Environmental

Management

St. Mark’s College

Mrs. Ana Paula Mauro

IGCSE Practice – 4th Year - 2024

 Work in class
Achievement expectations
Sudents should be better able to:
• Understand the importance of taking care of the environment throughout the analysis
and discussion of the proposed topics.
• Establish connections between the topics discussed during the lessons, and also with
other subjects that help reach a better understanding of the concerned issues.
• Develop and strengthen bonds with other classmates, with the purpose of encouraging
and fostering personal and others’ development and improvement.
• Express their opinions respectfully, orally and written, incorporating new and recycled
concepts in order to communicate better than the previous year.

Methodology
Students will work with:
• A book that presents the different topics that will be covered during the year.
• A booklet that contains activities that focus on the discussed topics. It holds a wide
variety of tasks, in order to cater for the different types of learning abilities. All of
them are IGCSE activities, preparing students for such examination.
• Web sites that help them develop searching criteria online, being able to discriminate
between formal and informal sources.
• Videos that foster students’ listening comprehension, whilst working with a more
appealing and interesting source of information.
• The smart board and PowerPoint presentations, for a more dynamic classroom
environment and a more modern way of presenting information.

Evaluation
Styudents will be evaluated considering the following aspects and forms:
• Respect towards the teachers and classmates.
• Behaviour in class.
• Participation in class, both virtual and in classroom.
• Oral tests.
• Written tests.
• Special assignments.
• Oral presentations.
• The proper use of technologies (cell phones, computers, Smart Board, etc.)

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 List of Topics

Dear students,
This is a list of the topics you covered throughout the past three and a half years. This guide will
help you revise all the themes of the subject, but it does not replace the book and your notes. You
will have to use all the resources you have to study for the IGCSE exam, so this is another tool you
have got to go over all the topics. I hope you find it useful!
Best, Ana Paula

Remember:
1. Read the task carefully
2. Look for all the available information
3. Label the axes
4. Read the keys
5. Show your mathematical working
6. Provide three of anything, if it is not clarified in the task
7. You have prepared yourself for this exam for four years, YOU ARE READY!

ROCKS AND MINERALS AND THEIR EXPLOITATION

Rocks
• Igneous (magma from volcanoes)
• Sedimentary (sediments in the bottom of the sea)
• Metamorphic (igneous/sedimentary + heat and pressure)
• Rock cycle
Minerals
• Extraction
o Opencast
o Underground mining
o Viability of extraction
o Impacts on the ENVIRONMENT
o Impacts on PEOPLE
o Conservation of environments (landscaping, restoration, reclamation, landfilling, etc)
o Sustainability: Increased efficiency in extraction, in use and better legislation

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 ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Energy production
• Renewable and non-renewable sources of energy
• Fossil fuels
o Formation
 Coal (carboniferous period – swamp forests)
 Oil and gas (sea bed)
• Alternative sources of energy (remember the specific characteristics needed for each one,
their pros and cons)
o Hydroelectric power (fast flowing river, narrow valley, constant rains)
o Geothermal (volcanic areas)
o Solar (solar panels and photovoltaic cells)
o Wave and Tidal (sea)
o Wind (wind mills and wind farms)
o Biomass (fuelwood, crop wastes and animal dung)
o Nuclear energy (pros and cons, FISSION)
• Conservation of energy (at home, education, vehicles, government policies, research and
development)
• Impacts of oil pollution
o To prevent the oil spill: MARPOL, double-hulled oil tankers
o To control the oil spill: Booms, detergents, skimmers, sorbents, controlled burning

AGRICULTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Soil
• Formation (soil profile: horizons)
• Composition (organic and mineral matter, water and air)
• Soil texture
• Land pollution from:
o Agriculture (fertilizers and pesticides, salinization)
o Industries and urban areas (domestic, toxic, nuclear waste)
Farming systems
• Inputs, processes and outputs
• Classification of farming systems according to product, purpose and extension
• Strategies to increase agricultural yields (crop rotation, fertilizers, irrigation, controlling pests
and diseases, mechanisation, selective breeding, genetic modification or engineering,
controlling growing environment)
• Causes of soil erosion and how to prevent it. Desertification and conservation.
• Green revolution. Genetic engineering and GM crops

