Stuff you need to know for geography

[ben4386]

Spatial Concepts

In particular, location- when it asks you for the location, or name of your resource, say wattle park or the MCG or watever but give the absolute location (30 degrees S 20 degrees E ) or address and a relative location (20km E of melbourne)

Spatial Associations- Give degree, general statement describing the association, examples WITH QUANTIFICATION, and anomalies also with quantification

Spatial Interaction- the degree to which to items, objects things influence each other. Give degree, describe the interaction and usually when they are to do with a natural item or object they result in a process e.g. the interaction of humans with walking tracks results in land degradation and soil compaction.

Distributions- uneven / even , describe the general shape and quantify, give exceptions to this general pattern.

Spatial Change over time- depends on the way the question is asked, usually they aren't going to say "describe the spatial change over time" but more get you to analyse data and ask for changes that have occurred.


Instructional terms


theres a few, most of them are common sense

In particular Evaluate the relative importance of factors leading to ..... asks you to evaluate the order in which factors contribute to a phenomenon. You have to do this in two ways, not only do you say this factor is important because, but you also say that its important than this other one because.

when you get big evaluation essays, its nice to introduce like an essay, give a few good examples, also consider the other side of the argument and have a good conclusion. These are usually worth 6-7 marks

When it asks you to evaluate the successfulness, usually you do this with criteria. e.g.  criterion 1: what was the cost of the response, criterion 2: was there a reduction or increase in whatever the response is aimed at

General Geography Stuff you should know

Can you , use a topographic map, read contour lines, understand scale, legends, distance etc..

use tables, graphs and other geographic information

can u sketch a land use map

(theres plenty more these are just a few)

stay tuned for more specifics on MDB , local resources, population , and global phenomenon

[nickalaz]

Great stuff!!
Can't wait for the info on the MDB.

I'll happilly send you a hand made thankyou picture in the mail, after friday.

[napy33]

can someone please put up a specific case study on MDB
i neeeeed help!

[ben4386]

Murray Darling Basin

evidence suggests that this topic is about 30% of the exam. Its massive so you need to know it well but before you do know it

Know what a resource is

know the definitions of the different types of resources, renewable sustainable etc.. there have been questions asking you state this resource and explain how it is renewable, even if it doesnt ask you about the type of resource give two forms of classification (even if its only one mark) and say why, it might be a bit much but you dont know how they will mark.


Importance of water

water is extremely important (in case you havent guessed) this appeared on last years paper and it relates to all of Australia not just the Murray Darling Basin. You should know that most rainfall occurs in coastal regions (as a guide) and rainfall declines as you head into the interior of the country. You should know facts such as 70% of Australia's water is used for irrigation, or that we are one of the highest users of water per capita in the world, we store more water per capita than any other country. What does this indicate, that we need a hell of a lot of water in Australia.
the point in the study design is "describe the importance of water" what do you think you had to do last year, I would bet this will re-appear again.


geographic characteristics of the murray darling basin

make a massive table for like 6 places in the basin and one global one, Label one side Human one side Natural.

Examples

Natural-

Topography, greatest in the East and decreases relatively proportionally as you head west down the floodplain

Rainfall, highest in the mountain districts, greater than 1500mm per year, also decreases proportionally as you head west

Rivers/wetlands- MDB is made up of heaps of rivers and 30 000 or so wetlands, know the length of the murray and darling, other rivers like the lachlan, loddon, macalister, condamine, culgoa etc..

Species- flora and fauna

Soil Types and soil fertility

Ground water basins

National/State parks- little desert national park, warrumbungle national park etc..


Human

Major Towns- bourke, echuca, shepparton, renmark, dubbo etc...

Dams and regulation- Barrages, Locks, weirs, Hume and Dartmouth dams lake jindabyne, snowy mountains scheme

Recreation Areas- waterskiing, Mt hotham thredbo etc... for skiing

Populations and their distribution

major landuses within the basin- rice growing in the riverina, cotton growing in the NE, citrus in the mallee

distribution of water resources

where is most of the water in the murray darling basin located? (Cubbie station perhaps? they hold 3 sydney harbours, or the hume and dartmouth dams, the biggest two in australia)

Where are most of the rivers, which way do they flow

Can you name a few major wetlands, the coorong and lower lakes, barmah forest, maquarie marshes etc..?

