Upper Secondary Geography Practice 'O' Level Answers Notes

Unit 1 Geography Everyday

• Tension arises from balancing environmental benefits with urban development needs.
• Dover Forest example: Lowers air temperature via shading and evapotranspiration, benefiting residents.
• Retaining Dover Forest limits urban expansion for housing/services, potentially hindering economic development and living standards.
• Development brings humans closer to nature, causing clashes.
• Urban expansion shrinks habitats, forcing wildlife into human areas for food.
• Human-wildlife encounters increase conflict risk due to unintentional provocation.
• If Dover Forest remains, benefits include cooler environment, recreation, mental health boost, and nature preservation.
• Community activities (clean-ups) promote environmental protection.
• Food/beverage services located near housing estates for convenience and smaller carbon footprint.
• Education services, especially primary schools, should be near housing to reduce travel and encourage independence.

Animal Encounters and Urban Expansion

• Urban expansion overlaps with wildlife territories, increasing encounters.
• Food shortages force animals into urban areas, raising encounter chances (India example).
• Negative impacts on village communities due to injuries/loss of life from predator encounters.
• Tigers face further decimation as dangerous animals are hunted, declining populations.

Sense of Place

• Figure 1.3 shows a greater sense of place due to more details (homes, lanes) than Figure 1.2.
• Figure 1.3 includes sensory details ('quiet' park), indicating strong personal experiences.
• Details of slopes in Figure 1.3 suggest time spent exploring the area.
• Schools can create shared experiences (camps, activities) for new students to build a stronger sense of place.
• Unique, participative activities foster memories and group bonding.
• Negative experiences can also create a strong sense of place.
• Teacher reminds student committee to consider planning activities that may create a negative sense of place as well as a positive one.

Spatial Awareness

• (a) Area shown could be a big city or port due to services that attract communities for business.
• (b) Area shown is likely a rural farming or mining community with concentrated settlements around resources.
• (c) Area shown is likely a small agricultural community because there are large areas of unoccupied land with smaller communities spread across the area.
• This tests spatial awareness of activities and their distribution.
• Can also answer question based on spatial patterns linked to linear developments.

Spatial Hierarchy of Singapore's Housing System

• System: residential unit → precinct (400-800 units) → neighborhood (4,000-6,000 residents) → town.
• Population increases up the hierarchy.
• Precinct services are basic (provision shops, vending machines).
• Neighborhood services are more complex (banks, restaurants), requiring larger customer base.

Wildlife Population Collapse

• Collapse is uneven globally, ranging from 24% to 94%.
• Worldwide average decline is 68%.
• Latin America/Caribbean highest at 94%, far above average.
• Africa second-highest at 64%, below world average.
• Europe/Central Asia lowest at 24%, North America at 33%, Asia Pacific at 45%.
• Expansion of cities increases need for land for agriculture, industry, and residential use.
• Habitat loss due to urban expansion decreases wildlife populations.
• Increasing pollution (industrial, plastic waste, oil spills) harms wildlife directly.
• Turtles trapped by plastic, ingest it, causing fatal digestive blockages.

Regional Planning in Singapore

• Nature reserve: For clean water and nature.
• Housing: For residents to stay and enjoy a good standard of living.
• Transport hub: For travel and trade.
• Heavy industry: Chemical industry away from residential areas.
• Recreation: A region away from busier city life with activities for people to enjoy.
• Business: Central business district at the city center, pillar of the economy.

Sustainable Neighborhood Plans

• 'Precious Water': Water-saving devices reduce usage, protecting fresh water.
• Water recycling reduces wastage and protects future water use.
• 'Resourceful Energy': Reduces energy usage via energy-saving devices e.g., motion sensors.
• Using clean energy (solar/wind) reduces carbon footprint.
• 'Livable Buildings': Strong ventilation ensures comfort, cuts air conditioning/heating needs.
• Healthy ventilation reduces disease transmission.
• Good building design minimizes energy to warm/cool buildings.

