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Detailed resources for pre-university Geography students

Case study: Urban problems in New York City

By Matt Burdett, 27 June 2019.

In this article, we look at the incidence of poverty, deprivation and informal activity (housing and industry) in urban areas at varying stages of development

New York City: A brief introduction

New York, New York – not just so nice they named it twice, but in reality because New York the city is in New York the state. This page uses ‘New York’ to refer to the city, not the state.

New York began as New Amsterdam, a colony of the Dutch, who lost it in 1664 to the British ( History.Com, 2010 ). Over the next three hundred years, the city became ever more important as a port and as a magnet for migrants from Europe and the rest of the world, resulting in modern New York being one of the most globalised cities in the world.

Today, New York is part of a conurbation, surrounded by other urbanised areas including New Jersey and the rest of Long Island. It is made up of five districts (see map below) with a population of 8.2 million ( NYC Planning, 2017 ).

geography case study.com

  • New York City’s five boroughs. Source: Rodrigo.Argenton, 2015 .

Poverty, deprivation, informal housing and informal industry

Although few people in New York live in absolute poverty, defined as “a condition where household income is below a necessary level to maintain basic living standards (food, shelter, housing)”, there is widespread relative poverty, which is defined as “a condition where household income is a certain percentage below median incomes” ( Pettinger, 2017 ). In 2016, around 20% of New Yorkers lived in poverty, with around 46% living in near-poverty ( NYC Mayor’s Office, 2018 ). This is partly due to the very high incomes of a minority of New Yorkers which skews the data; however, it is also due to the higher costs of living in New York compared to other US cities which means the boundary for being in relative poverty is higher than elsewhere, so more people fit under it.

geography case study.com

  • Poverty rates in New York City. Source: NYC Mayor’s Office, 2018, p13

geography case study.com

  • Patterns of poverty in New York City. Source: NYC Mayor’s Office, 2018, p30

The reasons for this variation in poverty in space and time are contested. The spatial variation is likely to be due to a combination of factors which are linked to social deprivation, lack of education and healthcare, lack of affordable housing, crime and social problems, and so on. The apparent decrease over time has been credited by the mayor’s office to projects such as Homeless Outreach and Mobile Engagement Street Action Teams (HOME-STAT), the New York City ‘Rent Freeze’ Programme, and programmes such as paid family leave and paid sick leave. However, some critics have claimed it is because the poorest people are leaving the city due to high rent for housing ( Toure, 2018 ).

Deprivation

Deprivation relates to lack of person’s access to the things that people in a society consider to be normal, such as diet, clothing, housing, as well as healthcare, education and recreation, among many others ( Mack, 2016 ). Across New York, there are patterns of deprivation.

Deprivation: Lack of access to healthcare

For example, in terms of health insurance, in 2014 a report by the New York City Comptroller found that around 10% of the population were uninsured, and that these people were largely found in the same places where poverty was highest.

geography case study.com

  • Uninsured NYC residents, 2014. Source: Brooklyn Reader, 2015 .

This lack of health insurance is compounded by the lack of public health providers. People without health insurance were forced to use free clinics at hospitals where they would be treated for all their health concerns. However, 16 hospitals, including 4 in Brooklyn, closed between 2003 and 2017 ( Ford, 2017 ). One of the results of this lack of access to healthcare has been a pattern of life expectancy that varies in the city, and of the cause of death also varying. Diseases of affluence, such as heart disease and cancer, kill people in the wealthier areas of the city while diseases of poverty, such as diabetes and hepititis, kill more people in the poorer areas – but, this is likely because people in the wealthier areas avoid deaths from treatable diseases, and eventually they die of something else.

geography case study.com

  • Source: US Department of Health, via Rizzi, 2017 .

Informal housing

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development is the government department responsible for housing in New York City. Historically, New York had poor quality housing, but this was mostly removed in the 1920s and 1930s ( Garcia, 2012 ). Informal housing doesn’t exist in New York in the same way that it does in Nairobi, for example. However, there is evidence of informal housing in other forms, such as:

  • Squats: Abandoned housing is taken over by squatters
  • Lofts: Informal and unofficial rooftop dwellings are added to buildings
  • Illegal conversions: Buildings that were not designed for housing (and often don’t have the required infrastructure such as adequate bathrooms) are converted to housing without permission from the authorities

These informal housing types are the living spaces for the same marginalised groups of people that are found in lower income countries, especially new and impoverished migrants ( Waldrep, 2014 ). However, there is very little information about the distribution of such informal housing, nor the amount. With several government programmes for affordable housing ( NYC HPD, n.d. ) along with tight regulation of the construction industry, the spread of informal housing is kept in check. Around 62,000 people who cannot find a place to live are instead forced to sleep in homeless shelters. Those who cannot access the shelters sleep on streets, subway trains and other public spaces, but there are no accurate figures on this ( Coalition for the Homeless, 2018 ).

