GCSE Case Study Guide – GCSE Case Study Guide – UNIT 1:PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

Foundation version

Locate the case studies in this booklet on the maps of the UK and the World

In the exam remember to:

Locate your case study clearly, with a clear place name and where it is in the

world. Maps can help here.

Link your case study directly to the question

Answer all parts of the question (sometimes there can 3 or 4 sections in

one question!)

Quote some facts and figures about the place

Mention specific locations and place or scheme names to impress the examiner

Explain your ideas fully.

A case study of an Earthquake in an MEDC – Kobe Earthquake in Japan, 1995

Kobe is located in Japan on a destructive margin where 2 oceanic plates (the Pacific and Philippine plates), are pushed under the Eurasian plate. At 5.46am on January 17th 1995. The Kobe earthquake was powerful (magnitude 6.9); the epicentre was only 20km southwest of the city and the focus was only about 16kms below the surface. 10million people live in this area. This is a recipe for disaster. More than 5000 people perished and 300, 000 people were made homeless.

People were trapped under rubble and more than 102,000 buildings were destroyed in Kobe. The local government‘s estimate of the cost to restore the basic infrastructure of the city was about £100 billion.

1) The worst effected area was in the central part of Kobe including the main docks and port area. 2) Emergency aid for the city needed to use damaged roads but many of them were destroyed during the

earthquake. 3) Raised motorways collapsed during the shaking. Other roads were affected, limiting rescue attempts.

Most new buildings and roads have, in the last 20 years, been designed to be earthquake proof, schools and factories have regular earthquake drills, etc. Despite this, many older buildings still collapsed or caught fire. This led to many blocked roads and massive problems of homelessness.

Initial short term responses Electricity and water supplies were badly damaged over large areas. This meant no power for

heating, lights, cooking, etc. Clean, fresh water was in short supply until April 1995. The government and city authorities were criticised for being slow to rescue people and for refusing offers of Aid from other countries.

Many people had to sleep in cars or tents in cold winter conditions. Locals dug through the rubble to help others.

Long term responses

Water, electricity, gas, telephone services were fully working by July 1995 The railways were back in service by August 1995

A year after the earthquake, 80% of the port was working but the Hanshin Expressway was still closed.

By January 1999, 134,000 housing units had been constructed but some people still had to live in temporary accommodation.

New laws were passed to make buildings and transport structures even more earthquake proof.

A case study of a volcanic eruption in an

LEDC – Mount Pinatubo, the PhilippinesMount Pinatubo is found in the Philippines. It is very close to this countries capital Manila. The volcano is found at a destructive plate margin, where the dense oceanic Pacific plate is being pushed under the lighter Eurasian plate. On the 5th of April 40 earthquakes where recorded and later on the 9th of June pyroclastic flows occurred. The most violent eruption occurred on the 15th of June producing a 40km high column of ash and pyroclastic flows (scolding hot clouds of dust and ash at over 80 kph.

Effects

Social Effects Economic Effects Environmental effects

75, 000 people had to be evacuated Houses and bridges destroyed and needed replacing and Manila airport had to be

closed

Volcanic ash smothered fields and buildings.

847 people lost their lives. Heavy rainfall from Typhoon Yunga causes buildings to collapse.

Fast flowing volcanic mudflows (lahars) cause sever river bank erosion, undercut bridges etc.

1.2 million people lost their homes around the volcano

Farmland destroyed by falling ash and pumice, unusable for years,

Global cooling caused by ash in the atmosphere of 0.5 °C

Prediction, Prevention, Aid and Monitoring

  Prediction Prevention Preparation

What they actually did

75,000 people were evacuated due to accurate predictions. There was no monitoring until the 3rd of April but seismometers were put into place.

The United States Geological Service helped to predict the disaster

75,000 people evacuated up to a radius of 30km. USA air force helicopters helped.

Alert systems put into place to warn of eruption.

Government Shelters.

Evacuation camps built for refugees.

