GeographyQ&A by dot point

Global trends and projections in urbanisation, the pattern of megacities and urban primacy, how economic change and migration drive city growth and decline, and how cities change over time in land use.

The case study of one megacity (Lagos): its location, context and structure, the causes of rapid growth, and the opportunities and challenges, including contrasts in quality of life.

Top-down (city-wide government) and bottom-up (community and NGO-led) strategies for making a megacity more sustainable, including managing water, waste, transport, air quality and housing, with their advantages and disadvantages.

How urban population, distribution and spatial growth change over time (urbanisation, suburbanisation, de-industrialisation, counter-urbanisation, regeneration) and the characteristics of urban land uses and the factors that influence them.

The role of energy efficiency and conservation in reducing demand; the costs and benefits of alternatives to fossil fuels and future technologies; and how different groups' attitudes to energy futures are changing.

How energy resources are classified as non-renewable, renewable and recyclable; the environmental impacts of extracting and using them; and why access to energy is unevenly distributed between people and places.

How the global demand for oil is rising while supplies are unevenly available; how oil supply and prices are affected by international relations and the economy; and the costs and benefits of exploiting new conventional and unconventional sources.

The social, historical, environmental, economic and political causes of global inequality and their consequences, and how globalisation has benefited some countries more than others.

The case study of one emerging country (India): its location and context, how globalisation and government policy drive rapid economic change, the positive and negative impacts on people and environment, and its changing international role.

Contrasting ways of defining and measuring development (GDP per capita, HDI, measures of inequality, corruption indices) and how demographic data differ between developing, emerging and developed countries.

The causes and consequences of global inequality; Rostow's and Frank's theories of development; and the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of top-down and bottom-up development strategies and globalisation.

Global actions to protect tropical rainforests (CITES, REDD), the challenge of sustainable forest management and alternative livelihoods, and the challenges and conflicts of protecting the taiga wilderness.

The direct and indirect threats to the tropical rainforest (deforestation and climate change) and to the taiga (logging, mineral and fossil-fuel exploitation, acid rain, fire, pests and disease) and their impacts on biodiversity.

The structure, functioning and adaptations of the tropical rainforest and the taiga: how biotic and abiotic components are interdependent, how plants and animals are adapted, and the contrasting rates of nutrient cycling, productivity and biodiversity.

The human fieldwork investigation (dynamic urban areas, or changing rural areas): forming enquiry questions, selecting quantitative and qualitative methods and secondary data, presenting and analysing data, reaching conclusions and evaluating.

The physical fieldwork investigation (coastal change and conflict, or river processes and pressures): forming enquiry questions, selecting quantitative and qualitative methods and secondary data, presenting and analysing data, reaching conclusions and evaluating.

Global atmospheric circulation and ocean currents redistribute heat; natural causes explain past climate change over the Quaternary, evidenced by ice cores, tree rings and historical sources.

Human activities produce greenhouse gases that cause the enhanced greenhouse effect and global warming; evidence and consequences of human-caused climate change, and the range and uncertainty of future projections.

Earth's layered structure and convection; the three plate boundary types and hotspots; contrasting volcanic and earthquake (and tsunami) hazards; and the impacts and management of tectonic hazards in a developed and a developing or emerging country.

The formation, distribution and structure of tropical cyclones; their physical hazards and impacts on people; why some countries are more vulnerable; and how preparation and response differ between a developed and a developing or emerging country.

How the biosphere provides goods and services for local people and is exploited commercially; how it regulates the atmosphere, soils and water; rising demand for food, water and energy; and the theories of Malthus and Boserup on population and resources.

The global distribution and characteristics of major biomes and how they are controlled by climate; how local factors alter biome distribution; and how the biotic and abiotic components of biomes interact.

How a city and its accessible rural areas are interdependent; how a rural area has changed economically and socially through counter-urbanisation and city links; and the challenges and opportunities, including rural diversification.

The case study of one major UK city (Birmingham): its context and structure, how migration, employment and services change it, the challenges of decline and the opportunities of growth, and how regeneration and sustainability improve quality of life.

How the decline of primary and secondary sectors and the rise of tertiary and quaternary sectors have changed employment in different regions, and how globalisation, free trade and privatisation have increased foreign direct investment and the role of TNCs.

The differences between the urban core and rural periphery and the policies that reduce them; how migration has changed UK population geography; and how the changing balance of economic sectors, globalisation and FDI have reshaped the economy.

How geology and physical processes form coastal landscapes of erosion and deposition; how human activity modifies them; the increasing risk of coastal flooding; and the costs, benefits and conflicts of hard, soft and sustainable coastal management.

How river landscapes change along the long profile and the erosion, transport and deposition processes that form fluvial landforms; storm hydrographs and the factors that affect them; rising flood risk; and the costs and benefits of hard and soft flood management.

The role of geology, past tectonic and glacial processes in forming upland and lowland landscapes; the characteristics and distribution of the UK's main rock types; and how physical and human processes create distinct UK landscapes.