case - study's GCSE geography edexcel B

development type

• developing

location

• mountainous area (difficult to send aid)

numbers dead / injured

• 75,000                                                                             

numbers homeless

• 2.8 million

amount of property damage

• 440 million dollars

development type

• developed

location

• built-up area

numbers dead                                                                                          numbers injured

• 63                                                                                                        · • 3757

numbers of homeless

• up to 12,000

amount of property damage

• 10 billion dollars

development type     magnitude     dead     injured     homes damaged     offices damaged

• developing          • 7.0M      • 316,000  • 300,000      • 250,000                • 30,000

• roads blocked by rubble
• people trapped under the rubble
• sleeping in streets in fear of more earthquake
• Mortaries unable to cope
• The phone / power lines down
• shortage of clean water
• 350,000 still living in tents
• 80% rubble cleared
• only 18% required homes built
• 111,000 of 125,000 planned shelters were built
• not all promised aid money was sent properly

• montserrat - a british island

• capital "plymouth" left under the ash

• very little tourism is now present on the island (large tourism before)

• Huge eruption released incredible amounts of gas and dust

• occured in a remote area where people could not escape easily

• aid from other countries was not possible

• volcanoe located under glacier 

• Ice melted by heat of eruption

• huge disruption to air travel as pilots could not fly:

• named after a city in Iran

• conservation of wetlands worldwide:

• wetlands help to promote biodiversity and rare species

• protection of area's of natural beauty across the UK

• controlled development and building on area

• help to conserve environment along with volunteers

• national parks help to preserve local wildlife and AONB:

• many people use national parks for leisure activitys such as walking and cycling

• conservation of untouched rainforest

• large numbers of rare plants and animals

• a tourist attration for the country

•  located in ecuador (developing country)                                                                    

• threatened by clearance of soya throughout ecuador

• an accelerated enhanced greenhouse effect has extremified the effects of warmer arid area's

• climate change makes area's generally dryer such as the south-west USA

• Asian countries such as China,India and vietnam rely on glaciers heavily as a water resource

• main source of water for south-west USA

• large production of electricity and water supply for rapidly growing cities such as Las Vegas

• increased reliability of water sources, that is not seasonal

• large environmental effects: sediment not going down river so affecting fish

• Depleted water source for mexico downstream

• in china to support hugely growing population and economy

• renewable resource is eco-friendly - saving 31 million tonnes of coal each year

• provides a more reliable source of water supply

• provides irrigation from the lake behind the dam

• increased navigability for ships needed for increased trade

• large amounts of land lost - decreased agriculture - loss of communities and cultural sites

• huge environmental impacts - sediment lost dowstream - animals affected - more flood risk

• the Tuareg people live a nomadic migratory lifestyle

• Dogon people of Mali

• Khanty people;
  • nomadic reindeer herders

• inuit cultures:
  • native alaskan tribes joined by modern settlers leading to cultural dilution
  • traditional clothing has now been replaced by man-made textiles:
    • used to use caribou skin skin coats, sealskin boots and down as lining

• yup'ik in south-western alaska are known for their carved masks and story-telling culture
  • threatened by climate change - can no longer take their dog teams onto the ice

• inupiat are known for their impressive collection of totem poles (the tlingit village)
  • though are also controversiall still allowed to kill bowhead wales as a communal ritual

• polar bears are hugely important culturally and economicallly for the candian inuit
• UNESCO has pledged to safeguard inuit cultures

• iceland:
  • traditionally in iceland natives would bury sharks to drain them of their poisonous fluids
  • natives still practice this today feeling that it is part of their culture

• kyoto protocol (1997)
  • 5% reduction in emissions by 2012

• Copenhagen Accord (2009)
  • 190 countries agree to limit global warming though not to take specific action

• Cancun Agreements (2010)
  • agree to develop clean technology and cut emission though not to take specific action

• Durban Agreement (2011)
  • legal emission cutting targets that don't come into force until 2020