Informal industry

Informal industry in New York City is not common. There is no significant informal heavy industry or even light manufacturing. As with all large cities, there is a signifacant informal service sector. People work as maids, casual labourers, and so on. The patterns of informal industry fit the HIC description in the page on this site ‘Urban poverty, deprivation and informal activity’.

Brooklyn Reader, 2015. Comptroller’s Report on Healthcare: Number of Uninsured NY’ers Drops Only 2 Percent; Higher Enrollment Still Needed. https://www.bkreader.com/2015/11/comptroller-healthcare-report-number-of-uninsured-nyers-drops-2-percent-higher-enrollment-still-needed/

Coalition for the Homeless, 2018. New York City Homelessness: The Basic Facts. http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NYCHomelessnessFactSheet-3-2018_citations.pdf

Ford, 2017. Hospital Closures and Medicaid Shifts Took Toll on NYC’s Health. https://citylimits.org/2017/01/04/hospital-closures-and-medicaid-shifts-took-toll-on-nycs-health/

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Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments.

Earth Science, Geography, Human Geography, Physical Geography

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Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments. Geographers explore both the physical properties of Earth’s surface and the human societies spread across it. They also examine how human culture interacts with the natural environment, and the way that locations and places can have an impact on people. Geography seeks to understand where things are found, why they are there, and how they develop and change over time.

Ancient Geographers

The term "geography" was coined by the Greek scholar Eratosthenes in the third century B.C.E. In Greek, geo- means “earth” and -graphy means “to write.” Using geography, Eratosthenes and other Greeks developed an understanding of where their homeland was located in relation to other places, what their own and other places were like, and how people and environments were distributed. These concerns have been central to geography ever since.

Of course, the Greeks were not the only people interested in geography, nor were they the first. Throughout human history, most societies have sought to understand something about their place in the world, and the people and environments around them. Mesopotamian societies inscribed maps on clay tablets, some of which survive to this day. The earliest known attempt at mapping the world is a Babylonian clay tablet known as the Imago Mundi. This map, created in the sixth century B.C.E., is more of a metaphorical and spiritual representation of Babylonian society rather than an accurate depiction of geography. Other Mesopotamian maps were more practical, marking irrigation networks and landholdings.

Indigenous peoples around the world developed geographic ideas and practices long before Eratosthenes. For example, Polynesian navigators embarked on long-range sea voyages across the Pacific Islands as early as 3000 years ago. The people of the Marshall Islands used navigation charts made of natural materials (“stick charts”) to visualize and memorize currents, wind patterns, and island locations.

Indeed, mapmaking probably came even before writing in many places, but ancient Greek geographers were particularly influential. They developed very detailed maps of Greek city-states, including parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia. More importantly, they also raised questions about how and why different human and natural patterns came into being on Earth’s surface, and why variations existed from place to place. The effort to answer these questions about patterns and distribution led them to figure out that the world was round, to calculate Earth’s circumference, and to develop explanations of everything from the seasonal flooding of the Nile to differences in population densities from place to place.

During the Middle Ages, geography ceased to be a major academic pursuit in Europe. Advances in geography were chiefly made by scientists of the Muslim world, based around the Middle East and North Africa. Geographers of this Islamic Golden Age created an early example of a rectangular map based on a grid, a map system that is still familiar today. Islamic scholars also applied their study of people and places to agriculture, determining which crops and livestock were most suited to specific habitats or environments.

In addition to the advances in the Middle East, the Chinese empire in Asia also contributed immensely to geography. Around 1000, Chinese navigators achieved one of the most important developments in the history of geography: They were the first to use the compass for navigational purposes. In the early 1400s, the explorer Zheng He embarked on seven voyages to the lands bordering the China Sea and the Indian Ocean, establishing China’s influence throughout Southeast Asia.

Age of Discovery

Through the 13th-century travels of the Italian explorer Marco Polo, European interest in spices from Asia grew. Acquiring spices from East Asian and Arab merchants was expensive, and a major land route for the European spice trade was lost with the conquering of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire. These and other economic factors, in addition to competition between Christian and Islamic societies, motivated European nations to send explorers in search of a sea route to China. This period of time between the 15th and 17th centuries is known in the West as the Age of Exploration or the Age of Discovery.