Which rivers are regulated and which aren't (Ovens river is the only non regulated river as far as i know), how many locks and weirs are there where are they located.

Where are the major dams, (dartmouth, hume, jindabyne, eucambyne etc..)

I think thats enough for now, soo soo tired spesh tomorrow

[Chihiro]

Legend! And spesh tomorrow as well! Good luck, you deserve it.

[ben4386]

Continuing on,

Conflicts and policies and strategies

This is the main component of your study of the MDB and you should know this inside and out.

Have 3-4 case studies of different locations within the basin, for each one know a conflict over the use of water, and then subsequent policies and strategies that help to solve the conflict.

More Specifically

Coorong and Lower lakes- Conflict arises between the users of water and perhaps any user upstream. In this area there is a hyper-saline environment with the water up to 7 times as salty as the sea. All the excess water in the murray darling basin flows here and yet so little is coming here that not even the murray mouth can stay open. A good example is perhaps the commercial freshwater fishing that used to be a major industry in this area is now dwindling so perhaps a conflict between fishing operators and users further up the basin. There are many policies/strategies, e.g. the cap and environmental flows, or the governments plan to distribute water to each lake based on the ones that need it most.

Note that i may say users upstream or downstream for the purposes of me explaining but never say this in a response, say between users at renmark and users in mildura or give a specific example of a conflict between two specific groups at two specific locations, its unacceptable to simply say upstream or downstream. Furthermore make it realistic, i've heard of people saying conflicts between people in cubbie station and places in the riverina or echuca. Note this is impossible because the riverina and echuca are not on the darling rivers.


Upper Darling- I did cotton growing at cubbie station. They hold ridiculous amounts of water, 3 sydney harbours and they pay shit all for it. From what i can remember it was only a few thousand dollars per year. There is practically a conflict between them and pretty much any user downstream. I managed to find a particular farmer who estimated he lost $300 0000 in the value of his sheep farming due to cubbie station holding so much water and it related perfectly to economic sustainability as well as it was solid quantification. There are many policies/strategies for cotton growing with the main one being water allocation rights, people are able to buy water off those who have excess and the government are able to buy back water off other people. A prime example is that place that cotton farm the government bought.


Riverina area- rice growing primarily, rice is quite a water thirsty crop and they usually use flood irrigation to grow it. This has many problems, not only salinity (as water tables rise) but also a hell of a lot of evaporation. Conflict, again do some research, find something specific. Theres bound to be some farmer, town etc.. peed off with how much water another person has because if you think about it they have less water. Perhaps find a policy/strategy from the local municipality in the area, you would be surprised.


Other places to consider

Hydroelectricity generation and the snowy mountains scheme, Conflict perhaps between people in a different basin whos water has been taken and those in the MDB. I think the snowy river is only 1% of its actual natural flow due to diversion.

Wetlands(there are 30 000!) there are massive conflicts between environmentalists who want extra flows and farmers who want extra water and do not want their land being flooded. I know a few years back the victorian government undertook like a 300GL environmental flow as a test run.


Geography is all about Scale, thing about policies and strategies and how they apply at a local and regional (regional being like riverina) and then how they affect the whole basin


sustainability

This could be in a few forms, last year it was "economic sustainability" you should know a few places where water is being used in a way that causes that desired activity to be sustainable, and in a way that its unsustainable, a key example of a sustainable way would be some wetland (forgot the name) in SA that has been restored from a former barren and degraded landscape. in an unsustainable way... there are plenty think about the amount of salinity and its effects in the basin. Also consider how someones use might be sustainable to them, but its not to someone else.


Now for your local resource....

[ben4386]

so you each have a different local resource

You need to know, the location of your resource- relative and absolute location, e.g. docklands, 2km W of the CBD, post code 3000 or something like that (grid references also helpful) they can ask you for the location of your resource

but more specifically "distribution of a similar resource at a regional scale" straight out of the study design. Know where a similar resource is because it is likely to be tested, they write the exams based on the study design so you would be foolish not to know this

Geographic characteristics obviously, both human and natural, note the location of your resource is not really a geographic characteristic, any spatial concept isnt really a geographic characteristic. Stuff like topography, population, land use etc.. are good geographic characteristics.

