moving eastwards across the UK.
• Within the low pressure there are usually fronts where one air mass
rises above another.
• As air rises and cools, water vapour condenses to form clouds and
precipitation.

Weather associated with high-pressure

• High-pressure areas or anticyclones give low wind speeds and
stable conditions with no clouds.
• In summer, anticyclones usually bring dry and hot weather, which
may lead to drought. Rapidly rising warm air may result in
convectional rainfall and thunderstorms.
• In winter, clear skies bring cold nights and perhaps ice and fog.

Urban microclimate
• Urban heat islands: the result of the release and reflection of heat
from buildings and the absorption by concrete, brick and tarmac of
heat during the day, and its release at night.
• Urban precipitation: in the summer months, the extra heat
generated may cause air to rise, which leads to convectional
rainstorms.
• Urban winds: urban areas are less windy than surrounding rural
areas.

Factors influencing microclimate

Microclimate is the climate of a small-scale area, such as a garden,
valley or city. In the UK distinctive microclimates include:
• uplands
• coasts
• forests
• urban areas.

Revision activity
Complete the table below to explain frontal rainfall:
Number Explanation
1 Warm air is lighter than cold and it rises above the colder
air.
2
3

Figure 16 Warm weather front.

Now test yourself

Figure 17 Weather on 20 October 2014.

Use evidence from the satellite photograph and weather map to write
a weather forecast for the UK for 20 October 2014.

Exam practice

Figure 18 Why it rains more often in cities.

Annotate the diagram to explain how temperatures and rainfall totals

differ in urban areas compared to rural areas.
[4]
Exam tip
Labelling is when you name something, for example ‘warm air rising’.
Annotating is where you further explain your point, for example ‘warm
air rising leads to an increase in convectional rainfall’.

Processes and interactions within

ecosystems

Where are large-scale ecosystems

found?
Ecosystems can exist at a variety of scales from a rock pool at the
seaside to global systems such as the tropical rainforest.

Figure 19 Global distribution of the major biomes.

Characteristics of large-scale ecosystems

Large-scale ecosystems or biomes develop over a very long period
of time. Climate is the most important factor in determining their
distribution:
• Rainfall: the amount and seasonal patterns are key to the
 distribution of all biomes, for example a place that receives less than
25 cm of rain per year is described as a desert.
• Temperature: when rainfall is reliable and distributed evenly
throughout the year then temperature becomes the most important
factor, for example mountains have a very distinctive ecosystem
since temperatures fall by 1 °C for every 200 m of altitude.
Relief, geology and soils are other important factors in the distribution
of biomes. Examples include the following:
• Tropical rainforest: located either side of the equator where hot and
wet conditions encourage continuous growth of plants.
• Temperate deciduous forest: a hot and a cold season means that
trees lose their leaves in the autumn to conserve energy.
• Coniferous forest (taiga): it is so cold in winter that trees have
evolved needle-like leaves to survive the frosts and reduce moisture
loss.

Now test yourself

Imagine you are a TV producer making a programme on the plant
and animal life of the UK. Write an introduction for the presenter of
the programme about the temperate deciduous forest ecosystem.

Revision activity
Draw a table on a sheet of A5 card with four columns, as below.
Carry out further research and complete the table by giving important
facts about each of the major biomes identified on the map above.
One has been completed as an example:
Biome Distribution Climate Plants and
animals
Coniferous Found between 50° Long winters, Coniferous trees
forest and 60° north of the temperatures well such as pine and
equator and in below freezing. animals such as
mountain areas Heavy snowfall reindeer
Exam practice
1 Use the map above to describe the distribution of the tropical
rainforest biome.
[4]
2 Give two features of the climate of the tropical rainforest
ecosystem.
[4]

What are the key processes of

ecosystems?
Processes and relationships that link living and
non-living parts of ecosystems
The living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) parts of the ecosystem are
interdependent. If one part of the ecosystem is altered then the whole
ecosystem will be changed. Humans are increasingly having an
impact on natural ecosystems.

Succession
Ecosystems develop over time through succession:
• Hardy pioneer species colonise a bare area of ground.
• Weathered rocks and the decay of plants increase the supply of
nutrients and allow new plants to grow which support insect and
animal life.
• Soils become deeper which allows bigger plants and a greater
variety of plants to live in the area.
• Given enough time, a dominant species, such as oak trees, will
invade and the succession is complete. The ecosystem has
achieved a sense of balance and although there are many daily
changes the overall mixture of plants and animals species remains
stable. This is the climax community.
Important processes in an ecosystem include the carbon cycle (see
page 76), water cycle, nutrient cycle and food web. The greater the
inputs of water, nutrients and energy, the greater the volume and
diversity of plants and animals that can be supported.

The water cycle

The water cycle is the journey water takes as it moves from the land
to the sky and back again. It follows a cycle of evaporation,
condensation and precipitation. On this journey it is absorbed by
plants and consumed by animals.

The nutrient cycle

Nutrients are stored in water, rocks and the atmosphere and they
flow through an ecosystem in a cycle:
• weathered rock releases nutrients into the soil
• water is added to the soil by rainfall
• plants absorb the nutrients through their roots and leaves
• herbivores gain nutrients by eating plants
• plants and animals die and are decomposed by bacteria and fungi
• nutrients are returned to the soil.
Nutrients may be lost to the system by leaching and by being
washed away in surface runoff.

Food webs
• The Sun is the source of all energy for all life on Earth. It provides
both heat and light energy.
• Plants (producers) convert energy from the Sun into food through
photosynthesis.
• Herbivores (primary consumers) eat the plants.
• Carnivores (secondary consumers) eat the herbivores and so
energy moves through the food chain.
• Food chains are connected to make a food web.
• The number of living organisms decreases at each stage of the
 food chain because energy is lost, used up in transpiration,
movement and breathing.

Example of a biome: the rainforest ecosystem

Tropical rainforests are found along the equator in areas such as
Brazil, Congo and South-East Asia.
• They cover about six per cent of the total land area.
• They contain the most diverse range and highest volume of plant
and animal life found anywhere on Earth.
• There is a continuous growing season. Rainfall totals often exceed
2000 mm a year and temperatures are high, averaging 25 °C.
• Vegetation is divided into layers: emergents, canopy, undercanopy,
shrubs and the ground layer.

Rainforest nutrient cycle

• The nutrient cycle in the forest is very delicate: about 80 per cent of
the rainforest’s nutrients come from trees and plants, only twenty
per cent of the nutrients are stored in the soil.
• Hot, damp conditions allow for rapid decomposition from leaves
that fall. This provides plentiful nutrients that are easily absorbed by
plant roots.
• These nutrients are in high demand from the rainforest’s many fast-
growing plants. They do not remain in the soil for long and stay
close to the surface of the soil.
• Consumers (herbivores) eat plants. When they die nutrients are
returned to the soil by decomposers. Nutrients are quickly recycled.

Rainforest water cycle

• Roots of plants take up water from the ground and rain is
intercepted as it falls, much of it at the canopy level.
• As the rainforest heats up, the water evaporates into the
atmosphere and together with transpiration forms clouds to make
the next day’s convectional rainfall.
• The forest is a great store of water between the rainfall events.
• Rainfall feeds some of the great rivers that leave these forests such
as the Amazon River.
Figure 20 Structure of the rainforest.

Rainforest carbon cycle

• Plants during photosynthesis absorb CO2 from the surrounding
atmosphere.
• Rainforest leaf systems comprise about 70 per cent of the world’s
total leaf surface area and account for between 30 and 50 per cent
 of the Earth’s total primary productivity. Rainforests store more
carbon per unit area than any other type of ecosystem.
• When a plant respires or dies the carbon within the plant is
released back into the environment. Some plants are eaten by
herbivores who in turn may be eaten by carnivores. Carbon is then
released by animal respiration and when the animal dies.
• The soil becomes an important store of carbon from the dead
plants and animals.
• Tropical forests are critical in the carbon cycle of the planet. When
forests are cleared and burned, 30–60 per cent of the carbon is lost
to the atmosphere.

Revision activity
1 Complete a set of ten flashcards with questions and answers of
ways in which plants and animals have adapted to life in the
rainforest. Now do the same for life in the savannah grassland.
2 Use a double-bubble diagram such as the one on page 32 to
compare the rainforest ecosystem with the savannah grassland
ecosystem. Compare their location, climate and examples of plant
and animal adaptation.

Example of a biome: the savannah grassland

Savannah grasslands are found within the tropics in a broad band
about 5–15° north and south of the equator, between the tropical
rainforests and the hot deserts of the sub-tropics, in countries such
as Brazil, Tanzania, India and northern Australia.
• The climate has a marked wet and dry season. The wet season
occurs in ‘summer’ with heavy convectional rain. Temperatures are
high throughout the year, ranging between 23 and 28 °C.
• Vegetation consists of scattered trees, drought-resistant bushes
and grasses that can grow up to 4 m in height.
• Drought and fire dictate what species survive; plants are therefore
xerophytic and pyrophytic.
• The savannah contains a huge variety of plants, insects, birds and
animals. This biodiversity makes the savannah lands a popular
 tourist destination.

Savannah nutrient cycle

• The store of nutrients in the biomass is less than that in the
rainforest because of the shorter growing season and because fire
returns carbon to the atmosphere.
• Nutrients are stored near the surface of soils since it comes from
decayed organic matter (vegetation) from the previous growing
season. This organic matter decays rapidly due to the high
temperatures.
• The role of fire, whether natural or made by humans, is vital as it
helps to maintain the savannah as a grass community. It
mineralises the litter layer, kills off weeds and prevents trees from
growing.
• The most important nutrient recyclers are termites that gather up
vegetation and process it in one spot. The termite mounds become
a nutrient hotspot.

Savannah water cycle

• The savannah experiences recurrent episodes of drought lasting 4–
8 months of the year.
• During the xeropause, or ‘dry spell’, plant activities (growing, dying,
decomposing) continue, but at vastly reduced rates.
• Resistance to drought is more important to savannah vegetation
than resistance to fire.
• Diverting water for tourists is exploiting local water reserves,
leaving plants and animals short of water. Tourist hotels sometimes
dump waste into rivers.

Savannah carbon cycle

• Tropical savannahs cover around twenty per cent of the Earth’s
land surface and while they have fewer trees and stored carbon
than rainforests or temperate forests, their extent makes them
significant in the global carbon cycle.
• Regular bush fires release many tonnes of CO2 into the
atmosphere.
Now test yourself

Figure 24 Food web for the semi-arid grassland ecosystem in Africa.

1 Give an example of a food chain in the savannah ecosystem.

2 Complete the table:
Living part of the ecosystem Rainforest Savannah
Tertiary consumer
Secondary consumer
Primary consumer
Producer

What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity is a measure of the variety of plants and animals that live
in an ecosystem. Areas which have a rich biodiversity include
rainforests, for example, while a hot, dry desert would have a low
biodiversity.
Endemic species are those which are unique to a given region or
location and are seen nowhere else in the world.
Those places on the Earth that have a rich biodiversity and a large
number of endemic species are particularly important to conserve.

Ways in which ecosystems provide key services

Many believe that all ecosystems should be protected, not just for their
scientific value but because they provide people with essential or key
services. These include:
• provisioning services: timber for building, food and clean water
• regulating services: flood control, preventing soil erosion and
providing medicines
• cultural services: spiritual and leisure resources
• supporting services: carbon cycling that maintains the conditions for
life on Earth.

Examples of key services provided by different

ecosystems
• Coniferous forests (taiga): provide a huge source of timber.
• Savannah grasslands: provide food and building materials for
nomadic people such as the Maasai. Wildlife attracts tourists and
helps poorer countries to develop.
• Peat bogs: act as huge stores of CO2 so helping to regulate the
greenhouse effect.
• Sand dunes: act as natural coastal defences against storm surges,
strong winds and coastal floods.

Now test yourself

Make a list of the key services provided by the tropical forest
ecosystem both to the indigenous people who live in the forest and to
the rest of the global population.

Example: key services provided by rainforests

• Nutrient cycling: a rainforest recycles the nutrients it has created;
 without tree cover these nutrients would be lost. Plants anchor the
soil and prevent it, as well as the nutrients within it, from being
washed away by heavy rainfall.
• Rain making: some rainforest services extend across vast areas,
for example the Amazon forest makes as much as 50 per cent of its
own rainfall.
• Regulating climate and air quality: rainforests continually recycle
huge quantities of water, feeding rivers and lakes. Millions of people
live downstream of rivers that leave the forests. Rainforests lock
away CO2 that would otherwise contribute to global warming.
• Provisioning goods: rainforest trees provide wood and fuel. They
sustain the local, indigenous, communities that inhabit them. They
provide fresh water, wild foods, materials for arts and crafts, and
natural medicines. Seventy-five per cent of the world’s population
still rely on plant extracts to provide them with medication.
• Sustaining culture: rainforests are increasingly popular destinations
for recreation and ecotourism and they hold considerable
educational and scientific value.

Example of a small-scale ecosystem: sand dunes

Figure 21 Sand dune ecosystem.

• Sand dunes are accumulations of sand stabilised by vegetation.

• Their development needs a source of sand and an onshore
prevailing wind.
• Grains of sand stop when they hit an object such as seaweed or a
lump of driftwood.
• A small dune, referred to as an embryo dune, characterised by
 pioneer plant species such as sand rocket, is formed.
• As the pioneer plants grow, the small dunes become stabilised by
root systems. The dune gets bigger. Plants will die and decompose,
adding nutrients and organic matter. New plants are able to grow in
a process known as succession.
• Larger dunes called fore dunes develop (also known as mobile or
yellow dunes). Fore dunes are dominated by species such as
marram grass.
• In time, the dunes stop growing due to a lack of wind-blown sand.
They are then referred to as fixed or grey dunes and a wide
variety of plants such as orchid, heather and bramble cover the
dune.
• Eventually a climax community is established, when the vegetation
is in a state of equilibrium with the environment and there is no
further influx of new species. Climax community is dominated by
heathers and birch or oak woodland.
In the sand dune ecosystem key services include:
• providing the opportunity to develop tourism
• acting as a natural coastal defence against storm surges and
coastal flooding
• providing sand for building purposes.

How human activity affects biodiversity, flows,

cycles and processes
Sand dunes are rich wildlife habitats for a wide variety of specialised
plants and animals. They are delicate and, as a result, very
susceptible to human interference:
• Recreation: sand dunes are an attractive place for many leisure
activities, for example walking, pony-trekking, trail biking, bird
watching and picnicking. Marram grass is trampled and is easily
killed. Bare sand is then exposed to the wind and without the roots of
the marram securing it, sand is blown away to leave large semi-
circular hollows known as blow-outs. Blow-outs can persist for a long
time, the rich habitat is destroyed and biodiversity reduced.
Songbirds such as linnets and skylarks nest on the ground and are
 easily disturbed by visitors.
• Economic: farmers use dune areas for grazing animals, particularly
cattle. Cow dung enriches the soil and affects natural processes and
nutrient cycles. Intensive farming introduces fertilisers. Plant and
animal diversity is reduced through soil compaction and nutrient
enrichment. Sand dunes are also in demand from landowners, who
wish to develop the land for tourist developments, such as caravan
parks and golf courses, or for housing. Direct removal of sand from
the beach or the dunes for building purposes reduces the sand
available to create and expand existing dunes.
• Environmental: afforestation has been used in some areas to
prevent the movement of mobile sand. This affects biodiversity,
natural succession and processes in the dunes. The introduction of
rabbits by people has also had a significant impact on many dune
areas by preventing the encroachment of trees and bushes and
succession to reach the natural climax vegetation. This is an
example of a plagioclimax. Coastal stabilisation activities, such as
the addition of groynes further up the shore, affect the flow of
sediment and material available for dune formation.
• Management: methods used to protect dune areas include the
erection of protective fencing, building boardwalks, planting marram
grass, putting up signs and the setting up of sand traps. Fencing
prevents people from walking over the more unstable dunes.
Boardwalks encourage people to avoid walking over the dunes and
stick to the pathways. Signs alert the public of the damage they
cause by walking on the dune, encouraging them to stay away.
Marram grass planting and the construction of sand traps minimise
the effects of trampling.

Revision activity
1 Make a copy of the Figure 21. Annotate your diagram to explain
the creation of the sand dune ecosystem.
2 Draw a spider diagram to summarise the threats to the sand dune
ecosystem from human activities.

Exam tip
Make sure that you understand the meaning of key terms such as
distribution. Distribution refers to the way something is spread out or
arranged over a geographic area.

Now test yourself

1 What is meant by a climax community?
2 Describe the impact of leisure activities on biodiversity in a sand
dune ecosystem.

Exam practice

Figure 22 The savannah.

Figure 23 Location of the savannah ecosystem.

1 Describe the distribution of the savannah ecosystem.

[4]
2 Give two features of the savannah ecosystem that makes it
distinctive.
[4]
3 Explain why climate is important in the development of the
savannah.
[6]

Human activity and ecosystem

processes
How do people use ecosystems and
environments?
How people change ecosystems for food, energy
and water
Human activity has had an impact on all ecosystems:
• In the UK, much of our temperate deciduous forest has been
removed for farming and to provide room for cities.
• In the USA, much of the temperate grassland has been removed to
grow cereals.
• In the Sahel region of Africa, Lake Chad has shrunk dramatically in
the past 50 years due to the abstraction of water from rivers that
supply the lake.
• The Mediterranean ecosystem and environment is under pressure
from tourism and its demands on the limited water resources.
• The Arctic tundra ecosystem is under threat from drilling for oil in
places such as Alaska.

