ib geography urban environments essay questions

IB Geography

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The Best IB Geography Study Guide and Notes for SL/HL

International Baccalaureate (IB)

If you're an IB Geography SL/HL student in search of some extra help, you've come to the right place. Whether you're looking for IB Geography notes for a test on a single topic or cramming for the final IB Geography papers, this guide has all the information you need.

We created this IB Geography study guide using the best free and paid online materials for IB Geography and ordered the materials following the IB Geography SL/HL syllabus .

2022 IB Exam Changes Due to COVID-19

Because of the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, the IB has decided to extend the adaptations which were put in place for 2021 to 2022. May 2022 IB assessments will have two routes, exam and non-exam, depending on which your school chooses. Currently the IB program plans to return to its usual assessment model in 2023. Stay up to date with the latest information on what this means for IB diplomas, course credit for IB classes, and more with our IB COVID-19 FAQ article .

How To Use This Article

If you want to study a specific topic, use the Command + F function on your keyboard to search this article for specific IB Geography resources. For example, if you hope to read about Population change, use Command + F to bring up the search function. Type in "Extreme Environments and it will bring up all of the study materials for that topic.

Unfortunately there aren’t many high quality free notes sites that reflect the curriculum changes made to IB Geography in 2019 . Because of that, we’ve compiled three types of resources to help you study: 

• Notes and Activities: The comprehensive notes are generally 2–4 pages for each individual topic, and are useful if you want a summary or need a recap. Some resources also have video explanations. Some of the notes sites listed here include free notes, while others require a paid subscription. The subscription sites we listed here are sometimes used by schools, so before paying, ask your teacher to make sure you don’t already have a subscription for free through your class! On the other hand, the practice activities we linked to are totally free.
• Case studies: These case studies for each topic are there to help you better understand that topic using specific real world examples.

If you're looking for summary material to help you study for the IB Geography papers, check out the notes with supporting video for each topic. These notes are brief and great for a quick refresher.

How To Use This Guide Throughout the School Year

Use this guide throughout the school year as a review for in-class quizzes if you need more help learning the material. You need to be mastering the topics throughout the school year and not just waiting to cram before the IB Geography papers.

The activities we list are great for practice during the year. Just click on the main link and use the menu on the right of the page to navigate to the specific topic you want to practice.

The Best Study Practices for IB Geography

Make sure you're practicing related IB Geography past paper questions as you learn each new subject. You can find free IB Geography HL and IB Geography SL past papers here . Also, if you're having difficulty understanding your in-class lesson, you should be reviewing the corresponding chapter in a textbook or this study guide.

Common Study Mistakes IB Geography Students Make

For IB Geography, there are lots of topics to master, so you can't fall behind. Common mistakes students make are:

#1: Trying to avoid the material you didn't learn in class. If you didn't understand it in class, you need to find more help whether through this article or tutoring.

#2: Only studying a week or two before the IB Geography papers. You will not be able to master all of the topics below in only a week or two (after all, the course is spread out over 1 to 2 years). Make sure you are learning the topics as they're taught to you in class, but you can use this article for support in learning the following topics. 

Part #1: Geographic Themes—60 Hours for SL, 90 Hours for HL

The IB Geography syllabus gives you seven options for study. If you're on the SL track, you'll need to master two subjects; if you're on the HL track, you'll need to master three.

Part #1: Geographic Themes

Option a: freshwater.

• Comprehensive unit guide
• Unit notes with video references
• The 2010 Pakistan Floods
• The Three Gorges Project in China
• The Nile and the Mississippi
• USA/Mexico water conflict (scroll down to bottom of the page)
• Integrated Drainage Basin Management

Option B: Oceans and Coastal Margins

• Comprehensive unit notes
• 1997/1998 El Niño
• Typhoon Haiyan case study
• South China Sea conflict (scroll down to bottom of the page)
• Bimini development case study
• Oil spills case study

Option C: Extreme Environments

• Uranium mining in Niger
• Desertification in Morocco
• Dust Bowl case study
• Soil erosion and solutions
• The Aral Sea
• Acacia Project in Senegal (scroll down to the bottom of page)

Option D: Geophysical Hazards

• Comprehensive notes
• Montserrat volcano (scroll down to the bottom of page)
• Fracking causes earthquakes (scroll down to the bottom of page)
• Unit study flashcards
• The Chernobyl disaster case study
• Unit notes with video reference s
• The 2010 Haiti earthquake
• Anchorage, Alaska earthquake case study
• Impact of climate change on vulnerable countries
• Large scale action on climate change

Option E: Leisure, Tourism, and Sport

• Leisure in China
• Leisure in the United States
• The NBA league in North America
• London Olympics 2012
• Rio Olympics 2016
• Ecotourism in Kenya

Option F: Food and Health

• Famine case study
• Global life expectancy
• Comprehensive list of case study topics

Option G: Urban Environments

• Habitat for Humanity in Manila
• Urban deindustrialization (scroll to the bottom of page)
• Infrastructure growth (scroll to the bottom of the page)
• Unit SlideShare notes
• Redlining the New Deal
• Phoenix, Arizona: The Least Sustainable City in the US

Part #2: SL and HL Core: Geographic Perspectives (Global Change) —70 Hours SL/HL

Since this is core knowledge, both SL and HL students will be tested over the following material.

