Year 10 Assesment of the UK Floods

10o1-GG2 have researched why the UK flooded before Christmas. Two interesting pieces of work on it are below as promised!!! Read and enjoy. (click on an image to make it larger)

UK Flooding Interactive Map

G.Lilley-Moncrief has used ArcGIS Explorer Online to create an excellent case study of flooding in the UK. Whilst it focuses mainly on the floods of 2012, there are some others there too. It will work best if opened into a bigger browser window using the link uner the map..



View Larger Map

Quality Y10 Tectonics Vids

Mr Strachan's Y10 class have been making videos about plate tectonics. See the examples below:

Could you do the same?

R.Sanghera


Toby

Nintendo: A Global Company

A. Arshad has produced an excellent review of Nintendo's operation as a global company which is below. It demonstrates well placed examples at times and is an example of how to make a presentation visually interesting:

Evaluation of Coastal Management at Swanage

J.Hutchings (Y9) has written an evaluation of coastal management at Swanage. Click on the image to enlarge it, then read the evaluation underneath.

Do you agree with his assesment of the current strategies?
Would you manage it differently?
Would you manage it at all?

(Comment Below or tweet @bsgeography)

Evaluation

Judging by the fact that the officials in charge of the area (described on annotated map) have a main focus of ensuring a sustainable future for the coastal area of Swanage, I think that there is little to be done regarding changes.  It is said that plans dealing with the future of the coast are currently being reviewed, processed and produced, but in the meantime they are continuing to allow the defences already set up to prevent erosion getting out of hand.

Regarding the defences themselves, however, I think that a different approach would have been more adequate.  Having a long system of groynes stretching across some of the coast is good, as it helps to stabilise the beach and keep it in one piece.  The sea walls do their job, but it doesn’t quite meet the needs of a sustainable balance.  They are particularly expensive (one of the most expensive coastal defence concepts) and are also unappealing to the public.  While it may meet the needs of the environment, it fails to do the same socially and economically.

There are no ideal options when it comes to social sustainability, as even though there may be more suitable solutions in terms of appearance, none contribute significantly enough to make it worthwhile.  However, perhaps a series of rip-raps or gabions could have been used, as these are less expensive than sea walls and still manage to absorb the waves’ energy relatively successfully.

UK Cold Weather - Causes and Effects

Year 13 pupils did an overnight investigation into why we have had such cold weather in January. A summary by T.Walker of the causes and some useful effects are included below. (Click the image to enlarge)

 

Sustainable Management in Lapland

Year 12 students began a single lesson with an outline of how management of Cold Environments works. They then had the rest of the lesson to research an example and fit it into the syllabus framework. The points on Lapland by B.Thrasher and P.Ramsbotham would support an essay on this very well when used with specific locationed examples.

Further work from this class can be found on their blog.


What was the short term gain?

Money from tourists coming to the area and the option to create more infrastructures to be able to sustain more and more tourists each year

What management strategy is being used?

Tourism in Lapland is based primarily on the region's clean and unique nature. Nature has been protected more extensively in Lapland than in other parts of the country. This is an opportunity and richness for tourism provided that protected areas can be and are used for tourism in a sustainable way.

They have started controlling the way in which the tourists interact with the land and the local communities and their objectives have been outlines below:

·         to ensure that the water supply systems of the main tourist resorts in Lapland meet modern requirements by 2007 (This means that there is less water waste)

·         to complete the environmental restoration projects at the tourist resorts by 2007 (To update everything to the most efficient economically and also to use less fuel)

·         to continue to use employment schemes (160 person-years) extensively to carry out work promoting tourism and improving the natural environments

·         to promote the use of protected areas in tourism

·         to encourage the sustainable development of resorts

How does it meet socio economic needs?

A lot of money is still being generated by the ever increasing amount of tourists coming to Lapland to come and see 'Father Christmas' This creates jobs for people in the local communities surrounding areas, e.g. working in a hotel or pretending to be Father Christmas. The money also increases the life style and standard of living for the people affected as a lot more money is being injected into the economy from outside tourists.

How does it meet environmental needs?