Warning sign like gas and steam looked for. Long and short term aid organized especially from the Red Cross and the

United States

Boxing Day 2004 Tsunami

Why the Tsunami happened

A massive earthquake occurred on the ocean floor. Here 2 plates driven by heat in the Earth’s interior are grinding past one

another. When the stresses that build up are released a massive earthquake occurs. The Indo-

Australian plate is being subducted (pushed under) under the Eurasian plate at the Sunda Trench. Eventually the stresses

build up which can cause an earthquake. Seismographs showed how the earthquake lasted over 4 minutes and measured 9.0 on the Richter scale. The movement of

the sea bed upwards moved billions of tonnes of water above it,

some sea floor falls and water rushes in to replace it. The uplifted water collapses and

rushes outwards at a thousand km per hour.

A timeline of destruction

20 minutes before the water arrives Banda Aceh feels the force of the earthquake and buildings collapse.

10 minutes after the earthquake in Sumatra (Aceh province) the wave is approaching at 600miles an hour, in the open ocean boats were

hardly affected. As the wave neared land the wave grew.

15minutes after the quake Northern Sumatra becomes the first place to be hit. It caused utter devastation. Banda Aceh was completely

destroyed, with barely any buildings left standing. Ships were thrown up onto the land, and the cement works were destroyed. ¾ of the

tsunamis victims died in Sumatra.

30 minutes after the quake, 7000 people are killed in the Nicobar Islands

1 hour after the earthquake in Thailand, people still do not know that people have died in Indonesia. People climbed upon the tops of hotels

to survive.

2 hours after the earthquake, the wave reaches Sri Lanka. A train was running along the coast from Colombo to Galle. The train was hit by

the wave of water, and split the train up. The second wave arrived soon after, killing most of the people who had survived the first wave

on the train. 1500 people died on the train, 45,000 people died in India and Sri Lanka.

3 ¾ hours after the quake, the Maldives are only slightly effected.

7 hours after the quake, East Africa is next affected. News is finally getting to communities and in Kenya there was only one fatality as

people were warned. The wave dissipates throughout the whole ocean across the globe.

The Tsunami of December 26th 2004 killed over 220,000 people. This was an enormous disaster of which most people

were completely oblivious to on that Boxing Day morning.

650,000 people were seriously injured, schools, hospitals and roads were

completely wiped out.

Haiti Earthquake, Caribbean (LEDC)

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, its GDP is only $1,200 per person, 207th in the world, its HDI is incredibly low at 0.404, 145th in the world, and 80 % of its 9.7 Million people live below the poverty line.

Port Au Prince, the capital, is on a fault line running off the Puerto Rico Trench, where the North American Plate is sliding under the Caribbean plate. The fault line is a strike slip fault, the Caribbean Plate south of the fault line was sliding east and the smaller Gonvave Platelet north of the fault was sliding west. There were many aftershocks after the main event. The earthquake occurred on January 12th 2010, the epicentre was centred just 10 miles southwest of the capital city, Port au Prince and the quake was shallow—only about 10-15 kilometres below the land's surface. The event measured 7.0 on the Richter Magnitude scale.

There were many impacts including;

Up to 316,000 people died and more than a million people were made homeless, even in 2011 people remained in make shift temporary homes. Large parts of this impoverished nation where damage, most importantly the capital Port Au Prince, where shanty towns and even the presidential palace crumbled to dust. 3 million people in total were affected. Few of the Buildings in Haiti were built with earthquakes in mind, contributing to their collapse

The government of Haiti also estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged. The port, other major roads and communications link were damaged beyond repair and needed replacing. The clothing industry, which accounts for two-thirds of Haiti's exports, reported structural damage at manufacturing facilities. It is estimated the 1 in 5 jobs were lost as a result of the quake

Rubble from collapsed buildings blocked roads and rail links. The port was destroyed Sea levels in local areas changed, with some parts of the land sinking below the sea The roads were littered with cracks and fault lines

Short term responsesLong term recovery:

Many countries responded to appeals for aid, pledging funds and dispatching rescue and medical teams, engineers and support personnel.