Topic A: Population Distribution—Changing Population

• Unit notes with video reference
• Internal migration in Mongolia
• Population distribution in China (scroll down to bottom of page)
• Forced migration in Syria (scroll down to bottom of page)
• Life expectancy in Japan

Topic B: Global Climate — Vulnerability and Resilience

• List of potential case study topics
• How climate change affects agriculture
• Geoengineering

Topic C: Global Resource Consumption and Security

• The rise of the global middle class
• Illegal flows
• Circular economy case study

Part #3: Geographic Perspectives: Global Interactions—HL Only, 60 Hours

If you're HL, you'll also be tested over the following three topics.

Topic A: Power, Places, and Networks

• Global power players (bottom of page)
• The narcotics trade
• World's most isolated places
• Multi-governmental organizations (European Union case study)

Topic B: Human Development and Diversity

• Additional unit notes
• Cambodian indigenous minorities fight tide of development
• List of case studies with videos
• Anti-immigration movements

Topic C: Global Risks and Resilience

• Global supply chain risks
• Comprehensive list of case studies with video

Part #4: Internal Assessment: SL and HL Fieldwork—20 Hours

In order to do well on the internal assessment, students have to meet the following criteria (which we've taken directly from the IB Geography syllabus):

#1: Students must demonstrate knowledge and understanding of specified content #2: They must demonstrate application and analysis of knowledge and understanding #3: Students must demonstrate synthesis and evaluation #4: Students have to select, use, and apply a variety of appropriate skills and techniques

With that in mind, here are two study guides for internal assessments:

• This guide walks you through each step of the Internal Assessment and provides guidance on how to structure your essay and what types of data you need to collect
• This site includes sample cover pages, booklets that go over data collection, and even a PowerPoint introduction to the assignment

What's Next?

Learn more about IB Geography:

• Every IB Geography Past Paper Available: Free and Official

Learn more about other IB Classes:

• Every IB English Past Paper Available: Free and Official
• Every IB Math Studies Past Paper Available: Free and Official
• Every IB History Past Paper Available: Free and Official
• Every IB Economics Past Paper Available: Free and Official

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DP Geography

Website by Paul Christmas

Updated 17 July 2024

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• Model Essays

This page includes 25 model essays from across the IBDP Geography course, including all the optional themes and SL&HL Core components. The resources are presented as either complete essays or as an essay exercise. Further essay resources such as essay frameworks and introduction and lead sentence frameworks can be found in the teacher assessment maps for the different sections of the course.

To access the entire contents of this site, you need to log in or subscribe to it.

Alternatively, you can request a one month free trial .

IB Geography: Urban Environments

• Books, eBooks & Film
• Databases & Journals
• Geographic Videos Online by Topic
• Geophysical Hazards
• The Geography of Food & Health
• Urban Environments
• Part 2: SL/HL Geographic Perspectives
• Part 2: HL Global Interactions
• Geography IA: Student Guide
• Geography EE: Student Guide
• Evaluate Sources
• Academic Integrity
• DP Research Process
• MLA Citation Format
• CSE Citation Format (Science & Math)

Urban Environments - Key words and phrases (use when searching databases)

land use, hierarchy of settlement, spontaneous/planned growth, urban economic activities - retail, commercial, industrial, land values, patterns of residential areas, poverty, deprivation, housing disparities, urbanization, centripetal population movements, gentrification, suburbanization, counter-urbanization, transportation, sanitation, water, waste disposal, telecommunications, urban microclimate - air / water pollution, depletion of green space, urban gardens, urban social deprivation, urban ecological footprint, smart city design

Key Question Sustainable Cities

From World Geography: Key Question: Sustainable Cities

Which sustainable urban initiatives will have the best long term chance of success?

• Background Essay
• Point of View

Key Question: Google Street View: An Invasion of Privacy?

From World Geography:

Google Street View: an invasion of privacy?

Key Question: Great Pacific Garbage Patch

What is the best solution to the great Pacific garbage patch?

Databases to Use

Articles & Websites

• Encyclopedia of Urban America: The Cities and Suburbs The term urban brings many images to mind—images of crime, poverty, homelessness, pollution, and overcrowding—and it speaks volumes about the prevalent attitudes Americans have toward cities. Editor: Neil L. Shumsky Edition: 1st Articles: 556
• Macro-Environments and People: Cities, Suburbs, and Metropolitan Areas Credo Reference from Handbook of Environmental Sociology
• Rising Seas Will Erase More Cities by 2050, New Research Shows NPR 2 Jan 2020

Videos to Watch

• 7 Principles for Building Better Cities
• Building Sustainable Cities
• Forests for Sustainable Cities

• << Previous: The Geography of Food & Health
• Next: Part 2: SL/HL Geographic Perspectives >>
• Last Updated: May 28, 2024 10:30 AM
• URL: https://concordian-thailand.libguides.com/geography

GeographyCaseStudy.Com

Detailed resources for pre-university Geography students

Welcome to GeographyCaseStudy.Com – a site for International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) Geography teachers and students.

