Resource Management and Sustainability

What the unit covers

This unit sits in the strand Ecosystems, Environments and Resources, within Geography. Most of what it lists is mind maps, with flashcard decks, notes, a slide set and a handful of quizzes alongside them. The topics run across food, water, energy, waste, minerals and sustainable development.

Where to start

Begin with the mind map Geography: Resource Management. It splits resources into fuel and energy, water, food, agriculture, industry and domestic use, then separates non-renewable fossil fuels from renewable options such as wind turbines and solar panels.

Then move to the topic that matches your course:

• Food: Geography: Resource Management (Food) looks at rising global demand and population growth.
• Waste: Approaches to waste management in MEDCs walks through the waste hierarchy, from reduce and reuse to recycle and recover.
• Water: the water case studies map covers desalination, including a plant in Victoria, Australia, built after years of drought.

Using maps, cards and quizzes together

Read a map first to get the big picture. Then test yourself with a deck such as GCSE Geography Sustainability, which asks you to define sustainable development and to recall case studies like ASDA / Walmart and Nokia, plus sustainable transport schemes like Park and Ride. Finish with a quiz, for example Waste managment - Meadowhall or Land Cover Change in Australia, and note which answers slipped.

Case studies worth knowing

Several maps are built around real places and events: Oil in the Niger Delta, BP & Deepwater Horizon Disaster, Komodo National Park, CAMPFIRE, Zimbabwe, and Pollution in China. Teachers can use them as ready-made starting points for class discussion, and students can compare them with their own notes.

Next step

Choose one map that matches what you are studying this week, work through it, and then try a quiz. When you are ready, add your own flashcards for the terms you keep forgetting.