With the dawn of the Age of Discovery, the study of geography regained popularity in Europe. The invention of the printing press in the mid-1400s helped spread geographic knowledge by making maps and charts widely available. Improvements in shipbuilding and navigation facilitated more exploring, greatly improving the accuracy of maps and geographic information.

Greater geographic understanding allowed European powers to extend their global influence. During the Age of Discovery, European nations established colonies around the world. Improved transportation, communication, and navigational technology allowed countries such as the United Kingdom to establish colonies as far away as the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Africa. This was lucrative for European powers, but the Age of Discovery brought about nightmarish change for the people already living in the territories they colonized. When Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492, millions of Indigenous peoples already lived there. By the 1600s, 90 percent of the Indigenous population of the Americas had been wiped out by violence and diseases brought over by European explorers.

Geography was not just a subject that enabled colonialism, however. It also helped people understand the planet on which they lived. Not surprisingly, geography became an important focus of study in schools and universities.

Geography also became an important part of other academic disciplines, such as chemistry, economics, and philosophy. In fact, every academic subject has some geographic connection. Chemists study where certain chemical elements, such as gold or silver, can be found. Economists examine which nations trade with other nations, and what resources are exchanged. Philosophers analyze the responsibility people have to take care of Earth.

Emergence of Modern Geography

Some people have trouble understanding the complete scope of the discipline of geography because geography is interdisciplinary, meaning that it is not defined by one particular topic. Instead, geography is concerned with many different topics—people, culture, politics, settlements, plants, landforms, and much more. Geography asks spatial questions—how and why things are distributed or arranged in particular ways on Earth’s surface. It looks at these different distributions and arrangements at many different scales. It also asks questions about how the interaction of different human and natural activities on Earth’s surface shape the characteristics of the world in which we live.

Geography seeks to understand where things are found and why they are present in those places; how things that are located in the same or distant places influence one another over time; and why places and the people who live in them develop and change in particular ways. Raising these questions is at the heart of the “ geographic perspective .”

Exploration has long been an important part of geography, and it’s an important part of developing a geographic perspective. Exploration isn’t limited to visiting unfamiliar places; it also means documenting and connecting relationships between spatial, sociological, and ecological elements. t

The age-old practice of mapping still plays an important role in this type of exploration, but exploration can also be done by using images from satellites or gathering information from interviews. Discoveries can come by using computers to map and analyze the relationship among things in geographic space, or from piecing together the multiple forces, near and far, that shape the way individual places develop.

Applying a geographic perspective demonstrates geography’s concern not just with where things are, but with “the why of where”—a short but useful definition of geography’s central focus.

The insights that have come from geographic research show the importance of asking “the why of where” questions. Geographic studies comparing physical characteristics of continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, for instance, gave rise to the idea that Earth’s surface is comprised of large, slowly moving plates—plate tectonics.

Studies of the geographic distribution of human settlements have shown how economic forces and modes of transport influence the location of towns and cities. For example, geographic analysis has pointed to the role of the United States Interstate Highway System and the rapid growth of car ownership in creating a boom in U.S. suburban growth after World War II. The geographic perspective helped show where Americans were moving, why they were moving there, and how their new living places affected their lives, their relationships with others, and their interactions with the environment.

Geographic analyses of the spread of diseases have pointed to the conditions that allow particular diseases to develop and spread. Dr. John Snow’s cholera map stands out as a classic example. When cholera broke out in London, England, in 1854, Snow represented the deaths per household on a street map. Using the map, he was able to trace the source of the outbreak to a water pump on the corner of Broad Street and Cambridge Street. The geographic perspective helped identify the source of the problem (the water from a specific pump) and allowed people to avoid the disease (avoiding water from that pump).

Investigations of the geographic impact of human activities have advanced understanding of the role of humans in transforming the surface of Earth, exposing the spatial extent of threats such as water pollution by artificial waste. For example, geographic study has shown that a large mass of tiny pieces of plastic currently floating in the Pacific Ocean is approximately the size of Texas. Satellite images and other geographic technology identified the so-called “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”

These examples of different uses of the geographic perspective help explain why geographic study and research is important as we confront many 21st century challenges, including environmental pollution, poverty, hunger, and ethnic or political conflict.

Because the study of geography is so broad, the discipline is typically divided into specialties. At the broadest level, geography is divided into physical geography, human geography, geographic techniques, and regional geography.