Example of an environment used for energy

production: Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm
Power can be generated from renewable or non-renewable
sources. Non-renewable sources, such as oil and coal, are running
out and scientists are exploring the potential of renewable sources,
such as tides and the wind. Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm, which
opened in June 2015, is located 13 km off the coast of north Wales
and 16 km from the seaside resort of Llandudno:
• it is the second largest operating offshore wind farm in the world
• it has 160 wind turbines, 150 m high
• it cost £2 billion.

Npower, one of the operators, states that the farm will produce
enough power to supply 400,000 residential households per year.

The BBC reports that up to 100 jobs will be created at Mostyn

docks, near Holywell, Flintshire, to service the turbines.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) states that
windfarms can harm birds through disturbance and collision.
Thousands of migrating birds may fly through the Gwynt y Môr
windfarm area.
WWF Cymru supports the decision: ‘We have a real opportunity with
Gwynt-y-Môr to use the powerful resource off the Conway coast to
help global efforts to fight climate change.’

The National Trust raised concerns because it owns three-quarters

of the Welsh coastline. It fears for the future. More wind farms would
spoil the beauty of the coastline it aims to preserve.

Many local people in Llandudno are opposed to the project because

they describe the town as a historic place with natural scenic beauty.
They see the project as an eyesore that will deter tourists.

Revision activity
Do you think the Gwynt y Môr wind farm should have been built?
Prepare a speech that could be debated in the Welsh Assembly
Government.

Now test yourself

Give an example of one way in which human activity has modified an
ecosystem for food production.

How do human activities modify

processes and interactions with
ecosystems?
Example of impacts of human activity on a
rainforest ecosystem: the Amazon rainforest
Figure 24 Deforestation in the Amazon basin.

The Amazon rainforest is 5.5 million km2 in area and is located in

South America. Fifty per cent of tropical rainforest has been
destroyed in the past 100 years.
Reasons for destruction:
• Farming, for example commercial cattle ranching and growing
crops such as soyabeans, oil palms and bananas (monoculture).
• Slash and burn farming, for example subsistence farmers clear the
 forest by burning. Nutrients in the soil are soon depleted. The land
is abandoned and another patch of the forest cleared.
• Mining, for example in the Amazon there is the largest iron-ore
mine in the world in Carajás.
• Roads and railways, for example a 900 km rail line links Carajás to
São Luís on the coast to export iron.
• Logging, for example expensive woods, such as mahogany, are
exported across the world.
• Electricity supplies, for example hydroelectric schemes require the
construction of huge dams such as the Tucuruí Dam in Brazil.
Impacts – gains:
• Profits from developments such as Carajás have helped Brazil to
become richer.
• Long-term jobs have been created in logging, farming, mining and
tourism.
• The multiplier effect has encouraged other industries to locate in
the area.
• Resettlement provides a better way of life for people who lived in
shanty towns and relieves population pressure in the cities.
Impacts – losses:
• Native Indians such as the Yanamami have lost their homelands,
culture and way of life.
• Animals and plants have lost their habitats, leading to extinction.
Some of these species are used for medicinal purposes, for
example the rosy periwinkle is used for leukaemia treatment.
• Changes in climate: interception and transpiration are reduced and
evaporation is increased, leading to a drier regional climate. Water
and silt pour into rivers, causing them to flood.
• When trees are chopped down, the nutrient cycle is broken. Rain
removes nutrients from the soil via surface runoff and leaching.
Soils quickly become infertile. Soil dries up in the sun. When it
rains, it washes the soil away and there is gullying and mud slides
on steep slopes. The rainforest never fully recovers, and wildlife
and plant life are reduced.

Revision activity
Complete a summary on a sheet of A5 card broken down into these
headings:
• title
• location of the example (including a map like the one above)
• at least three reasons for the destruction of the rainforest
• at least six ways in which humans have ‘gained’ or ‘lost’ because of
this destruction.

Example of impacts of human activity on a

savannah grassland ecosystem
In the savannah grasslands, indigenous people are often nomadic
and keep herds of sheep, cattle or goats. Some live in permanent
villages and grow crops. Population growth is rapid in many areas.
The population of the Sahel region is growing at three per cent a year
and doubling every twenty years.
A huge problem in savannah grasslands is desertification. This may
be partly due to climate change and reduced rainfall but it is also the
result of overgrazing and overcultivation. Soil is losing its fertility and
is either blown away in the dry season or washed away in the heavy
rains in the wet season.
Trees are scattered in the savannah but they protect the soil:
• Trees recycle water into the atmosphere through evaporation and
transpiration.
• Slash and burn agriculture removes trees, reduces
evapotranspiration, interrupts the water cycle and reduces rainfall
totals.
• The nutrient cycle is broken since leaf litter can no longer fall on the
soil. Soils lose their fertility and structure since they lack an input of
organic matter.
• The soil is eroded because there is no interception and because
root systems have been removed. Heavy rainfall flows over the
surface and picks up soil particles. It uses these to erode a deep
channel in the land. This is known as gully erosion.
• In slash and burn agriculture, crops are grown for between one and
 three years, the land is abandoned and the soil regains its
goodness during a fallow period. Overcultivation stops the soil
recovering its organic content; it becomes dusty and eroded by
wind and rainfall.
Habitats are being destroyed and the biodiversity of savannah
grasslands is being reduced. Many tourists also visit the African
savannahs on wildlife safaris, for example in Kenya. The wildlife is
often disturbed and the people and vehicles damage the landscape.

Exam practice

Figure 25 Changing rainfall in the Sahel region.

Describe how the patterns of rainfall have changed in the Sahel

region between 1950 and 2010.
[4]

Now test yourself

1 Explain what is meant by the multiplier effect.
2 Explain why the nutrient cycle in the rainforest is delicate.
3 Explain why overgrazing and overcultivation are leading to
desertification in the savannah grasslands.

How changes may impact on biodiversity

Habitat loss due to destruction, fragmentation or degradation is the
primary threat to biodiversity. When an ecosystem has been
dramatically changed by human activities, such as agriculture, oil
exploration or water diversion, it may no longer be able to provide
food, water, cover and places to raise young. Every day there are
fewer places left that wildlife can call home.

Revision activity
Find out what is meant by slash and burn agriculture.
There are three major kinds of habitat loss:
• Habitat destruction, for example deforestation, draining wetlands
and damming rivers.
• Habitat fragmentation, for example by urban development, dams
and water diversions. Habitats become divided into separate
fragments, creating isolated populations. These ecological islands
affect biodiversity by reducing the amount of suitable habitat and by
restricting migration between different communities and hence
opportunities to breed and feed.
• Habitat degradation, for example pollution, introduction of new
species and disruption of ecosystem processes such as nutrient
cycles.

How can ecosystems be managed

sustainably?
Ecosystems provide key services that include:
• clean water in rivers
• reducing the risk of flooding
• providing natural resources such as timber and air to breathe
• producing foodstuffs such as fish and honey.
Conservationists would argue that maintaining these key services is
more valuable in the long term than the short-term gains from the
unsustainable exploitation of ecosystems.
Example of sustainable use of the rainforest
• Agro-forestry: growing trees and crops at the same time.
• Selective logging: only cutting down trees that are a certain species
or age. The international Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) gives
assurances that timber sold comes from areas of sustainable
logging.
• Forest reserves: areas of forest are protected from exploitation and
maintained as natural environments such as the Alto Maués
National Park in Brazil. The reserve area often has a core where no
human activity takes place surrounded by a buffer zone where
sustainable use of the forest is encouraged.
• Wildlife corridors: link up fragmented areas of land with corridors of
vegetation so that animals can find food and can find a mate to
reproduce.
• Encouraging ecotourism, a rapidly growing form of tourism and
highly profitable.
• Debt-for-nature swaps: poor countries can ‘swap’ the debt they
have with a rich country if they protect an area of rainforest.

Revision activity
Complete a revision card on sustainable use of ecosystems. This
card should have:
• a definition of the term ‘sustainable’
• at least four ways in which the rainforest can be sustainably
managed and four ways in which savannah grasslands can be
sustainably managed.

Example of sustainable use of the savannah

grassland
Solutions suggested to solve the problem of soil degradation and
desertification include:
• Crop rotation and fallow periods: grow different crops each year so
that different nutrients are used, and allow fallow periods so that soil
 can regain its fertility.
• Shelter belts: plant shelter belts, areas of forest or hedges, to
protect farmland from the effects of water and wind erosion.
• Reforestation and afforestation: reducing wind and water erosion.
• Irrigation: water areas of land that have become arid by diverting
rivers or digging wells, although if water is not used sustainably
then this can cause water shortages elsewhere.
• Reduce grazing numbers: place limits on the number and types of
animals that can graze on land, reducing the destruction of
vegetation and eventual desertification.
• Population control: if population growth can be controlled then less
agricultural land is needed and the intensity of farming will be
reduced.
• Drought-resistant crops: genetically modified crops can be
engineered to withstand poor soil and water shortages, such as
new varieties of maize.

Example of the Great Green Wall

In 2010, eleven countries signed an agreement to plant a Great
Green Wall, 15 km wide and 8000 km long, across the width of
Africa, south of the Sahara. It aims are:
• To encourage local communities to plant native trees to create a
living wall of trees and bushes. Trees would include nut and fruit
trees and provide wild foods. Small fields between the trees can be
planted with food and cash crops – a type of farming known as
agro-forestry.
• To prevent desertification and soil erosion.
• To protect water sources, such as Lake Chad.
• Restoration or creation of habitats for plants and animals.
Niger and Senegal have made good progress in the building of the
wall. Benefits have included:
• increased crop yields
• better fed livestock
• trees provide medicines and firewood.
In the other nine countries progress has been slow.
Exam practice
Give two ways in which the rain forest can be used sustainably.
[4]

Exam tip
Questions which are worth 6 marks are marked with a banded mark
scheme, similar in style to the one below:
Band Mark Descriptor
3 5–6 Detailed and specific description of ways in which
climate is important in the development of the savannah
ecosystem
2 3–4 Description of ways in which climate is important in the
development of an ecosystem.
Maximum band 2 if no named examples
1 1–2 Valid but simplistic description or list of points
0 Answer is incorrect or irrelevant
It is important in such questions to plan an answer, focus on the key
words in a question and ensure that specific examples are used to
gain a band 3 mark.

Now test yourself

1 What is the Great Green Wall?
2 Look over Theme 5. Write down key terms on one set of sticky
notes and the definitions on a second set. Mix up the pads and
then try to match each keyword to its definition.
Theme 6 Development and
Resource Issues

Measuring global inequalities

What are the global patterns of

development?
What is development?
Development is the process of change which improves the wealth and
quality of life of people:
• Economic development is the result of increased employment and
rising incomes.
• Social development occurs when there is rising life expectancy and
greater access to education, healthcare, clean water and housing for
all people, particularly for women and minority groups.
• Political development involves forming a stable government and
allowing greater freedom of speech.

Development gap
The development gap that exists between richer and poorer
countries was first described by Willy Brandt, a German politician. The
Brandt Report was published in 1980 and divided the world into the
less developed ‘global south’ and the more developed ‘global north’.
The line dividing the richer and poorer countries became known as the
‘north–south divide’ or the Brandt line.
Figure 1 The world’s richest and poorest countries.

Development continuum
It is simplistic to divide the world into rich and poor. In reality there is a
development continuum, a sliding scale, from the very poor
countries to the super-rich countries. Countries can move up and
down this continuum. The World Bank divides countries into four
categories of wealth according to their gross national income (GNI)
per capita:
• High-income countries (HICs) with a GNI of $12,736 or more.
• Upper-middle-income countries with a GNI between $4126 and
$12,735.
• Lower-middle-income countries with a GNI between $1046 and
$4125.
• Low-income countries (LICs) with a GNI of $1045 or less.

Global patterns of development

In 2016, Oxfam published a report into global inequality in which it
highlights the development gap between rich and poor people, not
countries. It describes how in poor countries there are rich people and
in rich countries there are poor people. Oxfam also noted that 62
people in the world own the same amount of wealth as the poorest 3.5
billion.
Many would argue that wealth alone does not give an accurate picture
of human development. Bhutan, a country in South Asia, measures
development through happiness, measuring the gross national
happiness (GNH) of its population.

Now test yourself

Give two limitations of using gross national income per capita as a
measure of development.

Revision activity
1 Which continent has the greatest number of low-income countries?
2 Describe how patterns of development have changed since the
Brandt line was drawn in 1980.

How is economic development

measured?
In order to compare levels of development in different places
geographers use a number of indicators. Economic development
indicators include:
• Gross domestic product (GDP): the total value of all goods and
services produced within a country in a year.
• Gross national income (GNI) per capita: the average wage of a
country’s population.
• Employment structure: the type of work people do, for example
farming, manufacturing or services.
• Poverty: the percentage of the population who earn less than $1.90
a day (World Bank’s 2015 measure).
Limitations of evidence of development
Limitations of using these methods of measuring development include:
• They measure only wealth and do not include social factors.
• They do not recognise inequality within a country.
• They do not consider the cost of living within a country and hence
the amount of goods that can be bought with a given amount of
money.
The United Nations uses the human development index (HDI) to
measure development. This statistic combines figures for life
expectancy, education and per capita income. HDI was created to
emphasise that quality of life should be the ultimate measure of
development of a country, not economic growth alone.

Revision activity
1 Suggest reasons to explain why is it important to be able to
measure development.
2 Explain why the United Nations uses the human development
index (HDI) to measure development.

Example of a low-income country (LIC): Malawi

Malawi in south central Africa has a population of 16.8 million:
• The local market for goods is limited since 90 per cent of the
population earns less than $2 a day.
• People tend to live in remote rural areas and there are few roads
and means of transport for goods.
• Plots of land are small, soils are infertile, weather is unfavourable
and there is limited use of fertilisers. Productivity has not improved
since the 1970s.
• Families are large and 2.8 million people suffer from chronic
malnutrition.
• Education standards are poor, for example almost 30 per cent of
children do not attend primary school even though it is free.
• The AIDS epidemic has affected twelve per cent of the population.
Illness or injury is common.
• Malawi is a landlocked country and hence finds it difficult to trade
with the rest of the world.
• The economy depends on the export of low-value primary goods
such as tobacco, tea, cotton and sugar. Imports are dominated by
high-value products such as oil and machinery.

Now test yourself

‘The development gap provides a static view of the difference in
development between countries.’ What is meant by this statement?
Explain why the development gap is dynamic.

Revision activity
1 Give three reasons to explain why Malawi remains a low-income
country.
2 Read the example box on page 102 on Malawi. Complete a
PowerPoint presentation of six slides that you would use in a
speech to an international conference in which you explain how
Malawi’s trade hinders its economic progress.

Exam practice
Figure 2 GNI/infant mortality rate per country.

1 Describe the relationship between infant mortality and GNI per

capita.
[3]
2 Suggest two reasons to explain this relationship.
[4]

Exam tip
A scattergraph is used to test for a relationship between two
variables. A line of best fit is drawn through the middle of the points to
show the nature of the connection:
• If the points cluster in a band running from lower left to upper right,
there is a positive correlation.
• If the points cluster in a band from upper left to lower right, there is
a negative correlation.
• If it is hard to see where you would draw a line, and if the points
show no significant clustering, there is probably no correlation.
Causes and consequences of
uneven development at the global
scale
What are the causes and
consequences of uneven
development?
How has global trade led to uneven patterns of
development?
Trade involves the buying and selling of goods and services between
countries:
• HICs generally export valuable manufactured goods and services
such as electronics, cars and financial services. They import
cheaper primary products such as sugar, flowers, tea and coffee.
• In LICs the opposite is true. This means that LICs earn little and
remain in poverty, the country is forced to borrow money to pay for
its imports and the country goes into debt.
The price of primary products fluctuates on the world market. Prices
are set in HICs and producers in LICs lose out when the price drops.
LICs are dependent on the world trade system yet they have little
control over how it operates.
Increasing trade and reducing their balance of trade deficit are
essential for the development of LICs. Sometimes HICs impose tariffs
(import duties) and quotas on imported goods and give subsidies to
their own farmers.

Imports, exports and trade blocs

Free trade allows countries to import and export goods without tariffs
or other barriers. It results in increased exports, more job
opportunities, a greater choice of goods and lower prices for
consumers.
Trading blocs, such as the European Union (EU), are groups of
countries that work together to promote free trade between their
member states. Other institutions which are influential in free trade
include:
• World Trade Organization (WTO): encourages free trade, polices
free trade agreements, settles disputes and organises trade
negotiations.
• International Monetary Fund (IMF): provides financial aid when a
country has problems and promotes trade.
• World Bank: reduces poverty around the world by providing financial
and technical assistance to developing countries.

Geopolitical relationships and changing patterns

of development
Patterns of development have changed significantly since 1980.
Greater political cooperation means the world has become
increasingly interdependent as a result of massively increased trade
and cultural exchanges. The growth of newly industrialised countries
(NICs) has been the most notable feature of this change. NICs are
characterised by:
• rapid economic growth based on exporting goods or services
• rapid industrialisation and urbanisation
• stable governments and strong political leaders
• large amounts of foreign direct investment from overseas
multinational corporations (MNCs)
• an expanding domestic market
• a well-developed infrastructure compared to other poorer countries
• the development of the NIC’s own MNCs.

Example of a low-income country (LIC): Malawi

Figure 3 A tealeaf picker in Malawi.

In Malawi, agriculture employs 84 per cent of the labour force and

accounts for 85 per cent of export earnings:
• The tea industry alone employs 50,000 seasonal workers. At the
end of the season the tealeaf pickers are out of work.
• Tea is cultivated in 44 estates owned by eleven international
companies.
• There are also 10,000 locally owned smallholder tea farmers in
Malawi.
• Ninety per cent of Malawi’s tea is exported to the UK and South
Africa.
• Tea is processed in 21 factories; sixteen are owned by UK-based
companies.
• The reliance on the export of agricultural commodities renders
Malawi vulnerable to fluctuations in world trade, tariffs, quotas and
environmental disasters such as drought.
• Malawi’s imports are dominated by fuel products, comprising 30 per
cent of its import bill.
• The economy is heavily dependent on aid from the IMF and the
World Bank.