• Antarctic treaty (1961)
  • restricts commerical development in polar regions

• Protocol environmental protection (1998)
  • extensified protection against any new activities in antarctica unless it has very low impacts

• UN convention to combat desertification (since 1994)
  • 195 countries agree to co-operate to build "bottom-up" schemes against desertification

• likely to be largely affected by future enhanced climate change

• rapidly growing population will cause further resource tension

• rises in sea level:

• less reliable weather patterns and an increase in storms:

• Warming of sea:

• Sea-level rising:

• less predicatable weather patterns:

• generally rising temperatures:

• climate effects in other countries may increase refugee's from other countries

• due to china's rapid expasion the population had begun to grow rapidly leading to a series of famines

• introduced the "one child" policy to ensure people only have a single child

• However this has disturbed the ratio of populations in the future:

• policy to reduce population growth in the 1960's was too successful leading to population decline and an ageing population

• introduced a policy to "have three or more - if you can afford it":

• multinational top-down project in a peripheral area as an attempt of rapid development
  • 4 dams - vast amounts of electricity make living more affordable and enable's development

• created 20,000 jobs

• allowed the expansion of agriculture around the Dams

 negatives

• though community's were displaced around the Dams and all infrastructure sites

• large environmental effect to the amazon area containing huge diversity

• environmental assessment not completed properly

• run by the practical action charity installing 50 micro-hydro stations
• "run of the river" affordable hydro scheme:
  • water is let straight through the hydrogenerator meaning there is no reservoir created 
    • small "reservoir" rather called "pondage"
    • land is not flooded so less environmental loss as a dam
  • less energy storage
    • though not largely required for the small business operations of the small towns
• placed within a poor area where economic growth is highly required:
  • 44% of the population live on less than 2 dollars a day on the eastern side
• opportunity for massive and sustainable growth to the scheme:
  • provides electricity to 30,000 people
  • government plants to double the number of schemes within 10 years
• there is a cost for the residents for the electricity that they use per KWH:
  • though many cannot afford as well as the £500 initial cost
• promotes huge economic growth:
  • people are encouraged to stay preventing deprevation
  • electricity provides light which makes processes quicker and aids education
  • access to computer systems connects the villages to the outside world
  • refrigeration allows medicine to be stored properly
  • allows for the mechanisation of agriculture

• redevelopment of the city centre has promoted large growth since industrial decline

• to redevelop housing people had to be moved away to the suburbs

• 5 comprehensive development areas (CDAs)

• london has in general experienced rapid economic growth
  • due to the rise in the tertiary and quaternary sectors promoted by highly skilled workers
    • these are called "LIGHT" industries
• london docklands had closed as london became not as industrial or such an economic power;
  • boat sizes increased with globalisation which were too large to go down the thames
  • between 1978 and 1983 12,000 people lost there jobs giving room for deprevation
  • deindustrialisation had caused many environmental problems (abandoned)
• The docklands provided an unusual opportunity for large investment so close to the capital:
  • attracted many external businesses with incentives and subsidies
  • became a financial centre for london attracting young entrepreneurs to the area
    • this is called gentrification
• financial deregulation happened as the government became worried london was falling behind
• Generally the living standards of the area has improved;
  • entertainment
    • business
  • up-market shopping centre's

large involvement in the primary      growing tertiary and                 Huge amounts of people in

sector due to subsidence farming,    secondary sectors as the         the tertiary sectors as more

with poor working conditions. a        country continue's to develop.  services are provided for 

small secondary sector as there is    a large primary sector is          greater living standards.

not enough development to build     maintained in order to             Both the secondary and 

these factories. Not many services   continue to support the other   primary sector have become

due to low living standards.             industries.                              mechanised or imported

• many manufacturing industries closed as UK no longer exports heavily

• large amounts of pollution meant that people were driven away from the area;

Recent improvements

• liverpool underwent economic decline like many of the industrial city's 1960's

• liverpool desperately needed to attract international business to prevent spiraling deprevation