🌍 Environmental Management (9696 Advanced Human Geography Option)

Welcome to the Environmental Management option! This is one of the most relevant and important topics in modern geography, focusing on how humans interact with, use, and often misuse our planet's resources and environments.
You will learn about critical global challenges like securing sustainable energy and tackling widespread pollution. The core skill here is evaluation—understanding complex problems and judging the success of attempts to solve them. Let's dive in!

12.1 Sustainable Energy Supplies

Managing energy is central to environmental geography. We must balance our need for power with the planet's capacity to cope with our waste and resource depletion.

A. Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources

You need to know the fundamental difference between these two types of resources:

  • Non-Renewable Energy (NR): Resources that are finite and cannot be replenished within a human lifetime. Once used, they are gone. (E.g., Fossil fuels: coal, oil, natural gas, and Nuclear power).
  • Renewable Energy (R): Resources that are naturally replenished or virtually inexhaustible. (E.g., Hydroelectric power (HEP), wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels).
B. Factors Affecting National Energy Strategy

No country relies on just one energy source. The mix (or "energy balance") is determined by several interlocking factors at the national scale:

  • Resource Endowment: What resources does the country naturally have? (E.g., Saudi Arabia has oil; Norway has ample steep valleys for HEP).
  • Levels of Development/Income: HICs can afford expensive initial investment in new technologies (like offshore wind farms); LICs often rely on cheaper, readily available sources (like coal).
  • Climate: Determines the viability of certain renewables (E.g., Sunny areas favour solar; windy coasts favour wind power).
  • Technology: Access to and ability to maintain complex energy infrastructure (E.g., advanced nuclear reactors, smart grids).
  • Energy Policy & Security: Government decisions on future energy mix and the desire to be energy independent (not reliant on imports).
  • Pollution/Sustainability Goals: Commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and environmental damage.

🔥 Quick Tip (Mnemonic): Remember the key factors using the acronym Real Policy Takes Income & Climate: Resource endowment, Policy, Technology, Income, Climate.

C. Trends in Consumption (LICs, MICs, HICs)

Consumption patterns vary hugely based on economic status:

  • Fossil Fuels: Remain the dominant energy source globally, particularly in industrializing MICs (e.g., China, India) where demand growth is explosive and coal is often the cheapest option.
  • Nuclear Power: Requires extremely high capital investment and technical skill. Primarily used by HICs (e.g., France, USA), though some MICs are expanding their nuclear capacity.
  • Renewables (HEP, Wind, Biofuels): HICs are aggressively investing in wind and solar to meet climate targets. HEP is widespread, but location-dependent. Biofuels are common in MICs/LICs but face environmental issues (land use conflict).
D. Environmental Impacts of Energy (Local and Global)

The impacts are significant at all scales:

  • Fossil Fuels:
    • Local: Acid rain, land degradation from mining/drilling, oil spills during transport.
    • Global: Enhanced greenhouse effect (global warming) due to CO2 emissions.
  • Nuclear Power:
    • Local: Risk of catastrophic accidents (e.g., Chernobyl, Fukushima), challenge of long-term storage of radioactive waste.
  • Hydroelectric Power (HEP):
    • Local/Regional: Flooding of vast areas of land (loss of habitats and settlement), changes in river ecology downstream, increased sedimentation behind the dam.
Key Takeaway 12.1: Energy management is a juggling act between finite resources, national needs, economic ability, and minimizing environmental damage. HICs and LICs face vastly different constraints in their energy choices.

12.2 The Management of Energy Supply (Case Studies)

You are required to study two specific case studies for this section. Remember that a strong case study must include evaluation—judging the success or failure of the strategies implemented.

Case Study 1: A Country's Overall Electrical Energy Strategy

You must choose one country and analyze its comprehensive strategy.

  • Issues: What problems did the country face regarding electricity supply and demand? (E.g., reliance on imports, blackouts, high pollution levels, rapidly rising industrial demand).
  • Strategy: What specific policies were introduced? (E.g., National grid modernization, phasing out coal, subsidies for solar/wind, building new nuclear plants).
  • Power Production & Location: How did the location of power stations change? (E.g., moving generation away from major cities, installing offshore wind farms).
  • Evaluation: Did the strategy succeed in meeting demand, enhancing security, and reducing environmental impact? What were the unintended consequences or difficulties?

(Example Country Study focus: Germany's 'Energiewende'—the shift to renewables—examining success in reducing nuclear/fossil fuels vs. failure in high consumer energy costs and intermittency issues.)

Case Study 2: A Named Located Scheme to Produce Electricity

This requires a detailed look at one specific power project.

