Population and Environment Summary for A-level Geography AQA
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Course
Human Geography
Institution
AQA
This document is a summary of all the whole AQA A-level Geography topic of Population and Environment. The document includes all detail apart from the main two health/ demographic case studies as they are student specific. But it includes other case studies e.g. Malaria, CHD (which has a few areas ...
Relationships between physical environment and population
A population depends on adequate food supply which depends on climate,
soils and other aspects. Topography, geology and eco-systems are also
important.
Climate:
Polar and sub-polar zones are low
Highest populations in tropical regions – India and S.Asia
More of a correlation for where people aren’t
Soils:
Gelisols and ice/glaciers have low population
Highest populations – inceptisols (UK, strong resistant soil), mollisols (high
organic matter), spodosols (quickly weathered), utisols (clay based)
The relationship between soil and population is weak
Water supply:
Strong relationship
Some high populations have economic and physical water scarcity e.g.
UAE, China
Other high pop areas have no water scarcity e.g. Europe
High populations tend to lead to water scarcity but Europe, east asia and
areas of US are anomalies
Geology and resources:
Resources such as fossil fuels have given risen to industrialisation of these
areas and therefore populations
e.g. Ruhr Valley in Europe
Key population parameters
Population density – average number of people living in a specified area,
usually expressed as number of people per km2
Population distribution – pattern of where people live. This can be
considered at all scales from local to global.
Key role of development processes
Neolithic Agrarian Revolution in Mesopotamia – 12,000 years ago. Wide
scale transition from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to agriculture and
settlement, making a larger population possible.
Industrial revolution in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries
,Missing end of CHD
Global pattern of population numbers
Highest density of population in south east Asia
Fairly high in Europe, central Africa, central America and southern England
Lowest population density in northern Canada, Greenland, northern
Scotland
Environment and population
Food production and consumption
Production:
In early 1960s global food supplies stood at only 2,300 calories per person
per day and this was very unevenly distributed (HICs had 3,030 and LICs
2,000 or below)
In 2010 there was the capacity to produce enough food for the entire
population – 2,800 calories per day
But 800 million still suffered under-nutrition (this is a decrease though)
The improvements are based on high-yielding crops (green revolution)
and increased reliance on global trade.
Growth of production is much higher in LICs than HICs.
In some areas production has declined – Europe and Russia
can casue issues – irrigation for farming in Arizona desert from the
Colorado river – river no longer reaches ocean
Consumption:
Expressed in kilocalories (kcal) per capita per day
National average apparent food consumption
Food balance sheet – shows how food items from human consumption,
along with how it is produced, used, imported/ exported and how it
benefits society (per capita supply)
1,7000 to 2,000 kcals per day range are needed
Consumption increased by around 400 kcal between 1964 and 2015
Developing countries have seen an increase of 800 kcal
Sub-saharan Africa has only seen a 300 kcal increase
The amount of undernourishment is calculated by using the average
amount of food available for consumption, population size, the relative
disparities in access to the food and minimum calories required for an
individual.
The decrease in undernourishment didn’t meet the Millennium
Development Goals of halving hunger between 1990 and 2015. The crisis
of 2008 affected this.
Agricultural systems:
Farms are open systems
Physical and human inputs
Types of farming systems:
Commercial – majority of produce is sold and income generated provides
livelihoods for workers and invested back into farm.
Subsistence– majority of produce is consumed by landowner and farm
workers, some may be sold for economic benefit.
,Missing end of CHD
Intensive – often small scale, capital intensive is where money is invested
into soil improvement, machinery, high quality animals/seeds but there
are few workers so output is high per hectare and per worker. Labour
intensive is where there is a high number of farm workers therefore a low
output per hectare per worker.
Extensive – large scale and large area.
Factors affecting agricultural systems
Physical Human
Temperature Tradition
Growing season – e.g. barley needs Subsidies – change in crops or
90 days but rice takes 120 days livestock depending on money
Precipitation available from gov
Relief and slope aspects – altitude Transport – cost of transporting the
affects temp and steepness product may affect, livestock is
affects, south facing sloped get more expensive to transport.
more sun light Farm size – economies of scale,
Soil type and fertility bigger farms can afford more feed,
Drainage fertilisers etc
Market demand
Capital – how much money can
farmer invest into farm
Agricultural productivity
How efficiently the agricultural industry use the resources available to
turn inputs into outputs.
Understanding of it is critical for producing more with less.
Factors such as weather, disease, policy and economic conditions can
have short term effects on productivity.
Productivity is typically measured in terms of yield : kg of grain per
hectare etc
Total factor productivity (TFP) – ratio of agricultural outputs to inputs
As inputs are used more effectively and precisely etc TFP grows.
TFP for crops increased with higher yielding , disease resistance and
drought or flood tolerant crops and more efficient and timely cultivation
and harvesting, tech.
, Missing end of CHD
TFP for livestock increases with breeding animals with favourable
genetics, using better animal care and disease management and adoption
of high quality feeds.
Since mid-1980s LICS has increased their outputs
For increase in LICs, infrastructure, research, support etc is needed.
Investment in HICs is why productivity is high.
Physical environment variables
Soil is often determined by climate and natural veg of an area.
Correlation between climate zones and population density.
Climatic types
Polar climates- Arctic Tundra:
Location: belt of the northern hemisphere. Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway
and Russia.
Climate characteristics: cold (average winter temperature is -28*c and mid-day
summer temp is 12*C), treeless, low rainfall (less than 100mm per year). Permafrost,
strong winds (30-60 mph).
Biodiversity: low biotic diversity and simple veg structure – 1,700 species of vascular
plants and only 48 land mammal species. Short season of growth.
Factors that affect climate: weak solar radiation, cold air can’t hold as much
moisture.
Human activities:
Population: low population density, polar areas are occupied by 13.1 million people
across 8 countries, with less than 4 people per km2. Mainly large settlements but also
indigenous communities e.g. Inuit, largest group of people who reside in tundra, Canada
and Greenland.
Agriculture and horticulture:
Small percentage of area used for agriculture
There are political and economic factors driving exploitation of possible polar farmland
The agricultural experiment stations.
People in tundra tend to rely on protein due to lack of vegetation
Native people hunt animals such as walruses and polar bears
Farming is usually not commercial and any production is in small local areas.
Example: Tim Meyers, Alaska. Sustainable farming by thawing out soil and spreading
manure and salmon slurry. Uses raised beds and polytunnels.
Hunting
Whales, seal, walrus (mainly Indigenous communities)
Mineral resource exploitation
Gold, silver, copper, platinum, phosphates, coal and oil
Climate change
High latitudes have been experiencing 1*c increase every decade
Changes animal migration patterns which affects hunting natives and threaten
sustainability of current infrastructure.
Red fox vs arctic fox
Sea transportation, tourism and mineral exploitation may benefit
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