Economic Sustainability

• Ensures people have prosperous lives through economic progress.
• Attained when neighborhoods have enough population density to support businesses, reducing transport costs.
• Local businesses provide convenience, reducing the need to travel outside the neighborhood.
• Transport infrastructure located close together, keeping costs low.
• Community members can obtain employment from local businesses.

Sustainable Systems in Developing Countries

• Encourages cleanliness, recycling, and access to basic medical services.
• People earn income for medical treatment they couldn't previously afford, improving lives and the environment.
• Limitation: People hoard rubbish for future benefits instead of immediate recycling.
• Monetary motivation may not instill a true understanding of environmental importance.

Ecosystem Services

• Provisioning ecosystem services: Tangible resources (food, water) from the environment.
• Regulating ecosystem services: Nature's regulation of the environment is beneficial for people.
• Both rely on the natural environment and impact daily lives.
• Cultural ecosystem services (intangible benefits like aesthetics/education) can be replaced by man-made environments.
• Provisioning, regulating, and supporting ecosystem services are essential for human survival.
• Provisioning services provide food/water but could be replaced by technology.
• Regulating services maintain suitable conditions, preventing disasters/diseases.
• Supporting services are fundamental for other services (soil formation, photosynthesis).

Supporting Ecosystem Services

• Necessary for the functioning of other ecosystem services.
• Soil formation is required for agricultural activities. Soil is formed when rocks are broken down into smaller pieces or when microorganisms weather down rocks.
• Important for growing food.
• Pollination helps plant growth to provide food for animals/humans.

Hazards and Their Impact

• Heavy rainfall is a hazard.
• Flooding leads to loss of life, community disruption, and health impacts (waterborne diseases).
• Property damage causes economic losses and future rebuilding costs.
• Cities have high population density and complex services.
• I disagree to a large extent that city dwellers are generally free of most of the impacts of hazards.
• A hazard causes loss of life, health impacts, property damage, and socioeconomic consequences.
• Both natural (earthquakes) and man-made hazards exist.
• Tropical cyclones flood cities due to impervious ground and overwhelming rainfall.
• Roads and electrical lines may be cut off.
• However, support services and protection make natural hazard impacts less serious in cities than rural areas.

Environmental Stewardship

• Actions taken to protect and responsibly use the environment.
• Figure 1.11: Playground built with sustainably sourced wood (FSC logo), protecting rainforests.
• Engagement with FSC is a partnership contributing to environmental stewardship efforts.

Disaster Risk Factors

• Disaster risk is the likelihood of suffering damage, injury, or loss of life from a disaster.
• Factors: nature of the hazard, vulnerability of the area, and exposure to the hazard.
• Nature of the hazard: Cyclones have long warning periods, allowing communities time to prepare (boarding homes, evacuating).
• Vulnerability of an area: Haiti's limited resources worsened earthquake impacts in 2010 versus Tokyo's preparedness.
• Exposure to a hazard: Singapore is safer from typhoons than Hong Kong due to location.

Importance of Economic Exposure for Disaster Risk Reduction

• I disagree with the statement to a large extent.
• Earthquake can be very violent and can be very sudden giving the community very little warning giving the community very little time to react.
• Some communities have little exposure of major hazards like earthquakes and volcanoes or cyclones so their impacts may be negligible.
• Exposure is the most important reason that impacts disaster risk.

Disaster Risk Management at Home

• Fire is a common hazard in Singapore's high-rise buildings.
• Keep fire blanket, fire extinguisher, and smoke detector at home.
• Fire blanket protects people during escape.
• Fire extinguisher puts out small fires.
• Smoke detector alerts residents and civil defense.

Community Resilience

• The ability of a community to resist, adjust to, and recover from disasters efficiently.
• Important for quick recovery and efficient resource use.
• Build resilience by strengthening relationships and raising awareness.
• Community-wide programs engage neighborhoods (e.g., public Zumba).
• Opportunities to join groups that will quickly recover from an incident faster like social media groups.
• Participate in projects to fight potential hazards like community fire drills.