Example of a newly industrialised country (NIC):

India
Reasons why India has experienced rapid economic growth include:
• Investment in education has provided a highly skilled workforce.
• Investment by MNCs such as IKEA and Samsung has created jobs
in manufacturing.
• A stable government. India is the world’s largest democracy.
• The second largest English-speaking workforce in the world.
• Well-developed infrastructure in terms of energy and transport.
• Low wage costs compared to competitors such as China and
Mexico.
• Young workforce, flexible working practices and not heavily
unionised.
• The world’s second largest population. These people have
purchasing power so the Indian market is large and attractive.
• Organisations like the World Trade Organization (WTO) promote
free trade between countries, which helps to remove tariffs and
quotas.

Figure 4 Bagmane Technological Park, Bangalore.

The transformation of the Indian economy has, unusually, been led

by the service sector, particularly software and ICT services, together
with media, advertising, retail, entertainment and tourism.

Revision activity
1 Sketch an outline map of India on a sheet of A5 card. Annotate
your map with reasons for the growth of India as an NIC.
2 Locate and label Bangalore and Mumbai on your outline map.
3 Fill in your outline with ways in which you think the rapid growth of
the economy will affect the lives of the Indian people. Add your card
to your set of revision cards.
4 Carry out your own research and complete a revision card for
either the Bagmane Technological Park or the Hindi movie industry.

Now test yourself

1 Complete the following paragraph: Trade is the … and import of
goods and services between different countries. High-income
countries usually sell manufactured goods and services whereas
low-income countries sell … goods such as … An example of a
low-income country is ….
2 Name a newly industrialised country and give two reasons to
explain why this country has developed rapidly in recent years.

The changing nature of global industry

The world is becoming increasingly interconnected. We communicate
and share each other’s cultures through travel and trade, transporting
products around the world in hours or days in a huge global economy.
Globalisation is the name of the process which leads to the free flow
of goods, people, ideas and money on a worldwide scale, so that we
increasingly live in a ‘global village’. The drivers of globalisation
include:
• improved technology, for example the internet allows e-commerce
• improvements in communications, for example the growth of
satellite technology
• advances in transport, for example lower freight charges due to
containerisation
• the removal of trade barriers, for example development of trading
blocs
• the growth of MNCs.
The consequence of globalisation is a complex global web of
interdependence.
Reasons why multinational companies locate
plants in different countries
Companies that operate in several countries are known as
multinational corporations (MNCs). The headquarters of an MNC is
usually found in a ‘global city’ such as London. When money (capital)
from one country is invested in another it is called foreign direct
investment (FDI). Factors attracting investment in a country by a
multinational include:
• government incentives
• availability of raw materials
• lower labour costs
• proximity to the markets where goods are sold
• ability to sell inside trade barriers
• reduced costs of buildings and land
• weaker legislation with regard to staff safety and welfare, protecting
the environment and planning.

Revision activity
1 Explain why MNCs open factories in different countries around the
world.
2 Complete a summary of Nike in Vietnam (see page 104) on a
sheet of A5 card. Include:
– reasons why Nike located in Vietnam
– the good and bad things for the people who live in Vietnam (use
different colours)
– use the internet to print photographs of Nike products to add to
your revision card.

What are the impacts of the location of MNCs in a

country?
Advantages Disadvantages
Investment provides Profits are often sent back to the HIC where
new jobs and skills for the MNC is based
local people
Foreign direct MNCs, with their massive economies of
investment brings scale, may drive local companies out of
foreign currency to business
local economies when
they buy local
resources, products
and services
The multiplier effect If an MNC finds it cheaper to operate in a
spreads the wealth different country, the factory may close and
through society local people can be made redundant
Lack of international laws means that MNCs
may operate in a way that would not be
allowed in an HIC, for example polluting the
environment or imposing poor working
conditions and low wages on local workers,
perhaps using child labour

Example of Tata Steel in the UK

The Tata group is an Indian MNC. Its headquarters are in Mumbai.
Tata owns 38 companies, including Jaguar Land Rover and Tetley
Tea, and employs 50,000 people in the UK.
In 2006, Tata bought Corus, a large steelmaking company with plants
in the UK. Buying European factories meant that Tata could sell steel
more easily to European customers, avoiding tariffs. Competition
from cheap Chinese steel has meant that Tata has considered
closing its UK plants with the loss of 15,000 direct jobs and a further
25,000 indirect jobs in companies supplying Tata with parts and
services. The result could be to send parts of south Wales and
Yorkshire into a spiral of economic decline – a negative multiplier.

Example of Nike: a multinational corporation

Nike was founded in Oregon, USA, in January 1964:
• It has factories manufacturing sports equipment in 41 different
countries and sells goods in over 700 stores worldwide.
• Production is outsourced to countries such as Indonesia, China,
Taiwan, India, Thailand and Vietnam.
• Global sales in 2014 were $28 billion.

Figure 5 A sports shoe factory in Vietnam.

Nike in Vietnam, a newly industrialised country

(NIC)
Vietnam is a newly industrialised country (NIC) in South-East Asia.
Over 75 million pairs of shoes are made annually for Nike in Vietnam.
Nike located in Vietnam because of:
• low labour costs
• less expensive factories and land
• low tax rates
• low energy bills
• fewer laws and restrictions, for example on workers’ rights.
Impacts of Nike in Vietnam:
Advantages Disadvantages
Created 40,000 jobs and The company image and its advertising
improved the skill base of may help to undermine national culture
the local population
Pays higher wages than There are concerns about the political
most local companies influence of Nike in Vietnam
Helped to attract more Investment could be transferred quickly
MNCs from Vietnam elsewhere, leaving people
without jobs
It contributes to tax, which Factories gained a reputation for
helps to pay for education sweatshop conditions. There have been
and infrastructure stories of abuse of workers
Export of Nike products Nike has a large demand for energy and
brings money into the water
country

Exam practice

Figure 6 GDP per person for Malawi and India.

1 Suggest one alternative way of representing the information shown

in the graph above. Justify your choice.
[2]
2 Compare the change in the GDP per person for Malawi with that of
 India
[2]
3 Suggest ways in which this graph could be misleading.
[4]

Exam tip
Twenty-five per cent of the marks in the examination will test skills.
Research the WJEC website, study pages 33 and 34 of the
Geography GCSE specification or pages 30 and 31 of the Eduqas
Geography A GCSE specification. Make a list of the skills you need
to know about. Carry out a traffic lights exercise to check your
knowledge and understanding.

The growing contribution of tourism to the

globalised economy
Tourism accounts for one in eleven jobs worldwide. Until recently it
was an activity which was concentrated in the richer countries of the
world but it is increasingly becoming an important source of income in
low- and middle-income countries.

Key drivers of the globalised tourist industry

Figure 7 The growth of the global tourist industry – the number of
tourists in 1995 and 2014 and the predicted number in 2030.

Now test yourself

1 Describe one named change in technology that has allowed
increased globalisation of human activities.
2 ‘Investment by multinational corporations in a developing country is
always a good thing.’ How far do you agree with this statement in
relation to one MNC that you have studied?
3 Explain how investment by companies such as Nike into
developing countries is changing global patterns of development.
The age of mass tourism began in the 1960s. Factors that have
contributed to the rapid growth in tourism include:
• Increased life expectancy and early retirement mean that there are a
greater number of older people travelling.
• Higher salaries and savings mean that people have more spending
money.
• Modern aircraft mean that travel has become easier and airfares
have become more affordable.
• The growth of holiday companies has made booking easier and
holidays more affordable. Tourists often purchase a package that
includes flights, hotels and meals.
• The internet has allowed people to find out about holiday
destinations and make their own travel and accommodation
arrangements.
• More stable governments around the world have led to easier and
safer travel.

Enclave tourism and the informal economy

Features of recent developments include:
• Enclave tourism: tourists pay one price and get all of their travel,
accommodation, food, drink and entertainment in one place.
• Cruise holidays: cruise ships sell ‘all-inclusive’ packages.
In such holidays, less of the money spent by tourists goes into the
local economy, it is leaked back to the MNCs that own the airline
companies, hotel chains and cruise ships.
Many tourist-related activities, for example beach massages, fruit and
souvenir sellers, work in the informal sector so the government does
not earn any direct income. This is described as the black market or
informal economy.
As wages rise in NICs, so the demand for tourism is growing in the
indigenous populations. For example, about 100 million tourists
travelled abroad from China in 2014, further fuelling the global growth
in tourism.

Impact of tourism’s growth on employment

structures
Many countries see the promotion of tourism as a development
strategy. Tourism not only creates growth in the tertiary sector, but
can also have a positive multiplier effect and causes growth in the
primary and secondary sectors as well. Money spent in a hotel helps
to create jobs directly in the hotel, but it also creates jobs indirectly
elsewhere in the economy. The hotel, for example, buys food from
local farmers, who may spend some of this money on fertiliser or
clothing. The demand for local products increases as tourists often
buy souvenirs, which increases secondary employment.
The impacts of the growth of the tourist industry include:
Benefits Costs
Generates employment Jobs are often low paid and
temporary
Brings foreign exchange Local culture is destroyed
Wealth can be invested in services Fragile ecosystems, for example
such as health and education sand dunes, are destroyed
New facilities provided for tourists Increased pollution from road
can be used by locals and air traffic
Revision activity
1 Complete a spider diagram summarising the reasons for the
growth in tourism since the 1960s.
2 Use Figure 7 to describe and compare the growth of tourism in
different regions of the world. Can you suggest a reason why
tourism is growing more rapidly in some regions?

Now test yourself

1 Describe how improvements in technology and transport have
helped the growth of a globalised tourist industry.
2 Explain why local economies have limited benefits from ‘enclave
tourism’.

Example of tourism in an NIC: Vietnam

Over 6 million tourists visited Vietnam in 2015. Reasons for the
increase in numbers of tourists include:
• Improved transportation: especially air travel.
• The Communist government has deregulated the economy to allow
greater private ownership and relaxed visa rules to make it easier to
visit the country.
• Better image: the Vietnam War finished over 40 years ago.
• Attractive foreign exchange rates make Vietnam a relatively cheap
place to visit.
• Unique human and physical tourist attractions.
Vietnam’s tourist attractions include:
• Cu Chi Tunnels: used during the Vietnam War by the Vietcong.
• Temples: a large number of religions are practised in Vietnam
including Buddhism and the unique Caodaism.
• Cuisine: Vietnam has a wide variety of different foods.
Figure 8 Tourist arrivals in Vietnam, 1995–2016.

• Halong Bay: spectacular scenery with thousands of limestone

karsts.
• Lang Co Beach: a beautiful spit that has a peaceful lagoon behind
it.
• Wildlife: diverse and interesting.
Impacts of tourism in Vietnam include:
Benefits Costs
Employs about 250,000 directly and Many tourist developments
500,000 indirectly, bringing $16.4 are partly owned by foreign
billion to the economy in 2015 companies. Some profits leak
overseas
Tourism is encouraging greater Jobs are seasonal, many
entrepreneurship and improving people lose their jobs during
language skills, for example tour the wet season when fewer
guides and taxi drivers visitors arrive
New services are built and developed A serious issue is the growth
which benefit tourists and local of sex tourism, especially the
residents, for example hospitals recruitment of young boys
and girls
New national parks are being created The arrival of tourists can
to protect wildlife cause a decline in local
cultures, for example loss of
language

Now test yourself

‘The growth of tourism is good for the development of lower-income
countries.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Revision activity
1 Describe the growth in tourism in Vietnam.
2 Research the internet and find and print photographs of the tourist
attractions. Now print an outline map of Vietnam. Locate the
attraction on your map and add your photograph of the attraction.
3 Annotate your map with reasons for the growth of tourism in
Vietnam.

Exam practice
1 Draw a suitable graph to show the information in the table below.
Justify your choice of graph.
[4]
Cruise passengers worldwide 4.0 5.5 8.0 11.5 16.5 25.0
(millions)
Year 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
2 Describe the trend shown by your graph.
[2]
3 Give two reasons to explain this trend.
[4]
What are the responses to uneven
development at the global scale?
How international aid can reduce inequality
Aid is a transfer of resources from a richer country to a poorer country.
It includes money, equipment, training and loans. Different types of aid
include:
• Bilateral aid: between two countries, it is often tied aid, meaning that
the receiving country must spend money on goods and services from
the donor country.
• Multilateral aid: money donated by richer countries via organisations
such as the IMF, the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank.
• Short-term emergency aid: gives immediate relief during or after a
natural disaster such as drought; it includes food, medicines and
tents.
• Long-term development aid: a sustained programme of aid which
aims to improve standards of living, for example education for young
people.
• Debt abolition: when richer countries cancel debt owed to them by
poorer countries.
• Aid from non-governmental organisations (NGOs): given through
charities such as Oxfam and Save the Children.

Example of aid helping to reduce inequality in an

LIC: Malawi
Most people in Malawi are subsistence farmers. The area in Middle
Shire is affected by soil erosion during the rainy season. Reasons for
this include:
• A rapidly rising population means the farmers have cut down
forests to provide land for growing food and for firewood.
• Tobacco is the main cash crop; falling prices mean that more
needs to be grown to get the same return, resulting in more
intensive cultivation.
The Community Vitalization and Afforestation in Middle Shire
(COVAMS) is a ten-year project funded by the Japanese
government. The project aims to prevent soil erosion by:
• education on the causes of soil erosion
• training farmers to plough around the hillsides, following the
contours and slowing surface runoff
• building rock, wood and bamboo barriers across streams to slow
down the flow of water
• building terraces into the hillsides to reduce surface runoff
• supplying fast-growing tree species from local nurseries to speed
up re-afforestation.
This approach uses intermediate technology, local skills and local
materials to provide low-cost solutions to the problem.
Figure 9 Location of Malawi.

Large-scale projects ‘kick start’ the development process. This is a

top-down approach often funded by organisations such as the World
Bank, for example building a dam to provide hydroelectric power.
Small-scale projects work with local people and use local skills. This
can be described as bottom-up development often supported by
NGOs, for example digging wells to provide clean water.

Revision activity
On a sheet of A5 card draw a sketch map to show the location of the
COVAMS project in Middle Shire. Annotate your map to show how
aid is helping the farmers of Malawi.

Development targets
The UN is supported by 192 countries. One of its aims is to encourage
human development. To help achieve this goal, in 2015 the UN set
seventeen Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030.
These build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which ran
from 2000 to 2015. To find out more about the work of the UN visit its
website: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300

The benefits of fair trade

Fair trade means that the producer receives a guaranteed and fair
price for a product. It aims to provide:
• minimum wages and safe working conditions
• restrictions on child labour
• protection of the environment
• improved schools and healthcare.
Fair trade products sometimes cost a little more, but many consumers
consider this a small price to pay for the benefits they bring. Fair trade
products include tea, coffee, sugar, chocolate and clothing made from
fair trade cotton.
Example of fair trade: Ghana’s cocoa trade
Ghana is a country in west Africa. Trading in gold, oil and cocoa has
helped Ghana to develop in recent years:
• 2.5 million farmers grow cocoa as their main crop
• 90 per cent is grown on smallholdings, tiny farms smaller than 3 ha
in size
• most cocoa is sold for export; only about five per cent of the cocoa
crop is processed into chocolate in Ghana
• 75 per cent is exported to the EU where it is made into chocolate in
countries such as Belgium, Germany and the UK
• production fluctuates from year to year depending on the weather,
pests and diseases
• the average income for a cocoa farmer is only about £160 a year.
Cocoa and crops such as tea and sugar are examples of
commodities. Traders in Europe buy cocoa beans in a futures
market in London. The price can go up or down from day to day,
depending on supply and demand. The fluctuating price makes it very
difficult for farmers in Ghana to earn a fair wage.
Fair trade is helping small-scale farmers in Ghana:
• Day Chocolate Company was set up in 1997 by Kuapa Kokoo, a
farmers’ cooperative, with the support of the Body Shop and Comic
Relief, to produce a local chocolate bar.
• Divine Fairtrade milk chocolate was launched in October 1998. The
cocoa farmers receive a share of the profits from the sale of Divine
as well as a fair price for their cocoa beans.

Now test yourself

1 What are commodities?
2 Outline two advantages of fair trade for cocoa growers.

Arguments for and against aid

For Against
Emergency aid saves lives and Aid can increase dependency on
reduces misery the donor country
Development projects lead to long- Profits from large projects can go
term improvements in standards of to multinationals and donor
living countries
Assistance in developing natural Aid doesn’t always reach the
resources benefits the global people who need it and can be
economy kept by corrupt officials
Aid for industrial development Aid can be spent on prestige
creates jobs, and aid for projects or in urban areas rather
agriculture helps to increase food than in the areas of real need
supply
Provision of medical training and Aid can be used as a weapon to
supplies improves health exert political pressure on the
receiving country

Revision activity
1 Put the reasons in favour and the reasons against giving aid on
relevant sides of a set of scales. What do you think? Is aid making
a difference to the lives of people in poorer countries?
2 List some advantages for the donor country of giving aid.

Exam practice
Discuss how receiving international aid could improve the lives of
people who live in the least developed countries.
[8]
The accuracy of your writing will be assessed in your answer to this
question.
[3]

Exam tip
Writing accurately will be assessed in certain questions that require
extended writing. Writing accurately takes into account the use of
specialist geographical language and the accuracy of spelling,
punctuation and grammar.
Questions such as the one above are worth a total of 11 marks out of
the 80 for the entire paper. It is important therefore that these
questions are given particular attention.