Physical Geography

The natural environment is the primary concern of physical geographers, although many physical geographers also look at how humans have altered natural systems. Physical geographers study Earth’s seasons, climate, atmosphere, soil, streams, landforms, and oceans. Some disciplines within physical geography include geomorphology, glaciology, pedology, hydrology, climatology, biogeography, and oceanography.

Geomorphology is the study of landforms and the processes that shape them. Geomorphologists investigate the nature and impact of wind, ice, rivers, erosion, earthquakes, volcanoes, living things, and other forces that shape and change the surface of Earth.

Glaciologists focus on Earth’s ice fields and their impact on the planet’s climate. Glaciologists document the properties and distribution of glaciers and icebergs. Data collected by glaciologists has demonstrated the retreat of Arctic and Antarctic ice in the past century.

Pedologists study soil and how it is created, changed, and classified. Soil studies are used by a variety of professions, from farmers analyzing field fertility to engineers investigating the suitability of different areas for building heavy structures.

Hydrology is the study of Earth’s water: its properties, distribution, and effects. Hydrologists are especially concerned with the movement of water as it cycles from the ocean to the atmosphere, then back to Earth’s surface. Hydrologists study the water cycle through rainfall into streams, lakes, the soil, and underground aquifers. Hydrologists provide insights that are critical to building or removing dams, designing irrigation systems, monitoring water quality, tracking drought conditions, and predicting flood risk.

Climatologists study Earth’s climate system and its impact on Earth’s surface. For example, climatologists make predictions about El Niño, a cyclical weather phenomenon of warm surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. They analyze the dramatic worldwide climate changes caused by El Niño, such as flooding in Peru, drought in Australia, and, in the United States, the oddities of heavy Texas rains or an unseasonably warm Minnesota winter.

Biogeographers study the impact of the environment on the distribution of plants and animals. For example, a biogeographer might document all the places in the world inhabited by a certain spider species, and what those places have in common.

Oceanography, a related discipline of physical geography, focuses on the creatures and environments of the world’s oceans. Observation of ocean tides and currents constituted some of the first oceanographic investigations. For example, 18th-century mariners figured out the geography of the Gulf Stream, a massive current flowing like a river through the Atlantic Ocean. The discovery and tracking of the Gulf Stream helped communications and travel between Europe and the Americas.

Today, oceanographers conduct research on the impacts of water pollution, track tsunamis, design offshore oil rigs, investigate underwater eruptions of lava, and study all types of marine organisms from toxic algae to friendly dolphins.

Human Geography

Human geography is concerned with the distribution and networks of people and cultures on Earth’s surface. A human geographer might investigate the local, regional, and global impact of rising economic powers China and India, which represent 37 percent of the world’s people. They also might look at how consumers in China and India adjust to new technology and markets, and how markets respond to such a huge consumer base.

Human geographers also study how people use and alter their environments. When, for example, people allow their animals to overgraze a region, the soil erodes and grassland is transformed into desert. The impact of overgrazing on the landscape as well as agricultural production is an area of study for human geographers.

Finally, human geographers study how political, social, and economic systems are organized across geographical space. These include governments, religious organizations, and trade partnerships. The boundaries of these groups constantly change.

The main divisions within human geography reflect a concern with different types of human activities or ways of living. Some examples of human geography include urban geography, economic geography, cultural geography, political geography, social geography, and population geography. Human geographers who study geographic patterns and processes in past times are part of the subdiscipline of historical geography. Those who study how people understand maps and geographic space belong to a subdiscipline known as behavioral geography.

Many human geographers interested in the relationship between humans and the environment work in the subdisciplines of cultural geography and political geography.

Cultural geographers study how the natural environment influences the development of human culture, such as how the climate affects the agricultural practices of a region. Political geographers study the impact of political circumstances on interactions between people and their environment, as well as environmental conflicts, such as disputes over water rights.

Some human geographers focus on the connection between human health and geography. For example, health geographers create maps that track the location and spread of specific diseases. They analyze the geographic disparities of health-care access. They are very interested in the impact of the environment on human health, especially the effects of environmental hazards such as radiation, lead poisoning, or water pollution.

Geographic Techniques

Specialists in geographic techniques study the ways in which geographic processes can be analyzed and represented using different methods and technologies. Mapmaking, or cartography, is perhaps the most basic of these. Cartography has been instrumental to geography throughout the ages.