Positive and negative effects of use- on both people and environment, the best answers here will not only list the positive and negative impact on people and environment but also quantify it, it might be hard to do in some cases but if you can pull something out. I think last year there was also a spatial interaction, the ultimate aim for u would be a positive/negative effect of use, how it leads to a spatial interaction and then (which im gonna explain further) a policy or strategy that relates to eat.

"the concept and practicality of sustainable policies related to the selected resource."

this has appeared in the past two exams, it was asked in slightly different ways but essentially you could write the same response for both, this is the only way methinks that they can ask you about policies and strategies in your local response, how practical and sustainable they are


Practical- refers to viability or feasibility, in simpler terms is what you will implement going to have any effect? no point putting in a walking track at a national park when only 1 person walks it a month.

Sustainability- the rate of use impacts on the rate in which it can renew itself (or something like that) pretty much how sustainable is your policy/strategies, if your place resource is wattle park for example is it sustainable to have a policy that suggests you cut the grass every week?

When you evaluate i mentioned before about criteria, these are your two criteria, practicality and sustainability, examiners (as i have also said before) are looking for quantification, if you can   quantify how sustainable or practical your response is you will get A+ as opposed to a B+

population soon...       

[Jelly]

Quality info, thanks so much.

With the conflict at the Coorong, the debate of opening the barrages is between environmentalists (as they beleive environmental flows in this area is crucial for the environment particularly as it is a Ramsar site) and farmers (as they beleive the opening of the barrages will mean they will have to farm with high salinity water). I don't have many facts other than it costs $7m a year to dredge the mouth to prevent it blocking. Anyone got any further info for me and others thinking of using this as a conflict?

Would be of great help.

[collundo]

Quality info, thanks so much.

With the conflict at the Coorong, the debate of opening the barrages is between environmentalists (as they beleive environmental flows in this area is crucial for the environment particularly as it is a Ramsar site) and farmers (as they beleive the opening of the barrages will mean they will have to farm with high salinity water). I don't have many facts other than it costs $7m a year to dredge the mouth to prevent it blocking. Anyone got any further info for me and others thinking of using this as a conflict?

Would be of great help.

stop helping the plebs

[Jelly]

I need the help crouch, hit me on msn.

[ben4386]

environmentalists............ and farmers 

got a location/name of a farmer or a conservation group, maybe a quote?

I don't have many facts other than it costs $7m a year to dredge the mouth to prevent it blocking. Anyone got any further info for me and others thinking of using this as a conflict?

have u considered researching water inflows to the lower lakes and coorong, i.e. how much actually water actually flows to the coorong. Another good idea, albeit hard to find will be a comparison between years, say one year when there was plenty of water, and this year where theres shit all. See the effects on the local economy, the losses in potential revenue etc..

[Jelly]

Yeah found it all.

Thanks.

[ben4386]

Population


distribution of the worlds population and associated factors


This is where your SHEEPT factors come in more than ever.

You should be able to describe the worlds population, as either even or uneven (your choice), where most people are located and where most people are not, and the reasons why people are located somewhere are your sheept factors


Social- relates to standards of living, consider people wanting to live in a wealthier more affluent area with parks gardens etc..

Historical- someone might have a historical connection with a place and choose to live there, or it might have been history that developed a place, e.g. Ballarat and the gold rush.

Economical- relates strongly with social to give socio-economic factors, things related to money, people may choose to live in another area because of better pay etc..

Environmental/Physical- This is the number one i believe, people dont live in mountains due to transport and infrastructure issues, people dont live in the desert due to the hot climate with little rainfall, people live on the coast and along river deltas due to moderate climate and easy accessibility to water.

Political- One that comes to mind is the brazilian government who located brasilia city away from sao paulo to ease congestion, or perhaps the queen who elected ottawa as the capital of canada (i dont know how politcal this is, there aren't really "royal" factors i guess you could invent them tho)

Technological- A booming technology industry in Japan may attract people to live and work there.

There are plenty of other examples, these are just a guide.

Population change

The great thing about geography is everything leads on, so you have people distributed in an area but these distributions are always changing.

Why does a population change?