Geographical Investigation Planning Parameters

• Sampling during shopping mall opening hours and for 7 days gives a good indication of traffic conditions with different days.
• 7 days may not represent every month (festivals, long weekends).
• Anomaly identified: 3 pm on Saturday with only 4 vehicles counted.
• Possible reasons for anomaly: malfunctioning counter.
• Decision to ignore anomaly by not giving a significant impact on the data collected.
• Effective data graph for effective in showing data would be a comparative bar graph.

Research Question Example

• Does the community / elderly have their daily needs met?
• Hypothesis: Residents of the people in Ang Mo Kio have their daily needs met easily.
• Types of services needed daily: cooked food, medical attention, meeting place, exercise etc.
• These question lead to quantitate data for the easy at which the service is obtainable.
• Opened ended questions will allow for better data to be collected.
• Primary data is by creating own questionnaire and collected necessary information that did not rely on another person's resource information.
• Hypothesis about noise level impacting the community is not measurable, specific and has no variables.

Industrial Estate & Noise Levels: Investigation Issues

• The timing is problematic as it might be too early for the noise to be significant as the industries would not have started up fully and 12pm would be lunch time.
• Saturday would not be a good time as it might be a day off and no work is conducted and therefore not reflect valid work information.
• Interviewing 5 people would be helpful but the 5 people need to be valid interview candidates that will yield good information.

Graph Presentation

• Comparative bar graph showing readings at different times will be best.
• A pie chart or line graph would not work.
• Selecting a non-probability sampling would be best for getting the proper the data needed and the insight need for the project.
• Example of question - Have you noticed a change in the noise levels now that the industrial estate is operational, can you share your experiences about it?
• Interviewing would allow the residents to talk more freely about the data needed.
• It helps that the residents can tell you how the life was before the industry was constructed.

Hypothesis and Investigation

• Example – The neighbourhood library in Ang Mo Kio draws only from the Ang Mo Kio estate.
• The two timeframes chosen are just before the exams and at a non-exam. This will allow the students to see what the visitors' profiles are like and hence be able to answer the hypothesis.
• A map can be a good method as they can indicate clearly the neighborhood or towns the visitors come from; however, the assumption is that the visitors can identify their own location easily.
• Sample size. 500 respondents might be difficult for the students to reach as they are a small group and it might not be feasible.

Effective Data Reporting Methods

• The scatter graph is able to show the relationship between the time of day and the number of visitors.
• Considerations when planning/reporting. The method needs to be accurate.
• Safety during testing.
• The photograph is useful as it gives a snapshot to the current moment caught on camera and helps confirm in person count.
• The number of people might be missing from a sketch representation.

Different Data Collection Methods

• Mental maps are not reliable.
• Probability sampling with simple random sampling with bias that a researcher might have.
• Provides a fair and equal chance of being selected.
• Non-probability sampling. Convience sampling where students are selecting the participants based on people that know.

Different Types of Averages and What They Communicate.

• Calculation of Average. Add all the number and divide by the number of samples 6+5+3+6+5=25/ 5=5 Average. Mean.
• Median Middle value or Number. Median. 4.
• Mode. The number most prevalent. Mode. 3.

Different Types of Survey Methods to Collect Various Types of Data.

• Likert scale, help to guide data in the survey for their opinions, one disadvantage can be the lack of quantifiable reasoning from each person’s perspective.

Unit 2 Tourism

• (a) Photograph A shows the unique cultural heritage which will draw tourists in.
• Photograph B shows a natural landscape with very few people that will help tourists rejuvenate from a busy an hectic year.
• Photograph C shows a unique festival in a city. Hence, some people travel to these areas to grow or gain and understanding of the culture.

Continued Growth of Traveling

• (b) There are different reasons for the growth in traveling to such destinations.
• Increase in leisure time with more paid leave for travel.
• Business innovation with new travel packages.
• Lower transport costs with budget airlines.
• (c) Venturers are likely to be in places like Photograph B as there appears to be few facilities present and it would have taken a much more effort to have reached that destination.

