Growing populations
Define the term "population distribution"
Population distribution refers to where people live and how spread out/concentrated they are
Outline one reason for the rise of the sea level due to global warming
Sea level is likely to rise due to the steric effect, that is, the expansion of warmer water molecules, and the melting of ice caps and/or ice sheets transferring water from ice into the seas/oceans
Define the term ”circular economy“.
A circular economy is one that preserves natural capacity, optimizes resource use and reduces loss through managing finite stocks and renewable flows. It is an economy that restores and regenerates resources, and keeps products, materials and components at their highest utility and value
Suggest how political factors may affect hazard risk
Governments may decide to take an isolationalist approach – as the Burmese government did in 2008 following Cyclone Nargis – and prevent international aid from helping. In contrast, governments can be interventionalist – as with China in 2008 – and attempt to help individuals as quickly as possible. .
Known as the City Centre or "Downtown" (as a location)
Central Business District - CBD
Define Life Expectancy
Life expectancy is the average number of years that a person can be expected to live.
Outline one main source of emissions that are contributing to the enhanced greenhouse effect.
The main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions are carbon dioxide (77%), methane (14%), nitrous oxide (8%) and HFCs/PFCs (1%). The main sources of CO2 include deforestation, road transport, residential buildings and commercial buildings. The main source of methane includes livestock and manure landfill, waste water and rice cultivation. The main source of nitrous oxide is agricultural soils.
Define the term ”resource stewardship“.
Resource stewardship is a concept that suggests that humans can use resources in such a way that they will be available to future generations. Not only will there be environmental sustainability but also social equity over access to resources.
Outline the potential impact of earthquake hazards
The potential impacts of an earthquake include loss of life, loss of livelihood, total or partial destruction of buildings, disruption of water supplies, breakage of sewage disposal systems, loss of public utilities such as electricity and gas, floods due to collapsed dams, release of hazardous materials, fires, and spread of chronic illness due to lack of sanitary conditions.
What is Urban Resilience/ a Resilient City?
Capacity of individuals (systems) within a city to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stressors they experience.
Define dependency ratio
The dependency ratio relates the working population to the dependent population.
Number of dependents over working population times 100%
Briefly explain how polluted air leds to global dimming.
Polluted air contains far more particles than clean air, such as ash, soot, sulphur dioxide. It provides many more surfaces for water to bind to. The droplets formed tend to be smaller than natural droplets, which means that polluted clouds contain many much smaller water droplets than naturally occurring clouds. Many small water droplets reflect more sunlight than fewer larger droplets, so polluted clouds reflect far more light back into space, thus preventing the Sun’s heat from getting through to the Earth’s surface and leading to global dimming.
Outline one advantage and one disadvantage of
desalinization as a potential source of freshwater.
Advantages of desalinization include the plentiful supply of seawater, and the projects that would benefit from increased access to freshwater. However, it is very expensive to operate, and it requires much energy, which releases greenhouse gases.
Briefly explain how the magnitude and frequency of hazard may affect its impact
High magnitude events have a greater impact than low magnitude events, for example, a VEI 5 would cause more damage than a VEI 2. The more aftershocks there are the greater the damage that is done, although normally high frequency/low magnitude events generally do not do much damage.
Mention three physical risk cities could face
- Epidemics
- Aging Infrastructure
- Unemployment
- Homelessness
- Sanitation Problems
- Pollution/ Air quality
- Safe Drinking Water
Outline the main difficulty in using classifications of development.
One of the main problems in using classifications of economic development is that many classifications refer to levels of development, which are difficult to define (and to measure). Development should include economic development as well as human development, including standards of living, health, life expectancy etc.
Suggets why tropical storms are likely to become more frequent and/or intense as a result of global warming.
Due to global warming and increased atmospheric energy, an increase in storm activity is likely, such as more frequent and intense hurricanes. More evaporation will occur over oceans, providing more energy for tropical storms, resulting in more rising air, lower pressure, and more intense storms.
Outline the factors that have contributed to increased
energy insecurity in many countries.
Energy insecurity has increased for many reasons, including greater demand, especially from newly industrializing countries (NICs); reserves of some fossil fuels are declining as supplies are used up; geopolitical developments have taken place, for example, countries with oil resources such as Russia have been able to “flex their economic muscles” in response to the decreasing resources in the Middle East and the North Sea; global warming and natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina (2005), have increased awareness about the misuse of energy resources; terrorist activity such as in Syria, and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, have all had an impact on energy security
Compare the distribution of earthquakes with that of volcanoes
Broad belts of earthquakes are associated with subduction zones (where a dense ocean plate plunges beneath a less-dense continental plate), whereas narrower belts of earthquakes are associated with constructive plate margins, where new material is formed and plates are moving apart. In contrast, most volcanoes are found at plate boundaries although there are some exceptions, such as the volcanoes of Hawaii, which occur over hotspots. About threequarters of the Earth’s 550 historically active volcanoes lie along the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Briefly explain the reason why suburbanization ocurred?
Suburbanization occurred following the development of transport links, for example, trams and trains. In addition, the price of farmland had declined dramatically and there was scope for urban expansion on a great scale. Rising wages and living standards were matched by rising expectations. Housing was now available and affordable.
Distinguish between refugees, IDPs and asylum seekers.
. A refugee is a “person residing outside his or her country of nationality, who is unable or unwilling to return because of a well-founded fear of persecution due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a political social group or political opinion”. IDPs (internally displaced persons) are groups of people who have been “forced to flee their home suddenly or unexpectedly in large numbers, due to armed conflict, internal strife, systematic violations of human rights or natural or man-made disasters, and who are within the territory of their own country”. In contrast, an asylum seeker is a person who has left their country of origin in search of protection in another country, but whose claim for refugee status has not been decided.
Distinguish between adaptation and mitigation.
Adaptation refers to initiatives and measures to reduce the vulnerability of human and natural systems to climate change. In contrast, mitigation refers to attempts to reduce the causes of climate change
Outline one advantage and one disadvantage of
desalinization as a potential source of freshwater.
Advantages of desalinization include the plentiful supply of seawater, and the projects that would benefit from increased access to freshwater. However, it is very expensive to operate, and it requires much energy, which releases greenhouse gases.
Describe the main characteristics of the earthquake hazard profile
The earthquake hazard profile suggests that it is a rare event, is short in duration, is of limited areal extent, occurs rapidly, and is relatively concentrated and random in time
What is the MDI and name ONE of it's 7 components
- Income
- Employment
- Access to health care
- Education skills
- Housing barriers
- Crime
- Quality of environment