global and regional economies. Contemporary characteristics or mega/world cities. could include discussive/creative. processes associated with urbanisation and growth. Explain the emergence of megacities and cities, describe their characteristics and discuss their role in global and regional economies. highlighting issues of informal settlements. You might also collect together a number of newspaper articles highlighting current issues such as housing shortages, air pollution and flooding. Get students to think about their local urban areas or cities they are familiar with and discuss the issues that face these cities. Give students a of maps and data which illustrate changing urban trends since 1945. Students to describe and explain the data (exam style) and discuss the impacts of urbanisation in HICs, MICs and LICs. Extension: You can draw links with the Changing places topic with discussion on homogenisation, clone towns and placelessness. Students can work in groups to research and produce presentations on different world cities and megacities. Examples might include: The United Nations publishes a number of useful annual reports on cities, including (UGRG) of the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers has a useful website with links and resources to many urban issues. There are further RGS urban geography resources and lectures on the Eye, Geography Review and GeoFile/GeoActive regularly have urban geography related articles. The Guardian newspaper also does a regular feature on cities @guardiancities Read the excellent article on mega and meta cities by Mark Rowe (2014) ‘Growing pains’ in Geographical magazine. (Sept, 2014) There are a lot of good resources on informal settlements in cities such as Mumbai (Dharavi), Nairobi (Kibera) and Rio (Rocinha). You could use
Mumbai – Wraight, P. (Sept 2013) ‘Mumbai: case study of a megacity’ GeoFile 696 Lagos – Rutter, J. (Sept 2011) ‘Lagos: case study of a world city’ GeoFile 650 Shanghai – Guinness, P. (2014) ‘Urban issues in Shanghai’ GeoFile 511 Beijing – Guinness, P. (Sept 2010) ‘Beijing a global city’ GeoFile 627 is also a huge amount of material about London which is classified as a world city. (Kibera) O’Donoghue R, (2011) ‘Squattor redevelopment in Rio de Janiero: an update’ GeoActive 458 The Andrew Marr’s Megacities documentaries (2011) have some excellent material on the issues facing cities including London, Shanghai, Dhaka and Mexico City Episode 1: Living in the city Episode 2: Cities on the Edge Episode 3: Sustaining the City BBC documentary Supersized Earth: A place to live Week 2 Specification content Subject specific skills development Learning outcomes Suggested learning activities (including ref to differentiation and extension activities) Resources Suburbanisation, counter-urbanisation, urban resurgence. Urban change: deindustrialisation, Use of key subject specific and technical terminology. Map skills. Discuss the causes and consequences of suburbanisation, counter-urbanisation and resurgence. Define and distinguish between suburbanisation, and urban resurgence. Stiff P, ‘Suburbs part 1 and 2’ in Geography Review, 24:2 and 24:4, 2010–2011
decentralisation, rise of service economy. Urban policy and regeneration in Britain since 1979. Interpretation and evaluation of a range of source material including textual and visual sources. Online research and presentation skills. Describe and explain the processes of deindustrialisation, decentralisation and rise of service economy. Understand the term policy and be able to outline a range of regeneration strategies in Britain since 1979. Appreciate that regeneration also occurred because of wider social, economic and demographic processes. Use OS maps to identify urban areas which have experienced suburbanisation, or urban resurgence. There are good links with the Changing places topic here – you could look at changing demographic, cultural, social and economic characteristics of settlements affected by these processes. Define deindustrialisation, decentralisation and the rise of the service economy and discuss their causes. Students to work in groups to research and present their findings relating to urban regeneration schemes adopted in the UK post 1979. These presentations should include a description of the policy, an example of where it was adopted and an evaluation of its impact. Extended writing task: Discuss the wider social, economic and demographic processes which have led to regeneration in recent decades Link to suburbanisation, and urban resurgence. Garrington S, ‘A case study of village suburbanisation’ GeoFile 570, April 2008 Burton S, ‘Melbourne managing urban growth and change’ GeoFile 498, April 2005 Rae A, ‘Impacts of cities on their surrounding area’ GeoFile 394, Jan 2001 Burton S, ‘Pressures on the greenbelt from UK GeoFile 414, Jan 2002 Punnett N, ‘UK issues’ GeoFile 408, Sep 2001 Warbuton P, ‘Issues relating to greenfield and brownfield GeoFile 421, April 2002 Bayliss T and Collins L, ‘Urban improvement: renewal and evolution’ GeoFile 490, Jan 2005 Cathy Newman looks at the impact of the Olympics on East London in National Geographic (Aug 2012) Warbuton P, ‘Planning issues in today’s MEDC cities’ GeoFile 675, Sep 2012 Dunn C, ‘Redevelop, regenerate, rebrand …’ in relation to Greater
urban water cycle, water movement through urban catchments as measured by hydrographs. Issues associated with catchment management in urban areas. The development of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS). River restoration and conservation in damaged urban catchments with reference to a specific project. Reasons for and aims of the project; attitudes and contributions of parties involved; project activities and evaluation of project outcomes. secondary sources – this could include discussive/ creative. Fieldwork and GIS potential here. Analyse a hydrograph for an urban area. Define the term sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) and describe different SUDS strategies. Describe and evaluate a specific urban river restoration project, outlining the reasons for its restoration and the attitudes and contributions of the stakeholders involved. surfaces and vegetated surfaces. Annotate and analyse an hydrograph. Online research for a case study of river restoration. Extension 1: A lot has been written about the fact that increasing numbers of people are replacing lawns and gardens with impermeable surfaces – what impact is this having? How could people be persuaded to reverse this trend? The RHS are running a campaign to encourage people to green up urban areas. For more information, go to: . Extension 2: Look at the proposals (by a former Geography teacher) to . What be the costs and benefits for London and the rest of the UK? (Link here with issues such as the urban heat island, air and water pollution and sustainability). See information on the . The RHS are running a campaign to encourage people to green up urban areas. For more information and to look at the benefits see . See for an excellent source of information and video clips about urban climate. Dove J, ‘Urban ecosystems’ GeoFile 590, 2009. Details about the Cheonggyecheon river restoration project can be found at and See also section on Cheonggyecheon river in ‘Environmental issues in a world city’ by Nick Middleton in Geography Review volume 27, number 1, Sept 2013. See also case study in Abbiss et al, AQA A-level Geography, Fourth edition, 2016, Hodder. Week 7