Positive Travel Infrastructure Changes

• As travelers can transit and transfer with few problems.
• (a) With three runways, it would allow for a greater frequency of landings and taking off tourist would find travel easier.
• Contacless systems help reduce the stress of travel.

Comparing New Car Travel With Bullet Train Travel.

• (b) Both the private car ownership and new modes of travel would generally encourage more people to travel. As this is much more convenient for most travelers.
• Private care encourages small 4 to 5 group travel with bullet trains encourages 100x of people travel.

Analyzing Success Of Tourist Destinations Over Time.

• (a) Big Splash followed the stages of tourism development in the development, consolidation, stagnation and decline and rejuvenation stages.
• (b) Big Splash is currently is currently at the rejuvenation stage. As investments have been made to redevelop the place and make it attractive to visitors again.
• (c) Yes, I believe that at some point Big Spash will need to be rejuvenated again. The long-term trend is change of desires in visitors.
• (d) Analysis with time helps plan to budget in changes in the future better to understand transformations.
• (e) The main problem with the model is it is not always accurate as places may skip stages.

Comparing Tourist Types.

• (a) Traveler A is a Dependable Type Tourist.

• Traveler B is a Venture Type Tourist.

• (b) Some destinations cater to different tourist better due to resources that can service tourist.

• Bhutan is place suited for traveller B because supporting infrastructure might be as well built as singapore.

• (c) A motivation for Traveler A would be Relaxation. Away from a demanding environments.

  Tourist Types Changing Over Time.

• This is because as people grow older priorities change and may became less adventurist.

• Some people have children and family with different age group and they wish for plan trip in stability.

  Various Reasons Why People Want to Travel.

• Experiencing a new culture versus the need for relaxation are equal the main reason is to gain new experience.

• People want to gain adventure.

• People want self-fulfillment, people want to visit for religious growth.

• People search for rejuvenation.

  Analyzing The Travel Trends Between Two Regions.

• Both Trends Increase between domestic and international arrivals.

• However, internatinals rate increase faster with roughly double the rate increase as domestic.

  How Travel Becomes Easier Over Time.

• (b) The Rise is due to more cheaper flights.

• Paid holiday leave for employee with growing paid numbers.

• Another rise is due to the to high stress Levels that people face.

• Health Tourism

• (b) The Rise is due to more cheaper flights. With employees now taking time away.

• (c) the student is correct because that is what niche travel is all about.

  Media Websites Grow The Travel Trend With Second City Destinations.

• The new destinations can now e books independently from trip advisors all day.

• Internet has great research with great information for users to know what to invest.

  Cultural Change.

• (a) The cultural change appears as a rather extensive change catering to western tourists.

• (b) Does The Menu Appeal Venture or Dependable tourist.

• Like to appeal ore the dependables as the dependable may be suited form from with they are familiar.

  The Services All Tourist Sectors Want To Offer.

• Both wants to be able to provides service like booking accommodations, airline ticket tour, but both has groups different groups targeting them.

• Mass markets likely cheeper then specialist holiday with they have less customable

Tourist sectors creates huge value in Employment.

• It’s provide the industry, restaurant to hotel you need someone to service, cleaning which support great support.
• Both Sector Create Jobs which helps to bring life back to the community.

Danger about relying in Tourist Sectors.

• It’s that Tourist Sector faces economic leakages and this will end up having less revenue as such we would need to be careful in.
• It has also been seen where jobs sector does not provide very much sector where jobs do require formal training and in some situation this would end in some jobs being removed.
• There also issues of the high stress level. So people do face.

Relationship Between Travel and Air Travel.

• (a) There Was A Direct Relationship between 2020 and 2021 in which Air Reservations was able to Decline sharply.

Why Tourist Would Want To Stay Away.

• (a) It would be the tourist that would what want to what get out the turmoil and would what what go with a more simple route, which would mean they would not want, to, loss there lives
• (b) That there is a disease that is currently going around the countries such as Ebola and Covid.

The Preservations Of History And New Culture That Tourism.

• The culture for the historical, and the art forms, and the rituals and the art forms that would be kept with a with that would appeal to tourists and that are unique in that sense.