Today, almost the entire surface of Earth has been mapped with remarkable accuracy, and much of this information is available instantly on the internet. One of the most remarkable of these websites is Google Earth, which “lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean.” In essence, anyone can be a virtual explorer from the comfort of home.

Technological developments during the past 100 years have given rise to a number of other specialties for scientists studying geographic techniques. The airplane made it possible to photograph land from above. Now, there are many satellites and other above-Earth vehicles that help geographers figure out what the surface of the planet looks like and how it is changing.

Geographers looking at what above-Earth cameras and sensors reveal are specialists in remote sensing. Pictures taken from space can be used to make maps, monitor ice melt, assess flood damage, track oil spills, predict weather, or perform endless other functions. For example, by comparing satellite photos taken from 1955 to 2007, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) discovered that the rate of coastal erosion along Alaska’s Beaufort Sea had doubled. Every year from 2002 to 2007, about 13.7 meters (45 feet) per year of coast, mostly icy permafrost, vanished into the sea.

Computerized systems that allow for precise calculations of how things are distributed and relate to one another have made the study of geographic information systems (GIS) an increasingly important specialty within geography. Geographic information systems are powerful databases that collect all types of information (maps, reports, statistics, satellite images, surveys, demographic data, and more) and link each piece of data to a geographic reference point, such as geographic coordinates. This data, called geospatial information, can be stored, analyzed, modeled, and manipulated in ways not possible before GIS computer technology existed.

The popularity and importance of GIS has given rise to a new science known as geographic information science (GISci). Geographic information scientists study patterns in nature as well as human development. They might study natural hazards, such as a fire that struck Los Angeles, California, United States, in 2008. A map posted on the internet showed the real-time spread of the fire, along with information to help people make decisions about how to evacuate quickly. GIS can also illustrate human struggles from a geographic perspective, such as the interactive online map published by the New York Times in May 2009 that showed building foreclosure rates in various regions around the New York City area.

The enormous possibilities for producing computerized maps and diagrams that can help us understand environmental and social problems have made geographic visualization an increasingly important specialty within geography. This geospatial information is in high demand by just about every institution, from government agencies monitoring water quality to entrepreneurs deciding where to locate new businesses.

Regional Geography

Regional geographers take a somewhat different approach to specialization, directing their attention to the general geographic characteristics of a region. A regional geographer might specialize in African studies, observing and documenting the people, nations, rivers, mountains, deserts, weather, trade, and other attributes of the continent. There are different ways you can define a region. You can look at climate zones, cultural regions, or political regions. Often regional geographers have a physical or human geography specialty as well as a regional specialty.

Regional geographers may also study smaller regions, such as urban areas. A regional geographer may be interested in the way a city like Shanghai, China, is growing. They would study transportation, migration, housing, and language use, as well as the human impact on elements of the natural environment, such as the Huangpu River.

Whether geography is thought of as a discipline or as a basic feature of our world, developing an understanding of the subject is important. Some grasp of geography is essential as people seek to make sense of the world and understand their place in it. Thinking geographically helps people to be aware of the connections among and between places and to see how important events are shaped by where they take place. Finally, knowing something about geography enriches people’s lives—promoting curiosity about other people and places and an appreciation of the patterns, environments, and peoples that make up the endlessly fascinating, varied planet on which we live.

Gazetteer A gazetteer is a geographic dictionary. Gazetteers, which have existed for thousands of years, usually contain some sort of map and a set of information. Some gazetteers may contain a list of capital cities or areas where a specific resource is found. Other gazetteers may contain information about the local population, such as languages spoken, money used, or religious beliefs.

Old Maps People have been making maps for thousands of years. One of the oldest known maps was found near the city of Kirkuk, Iraq. Most geographers say it dates from 2500 B.C.E. It is a palm-sized block of clay depicting an area with two hills and a stream. (Some geographers think the stream is a canal made by people for irrigation.) Geographers have identified one of the towns on the map. However, they are not sure exactly what the hand-held map represents. Ancient maps could also be quite large. A nine-foot wall painting in Catal Hyuk, Turkey, was made about 6000 B.C.E. It is a map of a busy city, complete with crowded housing and even an erupting volcano. However, some scientists believe this "map" is decorative and not an accurate representation of what was there.

Wrong-Way Corrigan The American aviator Douglas Corrigan is often nicknamed "Wrong-Way Corrigan" because of a navigational error he made on a flight in 1938. Corrigan had just piloted a very impressive flight from the U.S. cities of Long Beach, California, to New York, New York. He was scheduled to fly back to Long Beach. Instead, with the sky covered in clouds, Wrong Way Corrigan flew to Dublin, Ireland.