Water resources and their

management

How and why is the demand for water

changing?
Global trends in water consumption
The global consumption of water has been rising over time. The two
main reasons for this are:
• Increasing population: people use water for drinking, hygiene,
cooking and cleaning. Water is also needed to produce the food we
eat and make the goods we use.
• Economic development: the water footprint of HICs is much higher
than LICs. As more countries develop the global demands for water
will increase.
Figure 10 Water consumption worldwide, 1900–2025.

The consumption of water varies within, as well as between, countries.

In sub-Saharan Africa people living in urban areas are twice as likely
to have safe, piped water as those living in rural areas. In rural areas,
girls spend hours walking to collect water rather than attending school.
In urban areas people living in shanty towns often have to buy water
from street vendors and can pay up to 50 times the amount for water
paid by people living in European cities.

Revision activity
1 Use Figure 10 to describe how global water consumption has
changed since 1900.
2 Suggest reasons to explain why the average American uses 1300
litres of water a day compared to the average African using only 22
 litres a day.
3 Use evidence from the photograph below to suggest how building
a well would encourage ‘bottom-up’ development in the Sahel.

Figure 11 African women of the Sahel spend a lot of time doing work
that does not contribute directly to family or state income.

Now test yourself

Suggest reasons which would explain why water consumption has
increased more in Asia than in any other global region.

Water footprints
A person’s water footprint measures the total amount of water used in
everyday life for drinking, cooking and washing, together with the
water that is used to grow food and to produce goods and services.
The water footprint tells us how much water is being consumed by an
individual, a particular country or globally:
• 70 per cent of the water we use is to produce our food, 20 per cent
is used by industry and 10 per cent is used in the household.
• In agriculture, the majority of water is used for irrigation.
• Industry uses large quantities in manufacturing and cooling
processes.
• In the home, most water is used in toilets, washing machines and
showers or baths.
• A large quantity of water is lost through evaporation and leaks in
reservoirs.
The water used to produce our food and the goods we purchase is
known as the embedded water (or virtual water). For example, to
produce 1 kg of beef requires about 15,000 litres of water, used to
grow grass and provide drinking water.

Water security
Water security is when:
• people have enough safe and affordable water to stay healthy
• there is sufficient water for agriculture and industry
• the supply is sustainable and ecosystems that supply water are
conserved
• people are protected from water-related hazards such as drought.
Economic water scarcity is when water is available, but for some
reason it is inaccessible or unusable. This might be because it is
groundwater that is expensive to extract or that the cost of
transporting it is too expensive or that the supply of water has become
polluted.
Physical water scarcity is when there is not enough water available.
The most common reason for this is low precipitation rates.

Reasons for increasing water demands

• Population growth: in 1900 the global population was 1.6 billion,
today it is over 7 billion and it is forecast to be over 10 billion by the
end of the century.
• Agricultural change: in richer countries irrigation is often
mechanised, with sprinklers using vast amounts of water.
• Industrial growth: in richer countries this is often on a large scale
with industries such as steel demanding huge quantities of water.
Poorer countries generally have smaller-scale cottage industries
which demand less water. As more multinational companies invest in
NICs and LICs, there will be a greater demand for water, for example
in India drinks manufacturers use over a million litres of water a day.
• Growth of consumerism: in richer countries there are many
facilities which demand water, for example showers, dishwashers
and washing machines. Water is also used in the leisure industry, for
example swimming pools, spas and golf courses. In poorer
countries, many people do not have access to piped water and so
use it more sparingly.

Revision activity
Try to estimate your daily water footprint. You may find websites that
will help you do this.

Now test yourself

Define ‘water security’, water footprint and consumerism.

Exam practice
Give two reasons to explain why the consumption of water has
increased globally.
[4]

Are water resources being managed

sustainably?
Figure 12 Increasing water stress: the world of water in 2070.

The map above shows a projection of per capita water availability in

the year 2070. Some parts of the world are more at risk of water
shortages than others. As populations increase and countries develop
the number of places suffering from water stress is likely to increase.
For more than 748 million people around the world, safe, clean water
is a luxury. Climate change is likely to have an impact on the number
and distribution of places suffering from water stress in the future.

Strategies to manage water supply

• Building dams and reservoirs: this provides large supplies of water
all year round for domestic use and irrigation.
• Water transfer schemes: when a country has a water surplus in one
area and a water shortage in another, supplies can be transferred
through canals and pipes.
• Desalination plants: removing the salt from seawater to make it safe
to drink. The process is expensive and uses large amounts of
energy.
• Abstraction of groundwater: water found underground in the cracks
and spaces in soil, sand and rock. It is stored in rock formations
called aquifers.
• Water conservation: examples include dual-flush toilets and water
meters. At a national level, water companies try to conserve water by
fixing leaking pipes.
• Using ‘grey’ water: water that has either been used previously or is
untreated rainwater. Some uses of water do not require water that
has been purified, for example flushing toilets.

Revision activity
Use Figure 12 to describe areas of the world that are predicted to be
under extreme water stress in 2070.

Now test yourself

1 Describe two ways in which the supply of water can be managed
to meet increasing demands.
2 What is rainwater harvesting and how could this reduce domestic
demand for water?

Consequences of water management at an

international scale
Water politics (hydropolitics) is politics that is affected by the
availability of water resources. Many rivers flow across international
boundaries and sometimes form the boundary itself. The actions of
one country are likely to have consequences for other countries along
the river’s course, for example if water is polluted in one country then
this will affect all other countries downstream.

Example of water politics: Mekong River, Vietnam

Two-thirds of Vietnam’s water resources originate outside the
country, making Vietnam susceptible to decisions made in upstream
countries:
• Vietnam’s two major rivers are the Red River in the north and the
Mekong River in the south.
• The Mekong flows from the Tibetan Plateau through China,
Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, before reaching the sea
via the Mekong Delta.
• The Mekong Delta has been described as a biological treasure
trove and the rice bowl of Vietnam, producing over half of the
country’s staple food.
• In 1995, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam established the
Mekong River Commission.
• In 1996, China and Myanmar joined discussions to manage the
Mekong’s resources.
The aims of the Mekong River Commission include:
• Achieving closer co-operation with China, discussing issues such
as the effect of building dams in China, maintaining a dry season
flow and giving early flood warnings.
• Expanding areas of irrigated farming.
• Developing drought strategies to ensure greater reliability of water
supply.
• Protecting ecosystems.
Figure 13 Location of the Mekong River.

Consequences of small-scale water management

Small-scale water management projects are often funded by NGOs.
They usually:
• are bottom-up projects controlled by the local community
• are relatively cheap and easy to set up
• are easy to maintain using simple or intermediate technology
• address local issues.

Example of a small-scale project: WaterAid in

Malawi
In Malawi, the number of people with reliable access to clean water is
much lower than the official figure of 90 per cent. Many hand pumps
are broken and in rural areas as few as two in ten people have
access to a toilet.
WaterAid supports communities to repair broken hand pumps,
improve hygiene practices and train people to maintain their own
resources.
In villages without a toilet, WaterAid helps to build simple composting
toilets that keep water sources clean and also provide fertiliser for
crops.

Figure 14 Water use in Malawi and the UK.

Revision activity
1 Make a list of countries through which the River Mekong flows.
2 Why is international management of the Mekong River and its
 tributaries important?

Now test yourself

1 Compare water use in Malawi to the UK.
2 Explain why Malawi uses a much greater percentage of its water
on agriculture.
3 Suggest reasons to explain why it is often difficult to achieve
international agreement.

Example of over-abstraction of groundwater:

India
In India, groundwater provides 65 per cent of all water used in
agriculture and 85 per cent of domestic water use. This water is
stored in porous rock known as an aquifer. In some areas, over-
abstraction is taking place where water is taken from the ground
faster than it can be recharged through rainfall percolating down into
the ground. In many places the water table is 4 m lower than it was
in 2000.
Reasons for the use of groundwater include:
• Some states, such as Gujarat, have a long dry season. Rivers and
lakes dry up and groundwater is the only source of water.
• Surface stores are often polluted; groundwater is considered
cleaner.
• Cheap electricity has encouraged farmers to drill deep wells and
install pumps to extract water.
• The Green Revolution has led to farmers growing crops that need
more water than traditional crops.
In the future, the Indian government is going to have to find
alternative ways of supplying the growing demand for water:
• The government could build more dams. India already has 3200
major- and medium-sized dams, and building more would be very
unpopular since more villages and farmland would be flooded. This
is an example of a top-down approach to the problem.
• A bottom-up approach would be to encourage farmers to adopt
 water conservation measures. One example is rainwater
harvesting where farmers build earth dams to create small pools of
water which fill during the rainy season. In the following months this
water can be used and will slowly sink into the ground, recharging
the aquifer.

Exam practice
Explain why the demand for water is higher in high-income countries
than in low-income countries.
[6]

Exam tip
Always look to give specific examples in your answer. In response to
this question the examiner would expect you to refer to specific HICs
and LICs to gain full marks.

Regional economic development

What are the causes and
consequences of regional patterns of
economic development in India?
Figure 15 Percentage of the population of India living in poverty,
2013.

India provides a good example of how within a country there are

regional differences in development. There are huge inequalities
between the richest and poorest members of Indian society. Patterns
include:
• In Kerala, the state government has always funded public education
 and health. The result is low birth rates, high life expectancy and
relatively high quality of life.
• Kashmir has lower than average levels of per capita income. This
can be attributed to conflict in the region between India and
Pakistan.
• Maharashtra and Gujarat are India’s main centres of heavy industry,
producing 39 per cent of the country’s industrial output and 67 per
cent of its petrochemicals.
• The north-central region is poor although West Bengal stands out
for its relatively high income levels. It is noted for its heavy industries
and it has also long been one of India’s main intellectual centres.
India also has climatic differences, ranging from arid desert in the
north-west, tundra in the Himalayas to the north, and humid tropical
regions supporting rainforests in the south-west. These differences
have major impacts on farming in particular.
While it has been illegal in India to discriminate against others based
on caste since the 1950s, the caste system continues to affect society
in terms of economic inequality and even the election of politicians.
Discrimination against girls and women is widespread in India. The
dowry system (payment of money or goods by the family of a bride)
means that girls are a financial burden, which further promotes gender
inequality.

Example of regional social and economic

inequalities: Bihar vs Maharashtra
In 2010, the average per capita income in Bihar was £251 per year
but in Maharashtra it was £1011. Maharashtra has initial advantages
which include fertile soil, a good climate for farming, a good water
supply and a coastline which makes trade and transport easy.
Bihar Maharashtra
80 per cent of the population Has three of India’s largest cities,
live in rural areas; it is part of Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur; it is
India’s rural periphery part of India’s urban core
Education is poor and the birth It is a centre for banking, insurance
rate is high and call centres
Many people work as landless It has manufacturing industries, for
farm labourers example steel and textiles
Farms are small and produce Mumbai is the centre for India’s film
little more than a family needs industry in Bollywood
to survive
Government is more corrupt Government jobs in the region are
than elsewhere in India well paid
The consequence of inequality is protests, the growth of extremist
movements, demands for regional independence and the exclusion
of ‘non-natives’. Crime is increasing in some areas and there is
widespread public anger at political corruption as well as ways in
which state policy has favoured the rich. These forces create sources
of instability that may harm the development process in India in the
future.

Now test yourself

1 Explain what is meant by the urban core and why people who live
there often have a better standard of living.
2 Complete a flow diagram to show a predicted multiplier effect from
a government investing in education and health, as in Kerala.

Exam practice
State Percentage of population living in poverty
Bihar 34
Kerela 7
Maharashtra 17
1 Display this information using a suitable graph.
[4]
2 Suggest two reasons to explain why a large percentage of the
population of Bihar in India live in poverty.
 [4]

Revision activity
1 Use Figure 15 to describe the distribution of areas where more
than 30 per cent of the population live in poverty.
2 Identify one social, one economic, one cultural, one political and
one environmental reason for regional differences within India.

What are the causes and

consequences of regional patterns of
economic development in the UK?
The north–south divide
In the UK, it has long been recognised that there is a north–south
divide. This refers to the social and economic differences between
southern England and the rest of the UK. Reasons for these
differences include:
• The zone stretching along the M4/M11 motorway corridor between
Bristol, London and Cambridge has attracted modern high-tech
manufacturing industries.
• Research and development spending in the south-east in 2010 was
£3.6 billion compared to £0.3 billion in the north-east.
• The south has a more educated workforce with higher paid jobs in
science, technology and finance.
• London is a global centre for banking and finance.
• The south-east has many motorway networks concentrated around
it, making it easier for firms to distribute their products around the
country or world.
• The south is home to the UK’s major airports: Heathrow, Gatwick,
Stansted, Luton and Bristol.
• The north was once heavily industrialised but these manufacturing
industries have declined due to deindustrialisation, for example the
steel industry has lost over 200,000 jobs since 1967.
• In political terms, the south is largely supportive of the Conservative
Party, while the north is generally more supportive of the Labour
Party.

Figure 16 The UK’s north–south divide.

Now test yourself

Give three reasons to explain why there is a north–south divide in the
UK.
Social and economic consequences of regional
inequalities
Consequences include:
• Health conditions are generally poorer in the north.
• Life expectancy is higher in the south.
• House prices are higher in the south, particularly the south-east.
• Incomes are higher in the south.
• There is a migration of young professionals from the north to work in
the south and London in particular.

Exam practice
Name the process which results in a growing range of economic
activities. Underline the correct answer from the following words:
deindustrialisation, regeneration, diversification.
[1]

Example of Sheffield: a city in the north

Sheffield was once an important centre in the UK’s steel industry. In
the 1980s the industry declined dramatically: 120,000 people lost
their jobs between 1971 and 2008.
The deindustrialisation Sheffield experienced led to economic
diversification and the growth of jobs in retail, software development
and business services. Deindustrialisation has brought many
environmental and social benefits but at great economic cost:
Positive impacts Negative impacts
Water quality: during the industrial Derelict land: about 900 ha
period rivers and streams were of derelict land and buildings
polluted with industrial waste. Now were left. Much of the land is
rivers, such as the Don, have much polluted with heavy metals
improved water quality and are being and other industrial waste
restocked with fish
Air quality: air quality in the city has Greenfield sites: as people
improved are unable to find work in
inner Sheffield there is
pressure on the greenfield
sites on the edge of
Sheffield for homes
Regeneration: some of the old Traffic: as jobs in Sheffield
industrial sites are now available for are becoming scarcer,
regeneration, for example Hadfield’s people are having commute
steelworks is now Meadowhall to reach their jobs,
shopping centre increasing congestion

How can regional inequalities in the UK

be reduced?
How investment creates growth in deprived areas
Successive governments have developed regional policies to try to
reduce inequalities within the UK:
• The Regional Growth Fund (RGF) was created in June 2010 with
the intention of promoting the private sector in areas in England most
at risk of public sector cuts. The RGF was worth over £3.2 billion and
ran until March 2017.
• Enterprise Zones are designated areas across England that provide
tax breaks and government support. First established in 2012, 48
Enterprise Zones were in place by April 2017.
• Enterprise Zones in Wales offer incentives to attract new business
to prime locations. Their objective is to grow the local economy,
provide new jobs and act as a catalyst for growth.

Example: Sheffield City Region Enterprise Zone

This is located across six sites along the M1 motorway corridor, in the
centre of the UK, with London 90 minutes away by train. The zone is
home to the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing
Research Centre (AMRC), a world-class centre for research into
advanced manufacturing technologies used in the aerospace,
automotive, medical and other high-value manufacturing sectors.

Positive and negative multipliers

One way to tackle regional inequality is through investment in major
infrastructure projects, such as road and rail schemes. Better
transport links will attract new industries and lead to a positive
economic multiplier.

Figure 17 Positive economic multiplier.

Example: relief road around Newport

The M4 motorway is the main transport route that runs through south-
east Wales and links the region with London and south-east England.
Between Newport and Cardiff, the motorway narrows to two lanes as
it crosses the River Usk and through the Brynglas Tunnels. This
causes congestion and major traffic hold-ups. In 2014, the Welsh
government confirmed its intention to build a £1 billion relief road.
This is the largest capital investment programme ever announced by
the Welsh government.
Many cities in the north, such as Sheffield, have experienced a
negative multiplier. The closure of industry means that people are
unemployed and do not have money to spend in local shops.

Figure 18 Negative economic multiplier.

How national policies reduce regional inequality

National policies include:
• The government is devolving power to local councils in the north, for
example the election of the mayor for Greater Manchester in May
2017.
• The creation of the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ which is a proposal to
boost economic growth, particularly in the core cities of Manchester,
Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle. This would be an attempt
 to turn the north’s population of 15 million into a collective force and
to attract investment into northern cities and towns.
• The improvement of transport links such as the High Speed 2 train
which will connect London with Birmingham, and in a later phase,
cities in the north including Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds. Better
transport links will attract new investment and create an economic
multiplier.
• The relocation of some businesses and organisations, for example
the BBC built MediaCityUK near Manchester and moved many of its
offices there in 2011. Since then, the multiplier effect has led to other
companies locating close by, for example the Holiday Inn hotel
chain.

Now test yourself

Explain how deindustrialisation in areas such as Sheffield and the
south Wales valleys can lead to a negative multiplier.

Revision activity
Create a flow diagram to show a possible positive economic multiplier
following the construction of the M4 relief road around Newport.

Exam practice
Study the OS map below:
Figure 19 OS map showing location of the Amazon Distribution
Centre. Scale 1:50,000.

