Geography ATAR unit 1

Built environment

Elements of the environment that have been made by people

Site

The place where something is located including its physical setting.

Topography, landforms, gradient, vegetation

Situation

The location of a feature or place in relation to other features or places.

Relation to surroundings, proximity to other places or features, latitude and longitude to nearest minute, accessible by which roads

Political maps

Maps showing a political unit such as countries or states. Also shows cities and main towns.

Physical maps

Maps that show natural features such as rivers, mountains, lakes, coasts and deserts

Gazetteer maps

Maps that combine physical and political features found in atlases

Thematic maps

Maps that illustrate a specific theme, such as the location of tourist sites, type of forest cover, climactic zones, energy resources

Social maps

Type of thematic map showing a particular social feature

Synoptic charts

Weather maps that bring together a range of info about weather conditions over a large area such as a state

Weather

The constantly changing atmospheric conditions close to ground level

Isobar

Isoline joining places of equal pressure (usually given values at sea level)

High pressure systems

Hot and dry

Stable atmospheric conditions - gentle winds, clear skies and little chance of rain

Air pressure increases towards centre

Air flows out in anticlockwise direction

Summer in southern Australia dominated by high pressure systems

(North dominated by lows in summer)

Low pressure systems

Also known as cyclones - formed when warm air rises

Unstable atmospheric conditions - cloudy skies, rain, strong winds

Air pressure decreases towards centre

Air flows clockwise towards centre of system

Air mass

A stream of air moving towards or over land.

Large body of air that has the same conditions along all of its horizontal base.

Different depending where they come from and if they were blown over land or sea.

Proportional symbol maps

Different sizes of shape relate to different values.

Symbols drawn in proportion to size of variable being mapped. Not dependent on size of area.

Choropleth maps

Maps that use colours, shading or patterns to show density of objects or values. Low value areas are lighter, high value is darker.

Overlay maps

Show a number of geographic features as layers on a base map

Dot maps

Illustrates density and distribution of a particular feature (usually with dots)

BOLTSS

Border, orientation, legend, title, scale, source

Topographic map

Detailed, accurate representations of features that appear on the earth's surface.

Detailed maps showing features in the natural environment, including shape of the land and features of the built environment.

Topography

The shape of the land

Undulating topography

Land surface that has a series of gentle waves or rolls

(Gentle up and down changes)

Isoline

The lines on a map that join places of equal value.

E.g. isobars join places of equal air pressure, contour lines join places of equal height

Contour line

Isolines on a map that joins places of equal height above or below sea level

Spot height

A single point on a map that records the actual height (usually in metres) above sea level

Relief

The variations in height of the land. Includes mountains, valleys, contours, cliffs, depressions

Gradient

A measure of the degree of a slope. Change in height/distance

Cultural features

Roads, buildings, urban development, railways, airports, names of places and geographic features, state and international borders

Hydrography

Refers to hydrological features

E.g. Lakes, rivers, streams, swamps, coastal flats

Relative relief

The difference in height between the highest and lowest points in a particular area

Terrain

The general topography of an area

Hazard geography

The study of natural and ecological hazards, where and how they occur and how to minimise their impact.

Hazard

A potential source of harm to a person, community, property or infrastructure.

A potential danger or risk that could cause loss of life, injury, property damage, socioeconomic disruption or environmental degradation.

Biotic

(Living) Environment is the biosphere - the part of the earth where living things exist on or near the surface.

Abiotic

(Non-living) Environment formed by other spheres.

Can't be separated from biotic environment (biosphere) as all life must adapt to its physical environment.

Biosphere

All life on earth

Lithosphere

Solid earth

Atmosphere

The gases that surround the Earth

Hydrosphere

All water on or below the Earth's surface

Disaster

A catastrophic event that causes severe disruption to a community's function.

(Usually criteria such as number of deaths, reach of impact, need for assistance)

MDCs - characteristics

E.g. Australia, USA

More resources

More wealth

Stronger economy

Higher GDP

Less poverty

More expertise

More government support (funding, actions taken, recovery grants)

More capable of protecting their people from harm

Prevention methods as a result of wealth, resources and expertise

Therefore, less vulnerable to natural and ecological hazards.

