CAT EXAM

QUESTION AND ANSWERS

1) Define the following terms
a) Space (2 Marks)
Answer: A continuous free/ unoccupied area

b) Spatial organization (2 Marks)

Answer: Arrangements and concentration of different groups (people, places, and environments)
on the surface of the Earth.

c) Planning (2 Marks)
Answer: The control of urban development by a local government authority after obtaining a
license

d) Location (2 Marks)
Answer: A particular place or position

2) Briefly explain the major principles in land use planning (5 Marks)

BALANCED AND SUSTAINABLE
Land-management decisions consider ecological, social, cultural and economic values to ensure
maximum benefits to current and future generations.
RESPONSIBLE AND RESPONSIVE
Land-management decisions are made in the context of sound environmental stewardship, where
all of society takes responsibility to maintain a healthy environment and ecological integrity.
Precautionary decision-making and best management practices are implemented to protect and
conserve the condition, quality, diversity and abundance of land values. Land-management
policies and decisions are adaptable to new information and changing environmental, economic
and social conditions.
RESPECTFUL
Land-management decision-making recognizes and respects legal rights of the people.
RELEVANT AND INFORMED
Decisions about land and resources should be made primarily by the residents. Communities and
residents in all regions have the opportunity for meaningful engagement and input into land use
decisions. Traditional, local and scientific knowledge are used in the decision-making process.
COORDINATED AND COLLABORATIVE
Land use, planning and management are shared responsibilities. Decisions about land use are made
in coordination with relevant departments and external organizations and agencies that have
responsibilities for land use planning and management decisions.
FAIR AND EQUITABLE
Responsibilities for environmental stewardship and creation of revenue opportunities are shared
equitably across all regions.
TRANSPARENT AND ACCOUNTABLE
Land-management decision-making processes are clear, transparent, consistent and
communicated. These principles speak to our commitment to approach land use decision-making
from a perspective that considers the environment, the economy and the way of life of the people.
 3) Giving an example for each, briefly explain any two urban land uses (5 Marks)
The land in urban areas is used for many different purposes:
 leisure and recreation - may include open land, e.g. parks or built facilities such as sports
centres
 residential - the building of houses and flats
 transport - road and rail networks, stations and airports
 business and commerce - the building of offices, shops and banks
 industry - factories, warehouses and small production centres

4) Discuss various transportation systems (6 Marks)

(State and give a brief explaination)
- Road Transportation
- Maritime Transportation
- Air Transportation
- Rail Transportation
- Intermodal Transportation (Multimodal)
- Pipeline

5) Briefly discuss on envisioning cultural ecology as viewed by Julian Steward (6 Marks)

Anthropologist Julian steward (1902-1972) coined the term, envisioning cultural ecology as a
methodology for understanding how humans adapt to such a wide variety of environments. In
his Theory of Culture Change: The Methodology of Multilinear Evolution (1955), cultural ecology
represents the "ways in which culture change is induced by adaptation to the environment." A key
point is that any particular human adaptation is in part historically inherited and involves the
technologies, practices, and knowledge that allow people to live in an environment. This means
that while the environment influences the character of human adaptation, it does not determine it.
In this way, Steward wisely separated the vagaries of the environment from the inner workings of
a culture that occupied a given environment. Viewed over the long term, this means that
environment and culture are on more or less separate evolutionary tracks and that the ability of
one to influence the other is dependent on how each is structured. It is this assertion - that the
physical and biological environment affects culture - that has proved controversial, because it
implies an element of environmental determinism over human actions, which some social
scientists find problematic, particularly those writing from a Marxist perspective. Cultural ecology
recognizes that ecological locale plays a significant role in shaping the cultures of a region.
Steward's method was to:
1. Document the technologies and methods used to exploit the environment to get a living
from it.
2. Look at patterns of human behavior/culture associated with using the environment.
3. Assess how much these patterns of behavior influenced other aspects of culture (e.g., how,
in a drought-prone region, great concern over rainfall patterns meant this became central
to everyday life, and led to the development of a religious belief system in which rainfall
and water figured very strongly. This belief system may not appear in a society where
good rainfall for crops can be taken for granted, or where irrigation was practiced).
Steward's concept of cultural ecology became widespread among anthropologists and
archaeologists of the mid-20th century, though they would later be critiqued for their
environmental determinism. Cultural ecology was one of the central tenets and driving factors in
the development of processual archeology in the 1960s, as archaeologists understood cultural
change through the framework of technology and its effects on environmental adaptation.