1 Give a four-figure grid reference for the location of the Amazon

Distribution Centre.
[1]
2 Give two reasons to explain why this site was chosen by Amazon
for a distribution centre.
[4]

Exam tip
Maps are an essential tool for geographers. It is certain that in your
GCSE examination there will be at least one question which will
contain an OS map and it is likely that other questions will contain
simple maps and sketch maps. It is therefore essential that you have
basic map-reading skills and can:
• read symbols, give grid references and direction, measure
distance, use scales and understand contour lines
• describe geographical features shown on a map.
Theme 7 Social Development
Issues

Measuring social development

How is social development measured?

When considering how to measure development within a country, we
often use an economic indicator. As this does not always reflect the
standard of living that people within a country experience, instead we
need to look at social development.
Some indicators that could be used to measure social development
include:
• life expectancy
• literacy rates
• the number of people per doctor
• average food consumption
• the number of homeless people
• deaths from unsafe water and sanitation
• the infant mortality rate.
Two areas that are frequently used to measure social development
are gender equality in a society and the health of its citizens.

Gender
Development indicators based around gender measure the progress
that a country is making towards equal rights for both men and
women. Many HICs still have gender equality issues. Some social
indicators that can give an indication of gender equality are:
• male and female literacy rates
• fertility rate
• male and female life expectancy
• male and female food consumption
• employment type.

Gender development index (GDI)

The gender inequality index (GII) measures gender inequalities in
three key aspects of human development: reproductive health,
empowerment and economic status. It is designed to expose
differences in the achievements of men and women. The indicators
involved are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 How the gender development index is formulated.

Health
Development issues based around health measure the progress that a
country is making towards a healthy life for all of its citizens. A range
of indicators are used to measure not only the health of the citizens,
but also the state of the main health service provided within that
country. Such indicators include:
• average life expectancy
• infant mortality rate
• percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) spent on healthcare
• length of hospital waiting lists and waiting times
• mortality rate of specific health conditions such as cancer and heart
 disease.

Continuum of social development

Many of these indicators are interdependent. For example, the length
of hospital waiting lists may very well depend on the percentage of
GDP spent on healthcare, which will over time influence the average
life expectancy. It is too simplistic to describe a country as either
‘healthy’ or unhealthy’ as there are many variables involved. Instead,
we need to think of a gradual progression or continuum of social
development. For example, in 2015 the country with the longest life
expectancy was Japan with an average life expectancy of 83.7 years,
and the shortest Sierra Leone with 50.1 years. Between these two
countries there are 181 other countries with different life expectancies.
The continuum enables us to appreciate the range of average life
expectancies between the longest and shortest.
This continuum is not static as life expectancy changes annually in
most countries due to further medical developments or investments.
As such, it is useful to look at the development gap between
countries as a dynamic picture (always changing). As vaccination
programmes are put into place in poorer countries, death rates can be
cut relatively quickly and therefore the gap between them and richer
countries is reduced.

Human development index (HDI)

The human development index (HDI) is calculated from four
development indicators and measures a country’s progress across a
range of factors:
• average length of schooling in years
• literacy rates
• gross national income (GNI) per capita
• life expectancy.
The HDI brings together social and economic factors and therefore
may be a more reliable indicator of measuring overall development.
Now test yourself
1 What do you understand by the term ‘social development’?
2 Take two examples of gender indicators and two examples of
health indicators and explain how these inform us as to how well
developed a country is.
3 Explain why the HDI is a useful measure in some countries.

Exam tip
When asked about gender indicators or health indicators, you should
include a number of examples of each and explain how these
measures are beneficial.

Exam practice
1 Adult literacy rate is a social development indicator. Describe what
is being measured by this indicator.
[2]
2 Explain why people use the term ‘continuum of social
development’.
[4]
3 Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using the HDI to
measure social development.
[8]

Uneven social development

What challenges face social
development in sub-Saharan Africa and
South Asia?
Birth and death rates
Population growth depends on the balance between birth rates and
death rates. Social (S), economic (E) and political (P) factors
influence these rates.
Factors that lead to higher Factors that lead to lower birth
birth rates rates
Children provide labour on farms People tend to marry later and
and security for old age (E) therefore have reduced child-
bearing years (S)
Large families are seen as a sign Women are educated and often
of virility (S) follow careers which delay or
prevent them starting families (P)
Girls may marry early and The high cost of living means it is
therefore extend their child- expensive to raise children (E)
bearing years (S)
Women may lack education and Couples prefer to spend money on
stay at home to raise a family material things such as holidays
rather than work (S) and cars (E)
A high infant mortality rate Birth control is readily available (P)
encourages larger families to
ensure survival of some children
(S)

Factors that lead to higher Factors that lead to lower death

death rates rates
HIV, Ebola and other difficult to Better healthcare and vaccination
control diseases are having an programmes are more available to
impact on death rates in LICs (S) people (P)
In HICs, the increasingly higher Less physically demanding jobs
proportion of elderly people in put less stress on people
ageing societies is leading to an physically (S)
increase in death rates (S)
People are educated about health
and hygiene (P)
Water supplies are more reliable
 and cleaner (P)
There is more sanitary disposal of
waste (P)

Population pyramids
Which of the above factors has the greatest influence on a country’s
population will vary but we can see how the structure of the population
is altered by looking at population pyramids. These graphs divide
the population into five-year age groups which are shown as
horizontal bars and then the graph is split into two to show males and
females. Two examples of population pyramids are shown in the
following table, together with factors which may affect their structure
(the data is representative of 2014).
Sub-Saharan Africa: Nigeria (birth rate 38 South Asia: India
and death rate 13) (birth rate 19.8 and
death rate 7.3)
A high infant mortality rate of 74 deaths/1000 An infant mortality
live births rate of 43
Average life expectancy of 52 years deaths/1000 live
births
Large families: fertility rate 5.25
Average life
Low use of contraception expectancy of 67.8
In 2012, 3 per cent of the population had years
HIV/AIDS Family size
Poor sanitation and drinking water decreasing: fertility
rate 2.5
A high risk of catching a major infectious
disease Medium use of
contraception
Literacy rates in 2010 were only 61.3 per cent
In 2012, 0.3 per
0.4 doctors per 1000 population cent of the
Civil unrest since 2002 by Boko Haram population had
HIV/AIDS
The Nigerian government has a large amount of
foreign debt Poor sanitation and
drinking water
In 2014, Nigeria ranked 181 out of 191 countries
in the world assessed for its political stability – a A high risk of
high chance of civil, unrest, terrorism or a coup catching a major
infectious disease
Expenditure on health is 5.3 per cent of GDP
(2011) Literacy rates in
2010 were only 62.8
per cent
0.65 doctors per
1000 population
In 2015, India was
considered to have
the seventh largest
economy in the
world but it
continues to face
 issues of poverty
and corruption
In 2014, India
ranked 165 out of
191 countries in the
world assessed for
its political stability –
a medium chance of
civil, unrest,
terrorism or a coup
Expenditure on
health is 3.9 per
cent of GDP (2011)

Revision activity
1 Draw the outline of the two population pyramids. Add labels to
show key characteristics of each pyramid.
2 For each country, draw a table similar to the one below to show the
social, economic and political factors that have created the current
population structure
Social factors Economic factors Political factors

Exam tip
The specification asks you to look at an example of a South Asian
and a sub-Saharan African country, therefore you must learn a
detailed example of each.

Reasons for child labour

It is estimated that there are currently 168 million child workers and 73
million of these are children under ten years of age. Many, particularly
younger children, are working on farms to produce products such as
cotton, coffee and cocoa. The area of the world with the highest
proportion of child labourers is in sub-Saharan Africa. The causes and
consequences of child labour include:

International organisations tackling child labour

The difficulty in trying to tackle child labour is due to the range of
countries involved and the varying factors that cause the child labour
at each location. There are a range of organisations working
internationally to try to end child labour. These include:
• The International Labour Organisation (ILO). It collects data from
different countries and uses this data to set targets which can be
used as a benchmark to monitor progress. The ILO then makes
recommendations to individual governments as to how this can be
achieved in their country, which frequently include:
• Improving access to education for all children so that they can
progress and succeed in life.
• Creating more trade unions so that they can prevent and protect
against child labour.
• Improving social security systems so that the poorest in society
are supported rather than them relying on their children.
• Increasing public awareness of the issue and changing people’s
attitudes.
• The United Nations (UN) has passed a number of conventions
which aim to get international agreement on the issue of child labour.
These include Convention 138 on the Minimum Age for Admission to
Employment, and Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child
Labour.
• International World Day Against Child Labour attempts to raise the
profile of various aspects involved in child labour.
• Charities such as Child Hope and SOS Children’s Villages try to
raise awareness as well as working with the communities involved.

Now test yourself

1 What do you understand by the term ‘child labour’? Can you give
some examples?
2 In your opinion, what are the top three causes of child labour? Can
you explain why each one leads to an increased number of children
in work?

Challenges in primary education

The UN Millennium Development Goal 2 set a target to:
• increase primary school enrolment from 83 per cent in 2000 to 91
per cent in 2015 for developing countries
• halve the number of children not attending school globally.
Although there has been progress, this is not always evenly spread
across the whole population in some countries.

Example of challenges in reducing child labour

and extending primary education in India
In India, the issue of child labour remains a significant, if decreasing
issue. In 2010, there were 4.98 million children in child labour,
whereas by 2011 there were 4.35 million child labourers. In addition
to poverty, the lack of education is a key cause of child labour. More
men than women are educated and of the 62 per cent of children who
do not attend school, 62 per cent were girls. Girls often spend less
time at school than boys. The reasons for this include:
• Poor quality of school buildings, facilities and teaching in many
schools. For other children, schools are too far away or simply too
expensive for their family to send them to.
• Attitude towards women in society: many families that follow the
caste system still have an oppressive attitude towards women and
do not see the value in their education.
• Many girls are expected to marry young through arranged
marriages.
• The fear that sexual harassment of girls may bring dishonour to the
girl’s family.
The consequences of this lack of education for girls include:
• poor prospects of being able to live independently
• a higher rate of infant mortality to uneducated mothers
• larger family sizes which keep women in the home and rearing
children.
Strategies to improve access to education of girls and to reduce the
child labour that poor education creates include:
• Empowering communities: charities working with rural communities
and educating parents to help them see the value of a girl’s
education.
• Locating new schools in places where all pupils can reach them
and providing the infrastructure for pupils to get to them.
• The establishment of Bal Sabhas (Girls’ Councils) in all primary
schools to give girls a voice within the school.
• The Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act
of 1986 makes it a criminal offence to employ children in 64
industries which have been deemed hazardous. Therefore with the
loss of the ‘value’ of putting children to work, it is hoped that families
will see the value in their education.
• The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act of
2009: this Act aims to make free and compulsory education widely
available to children up to the age of fourteen.
• Local initiatives working with local leaders and trade unions to
create child labour-free working environments.

Revision activity
Draw a mind map to summarise all your information on issues in
primary education. Begin with ‘primary education’ in the middle of the
page and then add three arms: one each for causes, consequences
and solutions. Remember to include case study information.

Reasons for international refugees and asylum

seekers
There are many different reasons why people migrate. Some people
are economic migrants and choose to move (due to pull factors),
whereas other people are forced to move (due to push factors) and
are refugees or asylum seekers. Refugees are often international
refugees as they are fleeing from conflict, persecution or a natural
disaster in their own country (push factors) and seek a safer life in
another country.
Since 2000, there has been an increasing number of refugees trying
to enter Europe from countries in Africa, the Middle East and South
Asia, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea and Somalia. This
movement of people is the largest since the Second World War. With
such large numbers of people being displaced and travelling large
distances, the impacts are felt in many countries. For example,
Lebanon is a country of 4.4 million inhabitants and has been greatly
affected by the refugee crisis. By May 2016, the country was hosting
around 1.1 million Syrian refugees (both registered and non-
registered), 42,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria, 6000 Iraqi
refugees and nearly 450,000 refugees from Palestine.

Example of a country dealing with the impacts of

refugees: Lebanon
Lebanon is a small country of 4.4 million people which borders the
Mediterranean Sea, Israel and Syria. Due to its location it receives
many migrants fleeing from the Syrian civil war and other countries,
as we have seen above. Some of the impacts this is having on the
country are:
• The population has grown by 25 per cent.
• It has the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world.
• Increased pressure on infrastructure, public health, labour,
education, housing and security.
• The Lebanese government has asked the international community
for $449 million in assistance to host the refugees.
• Security cells have been established in local communities to record
violent incidents, illegal business and so on.
• Tent cities and squatter settlements cover large areas in Lebanon.
• Limited access to clean water and sanitation lead to spread of
disease.
• Many refugee children miss out on schooling.

Tackling the issue of refugees

National governments in Europe have reacted to the mass migration
of refugees in a variety of ways in an attempt to manage the influx of
people:
• Germany and Sweden see the refugees as victims and have
welcomed them to their countries and help them to integrate into
their societies.
• Austria is trying to limit the number of refugees to 80 a day.
• The UK has agreed to accept 20,000 refugees from Syria by 2020
and it will accept more unaccompanied Syrian child refugees.

Now test yourself

1 Explain the difference between a refugee and an economic
migrant.
2 Group the causes of the European migrant crisis into social,
political and economic causes.
3 Explain why the refugee crisis is particularly intense in Lebanon.

International agreements
In Europe there are international agreements in place with regard to
the movement of people across countries. One of these agreements is
known as the Schengen agreement, which was signed in 1995. This
created Europe’s Schengen Zone which enables passport-free
movement of people between the countries that have signed the
agreement. In 2016, there were 26 Schengen countries: 22 European
Union (EU) members and four non-EU (Norway, Iceland, Switzerland
and Liechtenstein). There are therefore six EU countries which have
not signed up to this agreement and prefer to manage their own
borders (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, Romania and the UK).
This itself has created issues. For example, the restriction of free
movement into the UK has led to an increase in the number of illegal
migrants trying to get into the country. One route used by illegal
migrants was to get to Calais and attempt to cross the English
Channel illegally by stowing away in lorries or vans, or by attempting
to get through the Eurotunnel. This led to a slum area developing in
Calais known as ‘the jungle’, where migrants lived while attempting to
find a route to the UK. The jungle was demolished in 2016 in an
attempt to reduce the number of illegal immigrants coming to the UK.

Revision activity
Draw a bubble diagram to show the responses to the European
refugee crisis. Shade in the bubbles that are national responses in
one colour and those that are international responses in another
colour.
Figure 2 Migration routes across Europe.

However, with the increasing numbers of migrants from Africa and

Asia reaching Europe illegally (for example by crossing the
Mediterranean Sea in inflatable boats) and hence avoiding border
controls, this has led to the following changes:
• In 2016, border controls were temporarily introduced in seven
Schengen countries (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway,
Poland and Sweden).
• An EU naval operation, Operation Sophia, has been put in place to
monitor the Mediterranean Sea to prevent human smuggling and
 trafficking.
• EU member states agreed to provide task forces of national experts
and support teams to work in hotspots such as Greece and Italy to
expedite refugee screening.

Now test yourself

1 Give two contrasting ways in which countries have attempted to
deal with the refugee crisis in Europe.
2 For each of the methods above, describe the advantages and
disadvantages of this approach.

Exam practice
‘Eradicating child labour is a key factor in the further development of
countries in both South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.’ To what extent
do you think this is true?
[8]

Exam tip
If an exam question asks you for the consequences of child labour or
lack of primary education then remember to link the effect to the
issue. You have to not only state what the consequence is but also
explain how that results because of the issue.

What are the healthcare issues in sub-

Saharan Africa?
Reasons for high infant mortality rates
Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from the highest infant mortality rates in
the world. In 2015, there were 86 deaths per 1000 live births, and this
rate is even higher for newborn babies. Although the region is the
poorest area in the world and cannot afford a good level of medical
care, other factors include:
• Neonatal infections: a high rate of infection from the process of
delivering the baby causes a high rate of infection in newborn
babies.
• Around ten per cent of deaths in early childhood in the region are
due to diarrhoea.
• The lack of skilled birth attendants leads to many children dying
within 24 hours of being born.
• Lack of vaccinations and mosquito nets to stop preventable
diseases.
Two of the most common killers in sub-Saharan Africa are malaria
and HIV.

Challenges of malaria
Malaria is caused by parasites that are spread to people through the
bites of infected mosquitoes. It is a preventable disease, yet in 2015,
there were an estimated 214 million malaria cases and some 438,000
malaria deaths, the majority of which were in African countries.

Example of a country facing the impact of

malaria: Malawi
Malawi is a land-locked country in sub-Saharan Africa, with a
population of 16.8 million. Lake Malawi covers a third of its land area.
It has a high infant mortality rate and an average life expectancy of
50 years. More than 80 per cent of the population lives in rural areas.
• Malaria varies seasonally, reaching its peak in the rainy season
(January to April).
• The highest rates of infections are found around Lake Malawi due
to the warm, stagnant water.
• Infection rates are higher in rural areas.
• Children, pregnant women and those with HIV are at particularly
high risk.
• Mosquitoes are becoming resistant to insecticides.
• For most people in Malawi, visiting a doctor is a long walk away.
Government strategies to combat malaria:
• The Malaria strategic plan sets targets and monitors intervention.
• Increase the use of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) which cost
around £3. In 2015, 80 per cent of households had at least one net,
but this does not mean that all members of the family could sleep
under it.
• Improve access to fast and effective treatment so that early
symptoms can be managed.
• Indoor residual spraying (IRS): this involves spraying insecticides in
places where mosquitoes are more likely to come into contact with
people.

Now test yourself

1 Describe the strategies that have been used in the attempt to
control malaria.
2 Explain why malaria is difficult to control.

Exam tip
If a question asks you to explain the challenges that malaria presents
then you must be able to link the challenge back to the country or
location it is in and why the conditions there make it a challenge.