Use the ‘Topics’ menu at the top of every page to navigate to detailed explanations of IBDP Geography units such as Urban Environments, Global Climate Change, Leisure Tourism and Sport and more, with a full references list and questions at the bottom of the page to test student understanding. Teachers can use the ideas in the ‘Other tasks’ section of each page as the main lesson activity.

If you have feedback  please let us know using the contact form in the ‘about’ section.

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IBDP Geography: IB Style Question Bank with solution: HL & SL Paper1

IB DP Physics IB DP Maths IB DP Chemistry IB DP Biology

• IBDP Geography HL & SL- IB Style Practice Questions with Answer-Topic Wise-Paper 1,2&3

HL and SL Paper 1

(Same Question Paper for SL and HL)

Important Instructions – SL

• SL weight 35%
• 45 minutes per option question
• Total 1 hour 30 minutes
• Each option has a structured question and one extended answer question from a choice of two.
• 20 (10 + 10) marks per option 
• Answer the questions in two options.
• Total 40 marks
• The accompanying geography resource booklet is required for this examination paper.

Important Instructions – HL

• HL weight 35%
• 45 minutes per option question Total 2 hours 15 minutes
• 20 (10 + 10) marks per option
• Answer the questions in three options.
• Total 60 marks

Syllabus content—Part One: Geographic themes—seven options

(Two options are studied at SL, and three at HL)

(SL Paper 1 and HL Paper 1)

Option A: Freshwater

• How physical processes influence drainage basin systems and landforms
• How physical and human factors exacerbate and mitigate flood risk for different places
• The varying power of different actors in relation to water management issues
• Future possibilities for management intervention in drainage basins

Option B: Oceans and coastal margins

• How physical processes link Earth’s atmospheric and ocean systems
• How coastal places are shaped by their interactions with oceans
• The varying power of different stakeholders in relation to coastal margin management
• Future possibilities for managing the oceans as a global commons

Option C: Extreme environments

• Why some places are considered to be extreme environments.
• How physical processes create unique landscapes in extreme environments.
• The varying power of different stakeholders to extract economic value from extreme environments.
• Future possibilities for managing extreme environments and their communities

Option D: Geophysical hazards

• How geological processes give rise to geophysical events of differing type and magnitude
• How geophysical systems generate hazard risks for different places
• The varying power of geophysical hazards to affect people in different local contexts
• Future possibilities for lessening human vulnerability to geophysical hazards

Option E: Leisure, tourism and sport

• How human development processes give rise to leisure activities
• How physical and human factors shape places into sites of leisure
• The varying power of different countries to participate in global tourism and sport
• Future possibilities for management of, and participation in, tourism and sport at varying scales

Option F: Food and health

• Ways of measuring disparities in food and health between places
• How physical and human processes lead to changes in food production and consumption, and incidence and spread of disease
• The power of different stakeholders in relation to influence over diets and health
• Future possibilities for sustainable agriculture and improved health

Option G: Urban environments

• The characteristics and distribution of urban places, populations and economic activities
• How economic and demographic processes bring change over time to urban systems
• The varying power of different stakeholders in relation to the experience of, and management of, urban stresses
• Future possibilities for the sustainable management of urban system.

HLSL Paper 2

(single Question paper for both SL and HL)

Important Instructions – SL-Paper 2

• SL weight 40%Total 1 hour 15 minutes
• Three structured questions, based on each SL/HL core unit 30 marks
• Infographic or visual stimulus, with structured questions 10 marks
• One extended answer question from a choice of two 10 marks
• Total 50 marks

Important Instructions – HL-Paper 2

• HL weight 25%Total 1 hour 15 minutes

Syllabus content—Part two: SL and HL core

(Geographic perspectives—global change- SL & HL Paper 2)

Unit 1: Population distribution—changing population

• How population varies between places
• Processes of population change and their effect on people and places
• Population possibilities and power over the decision-making process

Unit 2: Global climate—vulnerability and resilience

• How natural and human processes affect the global energy balance
• The effects of global climate change on places, societies and environmental systems
• Possibilities for responding to climate change and power over the decision-making process

Unit 3: Global resource consumption and security

• How pressure on resources affects the future security of places
• Possibilities for managing resources sustainably and power over the decision-making process

Syllabus content—Part two: HL core extension

(HL Paper 3)

Unit 4: Power, places and networks

• How global power and influence varies spatially
• How different places become interconnected by global interactions
• How political, technological and physical processes influence global interactions

Unit 5: Human development and diversity

• Ways of supporting the processes of human development
• How global interactions bring cultural influences and changes to places
• The varying power of local places and actors to resist or accept change

Unit 6: Global risks and resilience

• How technological and globalizing processes create new geopolitical and economic risks for individuals and societies
• How global interactions create environmental risks for particular places and people
• New and emerging possibilities for managing global risks

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Geography Urban Environments Test prep

Where can i find some geography questions and answers on urban environment? I study but i don’t do well as i would like on the essay questions.

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