Communication systems, air, land, and sea transport facilities, hospitals, and electrical networks had been damaged by the earthquake, which slowed rescue and aid efforts.

There was much confusion over who was in charge, air traffic congestion, and problems with prioritisation of flights further complicated early relief work.

Port-au-Prince's morgues were quickly overwhelmed with many tens of thousands of bodies having to be buried in mass graves.

As rescues tailed off, supplies, medical care and sanitation became priorities.

Delays in aid distribution led to angry appeals from aid workers and survivors, and looting and sporadic violence were observed.

The EU gave $330 million and the World Bank waived the countries debt repayments for 5 years.

6 months after the quake, 98% of the rubble remained un cleared, some still blocking vital access roads.

The number of people in relief camps of tents and tarps since the quake was 1.6 million, and almost no transitional housing had been built. Most of the camps had no electricity, running water, or sewage disposal, and the tents were beginning to fall apart.

Between 23 major charities, $1.1 billion had been collected for Haiti for relief efforts, but only two percent of the money had been released

One year after the earthquake 1 million people remained displaced

The Dominican Republic which neighbours Haiti offered support and accepted some refugees.

Medicines San frontiers, a charity, tried to help casualties whilst the USA took charge of trying to coordinate Aid distribution.

Andes Fold mountains

About the Andes Mountains

The Andes Mountains run the length of the West Coast of South America, rising in the North in

Colombia and finishing in Chile and Argentina in the South.   They are world's longest mountain range running for over 7,000km and covering 6 countries. 

Mining

The Andes Mountains contains a rich mix of minable materials that are both very valuable and very useful to man. 

There exist large deposits of Coal, oil and natural gas, iron ore, gold, silver, tin, copper, phosphates and nitrates and Bauxite

(for aluminium) within the Andes mountains. 

The Yanacocha gold mine in Peru is the largest gold mine in the world.  It is an open cast mine and the rocks containing the gold are blasted with dynamite.  The rock is then sprayed with toxic cyanide and the gold extracted from the resulting solution.  This

can contaminate water supplies

Farming

The mountain slopes of the Andes are used for a variety of farming practices.  The best land can be found on the valley floors, but an ingenious system of terraces dug into the valley sides and held up by retaining walls has been used to bring the lands on the valley sides into food production.  The flat terraces help to hold up water in a region where there are marked shortages. The main staple crop of the Andes is the potato, and there are hundreds of different varieties found in the mountains. Most farming is subsistence, with the food grown for personal consumption, but there is some commercial farming.

Tourism

Tourism is a massive industry for Peru and the country has a lot to offer.  In the East you can take part in Eco-tourism activities in the Amazon Basin, as found along the Madre De Dios River near to Puerto Maldonado.  The Inca trail basically covers 50km of old pathways linking together old Inca settlements in the inhospitable

mountains of the Andes.  It is South America's best known trek and is one of only 23 World Heritage Sites (as deemed by

UNESCO) to be classified as important both naturally and culturally.  The trail is strictly controlled, and only 200 trekkers

are allowed to start out on the trail every day.

How the Andes Mountains are used

The Holderness coastline – management of a zone of rapid erosionThe Holderness Coastline is in the North of England.

It has the unenviable reputation as the number one place in Europe for coastal erosion, and in a stormy year waves from the North Sea can remove between 7 and 10m of coastline.  

Geology

The Clay that makes up the coast is a WEAK mass of particles and boulders, it erodes more rapidly than the more resistant rock of chalk in the north.

The processes of erosion and weathering occurring are numerous but include hydraulic action, freeze thaw, abrasion, solution and carbonation (on the clay)

This has left a bay where the clay is and a headland jutting out to sea at Flamborough head.

The coastline today is around 4km inland from where it was in Roman times, and there are many LOST villages of the Holderness coastline that have long disappeared into the sea.  Indeed, today, farmland, tourist sites such as caravan parks and villages remain under threat. 

Defending the Holderness Coastline

In the case of the Holderness coastline, its geology (weak clays) waves (destructive during North Sea storms) and Geomorphology (the shape of the coastline allows the waves to break at the base of the cliffs) make erosion  almost impossible to stop. 