Challenges of HIV
There were approximately 36.9 million people in the world living with
HIV/AIDS by the end of 2014, and 2.6 million of these were children.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the most widespread HIV/AIDS epidemic in
the world. In 2013, an estimated 24.7 million people were living with
HIV, which accounts for 71 per cent of the global total.

Example of a country facing the impact of

HIV/AIDS: Malawi
Malawi has an estimated 1 million people who are infected with HIV.
• Average life expectancy is 50 years, largely due to deaths from
 AIDS.
• Rates of HIV infection are higher in urban areas than in rural areas.
• Many families are in poverty due to adults being too ill to work.
• The country’s development is limited due to a reduction in taxes
paid as a result of fewer people working.
• Children of adults with HIV often drop out of school to care for their
parents.
Government strategies to combat HIV/AIDS:
• HIV testing and counselling (HTC) services have increased over
the past few years and during 2012–13 over 2.1 million HIV tests
were carried out.
• Large investments in preventing mother-to-child transmissions
where pregnant women are given access to medication while
pregnant, which helps to prevent the infection being given to the
baby.
• An increase in the availability of free condoms.
• An increase in the number of people treated with anti-retroviral
treatment (ART), which helps to prevent HIV leading to AIDS and
therefore prevents early death.

International response to malaria and HIV/AIDS

Most nations are fully committed to reducing infection and death rates
from malaria. The ‘Roll Back Malaria’ initiative had over 500 partners
working together to provide a co-ordinated global response to the
disease, and one of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals is that
the incidence of the disease should have reduced by 2015.
The initial global response to HIV focused on prevention through
encouraging behaviour change and also research into a vaccine.
However, it soon became evident that this would not be enough to
stop the epidemic. Today, the UN AIDS Fast Track Strategy is aiming
to end the epidemic by 2030 through improvements in the availability
of contraception, education and the availability of medication which
prevents the virus leading to AIDS.

Now test yourself

1 What impact does a high level of HIV infection have on a country?
2 List the different approaches that can be taken to limit HIV
infection.
3 Are government-based or international-based approaches more
effective at dealing with HIV/AIDS?

Revision activity
Draw a table to compare the impacts of and strategies to tackle
malaria and HIV infection.

Exam practice
1 What is meant by the term infant mortality rate?
[2]
2 Why is this an important measure of development?
[4]
3 Explain why either malaria or HIV is difficult to control and manage
in sub-Saharan Africa.
[6]
4 Describe the international responses to either malaria or HIV.
[4]

Top-down and bottom-up approaches to

development
Top-down approach Bottom-up approach
Decisions are made at governmental Decisions are made by the
level and usually involve a high cost. local communities that
Communities likely to be affected by the they will affect. They try to
decisions have little say as to what is help communities by
done helping them to help
themselves
The advantages of these types of The advantages of these
schemes are that they may be part of a types of schemes are that
strategic plan which aims to develop the they are small scale and
infrastructure of the country. However, so cost less, are more
they frequently lead the country into debt sustainable and usually
and the jobs that are created are often meet the needs of the
not for the local community local community better

Example: Kaste Dam, Lesotho

The Kaste Dam is part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. This
project was developed through a partnership between the South
African and Lesotho governments to improve the water supply for
South Africa and provide Lesotho with an income. There are many
health benefits that this improved water supply has brought although
the environmental social benefits, as far as the farmers who lost their
land are concerned, are difficult to see.

Figure 3 Kaste Dam in Lesotho.

Example: WaterAid
This British charity is helping to put hand water pumps into Ethiopian
villages. In Ethiopia, 42 million people do not have access to safe,
clean drinking water and over 9000 children die each year from
diarrhoea caused by dirty water. WaterAid works with each
community, providing the hand pump and showing the community
how to maintain it so that they do not have to work for hours each day
to collect water, which leaves the villagers more time to farm.

Figure 4 Women collecting water from a well in Ethiopia.

Measuring progress of development

There are a number of ways in which the developmental progress of
sub-Saharan countries can be measured. Some of these are the
Millennium Development Goals which measured progress from 2000
to 2015. These have now been replaced by the Sustainable
Development Goals. See the table below for more details.
Method of measurement Progress
Millennium Development Goals: • 8 out of 26 countries made no
• MDG 1: eradicate extreme progress in the last decade
hunger and poverty • 5 out of 43 countries made
<50 per cent progress towards
• MDG 2: achieve universal target
primary education • 27 out of 43 countries made
• MDG 4: reduce child mortality 50 per cent or more progress to
achieving this goal
• MDG 5: reduce maternal • 18 out of 43 countries made
mortality <50 per cent progress towards
target
Sustainable Development
Goals:
17 goals which aim to end These were put in place in 2016
poverty, protect the planet and and progress will be measured by
ensure that all people enjoy peace the United Nations Development
and prosperity Programme (UNDP)
Human development index
(HDI):
A complex development indicator
which takes the following into • Botswana in 2014 had a
account: medium HDI of 0.698
• life expectancy at birth • Angola in 2014 had a low HDI
• expected years schooling for of 0.532
school-age children • Niger in 2014 had a very low
• average years of schooling in HDI of 0.348
the adult population
• gross national income (GNI)
per capita

Now test yourself

1 What do you understand by the term ‘top-down approach?’
2 How does this differ from a ‘bottom-up approach’?
3 What factors make measuring progress difficult?

Exam practice
‘In the twenty-first century, bottom-up approaches rather than top-
down approaches are the way forward to speed up development in
sub-Saharan Africa.’ To what extent do you agree with this
statement?
[8]

Revision activity
Research one bottom-up approach and one top-down approach to
improving health in sub-Saharan Africa. Then draw a table similar to
the one below highlighting the key features and the extent to which
they are socially, environmentally and economically sustainable.
Scheme – key Socially Environmentally Economically
features sustainable sustainable sustainable
Theme 8 Environmental
Challenges

Consumerism and its impact on

the environment
What are the impacts of increasing
consumer choice on the global
environment?
What is consumerism?
In the twenty-first century, consumerism dominates Western
societies more than ever. We all buy goods, many of which are
essential for us to survive (food and clothing and so on). However, we
also buy many non-essential goods which drives our consumer
society even more. For example, globally in 2014 there were 7.2
billion mobile phones in use, and a world population of 7.19 billion.
Therefore, we are now using more mobile phones than there are
people in the world. Considering that in the 1980s it was uncommon
for people to have mobile phones, the growth in popularity of this
product is phenomenal. However, most people are not content to own
a mobile, but they want the latest model with the most up-to-date
functions and services. Therefore, consumerism is constantly being
driven by new and improved, non-essential products.

Ecological footprint
Consumerism also drives the food industry. In the 1950s and 1960s, it
was only possible to buy fruits like strawberries and apples when they
were in season in the UK. At that time the UK produced a much higher
proportion of its food than we do today and consumers were more in
touch with the growing seasons of the food they ate. However, with
increased globalisation we now have seasonal fruits available in our
supermarkets throughout the year. These foods are sourced from all
over the world, for example:
• lamb from New Zealand
• beef from South America
• apples from Chile
• green beans from Kenya.
All of these foods can be grown or raised in the UK but may not be
available all year round and therefore thousands of food miles (both
air and sea) are covered each year in transporting these foods from
their source country to the place they are consumed. This
transportation has a large impact on the environment through
pollution, and in changing the use of the areas of land that are used to
grow the food. These both have an impact on the ecological
footprint of the way that we consume food. When considering the
ecological footprint of goods that we consume, the following factors
are taken into consideration:
• the energy used in their formation
• the land area taken to produce the goods
• the amount of carbon produced from production to consumption
• the impact on the ecosystem where produced
• the waste that is created from producing and consuming the
product.

Exam tip
An exam question may ask you to ‘explain the links between …’.
Remember that links can go both ways and therefore look at both
how consumerism affects global interdependence and also how
global interdependence affects consumerism.
Now test yourself
1 What do you understand by the term ‘consumerism’?
2 Explain why consumerism has an impact on the ecological
footprint of a population.

Global interdependence, consumerism and

ecosystems
The buying and selling of goods between countries is known as
global interdependence. Countries rely on other countries to supply
goods or services which their populations consume. The increase in
consumerism increases the impacts that it has on both local and
global ecosystems. The impacts of consumerism on the environment
depend on the fragility of the ecosystem, the scale of the
growth/development of the product and how much the source country
depends upon the product to contribute towards its income.

Example of impacts on tropical rainforests:

Borneo
Borneo is an island in South-East Asia and divided between the
countries of Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. The island contains a
tropical rainforest biome. Large areas of the rainforest are being
cleared to create palm oil plantations. The increased demand for
palm oil impacts on the tropical rainforests in Borneo.
Figure 1 Borneo and the ‘Heart of Borneo’.

Consumerism
• Palm oil is widely accepted as a healthy alternative to other cooking
oils and in an increasingly health-conscious Western world demand
has increased.
• It can also be used as a biofuel which provides a greener solution
to the energy crisis.
• 66 million tonnes of palm oil are used annually.
• Palm oil is used in many products including biscuits, margarine,
make-up and soap.
Ecosystem
• Borneo is thought to contain six per cent of the world’s species due
to its vast areas of rainforest.
• Palm oil plantations are grown as a monoculture and therefore
reduce the biodiversity compared to the rainforest they replace.
• Large areas of rainforest are destroyed, not only for the plantation
itself but also for the infrastructure that is needed for the plantation.
• Local indigenous people and animals become displaced.
• Air and water pollution, together with soil erosion, frequently result.

Global interdependence
• Palm oil has higher yields and lower production costs compared to
many of its alternatives and therefore is a highly profitable produce
for the newly industrialised countries (NICs) that the island of
Borneo is governed by.
• Indonesia and Malaysia are the largest palm oil producing countries
in the world and it forms a major part of their exports.
• Huge profits are made for the multinational corporations that invest
in the plantations. In recent years these corporations have been
asked to support sustainable use of land for palm oil production.
• The biggest importers of palm oil are India, the European Union
and China.

Now test yourself

1 What do you understand by the term ‘ecological footprint’?
2 What factors will increase a person’s ecological footprint?
3 Describe the factors that have led to the destruction of a tropical
rainforest that you have studied.
4 Make links between the factors that you have described in
question 3.

Example of impacts on mangrove forests:

Bangladesh
Bangladesh is a South Asian country to the north of the Bay of
Bengal and is the eighth most populated country in the world. Due to
its extensive coastline there are large areas of mangrove forests
which provide an ideal habitat for shrimps (prawns). The increased
demand for shrimps impacts on the mangrove forests in Bangladesh.

Consumerism
• In 2010, over 3 million tonnes of wild shrimp were caught by
fishermen in mangrove forests.
• Fish (including shrimp) are the second largest export for
Bangladesh at a value of $569.9 million in 2016.
• Large businesses cut down areas of mangrove forests so that the
area can be developed for aquaculture.

Ecosystem
• Trees in mangrove forests can tolerate both salt and fresh water
and therefore are a valuable habitat for a wide range of animals and
fish.
• The roots of the trees hold together the mud and act as a natural
defence to coastal flooding.
• The sheltered water created by the trees creates the ideal breeding
ground for fish and shrimps.
• 25 million hectares of mangrove forest in Bangladesh have been
destroyed, largely to make way for shrimp farms.
• Shrimp farms produce organic waste and chemicals which may
pollute natural water sources.

Global interdependence
• Due to high demand from countries such as the USA, Japan and
Western Europe, shrimp farming began in the 1970s to increase the
supply of shrimps, which now accounts for 55 per cent of all
shrimps produced.
• Most shrimp farms are in China, Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil,
Ecuador and Bangladesh.
Figure 2 A mangrove forest in Bangladesh.

Now test yourself

1 Describe the factors that have led to the destruction of an
ecosystem other than tropical rainforests that you have studied.
2 Explain the role that consumerism has had in this destruction.

Impacts of consumerism on the environment

The volume of goods that we buy impacts on both the global and local
environments where these are consumed.
Revision activity
1 Draw a bubble diagram to show the factors you think need to be
taken into consideration when calculating an area’s ecological
footprint.
2 For the tropical rainforest example that you have studied, put the
factors that have caused their destruction into a Venn diagram
similar to the one below. (Make sure that if there is a link between
one factor and another, you put them in an overlapping part of the
diagram.)
3 Repeat this activity for the second biome that you have studied.
Exam practice
1 What do you understand by the term ‘consumerism’?
[1]
2 Explain why one biome that you have studied is being destroyed
due to consumerism.
[4]
3 ‘Destruction of ecosystems is necessary if global interdependence
is to continue.’ How far do you agree with this statement?
[8]

How might climate change affect

people and the environment?
The growth, manufacture and transportation of food and goods around
the world increase greenhouse gas emissions causing climate
change. The effects of this change can be both long and short term
on:
• People’s lifestyles and way of life: human activities may have to be
adapted to cope with climate change (for example flooding) in
addition to limiting the further release of greenhouse gases.
• The economy: the costs of dealing with the effects of climate change
and adapting lifestyles.
• The environment: ecosystems may be endangered or even
destroyed.

Example of effects of climate change on the UK

People
• Currently it is estimated that about 330,000 properties are at risk of
flooding, which could increase to between 630,000 and 1.2 million
by the 2080s.
• Whole village communities may need to be abandoned due to
increased flooding and/or coastal erosion.
• Increased pressure on the health service to deal with the effects of
a heatwave.
• Through drier summers, 27–59 million people may be living in
regions affected by water supply deficits by the 2050s.
• Spread of new diseases through new species now being able to
survive the warmer UK climate, for example mosquitoes spreading
malaria.

Economy
• Drier summers may increase income through tourism.
• The economic cost of flood damage (repairs to buildings, roads,
lost days’ work, replacing valuables and so on) is predicted to
increase to around £27 billion by 2080.
• Insurance premiums will rise as more claims are made. Some
areas may become uninsurable.
• Increased food price volatility may cause an increase in the cost of
 food in the UK.
• New crops such as oranges could be grown in the UK, which will
reduce imports.

Environment
• Milder and wetter winter weather.
• A higher frequency of storms, which may also be more severe.
• Increased risk of flooding, particularly in the south-east of England.
• Extremely wet winters are five times more likely over the next 100
years, which may lead to an increased risk of flooding, particularly
in the south-east of England.
• Warmer drier summers are likely, which could bring an increased
risk of droughts and heatwaves.
• Species of animals and plants may migrate north as they no longer
fit the habitat that they currently exist in. Some species may
become extinct. New species which previously were unable to exist
here may spread into the UK.

Alternative geographical future

• Many coastal communities would need to be relocated due to the
threat of flooding or erosion.
• People may need to pay increased taxes to pay for the increased
strain put on the NHS by new diseases and more frequent
heatwaves.
• A change in the type of crops grown in the UK may lead some
farmers to prosper and others to go out of business.
• Communities and insurance companies need to prepare for an
increased frequency of storms, which may lead to more flood and
wind damage. A great emphasis on land-use zoning will be more
evident in new developments.

Now test yourself

1 Look at the impacts of climate change on the UK above. Group
these into long- and short-term effects.
2 Are there any positive effects of climate change?
3 Explain what you think the geographical future of the UK will be
 with effects of climate change.

Example of effects of climate change on Tuvalu

Tuvalu is a collection of nine islands that are located in the south
Pacific Ocean, off the north-east coast of Australia. The highest point
in the islands is only 4.5 m above sea level, but most of Tuvalu is
below sea level.

People
• Reduction in food supply due to salinisation of the soil.
• Increased water supply scarcity due to contamination from
saltwater and irregularity of rainfall.
• Increase in the number of tropical storms destroys what little
resources the islanders have.
• Increase in water-borne diseases which threaten lives.
• Some islanders have already decided to leave and move to New
Zealand, becoming environmental refugees.

Economy
• The economy is based on the export of copra (dried coconut kernel
used to extract coconut oil) and the sale of fishing licences. These
are under threat due to flooding and warmer seas.
• The country has sold its internet domain ‘.tv’, which has guaranteed
an income of $50 million over twelve years. This money is being
used to help pay for flood defences.

Environment
• The warming of the ocean around Tuvalu decreases the
biodiversity on the delicate coral reefs and therefore restricts a food
source.
• Increased amounts of stagnant water due to frequent flooding.
The soil of Tuvalu is prone to increasing salinisation due to sea level
rise, which threatens the habitats of some plants such as coconut
trees and pulaka.
Alternative geographical future
• The islanders will need to adapt to a life living below sea level,
relying completely on robust sea defences to prevent flooding
• A large proportion of the population may wish to migrate to begin a
new life in a less threatened environment.
• The loss of identity of the population as they become settled in
other countries.

Figure 3 Location of Tuvalu.

Now test yourself

1 Identify the long- and short-term impacts of climate change on
Tuvalu.
2 What do you think the future for Tuvalu will be?

Exam tip
You must learn the impacts of climate change in two contrasting
environments. The UK must be one and your teacher will choose
another. Make sure you know the differences in impacts of climate
change between these two environments and why the impacts differ.

How can technology be used and

people’s lifestyles changed to reduce
these impacts?
Now that it is widely accepted that people are contributing to climate
change, if we alter our behaviours then we may be able to limit its
impacts. The causes of climate change can be tackled by
governments at a global, national and local scale, as well as at an
individual level.