  • Scheme Details: Name, location, technology used (E.g., Three Gorges Dam, China; London Array Offshore Wind Farm, UK; Oresund Offshore Wind Farm, Denmark).
  • Issues of Demand and Supply: How did this project address the local/regional need for power?
  • Evaluation: Assess the scheme’s success. Was it cost-effective? Did it meet its targets? What were the negative environmental and social consequences, and were they successfully mitigated?
Key Takeaway 12.2: Case studies must go beyond simple description. Focus on the WHY (the issues faced) and the EVALUATION (how successful the management was).

12.3 Environmental Degradation

Environmental degradation refers to the deterioration of the environment through the depletion of resources (like water and air) and the destruction of ecosystems. Pollution is a major component of this.

A. Pollution: Nature, Causes, and Solutions

Pollution affects land, air, and water, often with interconnected causes.

Land Pollution:

  • Nature/Cause: Improper disposal of solid waste (landfills), industrial discharge, overuse of agrochemicals (pesticides, fertilisers).
  • Solution: Better waste management (recycling, incineration), regulation of industrial chemicals, and promotion of organic farming.

Air Pollution:

  • Nature/Cause: Emissions from vehicles and industry (sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides), particulate matter (soot).
  • Solution: Stricter emission standards, promotion of public transport, shifting to renewable energy sources.

Water Pollution:

  • Nature/Cause: Untreated sewage, industrial effluents, agricultural runoff (eutrophication).
  • Solution: Investment in effective sewage treatment plants, legal enforcement against illegal dumping, controlling agricultural runoff.
B. Water Issues

Water is essential, and management is complicated by scarcity and quality issues.

  • Demand and Supply: Demand often outstrips supply due to population growth, urbanization, and intense irrigation (agriculture accounts for most water use globally).
  • Water Quality: Pollution significantly reduces the usable water supply, forcing expensive purification measures or causing health crises.
C. Degradation Factors in Rural and Urban Environments

The causes of degradation differ significantly between rural and urban settings.

Rural Degradation Factors:

  • Overpopulation: Too many people relying on fragile land, leading to land fragmentation and unsustainable exploitation.
  • Poor Agricultural Practices: Monocropping, deep ploughing, and over-grazing leading to soil erosion and loss of fertility.
  • Deforestation: Clearing land for timber or agriculture, leading to soil erosion, increased flood risk, and loss of biodiversity.

Urban Degradation Factors:

  • Urbanisation/Sprawl: Rapid expansion of cities converting greenfield sites into impermeable surfaces, increasing runoff and pollution concentration.
  • Industrial Development: Highly concentrated areas of manufacturing generating massive amounts of air and water effluents.
  • Inadequate Waste Management: Lack of infrastructure to handle vast quantities of domestic and industrial waste, resulting in illegal dumping or overflowing landfills.
D. Constraints on Improvement and Protection

Fixing degraded environments is never simple. Constraints include:

  • Financial Constraints: Implementing large-scale solutions (e.g., wastewater treatment plants) is prohibitively expensive for many LICs/MICs.
  • Political Constraints: Lack of government will, corruption, or disagreement between authorities.
  • Social Constraints: Public resistance to changes (e.g., increased fees for waste disposal) or lack of education/awareness.
  • Physical Constraints: The scale of the damage may be too great (e.g., massive contamination of groundwater) or adverse climate conditions hindering restoration efforts.

Protection Measures: Strategies needed at local/regional scale include establishing protected areas (National Parks), enforcing zoning regulations, and implementing remediation projects (e.g., cleaning up contaminated industrial sites or 'brownfields').

Key Takeaway 12.3: Degradation is caused by concentrated human activities. Solutions are constrained by cost and political will. Successful management requires different approaches for rural and urban areas.

12.4 The Management of a Degraded Environment (Case Study)

This final section requires a deep dive into a specific location that has suffered significant environmental damage.

Case Study: One Degraded Environment

You must choose a named, located degraded environment (e.g., The Aral Sea, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, or a specific polluted city river like the Citarum River in Indonesia).

  • Causes of Degradation: Detail the processes that led to the environmental decline. (Was it industrial pollution, climate change, or unsustainable water use?)
  • Problems Faced: Describe the specific environmental and socio-economic consequences resulting from the degradation. (E.g., health issues, loss of livelihoods, soil salinisation).
  • Issues in Improvement Attempts: Analyze the obstacles faced by managers. (Refer back to the constraints in 12.3D—was it lack of funding, political disagreement, or technology failure?)
  • Evaluation of Attempted Solutions: Critically assess the measures taken (E.g., conservation programs, legislative changes, engineering projects). Were they successful in reversing the damage, or merely slowing the decline?

Encouragement Note: Don't worry if your case studies seem complicated. Examiners are looking for you to link the concepts (causes, constraints) to real-world outcomes (success, failure, conflict). Practice structuring your answers around a clear evaluation framework.

Final Summary: Environmental Management requires you to integrate knowledge of human geography (development, policy) with physical geography (climate, resources) to provide comprehensive and critical geographical analysis.