Geography Case Studies

Location: East of London

Dates : 1981-1997

Brownfield site which became abandoned and derelict

Causes of Decline: 

• by 1981 larger ships could no longer reach the port of London
• Poor transport routes made it hard to reach

Economic regeneration (transport):

• Improved transport links
• New railway carries 320,000 passengers a week

Economic regeneration (jobs and industry):

• Between 1981 and 1996 employment increased from 27,000 to 69,975.
• Unemployment fell from 14.2% to 9.5%. 

Social Regeneration (facilities):

• £100million spent on health, education, training and communtity programmes. 
• New shopping centres
• National Indoor sports centre

Social Regeneration (housing):

• over 19,800 new homes were built 
• By 1998 over 45% of homes were owner-occupied, rest rented or shared ownership.

Physical/environmental regeneration:

• 160,000 trees planted
• 17 convervation areas created. 

Problems:

• Newcomers did not mix with locals, causing conflict and a breakdown of community
• Most new jobs went to outsiders as locals did not have the technical skills. 

What is congestion Charge?

A fee charged for some categories of motor vehicles to enter the congestion charge zone at certain times. 

Introduced: 17 February 2003

Aims:

• reduce congestion
• raise investment funds for Londons transport system

How much is it?:

2003: £5

2008: £8

Currently: £10 

for each vehicle that travels in the zone between (7am and 6pm monday-friday)

HOWEVER

some vehicels are exempt (fire-engines, ambulances, taxis etc) 

and residents of the zone have a 90% discount

Advantages:

• traffic cut by 18%
• delays cut by 30%
• Less pollution
• Transport systems improved

Disadvantages:

• More road works
• Gridlock still occurs
• Expensive for the British people. 

Location: 220miles south-west of Sao Paulo. It is the captial of Parana State (prime                           agricultural state in Brazil).

Curitiba grew rapidly from about 150,000 in 1950 to 1.6million today. 

It suffered from: 

• Traffic congestion
• Unusable land
• Lack of basic services
• Uncontrolled growth of squatter settlements
• pollution

Jamie Lerner tackled 5 key problems in order to make the city a more sustainable area:

Traffic:

• Pedestrianised inner city roads
• Introduced transit system- 3 sets of roads leading into city, one in, one out and one which alternated depending on time of day.

Social:

• Housing built near main roads- easy access to water, shops, roads and electricity
• New bus system- one price for a ticket, one bus every minute

Parks:

• Unusable land turned into parks to allow the river to naturally flood.
• planted 1million trees
• Allow sheep to graze all year round- sustainable way of cutting grass

Recycling:

• 5 different bins
• Citizens sorted waste into organic and in-organic

Slums:

• Offered a deal: 5kg of waste for 1kg of food from government
• Moving to new estates: Architects designed for free, people from slums worked to build the housing
• Offered loans to help buy houses

Importance of tourism to the UK:

• Creates jobs

      - both directly and indirectly

• helps the country to develop industries

      - local industries such as farming get the opportunity to provide for locals

      - big industries such as construction get the opportunity to grow

• Huge contribution to government income

     - also to the foreign exchange currency

• attracts investment to improve infrastructure

Why do tourists go to Kenya?:

Natural resources: year round hot climates, sandy beaches, coral reefs and wildlife reserves

Man-made resources: Well developed infrastructure and interesting diversity of cultures

PROBLEMS:

Environmental: 

• uneven distribution and crowding
• Littering
• Damages ecosystems- Soil erosion
• Destruction of coral 

Social:

• Child trafficking and exploitation
• encourages rural-urban migration and the growth of shanty towns
• Traditional tribes are being disturbed

Economic:

• Unskilled and poorly paid jobs
• Only a few areas benefit
• Over-reliance on tourism
• Discourages the government to disersify other areas of industry

Political:

• terrositis riots
• piracy 

In 1997 over $450 million was earned from tourism! 

• contains 90% of the worlds ice
• no native population
• very fragile environment

Why visit Antartica?

• scenery-untouched land, hot springs
• more disposable income to spend
• scientific purposes

Antartic treaty:

• signed by 12 contries
• Antartica should be used for peaceful and scientific purposes
• Antartica will not be dug up or destroyed by tourists

IAATO- International association of Antartica Tour operators:

• advocate, promote and practise safe and environmentally responsible private sector travel.
• Keeps data on visitor numbers

what has been done to protect the environment?

• tour operators and cruise ships are only allowed to bring between 50 and 100 at one time.
• Guidelines which tourists are expected to follow have been put in plac

      -litter has to be taken back to ships

      - tourists are not allowed to go near to the wildife

• tourists are educated on the landscape
• Only 20 people are allowed in a certain area at one time.

conservation:the careful and planned use of resources in order to maintain the natural environment for future generations.

stewardship:the careful benevolent management of the environment. It involves the careful control of development on a wide scale and seeks to maintain sustainable development.

• unesco world heritage site since 1983
• sits 2,400m above sea level
• build in 1450

What happened before 2001?

• visitors could walk without a guide
• little thought was given to sanitation, rubbish disposal or waste
• people could climb the ruins

this led to..

• erosion of paths, health risks, water pollution, damage to trails
• It was leading to permanent damage.

Rules set up:

• independant trekkers are not allowed on the trail and walkers must be acompanied by a guide.
• Trail is closed each february-the wettest month. This allows conservation projects to take place.
• porters must have reasonable working conditions- paid at least $10 per day and can only carry up to 25kg.
• Only 500 trekkers a day.

has it worked?

• erosion has slowed
• recycle bins are in place
• pollution is being reduced.

Recycling:

• 5 different bins
• Slums offered 1kg of food for 5kg of recycling rubbish
• Citizens sorted waste into organic and in-organic

Slums:

• Offered a deal: 5kg of waste for 1kg of food from government
• Moving to new estates: Architects designed for free, people from slums worked to build the housing
• Offered loans to help buy houses

All of these things made Curitiba a much more sustainable city!