Cambridge IGCSE Geography (0460) Syllabus

Define urbanisation.

The increasing proportion of a country's population living in towns and cities (urban areas) rather than rural areas.

Name the typical land-use zones in the Burgess (concentric) urban model from centre outwards.

CBD (central business district), inner city/zone of transition (older industry and housing), inner suburbs (medium-class housing), outer suburbs (high-class housing), and rural-urban fringe.

What is a shanty town / squatter settlement?

An area of illegal, self-built informal housing on the edge of (or within) a city in an LIC, often lacking services such as clean water, sanitation and electricity.

List three problems of rapid urbanisation in LICs.

Housing shortages/shanty towns, traffic congestion and air pollution, unemployment/informal jobs, pressure on water, sanitation and waste services.

What is counter-urbanisation?

The movement of people from large urban areas to rural areas or smaller settlements, often aided by improved transport and remote working.

Define the focus and epicentre of an earthquake.

The focus is the point underground where the earthquake originates (where rock fractures). The epicentre is the point on the surface directly above the focus.

What scales are used to measure earthquake magnitude and intensity?

The Richter scale (and moment magnitude scale) measures magnitude/energy released; the Mercalli scale measures intensity by observed damage.

Name the three main types of plate boundary and the movement at each.

Constructive/divergent (plates move apart), destructive/convergent (plates move together, one subducts), and conservative/transform (plates slide past each other).

What is the difference between a composite (stratovolcano) and a shield volcano?

Composite volcanoes are steep-sided, form at destructive boundaries from viscous andesitic lava and erupt violently. Shield volcanoes are gently sloping, form at constructive boundaries/hotspots from runny basaltic lava and erupt gently.

Distinguish the primary and secondary effects of an earthquake.

Primary effects happen immediately due to ground shaking (collapsed buildings, deaths). Secondary effects follow on (fires, tsunamis, disease, homelessness, economic loss).

Define the long profile of a river and how channel features change downstream.

The long profile shows river height from source to mouth; it is steep near the source and gentle near the mouth. Downstream the channel gets wider/deeper, discharge and velocity increase, and load becomes smaller and rounder.

Name the four river erosion processes.

Hydraulic action (force of water), abrasion/corrasion (load scraping bed), attrition (load particles colliding and breaking), and corrosion/solution (chemical dissolving of rock).

Name the four river transportation processes from largest to smallest load.

Traction (rolling large rocks), saltation (bouncing pebbles), suspension (fine particles carried in water), and solution (dissolved material).

How is a waterfall and gorge formed?

A river crosses a band of hard rock over soft rock; the soft rock erodes faster, undercutting the hard rock which collapses. The waterfall retreats upstream leaving a steep-sided gorge.

How does a meander develop into an oxbow lake?

Erosion on the outer bank (fastest flow) and deposition on the inner bank make the meander neck narrower; in a flood the river cuts through the neck, deposition seals off the loop, leaving an oxbow lake.

Name the four marine erosion processes acting on coasts.

Hydraulic action, abrasion/corrasion, attrition, and corrosion/solution — the same processes as river erosion but caused by waves.

Explain how a headland produces a cave, arch, stack and stump sequence.

Waves erode a crack into a cave; the cave is eroded through the headland to form an arch; the arch roof collapses leaving a stack; the stack erodes down to a stump.

What is longshore drift and which process moves material along the beach?

Longshore drift is the zig-zag transport of sediment along a coast: swash carries material up the beach at the wave/wind angle, and backwash returns it straight down under gravity.

How does a spit form?

Longshore drift transports sediment along the coast; where the coastline changes direction the material is deposited in open water, building a long ridge (spit), often with a curved/recurved end formed by changing wind direction.

Compare constructive and destructive waves.

Constructive waves: low energy, strong swash, weak backwash, build up beaches. Destructive waves: high energy, weak swash, strong backwash, erode beaches.

What is the difference between weather and climate?

Weather is the day-to-day state of the atmosphere over a short period; climate is the average weather conditions of an area measured over a long period (typically 30+ years).

Name the instruments used to measure rainfall, temperature, atmospheric pressure and wind speed.

Rain gauge (rainfall), thermometer/maximum-minimum thermometer (temperature), barometer (pressure), and anemometer (wind speed). Wind direction uses a wind vane.

What is relative humidity and how is it measured?

Relative humidity is the amount of water vapour in the air as a percentage of the maximum it can hold at that temperature. It is measured with a hygrometer (wet and dry bulb thermometer).

Describe the characteristics of an equatorial (tropical rainforest) climate.

Hot all year ($\approx 27\,^{\circ}\text{C}$), small annual temperature range, high rainfall every month (often $>2000$ mm/year), high humidity, convectional rain in the afternoons.

How does convectional rainfall form?

The sun heats the ground, warm moist air rises and cools, water vapour condenses to form cumulonimbus clouds, leading to heavy rainfall (often with thunderstorms).

Define an ecosystem and name its biotic and abiotic components.

An ecosystem is a community of living organisms interacting with their non-living environment. Biotic = living parts (plants, animals, bacteria); abiotic = non-living parts (soil, water, climate, light).

Describe two adaptations of tropical rainforest vegetation.

Tall emergent trees and buttress roots for support; drip-tip leaves to shed heavy rain; lianas and epiphytes to reach light; thin bark (no need for protection in warm climate).

Name the layers of a tropical rainforest from top to bottom.

Emergents, canopy, under-canopy/understorey, shrub layer, and ground/forest floor.

What is the nutrient cycle in a rainforest and why is the soil often poor?

Nutrients cycle rapidly: dead leaf litter decomposes quickly in the hot, wet climate and is taken up by plants. Soils are poor because most nutrients are stored in the biomass, not the soil, and heavy rain leaches them away.