Specification content Subject specific skills development Learning outcomes Suggested learning activities (including ref to differentiation and extension activities) Resources Urban physical waste generation: sources of waste – industrial and commercial activity, personal consumption. Relation of waste components and waste streams to economic characteristics, lifestyles and attitudes. The environmental impacts of alternative approaches to waste disposal: unregulated, recycling, recovery, reduction (incineration), burial, submergence, trade. Comparison of incineration and landfill approaches to waste disposal in relation to a specified urban area. Collect, analyse and interpret information, and demonstrate the ability to understand and suitable analytical approaches for the different information types. Describe the different sources of waste and recognise that both quantities of waste produced and waste disposal methods vary according to economic development. Describe and evaluate a of waste disposal methods. Compare and contrast incineration and landfill approaches to waste in a specified urban area. What are the different sources of urban waste? Discuss how and why waste production varies across the world. Investigate and evaluate the different strategies for dealing with urban waste. Students could research waste from the point of view of different stakeholders. Feedback could then take the form of a debate/roleplay, or construction of SWOT analysis in groups. Online research of case study which allows the comparison of incineration and landfill approaches to waste disposal in relation to a specified urban area. Many urban waste centres now offer educational visits – it is worth looking at this option. The World Bank is a useful source for J, ‘Managing urban waste’ in Topic Eye changing cities, 2012 Article on waste disposal in Taiwan by Chris Fitch, ‘A new lease of life’ Geographical, 2015 Wheeler P, ‘Recycling costs and benefits’ GeoFile 752, 2016 Bennett P, ‘Sustainable waste management in the West Midlands’ GeoActive 496, 2013 Eddis T, ‘Managament of waste in cities: a DME’ GeoFile 548, 2007 are lots of resources about the world’s first offshore landfill in Singapore called The NGO Practical Action has some useful resources on . Week 8
Specification content Subject specific skills development Learning outcomes Suggested learning activities (including ref to differentiation and extension activities) Resources Air quality: particulate and pollution. Pollution reduction policies. environmental problems in contrasting urban areas: water pollution and dereliction. Strategies to manage these problems. Impact of areas on local and global environments. An ability to collect and use digital and data, and understand a range of approaches to use and analyse such data. Collect, analyse and interpret information, and demonstrate the ability to understand and suitable analytical approaches for the different information types. Maps showing spatial patterns maps. Fieldwork and GIS potential here. Describe and distinguish between particulate and pollution. Be aware of the range of strategies being used to combat air pollution in urban areas. Describe and explain the causes of air pollution, pollution and dereliction and outline strategies used to manage these problems. Investigate the different causes and impacts of air pollution. London said to have 9,400 premature deaths annually due to air pollution. Could also look at concept of ‘Airpocalypse’ (Beijing) What are the main causes? What is done to tackle this problem? Get students to produce maps using (primary or) secondary air pollution data. Look for patterns and get students to describe and explain their findings. to look at the impacts of deindustrialisation and dereliction. Ford has just announced new investment in the city which also makes it a useful case study for regeneration. Extension: weigh up the pros and cons of different strategies to manage problems of dereliction and pollution. Warburton P, ‘Environmental issues in urban areas today’ GeoFile 692, 2013 Parson G, ‘Air quality issues’ GeoFile 656, 2012 Nagle G, ‘Air pollution in Beijing’ GeoFile 383, 2000 An excellent source of information and clips about urban climate can be found at City pollution levels are monitored continuously and you can use this data to examine geographical patterns. Go to for a ‘nowcast’, which is a service to show current pollution levels in detail across London in comparison with the Government's Air Pollution Index. Warbuton P, ‘Issues relating to greenfield and brownfield sites’ GeoFile 421, 2002 Dove J, ‘Urban ecosystems’ GeoFile 590, 2009 includes over 3000 photographs of London sights not normally seen by tourists. Week 9
by Jaime Lerner, former Mayor of Curitiba Watch (two parts) Week 10 Specification content Subject specific skills development Learning outcomes Suggested learning activities (including ref to differentiation and extension activities) Resources Case development – this could be left to the end or built up over the course of the topic. Students are expected to two contrasting urban areas to illustrate and analyse key themes set out in the specification, to include: patterns of economic and social and the nature and impact of physical environmental conditions with reference to the implications for environmental sustainability, the Collect, analyse and interpret a of qualitative and quantitative data from a range of primary and secondary sources. An ability to collect and use digital and data, and understand a range of approaches to use and analyse such data. Understanding of the ethical and socio-political implications of collecting, studying and representing geographical data about human communities. Build up their two contrasting place studies to illustrate and analyse the key themes set out in the specification. Students to collect (primary and) secondary data to produce two contrasting urban case studies. Particular attention should be given to: patterns of economic and social well-being the nature and impact of physical environmental conditions. Data is readily available for most cities in some form or another. For census data and social and economic characteristics of places in the UK go to: and provide interactive visualisation of census data and can provide localised data on information such as house prices, school results, council tax and crime. For health-related data go to . All of these can be used to show inequality The Guardian publishes features on cities around the world.