International agreements
There have been several attempts to draw up international
agreements to restrict emissions from countries. The main ones are:
• The Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in 1997 and committed
countries to targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions between
2008 and 2012.
• The Paris Agreement, which was signed in 2015 and recognised
that countries must keep global temperature increases to below 2 °C
above pre-industrial levels. It also recognised that newly
industrialised countries (NICs) need to cut emissions at different
rates from high-income countries (HICs).
International agreements are made increasingly difficult by the
different values and attitudes held by various countries. For example,
a country in sub-Saharan Africa which suffers increased and
prolonged periods of drought may be very willing to sign up to
agreements on climate change. However, rapidly industrialising
countries with a large manufacturing-based economy may be more
reluctant.
National governments
Most national governments also put policies in place with the aim of
helping their country to meet internationally agreed targets. Examples
for the UK include:
• The Climate Change Act of 2008. This Act sets out that UK
emissions must be cut by at least 80 per cent by 2050.
• In 2009, the Welsh government agreed to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by 40 per cent by 2020.
To help achieve these targets the government has invested in new
technologies such as:
• Low carbon energy sources: investment in alternative sources of
energy such as solar, wind, hydroelectric power and tidal.
• Carbon capture: a method of capturing the carbon dioxide that is
emitted from burning fossil fuels.
• Increased efficiency in new buildings: so that less heating or cooling
will be required.
• Car fuel standards: the development of electric cars together with
energy-saving technology that turns engines off when stationary,
both of which reduce fuel consumption.

Local government
Local governments have their own strategies to meet targets. This is
the example for Swansea:

Example: sustainable energy action plan for

Swansea
• Produce energy plans for new schools in Swansea.
• Reduce the carbon footprint at key development sites in Swansea.
• Develop planning guidance for energy efficiency and renewable
energy. The £1.3 billion tidal lagoon proposal for Swansea Bay has
been backed by a government review and has potential to produce
enough electricity for 155,000 homes.
• Plan to generate electricity from wind, biomass and tidal sources.
• Develop a council corporate energy policy and technical design
 guidance.

Individual actions
The actions that individuals can take to reduce greenhouse emissions
include:
• Insulate all windows, doors and lofts in buildings to reduce heat loss.
• Install solar panels to heat water or generate electricity and use
energy-efficient appliances.
• Walk, cycle or use public transport.
• Buy locally sourced foods to reduce food miles.

Now test yourself

1 Name an international strategy that has been adopted to tackle
climate change.
2 What are the successes or failures of this strategy?
3 Why may local strategies be more effective than international
strategies?

Revision activity
Copy the table below. Try to include two examples under each type
of strategy and then give an advantage and disadvantage of each
strategy. (Think about how effective the strategy may be.)
Strategy Advantages Disadvantages
International agreement
National agreement
Local government
Individual actions

Exam practice
1 Give two ways in which agri-businesses impact negatively on the
environment.
 [2]
2 Explain why the disposal of waste impacts on the environment.
[4]
3 Describe the long-term impacts of climate change on the UK.
[4]
4 How might people’s lifestyles change in the future in a warmer
world?
[4]

Exam tip
You need to understand ‘the role of individuals and governments in
adopting new technologies and lifestyles to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions’. If you are asked a question about ‘the role’ of a particular
group of people, remember you must discuss not only what they do
to reduce climate change but also whether this is more or less
effective than another group of people.

Management of ecosystems
How can damaged environments and
natural habitats be managed and
restored?
Environmental strategies to manage habitat and
biodiversity
Habitats and biodiversity are under threat from human activities
within the ecosystem, which can lead to a permanent change in the
plants and animals which occupy that land area. To combat this and to
try to preserve ecosystems, environmental strategies are being
used to manage a range of habitats.
Example of a managed habitat: tropical rainforest
in Borneo
Natural ecosystem
• It is naturally covered in tropical rainforest, a biodiverse ecosystem
containing six per cent of the world’s wildlife.
• Endangered species include the Sumatran rhinoceros, Borneo
pygmy elephant, giant pitcher plants and the orangutan.

Why is the ecosystem being destroyed?

• Large areas of tropical rainforest are being destroyed to be
replaced by palm oil plantations, which covered 6 million ha in
2007.
• 56 per cent of natural rainforest on Borneo has been destroyed.

Environmental strategies
• Debt-for-nature swap: the USA and Indonesia have agreed a
debt-for-nature swap which will divert $28.5 million intended to
repay Indonesia’s debts to the USA into environmental strategies
for improving land-use techniques in the Indonesian part of Borneo.
• The Heart of Borneo project was established in 2007. This
established a protected area (similar to a national park) of largely
untouched rainforest in the middle of Borneo which aims to
conserve and maintain the biodiversity of the forest.
• Development of ecotourism within the Heart of Borneo is a main
strategy for social and economic development on the island.
• Raising public awareness: Greenpeace and WWF campaign to
raise public awareness of the fact that rainforests are being
destroyed to make palm oil to go into products such as toothpaste.
They encourage the public to buy products with sustainably sourced
ingredients.

Strategies to restore habitats damaged by people

There are many ecosystems that are vital for the survival of human
communities. Tropical rainforests for example provide wood for paper,
construction and furniture, tropical reefs provide a vital source of food
for local communities, and wetland ecosystems store and filter vital
sources of freshwater and help to protect against flooding and erosion.
However, when people interact with these ecosystems, inevitably
damage can occur which affects the functioning of the ecosystem. It is
therefore in people’s interests to restore damaged ecosystems.

Now test yourself

1 Identify three ways in which ecosystems can be managed. Give an
example of where each of these is being used.
2 For each of these three methods, identify an advantage and a
disadvantage of the scheme.

Example of a managed habitat: tropical

grasslands (savannah) in Kenya
Natural ecosystem
• Savannah grasslands are found between the tropical rainforest and
desert biomes.
• Endangered species include black rhinoceros, African elephant and
Grevy’s zebra.

Why is the ecosystem being destroyed?

• Kenya is a poor country, and this poverty forces local people into
exploiting its natural resources.
• Illegal wildlife trafficking where animals are taken from their wild
habitats to be sold illegally to collectors.
• The poaching of wildlife: such as gorillas for meat and elephants for
ivory is threatening the survival of these species.
• Human activities break up the natural habitat into small segments.
This means that species are confined to areas which are too small
to support them or that their migratory routes are disrupted.

Environmental strategies
• The Masai Mara national reserve (similar to a national park) is 1510
km2 of protected savannah in south-western Kenya. Here, not only
is wildlife protected but it also protects the lands that native tribes
occupy.
• Encouragement of sustainable tourism to provide an income for
local people so that they do not turn to poaching or trafficking
animals.
• A debt-for-development swap agreed in 2006 between the Kenyan
and Italian governments sets out that €44 million over ten years be
paid by the Kenyan government on development schemes
(including conservation) rather than be paid back to Italy.
• The Amboseli–Chyulu corridor is a wildlife corridor which
connects the Amboseli National Park to the Chyulu Hills and allows
free movement of animals such as lions, zebras, elephants and
giraffes. This corridor was under threat until Disneynature and the
African Wildlife Foundation helped to protect 20,000 ha of the
corridor.

Example of wetland restoration: China

In China there are 53 million ha of wetland which not only provide a
valuable water resource to the vast population, but also help to
protect communities against flooding. In 2014, 60 per cent of China’s
wetlands were in a poor or relatively poor condition, which was
impacting on the local communities. Therefore, wetland restoration
has been a priority, particularly in the Heilongjiang Province, which
contains a sixth of the country’s wetlands. The key features of this
are:
• The Action Plan for Protecting China’s Wetland co-ordinates 39 key
projects across the country.
• A wetland protection regulation has been put in place in
Heilongjiang Province.
• 10,090 ha of trees have been planted.
• 3441 ha of farmland have been converted back to wetland.
• New jobs involved in tourism replace those that have been lost in
farming, which helps the sustainability of the plan.
Management of tourism
Each year, the global number of tourists increases due to increasing
affluence in HICs and an overall global population increase. There are
both costs and benefits to the tourist industry:
• Benefits: increased income to the host country and improvements in
infrastructure.
• Costs: both local (overextraction of water and increased demand for
food) and global (increased air pollution). The ways in which
governments attempt to minimise the effects of tourism vary
depending on the ecosystem being affected, the level of
development and the value of the tourist industry to the country. Two
examples are given on page 144.

Future sustainability of tourism

In a world where we are seeing projected increases in tourism and
new locations becoming a focus for visitors, it is important to consider
how to make tourism more sustainable. An increase in numbers will
benefit an area economically, but environmentally these numbers
must be managed sustainably.
• Responsible travel: is every journey taken necessary? Do local
people benefit from our visit? Do we treat every destination as
someone else’s home? Do we leave the destination in the same
condition in which we found it?
• Ecotourism: does the place we are visiting conserve the
environment? Does it sustain the well-being of the local community?
Does it educate people on the importance of the ecosystem being
visited?
• Ethical tourism: does our visit benefit the people who live at the
destination? Does it provide a better income for families in the area?
Are the products and services that will be used sourced locally?

Example of coral reefs: the Great Barrier Reef in

Australia
The Great Barrier Reef is a popular tourist destination with over 2
million visitors each year. Due to the fragile ecosystem, the following
management strategies have been put in place:
• The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was established in 1975 with
the purpose of managing the use and protection of the reef as well
as managing the communities that depend on the reef for their
livelihood.
• Zones have been created within the park where activities are
restricted. This ensures that some areas of the reef are untouched
by people, allowing the natural ecosystem to recover and
biodiversity to increase.
• Most of the tourist boats to the Great Barrier Reef operate under
the eco-certification programme which promotes ecotourism at
such a delicate ecosystem.

Example of deserts: Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt

Sharm El-Sheikh is situated in the Egyptian part of the Sinai
Peninsula. The natural ecosystem is one of desert of sand and rock.
The area has been developed into a popular tourist destination, at
first for scuba divers but now as a mainstream holiday resort. This
has vastly increased the quantity of water that is used in a very
freshwater-limited area. The following steps have been taken to
manage the resort:
• Drinking water is transferred via pipeline to the city.
• Desalination plants now use seawater to increase the water supply.
This reduces overextraction of the limited supply of freshwater to
the ecosystem.
• Sharm El-Sheikh is attempting to become the world’s prime
destination for ecotourists, with an investment of $238 million into
making the resort carbon neutral by 2020. If successful, then it will
increase the resort’s appeal to ethical tourists.
Terrorist attacks in 2015 have drastically reduced the number of
tourists visiting the resort, which has eased the water supply issues
but had negative effects on the socio-economic development of the
region.
Now test yourself
1 What is the difference between ecotourism and ethical tourism?
2 Using an example that you have studied, describe the steps taken
to make the tourist industry more ethical.