LDCs

E.g. Myanmar, South Sudan

Fewer resources

Less wealth

Weaker economy

Lower GDP

More poverty

Less expertise

Less government support and often corrupt governments - therefore can't provide same level of prevention measures

More likely to be a prevalence of other diseases or illnesses

More suffer to loss of life, injury and damage

Therefore, more vulnerable to natural and ecological hazards.

Geomorphic hazards

Originate from the lithosphere

E.g. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes/volcanic eruptions - caused by tectonic plate movement.

Landslides (Geomorphic and hydraulic hazard) - can be caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, coastal erosion, intense rainfall, clearing of forests, excavations for mines and buildings.

Atmospheric hazards

Caused by atmospheric and/or weather processes (also called meteorological hazards)

E.g. storms, tropical cyclones (also known as hurricanes and typhoons), tornadoes, frosts, heatwaves, bushfires

BUSHFIRES ARE AN ATMOSPHERIC HAZARD

Hydrological hazards

Driven by hydrological processes in the water cycle.

Often categorised with processes in the atmosphere.

E.g. drought, tsunamis, floods, avalanches, blizzards

Ecological hazard

A biological or chemical hazard that has the potential to impact adversely on the wellbeing of people or on the environment more generally.

(Biological factors lead to infectious diseases)

Depth study: Covid-19

Biological hazard examples

Infectious diseases - Covid-19, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Influenza, Tuberculosis

Animal-transmitted diseases - Rabies, Malaria, Avian flu

Waterborne diseases - Cholera, hepatitis, typhoid

Plant invasion - asparagus scandens and spear thistle

Animal invasion - Cane toad, European rabbit

Epidemic

When there is an often sudden increase in the number of cases of a disease above what would typically be expected in that area.

Pandemic

When an epidemic spreads over different areas - several countries or different continents. Usually affects a more significant number of people.

E.g. Covid-19 is a global pandemic

Infectious diseases

Diseases that can spread from one person to another either directly or indirectly.

Caused by pathogenic microorganisms such as viruses, parasites, bacteria, fungi

Anthropogenic hazards

Human hazards. Associated with human activities.

Humans can intensify impacts of hazards i.e. poor decision making by gov for Covid, not adequately preparing for bushfire season by clearing fuel

Zoonotic disease

An infectious disease that originated from animals and can be transmitted to humans (through pathogens - bacteria, viruses, other animals, parasites)

E.g. Rabies, Covid-19

For Covid, indirectly transmitted to humans by intermediate host (likely an animal humans are more likely to come in contact with)

Hazard risk management - definition

The identification of the probability of a hazard and the vulnerability of the population that may be affected.

Involves understanding relevant physical and human processes to identify risk and take actions to reduce or eliminate severity of impacts.

E.g. fire danger levels

Vulnerability

Assess risk level and refers to how a hazard event will affect human life and property.

Mitigation

Actions taken to minimise/reduce/eliminate the risk or severity of a hazard before it occurs

E.g. prescribed burns before bushfire season

Preparedness

Strategies taken to prevent impacts or manage or respond to the impacts of a hazard. Involves planning.

E.g. for bushfires includes community preparedness, evacuation plans, making sure emergency services are ready and able to respond effectively

Hazard risk management factors

Distribution - where is the hazard likely to occur?

Magnitude - how severe?

Frequency - how often is the area likely to experience the hazard?

Duration - how long did the hazard last?

Probability - likelihood of hazard occurring

Scale and spatial impact - how many people will it impact and how far in terms of space?

Proximity - is the hazard likely to occur near human settlement?

Vulnerability factors

Education, wealth, organisation levels, technical ability, population health and age, emergency infrastructure, warning systems, is it a hazard prone area, human actions that increase severity

Virus

An infectious agent that can only multiply in the living cells of an organism

E.g. Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) and coronaviruses

Overview of Covid-19

Ecological hazard, highly transmittable zoonotic disease, 1st reported in Wuhan, China - Dec 2019 (new virus), declared global pandemic by WHO 11 March 2020, global spatial distribution