AQA GCSE Geography (8035) · Paper 2
🚰 Resource Management
Revision notes written to the specification, with examiner tips and the required practicals. Every point here has flashcards in the Stickwise app.
Resources & the UK
Food, water and energy all underpin wellbeing, but they are unevenly shared: wealthy countries consume the most, while demand is rising everywhere. In the UK, around 40% of food is imported, which raises a trade-off between food miles and access to cheaper, varied produce, and between large-scale agribusiness and eating locally. Water supply is more plentiful in the north-west, while population is concentrated in the south-east, and transfer schemes between the two are debated. The UK's energy mix has moved away from coal towards offshore wind and nuclear power.
Food (option)
Food insecurity is caused by climate shocks, pests, conflict, poverty and price spikes. Supply can be increased through irrigation, hydroponics and aeroponics, high-yield varieties from the Green Revolution, and GM and biotechnology. More sustainable approaches include cutting food waste, eating less meat, sourcing food organically and locally, and permaculture; a well-known small-scale example is rice-fish farming, which feeds a family from a single paddy field.
Water (option)
Water insecurity is caused by low rainfall, rising demand, pollution, and rivers that are shared across borders, where a dam built upstream can create political tension downstream. Supply can be increased through dams and reservoirs, large-scale transfers such as China's South-North scheme, and desalination, which provides an unlimited supply but uses a great deal of energy. More sustainable approaches include fixing leaks, metering use, recycling greywater and managing aquifers carefully, along with cheap methods such as rainwater harvesting and sand dams, which are widely used in LICs.
Energy (option)
Energy insecurity is caused by unevenly distributed reserves, rising demand, the depletion of existing supplies, and geopolitics, where exporting countries can put pressure on importers. Supply can be increased through renewables such as wind, solar, hydro, tidal, geothermal and biomass power, nuclear power as a reliable baseload source, and more controversial methods of extraction such as fracking. Sustainable approaches focus on efficiency first, such as insulation, LED lighting and efficient engines, alongside reducing demand and small-scale local generation such as solar cookers and micro-hydro schemes.