Mappleton is a small village that could become village number 30 lost to the sea.   The road running through it, the B1242 links towns along the coastline and would have been lost to coastal erosion if protection measures were not put into place.  It was decided that the cost of coastal defence for a village of only 100 people was less than the cost of building a new road.  So, blocks of granite were brought in and placed along the cliff base and 2 rock groynes were put into place to trap sediment moving because of longshore drift.  

The basic plan for coastal protection is shown in Figure 6.

The cost is estimated at £17 million.

Keyhaven Salt marshes – management of a vulnerable coastal ecosystem

Coasts provide valuable habitats for lots of species and despite all of the land uses there is a recognised need to protect and conserve our vulnerable and precious coastal habitat. One example is Keyhaven. Keyhaven marshes are located on the south

coast of England, in the western Solent in Southern Hampshire.

Conservation and management;

A shoreline management plan was put in place in 1996 which added 300,000 cubic metres of shingle to the spit, and added 550m of rock armour at the western end of the spit. It is hoped that this will stabilise the salt marsh.

The marsh is also a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and part of a National Nature Reserve. This is to protect the biodiversity and plants of the area and so the area is carefully monitored and managed to help maintain this

biodiversity.

A case study of a coastal habitat  - Hurst Castle and Keyhaven salt marshes

How Keyhaven salt marshes have been created;

They have formed behind Hurst Castle Spit, which has formed because of longshore drift from the West.

This spit provided a sheltered place for sediment accumulation and for eel grass to accumulate away from the impact of strong winds and coastal erosion.

The pioneer colonising plant, eel grass, helps to stabilise the area further by trapping more sediment.

Gradually, halophytes (salt tolerant plants) such as glass wort and sea blite colonise the accumulating mudflats.

These plants trap more sediment and contribute organic matter when they die. These processes help the salty marsh to grow.

Eventually the salt marsh will grow further and an even more complex set of plants will colonise the area, until the climax community of alder and ash trees

is reached, with a fully developed creek system. This is known as vegetation SUCCESSION.

Threats.

Keyhaven salt marshes are under threat from the construction of groynes down current (to the West), which were designed to trap sediment for some of the South coast beaches. The effect of this has been to starve the spit behind which the salt marsh ecosystem has

formed and relies upon for shelter. This human modification of the coastline had major ramifications for this ecosystem. This has weakened the spit and at times it has been eroded and breached by erosion. This has led to the die back of Spartina Anglica and

threatens the overall health of the salt marsh.

The marsh is retreating by up to 6m a year, and is threatened by sea level rise and storms.  In 1989  a storm in December pushed part of the shingle onto the top of the salt marsh, exposing up to 80m of slat marsh top the sea.  Over the next 3 months lots of erosion of

this section of marsh took place.

Animals also graze on the marsh damaging the marsh, and tourism is becoming increasingly important.

The UK– Impacts of sea level rise on the coastline

T he economic, social, environmental and political impact of coastal flooding on the UK.

Over the past 15 years sea levels have risen on average by 3mm a year, but this figure varies widely from place to place.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts a rise in global sea levels of between 28 and 43cm by the end of

the century.

The area most under threat in the UK is the South East and East of the country, where the land is flat and at very low altitudes.  Unfortunately, this is also where most people live in the UK! 

The Norfolk Broads are a large tourist destination   (they bring in £5million a year!) and farming area, here, sea level rise would destroy the area and habitats.  

London is built around a tidal area of the River Thames and is currently protected by the Thames Barrier, however, engineers predict that this barrier will soon be inadequate with rising sea levels and will need to be replaced at the coast of over £80

billion!  

Valuable agricultural land will be lost and coastal erosion in areas such as Holderness will be increased as seas become stormier and waves reach further up beaches and cliff faces. 