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How to revise geography case studies

How to revise geography case studies

Molly, one of my readers, wrote to me to ask:

I was just wondering if you had any tips for revising and remembering geography case studies?

When I've asked around some of the things that students find most difficult about revising geography case studies are:

  • Condensing all the information
  • Remembering all the statistics
  • Knowing what you need to know, and what you can afford to forget

Having been a bit of an ace at this kind of thing myself (I got an A* at GCSE, A at A-Level and a degree in the subject) I thought I'd share some of my top tips on how to revise geography case studies today.

1. Make sure you understand the case study

The first step in remembering anything is understanding it. You need to have a clear model in your mind of how the case study works. This includes how it's laid out in space (a mental map), who the people were who were involved and the context of the case study (historical, political, social, economic and environmental. These tips will help you with this:

  • Make sure you've seen a map of the place. In this day and age this is easy with google maps, google earth and google streetview. All of these things can help you understand both the 2-D and 3-D landscape of the case study.
  • Find newspaper articles and pictures to give you some background and also help you to visual the place
  • Watch videos if they exist. For some case studies there are amazing clips of films (Kibera, the Nairobi shanty town at the beginning of The Constant Gardner springs to mind). For others there will be great video clips on YouTube to help you.
  • If you can, visit the place. Nothing is as powerful as this in fully understanding a place.

2. Condense your notes

Once you've thoroughly understood the case study it's time to condense your notes. There are various ways you can do this.

  • Create an A3 annotated map of the area. Colour code things like causes and effects or social, economic, environmental and political factors. Have a key. You can even have flaps. Stick the map up on the wall and look at it frequently. The great thing about this is that the finite size of the page forces you to condense the information.
  • Create a table. You could put things like the social, economic, political and environmental factors along one side and background, causes and effects along the other.  Inside The Extraordinaries Club I have some grids and guidelines for you to download and use. These are exclusively for members. Find out more about the club here .
  • Create index cards. This was one of my favourites as it was quite a kinaesthetic way of separating the information into bite-sized chunks. It was a great format to give other people to test me so that I could learn all those facts and figures. You can even have different coloured index cards for different topics.
  • Traditional revision notes . In my opinion this is a bit boring, and can also be a bit intimidating when you see reams of notes that you have to memorise. I'd go with one of the other options if I was you.

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3. Memorise

Now you've condensed your class notes you need to memorise them. Good memorisation, in my experience comes down to two things:

  • Using the information in different formats.

I'd advise you to do a combination of the following:

  • Read index cards out loud, cover and test yourself.
  • Get other people to test you.
  • Act it out.
  • Make up songs or rhymes
  • Whatever else works for you…

4. Teach someone else about the case study

Teaching someone else is one of the best ways there is to a) check your understanding (because they'll never understand it if you don't) and b) practice putting what you know into words so that someone else understands it.

5. Do Past Papers

The final step is to do past papers. I strongly recommend that you do this in the format of Revision Power Hours.

If you do power hours, and make a point of marking your work, you'll not only do lots of repetition of the case study you've been learning, you'll start to learn to think like an examiner and also get a brilliant insight into exactly what they expect you to know in terms of facts and statistics.

I will say this. I used to remember literally hundreds of stats for my case studies. When I became a teacher it surprised me how few students actually needed to know in order to get good marks. However, this comes with a word of warning. You need to have a good insight into what your exam board expects you to know.

Over to you

That's pretty much a masterclass in how to revise geography case studies. Now it's up to you to put it into practice

In the comments below I'd love to know:

  • What you're finding difficult about revising geography case studies
  • What other subjects you need revision help with

Need more help with your revision?

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IGCSE Geography - Case Study Revision (Theme 2)

IGCSE Geography - Case Study Revision (Theme 2)

Subject: Geography

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Geography Nomad

Last updated

13 February 2024

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geography case study.com

IGCSE Geography Case Study Booklet for Theme 2 - The Natural Environment.

Revision booklet include detailed case studies for the following:

  • Tectonics Tohoku - An earthquake Mt Merapi - A volcano
  • Rivers Indus Drainage Basin - The opportunities presented by a river or rivers, the associated hazards and their management
  • Coasts Holderness- The opportunities presented by an area or areas or coastline, the associated hazards and their management
  • Climate Amazon - An area of tropical rainforest Sahara - An area of hot desert

No weather case study - 7 mark question in this section tends to be causes of flooding within a drainage basin .

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