Geography Unit 1 Case Studies
Geography AQA ASLevel case studies for rivers, coasts, population and Health issues.
- Created by: Ellen
- Created on: 14-05-11 14:09
Causes and Impacts of flooding: South Asia 2007
South Asia floods most years because of:
- Monsoon climate - 80% of rain fell in 4 months
- Low lying land ( Bangladesh- 90% of land is less than 10m above sea level
- Melting snow and ice for the Himalay's.
The flooding was particularly severe in Bangladesh and India.
Physical Factors:
- Monsoon cam suddenly after very early, dry summer.
- heavy rain for a long duration
- saturated soil -> no infiltration -> increased surface runoff and discharge
- Peak discharges of Ganges and Brahmaputra coincided ->increased discharge downstream
Human Activites:
- Deforestation in Nepal and Himalays -> less rainfall intercepted -> increased discharge
- Growth of urban areas -> surface runoff
- collapse of old earth dams -> further flooding.
Social Impacts
- over 2000 died
- lack of clean drinking water -> over 100000 people caught water bourne diseases
- 25 million homeless
- 112000 houses destroyed in India
- Dhaka inundated
- 4000 schools affected -> loss of education
- 44 schools totally destroyed.
Economic impacts:
- cost: US$ 1 billion
- factories closed
- loss of livestock ( 80% of Bangladesh rely on agriculture)
- 550000 hectares of flooded fields
- 1000km of roads destroyed
- debt increased
Environmental factors:
- rivers polluted with sewage
- fertile silt on flood plain
Human Factors:
- No flood defences or flood warnings in place
- little insurance
- corrupt officials
Carlisle, Cumbria, 2005
River Eden runs through North Cumbria and reaches the sea near Carlisle
Large Drainage basin -> higher discharge
Steep Sided Basin -> runs quickly down the river
Streams drain into river -> short lag time
Physical factors:
- heavy rainfall
- saturated ground -> less infiltration -> increased surface runoff
- High peak discharge
Human Factors:
- large built up areas
- little infiltration
- drains and sewerage systems overflowed
Social Impacts:
- 3 people died
- 3000 made homeless for up to a year
- personal possesions damaged
- temporary accomadation disrupted lives
- 4 schools severly flooded -> lost out on education
- increase in stress related diseases
Economic activities:
- repairs cost over £100million
- 350 businesses shut
- united biscuits flooded with 3m of water ->£5 million damage -> 33 people lost jobs
- 70000 addresses had no power
- 80 buses destroyed
Environmental impacts:
- Increased river bank erosion
- polluted rivers.
Hard Engineering on the River Yangtze, China
Yangtze River flows through China, 6380km long and is the 3rd longest river in the world.
Seasonal flooding is common.
Rainy season June - August
Often causes flooding -> huge discharge
5 major floods - 1931, 1935, 1949, 1954, 1998
1954 - covered 193000km2 of land.
Killed 33169.
18 million had to move.
covered Wuhan city over 3 months
1998 - killed 3000
14million made homeless.
Flood protection - Hard engineering - mainly dams and levees
Three Gorges Dam:
- 101m high
- 1994
- reservoir catches flood water - can store 22km3 of water
- hydroelectris power station - 26 turbines
- locks so ships can pass
Levees:
- 3600km of levees along middle and lower parts of river.
Positive effects:
- reduced major flooding from once every 10 years to once every 100
- turbines produce enough energy to supply 3% of China's demand
- safer to navigate the Yantze
- River shipping increased - reservoir deeper
Negative effects:
- people had to relocate as water level ion reservoir rose (between 1.3 and 2 million will have to relocate. 13 cities and 1352 villages will be submerged)
- flood farmland
- 657 factories flooded
- 1300 sites of cultural and historical interest flooded - Temple of Zhang Fei
- dams trap sediment -> failure
- destroys habitats
- endangers species
- increase flooding along tributaries
Levees - negative effects:
- 1998 floods broke levees -> devastating floods
Soft Engineering in Abingdon, England
Abingdon, South East England. Built on flood plains of the River Thames and Ock.
1500 properties have a 1% chance of flooding in a given year.
regular floods - 1947, 1968, 1977, 1979, 1992, 2000, 2007
Intense storms in July 2007 -> bad flash floods
River Thames and Ock burst their banks -> flooding 660 properties
Incresed surface run off -> flooding worse
Hard engineering was rejected- too expensive and increased flood risk downstream.
Defences:
- gravel soakways built
- low value land allowed to flood
- planning restrictions - must have improves drainage systems
- tesco forced to add drainage improvements eg soakways and permeable tarmac
- environmental agency warns specific areas at risk - local flood warning plan
- restrictions on land use
- detailed advice on reducing flood damage
- flood warnings communicate advice and warnings
- planting trees.
- Difficult to measure success
- flooding still happens in Abingdon.
Coastal erosion - Holderness
Holderness- East Yorkshire
Fastest eroding coastline in Europe
Average rate of erosion - 1.8m per year
Holderness coastline 61km long.