All of the dedicated tourist areas have been carefully set up as to make sure that each of them have the most up to date machinery, for example fuel efficient vehicles. Also other aspects have been taken into consideration for example noise pollution and light pollution, where bans have been put in place to make sure that tourists treat the area with care and respect. Here is a quote from a tourist website:

"Mother Nature is our main partner in production and we do all in our power to take good care of her. At this moment over 50% of our snowmobile fleet is equipped with 4-stroke engines which are more environmental friendly than the 2-stroke"

Solving Global Water Problems

Year 10 pupils were set a task to research global water supply issues and attempt to solve them. Two excellent offerings are below:

Bangladesh Water Crisis from BSGeography

Water Shortages in China (and possible solutions) from BSGeography

2 amazing coastal landforms

The description below and pictures were researched at the start of our current year 9 course. Could you name them or mention some of the types of erosion involved?

One of the most interesting things about coasts is what the sea sculpts out of the rock. When you get cliffs where the sea is, then that is where the sea does its work. There have been pictures where the sea has sculpted something out of the cliff and it creates an amazing picture! An example of this is the pictures at the bottom. Somehow in the picture on the left the ground is sort of floating because all of the rock under it has been eroded by the water and it creates an amazing sight when you see rock floating. In the picture on the right it shows how hard that piece of rock is because it’s the last bit of rock around. This is because all the rest has been eroded which shows that all the rest were softer than that rock.

 

T Hammond, yr 9

Wave causes and types

The work below is an excellent effort from the start of our current year 9 work:

We use the coast for many things and also we go there for the pleasure of it all. We use it for energy e.g: big wind farms as it gets very windy at the coast and other reusable energy and also solar panels (for the sunnier places in the world). The subject I will be talking about today is a particular feature at the coast that people look at for pleasure and that is waves. Waves can hypnotise people for hours on end just watching the beauty of the waves breaking, crashing and the sounds they make and of course the surfing side of it. There is so much to talk about with waves and the details which I shall go into now.

Waves

Waves are created by friction of the wind when it’s blowing over the surface of the water usually far out sea. The wave gets pushed into the direction of the wind creating a swell which then creates the actual wave. The wave picks up so much energy from the wind and the friction it causes that it’s at high speed out at sea until it hits land or it just loses its energy because the wind might stop. A wave is affected mostly by the strength of the wind and the longer it blows for. When the wave starts getting close to land, the more shallow it gets, the wave starts to slow down and the wave starts to curl like an arc (that’s the perfect time for someone to catch a wave with a surfboard). There is so much more to see under a wave than above as there’s a whole cycle. The whole wave is rotating forwards like a spinning cylinder very fast. An ordinary wave is called a constructive wave which is when it deposits sand and other materials to make more land. Another kind of wave that can be caused is a destructive wave which is caused by more powerful winds like storms out at sea. This means more friction is caused by a more powerful wind meaning that the waves will be rougher. When the wave hits land, it can be very tall and has a short wave length unlike constructive waves which have a long wave length. Destructive waves also have a very strong back wash which erodes the beach. Some waves can get extremely big. The biggest wave ever recorded was 1740ft

As you can see the wave activity underneath.

By C Webber, yr 9

Singapore Population Policies

Excellent overview below created by D. Frossell. Click the image to see a larger version.

Yangtze Basin Management

H.Mok has produced an excellent study on the management of the Yangtze River Basin. It focusses on the social and environmental needs being met by the variety of schemes across the basin and shows many specific details and the use of symbols and colours to show location and key points. Click on the 2 images below to open them in new windows and see the case study.

Venice Floods Case Study

Year 12 D1 had the task to create a case study on the Venice floods in a single lesson. 4 methods were used: Prezi, Storify, Powerpoint and the classic: Word. The powerpoint group were the winners on this occasion as voted by MG and year 9 boys. The other 3 presentations were also very good but hey, win some and lose some!

Venice%20 floods%20november%202012[2] from BSGeography

Case Study on Rainforest Destruction

H.Guthrie has produced an excellent case study of the effects of the Tucurui Dam and Trans Amazonian Highway. Click on the images to make them larger and clearer:

Belo Monte Dam

A.Zhu and J.Dalton have done a very thorough presentation evaluating the potential consequences of the Belo Monte Dam project in the Amazon Rainforest. It contains plenty of specific information and is easy on the eye!

Belo Monte Dam : Human and Environmental Consequences on Prezi

A2 self directed research - English Earthquakes and Vesuvius

As part of their global issues study, the A2 students have had time for their own research to satisfy questions they have had which relate to the tectonic hazards element of the course. Below are two excellent posts from the A2 global issues blog bsglobalissues.blogspot.co.uk

Read on below:

Earthquake In England?

I was wondering why there are occasional EQ's in the UK even though we are not close to a plate boundary, where science tells us EQ's should occur.