Sea levels are rising globally at the present time, but have changed a lot over millions and millions of

years.  In the past (up to 13,000 years ago) Britain was actually part of Europe and the North Sea did not

exist!  There are numerous causes for sea level change, and these can be grouped into Natural and Human causes. Natural causes of sea level rise are

related to changes in temperature or to the adding of weight to the Earth's crust. 

If global temperatures go up ice melts and the oceans expand by thermal expansion - the sea level will rise.

If global temperatures fall then ice builds up on the land and sea, the oceans contract in volume due to

thermal contraction, and sea level falls. 

As human beings release more and more Carbon Dioxide, Nitrous Oxide and Methane into the

atmosphere (in industrial processes etc) we accelerate Global Warming. This could have massive impacts on sea levels, drowning coastlines, changing the location

of erosion and affected coastal habitats.

Flooding in an MEDC – the Morpeth floods

The Environment Agency recorded 150 millimetres of precipitation falling in the Wansbeck catchment between Friday 5 September and Saturday 6 September. The River Wansbeck Valley is narrow and steep and this caused a massive flood. Because the soil was already saturated as a result of the wet summer, the effect of surface runoff was greatly enhanced. The lag time was also very short, giving people very little time to respond.

Social Impacts

During 6 September 2008, more than 400 residents were evacuated. Shelter was provided in the Town Hall, King Edward VI High School and County Hall. An error made by the Environment Agency's warning system meant that 198 properties in the Middle Greens area of the town did not receive a flood warning. Fire fighters, ambulance crews, the RAF, the RNLI and the British Red Cross were among the emergency services involved in rescue and recovery operations over the weekend. Many residents had to be forced from their homes, and lived in caravans or with relatives as rebuilding took place. More than 1,000 houses were affected when the River Wansbeck burst its banks on Saturday, September 6, 2008.

Economic

995 properties in Morpeth town centre were directly affected by the flood water. Early estimates suggest that damages could be over £10 million. On Sunday 7 September, Morpeth Lions Club and the Red Cross launched the Morpeth Flood Disaster Fund and by Wednesday 10 September had raised over £20,000.

Environmental

At the peak of the flood, Morpeth High Street (Bridge Street) was under 60 centimetres (2.0 ft) of water. Not since 1963 had the main street been flooded. The library suffered severe structural damage due to the heavy debris transported by the river. Such was the extent of the damage that structural engineers were required to test its safety.

Management

Morpeth has a system of flood defences (flood walls and low embankments) in place following the 1963 flood event, but these were overtopped by the high flood waters. The RAF and other emergency services had to evacuate people by boat and helicopter, and aid rushed in from around the country and government sources. Insurance companies will foot most of the bill. There are plans to have in place by 2011 a system of higher flood walls along weak spots in the town, poles to catch debris upstream, to clear out the culverts that drain water in Morpeth and an upstream reservoir - which would hold over one million cubic metres - would only allow through a volume of water manageable by the town centre defences.

Flooding in an LEDC – The Bangladesh floods

Bangladesh is a low lying country that is incredibly vulnerable to flooding. It has 3 major rivers flowing through it (the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna) and is vulnerable to coastal flooding as it is so low lying and flat. The 2004 floods lasted from July to September and covered 50% of the country at their peak.

At the time of the July 2004 floods 40% of the capital, Dhaka was under water. 600 deaths were reported and 30million people were homeless. 100,000 people alone in Dhaka suffered from diarrhoea from the flood waters.

Bridges were destroyed, the death toll rose to 750 and the airport and major roads were flooded. This hampered relief efforts. The damage to schools and hospitals was estimated at $7billion. Rural areas also suffered, the rice crop was devastated as were important cash crops such as jute and sugar.

Management and aid

Within Bangladesh food supplies, medicines, clothing and blankets were distributed. Local people began to rebuild their homes but disease from contaminated and often stagnant flood water remained a threat. The United Nations launched an appeal to raise $74million, but had received only 20% of this by September. Water Aid helped by bringing water purification tablets and education campaigns.

In the long term a Flood Action Plan is in place in Bangladesh, but the embankments which are supposed to protect against flooding have not always been successful. Flood warnings and provision of food and shelter has had a more positive impact.