Reasons:
- cliffs made of boulder clay which is easily eroded through corrosion
- prone to slumping when boulder clay is wet
- narrow beaches
- Flamborough Head stops sediment from North replenishing beaches
- Made of chalk which dissolves rather than making sand
- coastal defences - human cause
- powerful waves
- long fetch from Artic ocean
- coast faces the dominant wind and wave direction - NE
Social Impacts:
- Property prices fallen
- 30 villages since roman times lost
Economic impacts:
- visiter numbers in Bridlington Dropped by over 30% between 98 and 06
- caravan parks at risk - seaside caravan park at Ulrome losing 10 pitches a year
- £2million spent at Mappleton in 1991 to protect coast
- Gas terminal at Easington is at risk (25% of Britains gas supply)
- 80000m2 of farmland lost each year
Environmental impacts:
- SSSIs threatened - the Lagoons near Easington
Coastal Flooding
Can be caused by:
- Storm Surges ( storm surge of 1953)
- Tropical Cyclones (Hurrican Katrina 2005)
- Tsunamis (south Asia, 26.12.04)
- Global Warming
If Global Temperatures continue to rise and land ice melts, global sea levels will rise
Warmer sea temperatures also cause sea level rise - warm water expands
Low lying areas are at risk from flooding - Bangladesh and Maldives
Coastal flooding - The Storm Surge of 1953
STORM SURGE - a rise in sea level associated with very low pressure systems and high wind.
3 contributing factors to coastal flooding:
- height of land above sea level
- tidal range
- incidence of storm surges
These factors all played an important role in the Storm Surge of February 1953
WHAT: Storm surge
WHEN: February 1953
WHERE: North Sea towards East Anglia, Briatin and The Netherlands (lowlying land)
Low pressure air allowed the sea to rise overall by 0.5m and strong winds generated waves over 6m high
was happening during the spring high tides - all the rivers were already discharging into the North Sea at flood levels
Tides reached 2-3m above normal in EAST ANGLIA, THE THAMES ESTUARY and THE NETHERLANDS - lead to widespread flooding
260 died in ENGLAND
1835 died in the NETHERLANDS
Human causes:
- Netherlands has a long History of reclaiming land from the sea
- drained large parts of marshland in East Anglia for farmland - encouraged population spread
- coastal defence schemes of 1953 were inadequate
Thames Barrier was Built in 1982 to help stop river flooding in London
Coastal Flooding - Hurricane Katrina
WHAT: A Hurricane
WHEN: 2005
WHERE: New Orleans, USA - Mississippi delta
Low lying land - High population density
51% of New Orleans is at or below sea level
City protected from the sea by artificially heightened levees
winds of well over 100km per hour were recorded
coast experienced a storm surge greater than historical maximums
storm surge of up to 10m, wave action and high winds resulted in widespread destruction
failure of eastern levees and flood walls left parts of New Orleans under 6m of water - inadequate
estimated over 1800 lives lost
property damage between $60 billion and $125billion
loss of wetlands
Coastal Flooding - South Asia Tsunami
WHAT: a tsunami
WHEN: 26.12.04
WHERE: Southern Asia - Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India
Caused by a submarine earthquake in the Indian Ocean
Earthquake reached 9.0 on the Richter Scale - making it one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded
- tsunami travelled across the Bay of Bengal at speeds of 800km per hour - waves struck South Eastern India 2 hours after the earthquake
- Reached more than 2km inland in North East SriLanka
- waves up to 30m high struck the Indonesian Island of Sumatra (epicente) withing minutes of the earthquake
Deadliest Tsunami ever recorded
230000 people killed or missing
1.7 million people made homeless
drinking water polluted by saltwater and sewage
400000lost jobs in SriLanka
cost of initial damage between $8billion and $15 billion
Boats, nets and fishing equipment destroyed and lost
Salinisation (increased salt) of land reduced fertility
Tourism went down
8 million litres of oil released into environment
salt content of water destroyed ecosystems
Coastal Management - hard engineering
- Holnerness Coastline
11.4km of the 61km coastline is protected by hard engineering
- Bridlington is protected by a 4.7 m sea wall and timber groynes
- 2 rock groynes and 500m revetments built at Mappleton in 1991
- £2million built to protect the villaige
- Groynes and a sea wall at Withernsea and rock armour
- concrete sea wall, timber groynes and rock armour at Hornsea
- Gabions South of Hornsea to protect caravan park
- Easington gas terminal protected by Revetments
- the Eastern side of spurn head is protected by groynes and rock armour.