Define a desert ecosystem's key climate characteristics.

Very low rainfall (often $<250$ mm/year), high daytime temperatures, large diurnal (day-night) temperature range, sparse vegetation, and infertile sandy/stony soils.

What is GDP per capita and why is it used as a development indicator?

$$\text{GDP per capita} = \frac{\text{Gross Domestic Product}}{\text{total population}}$$ It shows average wealth per person, allowing comparison of economic development between countries.

List four social (non-economic) indicators of development.

Life expectancy, infant mortality rate, literacy rate, people per doctor, access to clean water, and average years of schooling.

What is the Human Development Index (HDI) and which three measures does it combine?

HDI is a composite index of development scored from 0 to 1, combining life expectancy (health), years of schooling/literacy (education), and GNI per capita (standard of living).

Define infant mortality rate.

The number of deaths of children under one year of age per 1000 live births per year; lower values indicate higher development.

Describe the three sectors of an economy with an example of each.

Primary (raw materials, e.g. farming/mining), secondary (manufacturing, e.g. car factory), tertiary (services, e.g. retail/teaching). A fourth quaternary sector covers research/IT.

What is the difference between subsistence and commercial agriculture?

Subsistence farming produces food mainly for the farmer's own family with little surplus. Commercial farming produces crops/livestock for sale and profit, usually on a large scale.

Define intensive and extensive farming.

Intensive farming uses high inputs (labour or capital) on a small area for high yields per hectare. Extensive farming uses low inputs over a large area with lower yields per hectare.

Draw the systems approach to a farm: name typical inputs, processes and outputs.

Inputs: seeds, labour, fertiliser, climate, capital. Processes: ploughing, sowing, harvesting, milking. Outputs: crops, livestock, profit (and waste).

What are the inputs, processes and outputs in an industrial system?

Inputs: raw materials, labour, capital, energy. Processes: manufacturing/assembly. Outputs: finished products, profit, and waste.

List four factors affecting the location of industry.

Raw materials, power/energy supply, labour supply, market access, transport links, capital, and government policy.

What is a footloose industry?

An industry not tied to a particular location by raw materials, often high-tech, that can locate almost anywhere (e.g. near good transport, skilled labour or pleasant environment).

List three positive and three negative impacts of tourism on an area.

Positive: jobs, income/foreign currency, improved infrastructure. Negative: environmental damage, seasonal/low-paid jobs, leakage of profits abroad, loss of culture, overcrowding.

What is ecotourism and how does it promote sustainability?

Ecotourism is responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and benefits local people, using small-scale, low-impact activities and reinvesting income in conservation and communities.

Distinguish renewable and non-renewable energy resources with examples.

Renewable resources can be replenished and won't run out (solar, wind, HEP, geothermal). Non-renewable (finite) resources will run out and cannot be replaced in human time (coal, oil, gas, uranium).

How is hydroelectric power (HEP) generated and name one advantage and one disadvantage.

Falling/moving water turns turbines connected to generators. Advantage: clean, renewable, reliable. Disadvantage: dams flood land/displace people and are expensive to build.

What is water scarcity, and distinguish physical from economic water scarcity.

Water scarcity is a lack of sufficient water to meet demand. Physical scarcity = not enough water available in nature; economic scarcity = water exists but people lack money/infrastructure to access it.

Define sustainable development.

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

On a topographic map, what is the difference between an easting and a northing in a grid reference?

Eastings are the vertical gridlines numbered along the bottom (read first, going east); northings are the horizontal gridlines numbered up the side (read second, going north). Remember: 'along the corridor, up the stairs.'

How do you give a four-figure and a six-figure grid reference?

Four-figure: easting then northing of the square's bottom-left corner (e.g. 1234). Six-figure: add tenths within the square for precision (e.g. 123456), eastings first then northings.

How is map scale used to convert a measured map distance to real ground distance?

Multiply the map distance by the scale denominator. For a $1:50\,000$ map, $1$ cm on the map $= 50\,000$ cm $= 0.5$ km on the ground.

What is a bearing and from which direction is it measured?

A bearing is the direction of one point from another, measured in degrees clockwise from north, written as three figures (e.g. $045^{\circ}$ for north-east).

What do contour lines show, and how do you read a steep versus gentle slope?

Contour lines join points of equal height (showing relief). Lines close together mean a steep slope; lines far apart mean a gentle slope. The vertical gap between them is the contour interval.

How do you calculate the mean, median and mode of a data set?

Mean $= \frac{\sum \text{values}}{\text{number of values}}$. Median = the middle value when data is ordered. Mode = the most frequently occurring value.

What type of graph best shows the percentage breakdown of a total, and how are the segment angles found?

A pie chart. Each segment angle $= \frac{\text{category value}}{\text{total}} \times 360^{\circ}$.

What is the interquartile range and why is it useful?

$$\text{IQR} = Q_{3} - Q_{1}$$ It measures the spread of the middle 50% of the data, reducing the effect of extreme values (anomalies).

In fieldwork, what is the difference between primary and secondary data?

Primary data is collected first-hand by the student in the field (e.g. measurements, surveys). Secondary data is obtained from existing sources (e.g. maps, census, websites).

What are the main stages of a geographical fieldwork investigation/enquiry?

Form a hypothesis/aim, plan data collection methods, collect primary and secondary data, present data (graphs/maps), analyse and interpret results, draw conclusions, and evaluate the investigation.

What is systematic sampling and why might it be chosen in fieldwork?

Systematic sampling collects data at regular intervals (e.g. every 10 m or every 5th person). It is chosen because it is simple, gives even coverage and is easy to repeat, though it may miss variation between intervals.