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 WATER AND ITS MANAGEMENT

Water cycle and water availability

• Distribution of water (salty and fresh)
• Vocabulary of the water cycle (evaporation, transpiration, precipitation, condensation,
interception, run-off, infiltration, groundwater flow)
• Water-rich/poor countries
o Water stress, aquifers and desalination plants for w-poor countries
o Natural sources of water for w-rich countries
• Uses of fresh water (industrial, domestic and agricultural as a consequence of a rising world
population and improved living standards)
• Multipurpose dams to provide areas with fresh water (pros and cons)
Water pollution
• Causes and consequences
o Agriculture – eutrophication
o Domestic – pathogenic organisms are released to the water
o Industries – metals pollute water
• Water-related diseases: Malaria and Cholera
o Strategies of control and eradication

OCEANS AND FISHERIES

Oceans
• Resources taken from the ocean (food, building materials and chemicals, power generation,
tourism, transportation, “drinking” water)
• Ocean currents
o Types, characteristics and effects
o “El Niño” event and its effects on Peru
o Upwelling
World ocean fisheries
o Industries related to fishing
o Aspects that determine the distribution of fishing grounds
o Bycatch
o Overfishing (causes and consequences)
 Strategies for the harvesting of sustainable fisheries (policies)

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 MANAGING NATURAL HAZARDS

Structure of the earth

• Crust
• Mantle
• Core
Plate tectonics
• Types of plates
o Constructive or divergent ◄ ►
o Destructive or convergent ► ◄
o Conservative ▲ ▼
Earthquakes and volcanoes
• Negative impacts on people
• Primary and secondary effects
• Economic uses of volcanoes
• Strategies for managing the impacts of volcanoes and earthquakes
Tropical Cyclones
• Distribution and formation of cyclones
• Impacts on people
Floods and drought
o Causes of floods and drought
o Effects of floods (immediate, short-term and long-term)
o Effects of drought on rural areas
Weather forecasts
• New technology – radars, satellites, computer models – help predict reliable forecasts

ATMOSPHERE AND HUMAN ACTIVITIES

Atmosphere
• Structure and composition (layers and importance of CO2)
• Radiation from the sun
• Greenhouse effect
Atmospheric pollution
• Pollution in urban areas (strategies to improve air quality)
• Smog (formation)
• Global warming (contrast with greenhouse effect) DO NOT CONFUSE THE EFFECTS
• Ozone layer (CFCs and Halons break O3) OF THESE TWO!!!
• Acid rain (formation of acid rain and effects on aquatic ecosystems in particular)
• Strategies to deal with global warming

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 HUMAN POPULATION

Distribution and Density

• Sparsely – Densely populated areas
• Physical and natural factors
Growth Curve of population
• Lag phase – Log phase – S-phase – Stable phase – Decline phase
• Birth/Death rates
• Natural increase
• Infant mortality
• Life expectancy
• Migration
o Push and pull factors
o Types: voluntary vs forced
Population pyramids
• What do the PYRAMIDS SAY? Look at the axes before jumping to conclusions!
• LEDCs and MEDCs pyramids
Managing Human Population Size
• Family planning
• Improved health and education
• National population policies
o Antinatalist
o Pronatalist

NATURAL ECOSYSTEMS AND HUMAN ACTIVITIES

Ecosystems and Biodiversity

• Biotic and abiotic elements (competition, niche)
• Organization (individual » population » community » ecosystem)
• Food webs (producers, consumers, food chain/web)
• Interactions between living organisms (competition – predation – pollination – mutualism)
• Nutrient cycling (carbon and nitrogen)
• Human activities (deforestation, loss of wetlands, tourism)
Strategies for conservation
• Biosphere reserves
• Nature reserves and national parks
• World conservation strategies

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Theory

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