Schemes locally successful BUT cause problems down drift:
- Groynes trap sediment, increasing width of beaches. Protects local area but increases cliff erosion down drift
- reduction in sediment increases risk of flooding along the Humber estuary and increases erosion along the Lincolnshire coast
- cost of maintaining sea defences may become too high
- this makes the schemes unsustainable
Possible schemes:
- strategic management plan for Holderness for the next 50 years reccomends holding the line and doing nothing - unpopular
- coastal realignment would be more sustainable
- sea wall proposed to protect Easington gas terminal - £4.5million - would increase erosiong at Easington. Longer sea wall would cost £7million
- Offshore reefs - harm the environment
Soft Engineering - Blackwater Estuary
Part of essex coastline
being eroded at a rate of 0.3 - 1m/year
risk from flooding - sea level rising and south of England is sinking
Hard engineering is too expensive to maintain
Soft engineering:
- Beach Nourishment
- marsh stabilisation - planting stakes and Brushwood on water line
- coastal realignment
- sea walls breached
- 21 hectares of farmland flooded to encourage marshland to form
More sustainable:
- More sustainable in the long term
- more marshland - larger habitats for wildlife
- grazing land lost
Managing Population - Italy
- low birth rates
- falling fertility rates
- ageing population
Population - 58 million in 2005
will decline to 56 million by 2025 (even with net migration)
tendancy to stay at home with parents longer than other Europeans. Reinforced by changing economic circumstances in the past 10-20 years:
- stay in full time education - more dependant on parents
- price of housing has increased - difficult for young adults to buy houses
- fewer well paid but low skill jobs
- state social security expenditure for families and children id much lower than other EU countries
- massive effect on when Italians leave home, marry, have a long term relationship or start a family.
government needs to develop policies to deal with the impending crisis, achieve sustainable development and keep a balanced population structure of workers and dependants by:
- Empowering young people and reversing the 'postponement syndrom' through grants for education and allowances for families
- structured programme to manage immigration by carefully selecting new migrants to match labour force vacancies
- allowing access to citizenship rigths for migrants to encourage them to settle and raise families.
Managing Population- China's one child policy
1950 - pop 0.6 billion
1975 - pop over 0.9 billion, Birth rate of 30 per 1000
Rapid growth would lead to famine and starvation
1979 - introduced one child policy
Some parts of the country it was advice, some parts strictly enforced.
'Carrot and Stick':
Incentives paid to people who followed the policy
People Fined heavily for failing to enforce policy
Compulsory abortions and sterilisations
contraceptive advice freely available
Encouraged late marriages
'Granny police' - encouraged young people in their district to use contraceptives and avoid unplanned pregnancies.
Female infanticide (killing of infants) and abandonment of baby girls - mainly from rural areas. Having a daughter was an economic disaster.
Relaxed rules in rural areas.
2000 - willing to relax and adjust policy, but it stays in place.
2007 - Population 1.3 billion
Without one child policy it would be 25% higher
Birth rate around 14 per 1000
annual growth rate 0.5%
Population momentum slowed
China are concerned about aging Population by 2025
Managing Population - Iran's Baby boomers
Iran's population was 70,049,262 according to the 2006 census
Nearly 1 quarter of its people aged 15 or younger
- Large cohort of some 18 million 'baby boomers' - young men and women born between 1979 and 1989
- throughout much of 1980s pop growth accelerated rapidly
- then decreased even more quicly to replacemnt level
- baby boomers into adulthood offers the country possible economic growth
- could lead to a second baby boom
- youthful population structure
- long life expectancy (70)
- country will have to confront a large proportion of people over 65 compared with younger people
- 2002 - people over 65 accounted for 5% of whole population. this group will account for almost 25% of population by 2025
- migration also important demographic concern
Managing population - Changing population structur
- undergoing population crisis
- from 1960s to late 80s they have been characterised by high birth rates and rapidly falling death rates
- typical stage 2 on the Demographic Transition model
- 19902 - HIV/Aids
- spread rapidly
- spread encouraged by:
- poor levels of education
- low status of women
- mobile population where many migrated to seek work
- poor levels of basic health care and health education
- Aids sufferes stigmatised
- slowness of governments acting to tackle problem
- high cost of drugs in a poor society
Strategies:
- encouraged use of contraceptives and family planning
- policies to combat spread of HIV/Aids - in Uganda ABC Abstain from sex until marriage, Be faithful to one partner and use Condoms
Rural to Urban Migration - Colombia
Colombia, NorthWest of South America
Rapid urbanisation in second half of 20th century
Push Factors:
- Mechanisation -> fewer jobs
- almost impossible to gain ownership of land
- Insecure - no long term title to land
- soil exhaustion -> hard to grow crops and get income
- lack of healthcare
- lack of education
- lack of clean running water
- political instability
- conflict between guerrillas and government
- conflict between drug producers and authorities
- militias and death squads
Pull factors:
- possible work
- opportunities that the countryside couldn't supply
- education
- freedom
- 'glamorous city life'
- more political power
ongoing study:
- 1986
- Dr Peter Kettett - Newcastle University
- Santa Marta
- Migration to Santa Marta
- Many developments and growths of the settlement Sanat Marta
- housing changes as families grow and circumstances change
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