Water supply in the UK – Kielder Water

Kielder water is a management scheme designed to store water for the North East of England. It is run by Northumbrian Water, a large company supplying Northumberland, County Durham and parts of North Yorkshire and Cumbria.

Population supplied: 2.5m

Daily supply: 729m litres

The main conurbations served by the reservoir are Tyneside, Wearside and Teesside. The decline of traditional heavy industry, together with more water-efficient industrial processes and better control of water supply leakage, served to undermine the original reasons for the reservoir and many came to criticise the government-funded project as a white elephant.

In recent years, however, Kielder Water has come into its own, with underground springs ensuring that it always remains at high levels, regardless of the prevailing climate condition. This means that while the south of England is often forced to implement drought strategies and hosepipe bans, north east England enjoys plentiful water supplies

Positive Negative

A hydro-electric power station, using the water released by Kielder reservoir can generate 6MW of power.

Reducing the flow of water from a river changes the landscape of that river which can affect plants and animals. A dam holds back sediment, especially the gravel and pebbles. The depletion of riverbed gravels reduces spawning grounds for fish and invertebrates.

Kielder is one of the last places for red squirrels in England

The lake is 11km long and stores nearly 200,000million litres of water – this helps in times of water shortages

58 families were displaced from their homes by the dam, their houses disappearing beneath the lake that formed.

It can act as a flood prevention measure.

When the dam was completed it flooded an area of scenic natural beauty.

A visitors study showed that £6million is raised through tourism to Kielder every year.

2,700 acres of farmland and habitat was lost as a result of the scheme.

Complete the table below by writing a summary sentence about the case study and by writing down 5 bits of factual information (location, dates, facts, figures, distances etc) about the case study that you can remember for the exam.

Bangladesh Floods Morpeth Floods Kielder Water UK and Sea level rise

Keyhaven Salt Marshes The Holderness Coastline The Haiti Earthquake The Kobe Earthquake

The Andes Mountains The 2004 Tsunami Mount Pinatubo

Case study questions – all 8 marks each

The Restless Earth

A) People respond to hazards in different ways. Choose a volcano or an earthquake you have studied in an LEDC. Describe the measures to predict and to take precautions against your chosen hazard and explain the short term responses to your chosen hazard.

B) Choose a volcanic eruption you have studied. Describe the aid given to people affected by the eruptionandExplain the long term recovery of the area affected by the volcanic eruption.

C) People respond to Tsunami in different ways. Choose a Tsunami you have studied. Explain how people responded in the short term and the long term.

D) Choose one earthquake/volcano/tsunami/supervolcano that you have studied. Describe the short term (immediate) responses made by the people in the area and Explain the long term problems for people in the area.

E) Fold mountains are used in different ways. Choose a range of Fold mountains that you have studied.Describe the variety of landuses that occur in the fold mountains andEvaluate the impact of those landuses

The Coastal Zone

A) Sea levels have risen around the world. Choose a stretch of coastline that you have studied that i9s under threat from sea level rise.Describe the impacts that sea level rise could have on this stretch of coastlineAndExplain the consequences of these impacts.

B) Some coastlines are suffering from erosion and cliff retreat. For a coastline you have studied;Explain the causes of cliff retreat and Outline how the cliff retreat is being managed

C) Coastal environments contain a range of unique ecosystems. For a coastal ecosystem that you have studied:Describe how the ecosystem functions andExplain how it is being managed sustainably against any threats it might face.

Rivers, floods and management

1)Many rivers around the world suffer flooding. For a river that has flooded in an MEDC;Outline the causes of floodingand Explain the economic and social impacts of those floods.

2)Many rivers around the world suffer flooding. For a river that has flooded in an LEDC;Outline the effects of floodingand Explain the management strategies used to try and control damage caused by future flooding.

3) Water supply and demand vary across the British Isles. For a water supply scheme that you have studied:Describe how the scheme worksandAssess the positive and negative impacts of that scheme.

4)Compare the impacts of flooding in MEDCs and LEDCs and explain their differing impacts