In my research I found that the key to it all lies in the African and Eurasion plates movement. These have created multiple fault lines as shown in this image - 

They occur more than we think - http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/ - this shows the amount over the last 50 days with more detail within them.

Even the Daily Mail have got involved - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1312608/UK-overdue-earthquake-kill-scores-people-moment.html - A slighlty exaggerated state of event but good detail nonetheless.

J.P.Strode

Mt.Vesuvius eruption 79 AD

For my research today, I tried to answer the question of why Pompeii was so badly affected by the eruption of Mt.Vesuvius in 79 AD. Pyroclastic flows swept the city and everything was buried under an extremely hot layer of ash. The city was preserved in time and there was one thing which astounded archaeologists the most when they rediscovered the city. This was the human remains which were found on the site. Although the exact number of people who died in the eruption is unknown, it is predicted that a large proportion of the city's population was killed. There are a few reasons which could explain why the eruption had such a big impact on the city's population. Firstly, although the locals were aware of the plumes of smoke rising from the volcano (a journal was found documenting the signs leading up to the eruption) no precautions were taken. They thought of it as the gods letting off steam therefore no actions were taken until it was too late. Like volcanic eruptions in the modern world, tremors and seismic activities were felt leading up to the eruption. They also chose to ignore this as they were unaware of what could come next. When the volcano finally erupted, the people were caught by surprise and didn't know how to react. Some chose to flee the city and it is likely these people survived as the only affect on them was ash deposits. Those who chose to hide in the safety of their homes were the ones killed. As the pyroclastic flow swept the city, the infrastructure was unable to withstand the speed and temperatures and thus people were buried and burned. The main reason why the eruption of Mt.Vesuvius was so devastating was the lack of awareness. In the modern world, this could still be the case particularly in LEDCs. If large volcanoes are not monitored, locals could be at an increased risk as precautions and responses will not be taken to ensure they are safe. This shows that raising awareness and having an efficient system of response is vital in reducing the impacts of natural hazards, even in the modern world.

K.S.Chan

Haiti Earthquake - excellent read

J.Taylor has written a genuinely very interesting case study on the causes of the Haiti Earthquake. Click the image to open it in a new tab to read.

Chile Earthquake 2010

S.Holland has produced this excellent study on the 2010 Chile Earthquake. Click the image to open it in a new tab and read it.

Excellent Study on the Causes of The Mount St Helen's eruption

J.Stroomer has produced this excellent study on the causes of the eruption at Mt St helens in 1980:

Mt. St. Helens is a composite volcano within the Cascade Range in southern Washington, approximately 50 miles northwest of Portland, Oregon. Though Mt. St. Helens is approximately 40,000-years old, it is considered a relatively young, active volcano. The Juan de Fuca plate is converging with the North American Plate. The lava forms as the oceanic crust is subducted under the continental crust at the convergent plate boundary.

The eruption on May 18th 1980 is the biggest that it has ever experienced. The build-up to the eruption was a two-month series of earthquakes and steam-venting episodes, caused by an inflowing of magma at shallow depth below the volcano that created a huge bulge on Mount St. Helens' north slope. This s called a cryptodome and can be seen on the images below, it makes a striking impact on the side of the volcano. The scientists and geologists studying the area say

that in the weeks leading up to the eruption it was expanding at a rate of 6ft a day in some places of the dome.

An earthquake, measuring at 4.2 on the Richter scale, at 8:32:17 a.m. caused the entire weakened north face to slide away, exposing the partly molten, gas rich rock in the volcano to lower pressure. This resulted in a landslide where more than half a cubic mile of material was released. This can be seen in the diagram below.

A lot of pressure had built up as this was the first eruption for 123 years. Although it was not without warning, on March 25th the seismographs started to climax at about noon reaching peak levels on the next two days, including one earthquake that measured 5.1 on the Richter scale. A total of 174 shocks, of magnitude 2.6 or greater, in the following two days. This then continued through April and May with 5 earthquakes above magnitude 4 or greater per day in April. This then increased to 8 per day the week before May 18th. There is a before and after shot below to show the impact on the landscape.

Useful Links:

http://www.platetectonics.com/book/page_3.asp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP2dreOI8gI&feature=related

A2 Pupils running their own blog.

This year's upepr sixth are running blog this term on earth hazards as a means of engaging in the course and creating a useful resource for both themselves and others. they have started off with fundamental definitions for hazardous events and useful resources to support that. Keep an eye on it in the feeds to the right as it grows this term....