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🇵🇰 CSS General Science and Ability · flashcards
CSS General Science and Ability Environmental Science Flashcards
51 question-and-answer cards covering Environmental Science as it is examined in CSS General Science and Ability. 24 of them are printed below, taken from across the deck — no signup, no paywall on the preview.
24 sample cards from the Environmental Science deck
Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.
Name common pathogenic/biological water pollutants and the diseases they cause.
Bacteria, viruses, and protozoa from sewage cause cholera, typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis, and diarrhea; coliform bacteria are indicators of fecal contamination.
What is the WHO guideline for arsenic in drinking water?
The WHO guideline value for arsenic in drinking water is 0.01 mg/L (10 micrograms per liter).
What is the acceptable pH range for drinking water according to WHO?
The acceptable pH range for drinking water is 6.5 to 8.5.
What does Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) measure, and what is a typical desirable limit for drinking water?
TDS measures the total concentration of dissolved minerals, salts, and metals in water; a desirable limit is below 500 mg/L (acceptable up to about 1000 mg/L).
What health problem is caused by excess fluoride in drinking water, and what is the safe limit?
Excess fluoride causes fluorosis (dental and skeletal); the WHO guideline limit is 1.5 mg/L.
What is the main health concern of nitrate contamination in drinking water?
High nitrate levels cause methemoglobinemia ('blue baby syndrome') in infants; the WHO limit is 50 mg/L (as nitrate).
What are the main categories of solid waste?
Municipal solid waste, industrial waste, agricultural waste, biomedical/hospital waste, e-waste, and hazardous waste.
What is the waste management hierarchy (in order of preference)?
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover (energy), and Dispose (landfill) - often summarized as the 3 Rs followed by recovery and safe disposal.
What is a sanitary landfill and how does it differ from open dumping?
A sanitary landfill is an engineered site where waste is compacted and covered with soil daily, with liners and leachate/gas collection systems; open dumping leaves waste exposed without controls, causing pollution and disease.
What is composting?
Composting is the controlled aerobic biological decomposition of organic waste by microorganisms into a humus-like, nutrient-rich soil conditioner.
What is leachate in the context of solid waste?
Leachate is the contaminated liquid that drains from a landfill as water percolates through the waste, posing a risk of soil and groundwater pollution.
What is incineration as a waste disposal method, and a key drawback?
Incineration is the controlled burning of waste to reduce its volume and generate energy; a key drawback is the release of air pollutants such as dioxins, furans, and particulate matter.
Define remote sensing.
Remote sensing is the science of acquiring information about the Earth's surface or objects without direct physical contact, typically using sensors on satellites or aircraft that detect reflected or emitted electromagnetic radiation.
What is the difference between active and passive remote sensing?
Passive remote sensing detects natural radiation (e.g., reflected sunlight) using sensors; active remote sensing emits its own energy and measures the reflected signal (e.g., RADAR and LiDAR).
What are the four types of resolution in remote sensing?
Spatial resolution (pixel/ground detail), spectral resolution (number and width of wavelength bands), temporal resolution (revisit frequency), and radiometric resolution (sensitivity to signal intensity).
What is a Geographic Information System (GIS)?
A GIS is a computer-based system designed to capture, store, manage, analyze, and display spatially referenced (geographic) data.
What are the two main data models used to represent spatial data in GIS?
The vector model (points, lines, polygons) and the raster model (a grid of cells/pixels).
In GIS, what is a 'layer' and what is map overlay analysis?
A layer is a dataset representing one theme (e.g., roads, rivers, land use); map overlay analysis combines multiple layers to identify spatial relationships and produce new information.
How do remote sensing and GIS complement each other?
Remote sensing provides up-to-date spatial data about the Earth's surface, while GIS stores, integrates, analyzes, and visualizes that data along with other geographic information for decision-making.
What is the demographic transition model?
It is a model describing the shift of populations through stages: from high birth and death rates (pre-industrial) to low birth and death rates (industrialized), passing through stages of rapid growth as death rates fall before birth rates.
What is the difference between population growth rate components: the formula for natural increase?
Natural increase rate = Birth rate minus Death rate; total population change also adds net migration (immigration minus emigration).
What is carrying capacity in population planning?
Carrying capacity is the maximum population size of a species that an environment can sustain indefinitely given the available resources such as food, water, and habitat.
Define sustainable development as per the Brundtland Report (1987).
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
What are the three pillars (dimensions) of sustainable development?
Economic development, social development (equity), and environmental protection - often described as Profit, People, and Planet.
What this deck covers
The Environmental Science deck follows the CSS General Science and Ability Environmental Science syllabus — 5 chapters and 13 topics — so questions land on material that is genuinely examinable rather than trivia around it. That works out to roughly 10.2 cards per chapter.
Answers are written to be recallable, not just readable — averaging about 154 characters, which is long enough to carry the reasoning and short enough to say out loud.
A deck like this earns its keep on the second and third pass. Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then use the cards to find the specific facts that have not stuck.
Environmental Science flashcards FAQ
How many Environmental Science flashcards are in this CSS General Science and Ability deck?
51 cards. This page previews 24 of them, sampled evenly across the deck so you can judge the difficulty before installing anything.
Are these CSS General Science and Ability flashcards free?
Yes. The preview here is free to read with no signup, and the full 51-card deck is free inside the Examius app.
What do the Environmental Science cards cover?
They follow the CSS General Science and Ability Environmental Science syllabus — 5 chapters and 13 topics — so the questions track what is actually examinable.
How should I use these flashcards?
Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then drill the deck. Examius schedules each card with spaced repetition, so cards you keep missing come back sooner and ones you know drift further apart.