It can be related to 3 things

Births

Deaths

Migration (this one is always overlooked, but its a key one)


There is a key difference between developed and developing countries or (LEDC and MEDC ) in relation to births, deaths and migration
Births

Obviously natural births are a way for the population to increase, there are many factors as to why a birth rate may increase, look in your textbook

example-  birth rate may be higher during the war and post war as people may feel the need to have more children to ensure that more survive into adulthood

Birth rates in developing countries are high as children are seen as an economic liability rather than an economic asset.

deaths

the rate at which deaths occur also can change the population, and this can happen for a variety of reasons (also in your book)

disease

famine

war

etc...

Migration

Ill spend a little time talking about this, migration is basically people moving from one country to another for a variety of reasons

Migration can be

Rural-Rural
Urban-Rural
Rural-Urban
Urban-Urban

There are basically 2 main reasons why people migrate and they are called Push/Pull factors

Push factors- are ones that push people away from their area/country

this may be

a lack of work
little opportunity
war and disease
lack of women or men

(there are plenty more use your common sense)

Pull Factors- are what draw people to a country

Lots of work
New opportunity
existing family in the country
A more affluent, wealthy society
better living conditions

Migration can be only push or pull factors or a combination of the two.

now migration can significantly change a population, look at Australia for example, if it hadn't have been for migration our population would have declined as our fertility rate is below replacement level

More on the Demographic Transition model, young and ageing populations and responses to come

[ben4386]

demographic transition model

Stage 1- Birth rates around death rates but both are extremely high, not really much population growth, there are not many examples of countries like this in the world. The corresponding population pyramid is very pyramid shaped if not concave toward the bottom

Stage 2- Death rates start to decline as countries start to develop, this stage applies to most african countries (excluding those ravaged by aids and war) and many south american countries this decline in death rates usually corresponds to increase provision for medical care, less disease, fewer wars etc...,

Population pyramid looks like a pyramid


Stage 3- Birth rates start to decline, still modest population growth,death rates remain constant- primary example is brazil, where the country is well into development. This usually occurs as women work more and the country moves from a farming/agriculture based society into a  service (e.g. doctors, lawyers, tradesmen provide services) society. Even though brazil still has a lot of farming its starting to move to this service kind of society

Population pyramid gets more box shaped

Stage 4- Death Rates and birth rates around the same, both low, this is indicative of most of the developed countries, (Australia, USA, Canada, England), women are more educated, children are an economic liability rather than an economic asset and as such the birth rates are low. There is no longer a real need to have children. Death rates remain low due to access to health care food and and clean water clean water is an excellent indication of the level of development of a country

Population pyramid, a fat bee hive


Stage 5- Death rates outstrip birth rates, countries of note include Germany, Russia, Italy, this is when the country is in the shit and they actually have a population decrease. This is what happens when the country is primarily a service one and theres no real incentive to have children. Theres plenty of data around about surveys of women in these countries and some of it is staggering, many women simply dont want to have children

Population pyramid, skinny bee hive


Limitations of this model (its only a model)

its only a model, each country is different

may not reflect actual course of events in a country

does not take into consideration migration

does not take into consideration epidemics/disease/war



how you are expected to apply your knowledge of population pyramids and DTM

you need to be able to recognize countries in stage 1-5 and you should also know a few off the top of your head, you should know factors that contribute to increases/decreases in birthrates and death rates because this could be tested.

Population pyramids, you should be able to read them and match them to a stage of the DTM. Furthermore you should be able to identify dents in age groups or bulges and what exactly they mean. They may mean war or that a young age group migrate etc... you should also use them to predict what may happen in future e.g. if the country has a young population it may be expected to continue to increase its population

Case studies

this is a global phenomenon so it affects a large part of the globe, you need responses to population problems at a variety of scales

Global- perhaps a UN meeting on population or a summit on aids/pandemics

National- have one for an ageing population (australia, italy, russian and most of europe) and one for a young population (most of africa, south america)

Local- municipality early years plan, or retirement plan, or shepparton? (i personally thing its done shit)

Avoid china (my opinion only) if you dont think you know it well enough, if you do china you must be exact and know every fact and figure, if you are slightly wrong the examiners will come down hard on you.

Im happy to answer questions related to Australia, Italy and Kenya ( i did these) but im not going to post a full case study.

global phenomena to follow later tonight or tomorrow


 

[Jelly]

Like, thanks for all of this but don't you have your own exams to study for?

I'm not telling you to stop though