Exam practice
‘A debt-for-nature swap is the most effective environmental strategy
to manage habitat and biodiversity.’ To what extent do you agree?
[8]
Glossary
Aftershocks Ground tremors occurring after a major
earthquake but associated with the same focus
Ageing population Country which has a high proportion of
people aged over 65
Agro-forestry A land-use management system in which trees
or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland
AIDS Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is the final stage
of HIV infection, which may lead to death unless treated
Air masses Large volumes of air with the same temperature
and humidity throughout
Aquaculture The commercial farming of fish and shellfish
Aquifer A permeable rock which stores and transfers water
Arch A natural opening in a cliff where the sea is able to flow
through
Area of Outstanding National Beauty (AONB) A part of the
countryside that is designated for conservation due to its
natural beauty
Ash cloud A large cloud of smoke and debris that forms over a
volcano after it erupts
Asylum seekers People who have applied for legal
recognition as refugees in another country and are waiting for a
decision
Backswash The flow of water back into the sea after a wave
has broken on to the shore
Bay A recessed area of coastline often found between two
headlands
Beach nourishment Sand and shingle are added to a beach
to make it higher and wider
Beach Created by deposition (usually sand, shingle or
pebbles) and lies between the high water mark and the low
water mark
Bed load The material carried by the river being bounced or
rolled along its bed
Bedding plane Clearly seen layers of rock in a cliff face
Biodiversity A measure of the variety of plants and animals
that live in an ecosystem
Biodiversity The variety of living things
Biome A large-scale ecosystem where climate, vegetation and
soils are broadly the same within the area
Birth rate The number of babies born in an area per 1000 of
population
Bottom-up approach Projects that are planned and led by
local communities to help their local area
Brownfield site An area for redevelopment that has previously
been built on
Caldera A volcanic cone where the original top and centre
have been removed, either through a massive eruption or
through collapse, leaving the base of the cone as a large ring-
shaped ridge
Capacity The ability of a country or region to react to and
recover from a natural hazard
Carbon cycle The process by which carbon moves from the
atmosphere to the Earth and oceans, through various plants
and animals, and then back into the atmosphere again
Carbon dioxide (CO2) A colourless and odourless gas, made
of carbon and oxygen, found in the atmosphere
Carbon flows The movement of carbon between stores in the
carbon cycle
Carbon stores In the short term, carbon is kept or stored in
the atmosphere, oceans and biosphere; in the long term,
carbon is stored in fossil fuels
Carbonation Where chemicals in rainwater such as carbonic
acid react with chemicals in rocks such as limestone
Carrying capacity The maximum population size that an
environment can sustain
Caste system An Indian class system which involves
determining social class by the one you were born into
Cavern A large underground cave which has been created due
to enlargement of joints in carboniferous limestone
Central business district (CBD) The main shopping and
service area in a city
Child labour Work that deprives children of their childhood,
their potential and their dignity
Cinder cone A steep-sided conical hill formed by the explosive
eruption of cinders (glassy volcanic fragments) that accumulate
around a vent
Cliff regrading Reducing the angle of a cliff to reduce mass
movement
Climate change A large-scale, long-term shift in the Earth’s
weather patterns, especially in average temperatures
Climate The average weather over a long period (at least 30
years) of time
Commodities Raw materials or primary agricultural products
that can be bought and sold, such as tea or copper
Commuter belt The area around a town or city where people
travel to work in the urban area
Concordant coastline Rocks are formed parallel to the sea so
that erosion rates along the coastline are even
Constructive margin A plate boundary, sometimes called a
divergent plate margin, where the crustal plates move apart
from each other
Consumerism An ideology that encourages the acquisition of
goods and services in ever-increasing amounts
Consumerism The idea that it is good if people buy an
increasing amount of goods or services
Continuum of social development A way of thinking about
social development as a continuous process that does not
have an end point
Convection When heat in a gas or liquid is transferred from a
warmer to a cooler place by upward movement
Convectional rainfall When the land warms up and heats the
air above it, causing the air to expand and rise. As the air rises
it cools and condenses, and large cumulonimbus clouds are
formed, leading to heavy rainfall. This type of rainfall is
common in tropical areas
Correlation The degree of association between two sets of
data: can be either positive (as one increases so does the
other) or negative (as one increases the other decreases)
Cost-benefit An analytical tool for assessing the pros and
cons of a decision
Counter-urbanisation The movement of people out of towns
and cities to rural areas
Cruise holiday A voyage on a ship or boat taken for pleasure
and usually stopping at several places
Crust The solid outermost layer of the Earth lying above the
mantle
Cycle of deprivation The cycle where a family living in poverty
is unable to improve its lifestyle due to the negative factors of
low income, poor housing and education, which keeps it in a
state of poverty
Death rate The number of people dying in an area per 1000 of
population
Debt-for-nature swap An agreement that poorer nations will
spend money on conservation projects and in return richer
countries will cancel part of the debt the poor countries owe
Deindustrialisation Fall in the percentage contribution of
secondary industry to an economy in terms of its value and
importance as an employment sector
Delta A landform created by the deposition of sediment carried
by a river as the flow leaves its mouth and enters slower-
moving or standing water, for example an ocean, sea or lake
Depopulation The reduction in the population of an area
Deposition The dropping of the material carried by the river
Deprivation The lack of key features that are regarded as
necessary for a reasonable standard of living
Desertification The spread of desert, or desert conditions,
from an established desert area into the surrounding area
Destructive margin A plate boundary, sometimes called a
convergent or tensional plate margin, where oceanic and
continental plates move towards each other
Development continuum A linear scale from ‘highly
developed’ countries to those with a ‘low level’ of development
Development gap The gap that exists in the measurement of
development between the world’s richest and poorest countries
Development gap The widening difference in levels of
development between the world’s richest and poorest countries
Discordant coastline Rocks are formed at right angles to the
sea and so erosion rates vary along the coastline depending
on rock type
Diversification The process which results in a growing range
of economic activities
Drainage basin An area of land drained by a river and its
tributaries
Drought A lack of precipitation in an area for a long period of
time
Dyke An artificial earthen wall built to prevent flooding by the
sea
Earthquake A tremor of the surface of the Earth resulting from
shockwaves generated by the movement of rock masses within
the Earth, particularly near boundaries of tectonic plates
Eco-housing Houses that are built to make them
environmentally sustainable
Ecological footprint A measure of the impact on the natural
environment a person’s lifestyle has. It is measured as the land
area that it takes to sustain this lifestyle
Ecological island An area of land, isolated by natural or
artificial means from the surrounding land
Economic factors Factors that relate to cost and finance
Economic migrants People who move with the hope of
earning more money elsewhere
Economic sustainability Development that ensures everyone
has the right to economic improvement in the long term
Ecosystem A community of plants and animals and how they
interact with the environment within which they live
Ecosystem The links between plants, animals and the non-
living things around them such as rocks, soil, water and climate
Ecotourism Tourism directed towards exotic natural
environments, intended to support conservation efforts and
observe wildlife
Ecotourism Tourism which has a very low environmental
impact
Embryo dune The youngest dune at the front of the dunes,
nearest the sea
Enclave tourism Where tourist activities are planned and
congregated in one small geographic area
Endemic A species which is only found in a given region or
location and nowhere else in the world
Environment Agency A non-departmental public body with
responsibility for the protection and enhancement of the
environment in England (and until 2013 also Wales)
Environmental challenges Problems caused by human use
of the natural landscape or resources
Environmental refugees People who are forced to leave their
home region due to changes in their local environment which
could include drought, desertification and sea level rise
Environmental refugees People who have been forced to
leave their traditional habitats because of a marked
environmental disruption such as flooding
Environmental strategies Methods of managing an area
where the primary objective is to care for the environment
Environmental sustainability Improvements in the standard
of living that do not cause long-term damage to the
environment
Epicentre The point on the Earth’s surface immediately above
the focus
Erosion The wearing away of the land
Ethical tourists Tourists who consider the needs of the local
people and who have a minimum impact on the environment
Evidence The body of facts or information which indicates
whether a belief or theory is true
Exports Goods and services produced in one country and
shipped to another
Fallow A field left to naturally regain its nutrients after growing
crops for a number of years
Ferrel cell The mid-latitude cell in the tricellular model of
atmospheric circulation
Fertility rate The average number of births to a woman in her
lifetime
Fixed or grey dunes Found further inland where conditions for
plant growth improve
Floodplain A flat piece of land on either side of a river forming
the valley floor
Flow The movement of water
Fluvial Referring to a river and its landforms
Focus The source of a shockwave, which can be at varying
depths
Fold mountains Mountains that form by folding of layers in the
upper part of the Earth’s crust. Most commonly formed where a
continental plate collides with another or with an oceanic plate
Food chain The interconnections between different organisms
(plants and animals) that rely on one another as their source of
food
Food miles The distance that food travels from where it is
grown or reared to where it is consumed
Food web The system of interlocking and interdependent food
chains
Fore dunes Older and slightly higher dunes just shorewards of
embryo dunes
Freeze–thaw action The breakdown of rocks due to water
entering cracks and repeatedly freezing and thawing
Front The boundary where two air masses meet
Gender inequality index (GII) A measurement of gender
disparity
Genetic modification The placing of a gene from one
organism into another so that the latter can take on a quality of
the former that it doesn’t otherwise have
Geyser A hot spring that is under pressure and erupts, sending
jets of water and steam into the air. The heat results from the
contact of groundwater with magma bodies
Glaciation The process by which the land is covered by
glaciers
Global cities Cities that play an important role in the global
economic system of finance and trade
Global cooling A decrease in global temperatures
Global interdependence When countries depend on each
other to buy or sell goods
Global warming The pattern of increasing global temperatures
Globalisation Flows of people, ideas, money and goods
making a global web that links people and places
Globalisation The global web of links between countries
involving people, trade, ideas and cultures
Globalisation The process by which the world’s economies,
societies and cultures have become integrated through
networks of communication, transportation and trade
Gorge A steep-sided narrow valley formed by a retreating
waterfall
Greenfield site An area of land that has not been used before
for building
Greenhouse effect The natural process that results in the
warming of the Earth’s atmosphere
Gross domestic product (GDP) The total value of goods and
services produced by a country in a year
Gross domestic product (GDP) The total value of goods and
services produced in a country in a year
Gross national income (GNI) per capita A measure of the
total economic output of a country, including income from
foreign investments, divided by its population (per capita
means per person)
Gross national income (GNI) per capita The average income
in a country per person
Groundwater flow The flow of water through rocks
Groynes A low wall or barrier on a beach built at right angles
to the sea to restrict longshore drift
Gully erosion Channels formed on a poorly vegetated hillside
by soil erosion
Habitat A place where plants or animals normally live
Habitat The natural home or environment of an animal, plant
or other organism
Hadley cell The portion of the tricellular model of air circulation
where air rises at the equator due to convection, spreads in the
upper troposphere and then sinks over the tropics before
returning to the equator
Hard engineering Building an artificial structure to control
coastal processes. It is usually expensive, has a high impact
on the environment and is unsustainable
Hazard map A map that highlights areas affected by or
vulnerable to a particular hazard
Hazard map A map that highlights areas that are affected by,
or vulnerable to, a particular hazard
Headland An area of land that juts into the sea
Heatwave An extended period of hot weather relative to the
expected conditions at that time of year
High pressure Descending air leads to high pressure at the
Earth’s surface
High-income countries (HICs) Countries with a GNI per
capita of $11,456 or more
HIV Human immunodeficiency virus is a virus that attacks the
body’s immune system and weakens its ability to fight
infections. If left untreated, HIV may lead to AIDS
Hold the line Existing coastal defences are repaired but no
new defences are set up
Honeypot site A place of special interest that attracts tourists
Human development index (HDI) A measure of the
development in a country taking into account wealth, education
and average life expectancy
Hydrograph A line graph used to display the discharge of a
river over a period of time
Hydropolitics Politics affected by the availability of water and
water resources
Imports Goods and services brought into one country from
another
Indigenous Originating in a particular area, region or nation;
usually applied to flora, fauna and people
Infant mortality rate Number of deaths of children under one
year of age occurring per 1000 live births in an area per year
Infant mortality rate The number of babies per 1000 live
births who die under the age of one
Infiltration The movement of water into the soil
Informal economy Forms of employment that are not officially
recognised, for example the money earned from irregular jobs
or from working for yourself on the streets
Informal economy The jobs that are done by self-employed
people which are neither declared to, nor regulated by, the
authorities
Infrastructure The basic structures and services needed by
any society, for example roads, railways, water and electricity
supply
Infrastructure The collective name for all the communication
links and basic utility links that are built across a country to
facilitate movement
Insolation Solar radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface
(energy received per cm² per minute)
Interception When rainfall does not reach the ground as it is
blocked by trees, buildings and so on
Interdependent Where countries are linked together in a
complex web, economically, socially, culturally and politically,
so that they are dependent on each other
Interlocking spurs Hard, resistant rocks that a river cannot
easily erode and therefore the river goes around them
Intermediate technology Low-cost, often labour-intensive
technology, based on local resources, that is appropriate to
economically less developed countries
International refugees People who are forced to leave where
they live to move to another country
Intertidal zone The area that is above water at low tide and
under water at high tide
Intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) A zone of
convergence at the equator where the trade winds meet
Isostatic change Change in the height of land relative to the
sea, often because of the melting of ice from the last ice age
Key services The processes by which the environment
produces resources used by humans such as clean air, water,
food and materials
Lag time The time between the peak rainfall and peak
discharge in a river
Lahar Mudflow associated with volcanic activity. Surface water
mixes with volcanic ash to produce the lahar
Latitude A measure of position north or south of the equator
Lava flow A stream of lava flowing from a volcanic vent
Lava tube A hollow tunnel formed when the outside of a lava
flow cools and solidifies and the molten material passing
through it is drained away
Leaching The process of washing out from soils of soluble
nutrients
Leakage The way in which revenue generated by tourism is
lost to other countries’ economies
Life expectancy The average age a person is expected to live
to in a population
Liquefaction Occurs when vibrations cause soil particles to
lose contact with one another. As a result soil behaves like a
liquid, has an inability to support weight and can flow down
very gentle slopes
Literacy rate The percentage of people in a population who
can read or write
Location A particular place or position
Longshore drift The process by which sediment is moved
along the coastline
Low pressure Rising air leads to low pressure at the Earth’s
surface
Low-elevation coastal zones (LECZs) Coastal areas that are
less than 10 m above sea level
Low-income countries (LICs) Countries with a GNI per capita
of $1045 or less
Lowland An area of land that is lower than the land around it
Magma Molten rock located below the Earth’s surface within
the mantle or crust
Magnitude A quantitative measure of the size of a natural
event such as a tropical storm
Magnitude A quantitative measure of the size of an
earthquake using the Richter scale
Malaria A serious tropical disease which if left untreated can
be fatal; symptoms include fever, headaches, vomiting and
muscle pain
Managed retreat Involves allowing the sea to breach existing
defences and flood the land behind it
Mass movement When soil, rocks or stones move down a
slope
Meander A bend in the river formed by lateral (sideways)
erosion
Mega-cities Cities with over ten million residents
Migration The movement of people from one place to another
Monoculture Large-scale farming of one crop type
Monoculture The cultivation of a single crop in a given area
Multiplier effect The ‘snowballing’ of economic activity, for
example new jobs are created, people who take them have
money to spend in shops, which means that more shop
workers are needed
National park An area of special countryside which is
protected by the state for people to enjoy and to preserve the
wildlife
National Park An area which is protected because of its
beautiful countryside, wildlife and cultural heritage
Natural population change The change in population from
births and deaths only
Newly industrialised countries (NICs) Middle-income
countries where the pace of economic growth is faster than in
other developing countries
Newly industrialised country (NIC) A country in which
development has been rapid over its recent history, often
greater than seven per cent a year
NGO A non-governmental organisation (NGO) is a not-for-
profit organisation that is independent from states and
international governmental organisations
Non-renewable Resources considered to be finite as their rate
of use far outstrips the rate at which they are formed
North Atlantic Drift An ocean current which stretches from the
Gulf of Mexico to north-western Europe (also known as the
Gulf Stream)
Nutrient cycle The movement of nutrients in the ecosystem
between the stores in the hydrosphere, lithosphere,
atmosphere and biosphere
Ocean ridge A narrow, largely continuous underwater
mountain system formed by the extrusion of lava at a divergent
plate margin
Ocean trench A long, narrow, deep depression in the ocean
floor formed at a subduction zone where the denser plate is
forced below the less dense one
Offshore bar An area of deposition that is slightly off the
coastline in the estuary of a river
Outsourcing Transferring of work to outside suppliers rather
than completing it internally
Overland flow The flow of water across the ground surface
Percolation The movement of water from the soil into the
bedrock
Photosynthesis The process in which green plants absorb
light energy from the Sun using chlorophyll in their leaves to
transform water and CO2 into a sugar called glucose
Plagioclimax The plant community that exists when human
actions prevent the climatic climax vegetation being reached
Plate boundary or margin The place where two or more
plates in the Earth’s crust meet
Plunge pool A deepened part of the river bed at the base of
the waterfall caused by the impact of the falling water
Polar cell A cell in the tricellular model of atmospheric
circulation
Political factors Factors that relate to decisions made by
government, either national or local
Population density The average number of people per square
kilometre. Usually expressed as densely or sparsely populated
Population pyramid A graph that shows the age and gender
distribution of a population
Population The number of people living in an area
Precipitation Any form of water falling from the sky
Prevailing wind The direction from which wind most frequently
blows in a particular place
Primary jobs Jobs that involve getting raw materials from the
environment, for example fishing, mining and farming
Pull factors Factors that attract people to a place
Pull factors Factors that attract people to a place
Push factors Factors that make people want to leave a place
Pyroclastic flow The cloud of gas, ash, dust, stones and rocks
emitted during a highly explosive volcanic eruption
Pyrophytes Plants that have adapted to tolerate fire
Quotas Limits on the amount of goods imported
Rainwater harvesting The collection of water from surfaces
on which rain falls, and storing this water for later use
Re-urbanisation People moving from the countryside back to
urban areas
Renewable Resources which either are never-ending or
replenish quickly enough that their use does not lead to
exhaustion
Responsible travel Travel where local families benefit
economically through jobs and services
Richter scale A measure of the magnitude of an earthquake. It
uses a logarithmic scale, that is each level is ten times stronger
than the one below, from 1 to 10
Rift valley A lowland region that forms by the subsidence of
land between two parallel faults where the Earth’s tectonic
plates move apart or rift
Rising limb The part of a hydrograph where the discharge of a
river is increasing after a rainfall event
Risk The probability of a hazard event causing harmful
consequences (death, injury, loss of property, damage to
environment and so on)
River estuary The wide mouth of a river where it meets the
sea
Rock pool A pool of seawater between shoreline rocks
Rural periphery On the edge or margins; areas which have a
poor economic status and thus suffer from the associated
social conditions
Rural An area of countryside characterised by wide open
spaces
Sahel A region in north-central Africa south of the Sahara
Desert in an area prone to drought
Salination The process that increases the salt content of water
or soil
Sand dune stabilisation Planting vegetation, such as marram
grass, or building wooden fences helps sand to build up and
the dunes stabilise, which then provides a barrier and absorbs
wave energy
Schengen agreement An EU agreement whereby border
checks between some member states have largely been
removed
Sediment The material carried by the sea
Seismometer (or seismograph) An instrument used to detect
and record earthquakes
Shield volcano A volcanic cone with gentle slopes made up of
layers of fluid basaltic lava
Shoreline management plan (SMP) An assessment of the
risks associated with coastal processes
Sink hole A hole in the ground caused by a collapse of the
surface layer, often found in carboniferous limestone areas
where caverns are present
Slip-off slope A bank of gently sloping deposited material
found on the inside bend of a meander
Slope processes The processes involved in moving material
from the cliffs on to the beach
Small island developing states (SIDs) Low-lying coastal
countries that tend to share similar development challenges,
including small but growing populations, limited resources,
remoteness, susceptibility to natural disasters, vulnerability to
external shocks, excessive dependence on international trade
and fragile environments
Social development A measure of how well a society is
changing for the better or how living standards are improving
Social factors Factors that relate to people’s health, lifestyle
and community
Social sustainability Development that is inclusive and
ensures an improvement in the standard of living for all
Soft engineering Works with natural systems, using natural
materials and processes. It is often less expensive, has a low
impact on the environment and is more sustainable
Sphere of influence A region within which an urban area
provides an important economic and social influence
Spit A sand or shingle beach that is joined to the land but
projects outwards into the sea in the direction of the prevailing
wind
Stack A vertical pillar of rock left behind after the collapse of an
arch
Stem flow Movement of water that has been intercepted down
the stem or trunk of a plant
Store A place where water is stationary within the water cycle
Storm surge A rapid rise in sea level caused by storms forcing
water into a narrowing sea area such as an estuary
Storm surge The pushing of water against a coastline to
abnormally high levels, usually a combination of extreme low
pressure and winds pushing water into a narrowing feature
such as a bay or estuary
Stratosphere The second major layer of Earth’s atmosphere,
above the troposphere
Stratovolcano A conical volcano with steep sides made up of
alternating layers of lava and pyroclastic material, such as ash.
Also known as a composite volcano
Subduction The process in which an oceanic plate collides
with and is forced down under another crustal plate and drawn
back into the mantle
Subsidies Benefits given by the government usually in the
form of a cash payment or a tax reduction
Subsistence A farming system where farmers produce just
enough to sustain themselves and their families
Sulphur dioxide (SO2) A chemical compound of sulphur and
oxygen, a toxic gas with a pungent smell
Sustainable community A community which is able to support
the needs of all its residents with minimal environmental
impacts
Sustainable Using ecosystems to meet the needs of the
current generation without compromising the needs of future
generations
Swash The movement of water up the beach as a wave
breaks
Tariffs Taxes imposed on imports
Tectonic plates The Earth’s crust and upper part of the mantle
is split up into large sections
Temperate maritime climate Characterised by the absence of
extreme climatic conditions, with mild winter temperatures and
warm summers; rainfall is frequent but not extreme; found
between 23.5° and 66.5° of latitude
Tertiary jobs Jobs that provide a service, for example
teaching, medical and retail
Throughflow The flow of water through the soil
Top-down approach Large-scale projects that are decided on
by national governments
Tourism Any activity where a person voluntarily visits a
place away from home and stays there for at least one
night
Transpiration Water given off by plants
Transportation The movement of material by the flow of
water
Tropical storm A severe low-pressure weather system which
develops over tropical maritime areas
Tropical storm An intense low pressure weather system that
can last for days to weeks within the tropical regions of Earth.
Known as hurricanes in North America, cyclones in India and
typhoons in Japan and East Asia
Tropopause The boundary separating the troposphere, where
all weather takes place, from the stratosphere
Tsunami Also known as a ‘seismic sea wave’. When an
earthquake lifts or drops part of the ocean floor the water
above rises and forms a series of waves called a tsunami. In
the open ocean, the tsunami wave is only about a metre high.
As it approaches shallower water, near to the coast, the wave
builds to a great height
United Nations (UN) An intergovernmental organisation to
promote international cooperation
Upland A landscape that is hilly or mountainous
Urban core An area that enjoys economic, social and political
superiority in comparison to its surrounding area
Urban–rural continuum A continuum along which all
settlements are placed
Urban A built-up environment where a lot of people live
Urbanisation The growth of towns and cities
V-shaped valley A narrow valley with steep sloping sides
found in the river’s upper course
Variables Factors that can change and influence an
outcome
Vertical erosion Erosion of the river channel that results
in its deepening rather than widening
Visitor pressure The increased impact on the landscape,
resources and services of an increased number of people due
to tourism
Volcanic explosivity index (VEI) A measure of the
explosiveness of volcanic eruptions. It measures how much
volcanic material is ejected, the height of the material thrown
into the atmosphere and how long the eruptions last. The scale
is logarithmic on a scale of 1–8
Volcano A mountain created by the eruption and deposition of
lava and ash from a vent in the ground
Vulnerability The potential to be harmed by a natural hazard.
Some people and places are more vulnerable than others
Vulnerability The potential to be harmed by a natural hazard.
Some people and places are more vulnerable than others
Water cycle The movement of water between the stores of
water in the hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere and
biosphere
Water footprint The total volume of freshwater consumed and
polluted by people. It is calculated by adding the direct and
indirect water use of people
Water security When the population of a country has
sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptably clean
water
Water stress When the demand for water exceeds the
available supply or when poor quality of water restricts its use
Water table The upper boundary of the underground saturated
part of the soil or rock
Waterfall Water falling from a higher level to a lower level due
to a change in rock structure or as a result of glacial erosion
Wave-cut notch A slot with overhanging rocks that has been
cut into the bottom of a cliff by wave action
Wave-cut platform A coastal landform made of a rocky shelf
in front of a cliff
Weather The atmospheric conditions at a particular place and
time; includes temperature, precipitation, wind and sunshine
Weathering The breakdown of rocks in place by elements of
the weather
Wetland restoration The process of transforming a wetland
area which has been affected by human activity into an area
that can sustain a native habitat
Wildlife corridor A strip of habitat that allows wild animals to
move from one ecosystem to another
World Bank An international financial institution that provides
loans to developing countries for capital programmes
Xerophytes Plants that can survive drought