Contemporary Urban Environments | AQA A-Level Geography (7037)

Contemporary Urban Environments

386 questions
28 subtopics
Component 2 Section C: one of three
Component 2

Urbanisation and the forms it produces, the social and economic divides within cities, and the distinct urban climate, drainage and waste problems that follow — ending with what sustainable urban living means.

One of three Section C options in Component 2.

Sample questions from Contemporary Urban Environments

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Urbanisation and Its Related Processes

What population threshold defines a megacity?

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An urban agglomeration with a population exceeding 10 million inhabitants.
Megacities and World Cities

How does advanced infrastructure characterise world cities?

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World cities possess high-quality transport networks, telecommunications systems, and utilities that support global business operations.
Economic Inequality within Cities

How do housing quality variations reflect economic inequality within cities?

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Housing quality varies significantly between neighbourhoods, with some areas having well-maintained, spacious properties while others contain substandard, overcrowded, or deteriorating housing stock.
The Urban Heat Island and Urban Precipitation

Why do higher concentrations of condensation nuclei in urban air increase precipitation intensity?

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Particulate pollution provides more nuclei around which water vapour can condense, facilitating raindrop formation.
Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems

What is a swale in the context of SUDS?

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A swale is a shallow, vegetated channel designed to convey, filter and infiltrate surface water runoff.
Cheonggyecheon river restoration in Seoul

What were the social and economic benefits of the Cheonggyecheon restoration?

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It created a popular public space visited by millions each year and raised land values and investment in the surrounding area.
Urban Air and Water Pollutants

How does ground-level ozone form in urban areas?

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Ground-level ozone forms when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds react in sunlight; it is a secondary pollutant that causes respiratory problems and damages vegetation.
The Local Environmental Impact of Cities

Explain how transboundary pollution from urban areas affects global environments.

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Pollutants such as acid rain precursors and airborne particulates travel across national borders, affecting ecosystems and populations far from their urban source.

The 28 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Urbanisation and Its Related Processes	Recall questions on urbanisation, suburbanisation, counter-urbanisation and urban resurgence.	12
The Drivers of Urbanisation	Recall questions on migration for employment, industrial growth and capital investment, access to education, healthcare and amenities, transport and communications, agricultural mechanisation, infrastructure investment and industrial policy, political centralisation, and natural increase and net in-migration as drivers of urbanisation.	14
Deindustrialisation, Decentralisation and Regeneration Policy	Recall questions on deindustrialisation, decentralisation and the service economy, land costs, car ownership and out-of-town parks, on Urban Development Corporations, Enterprise Zones, the London Docklands, City Challenge, the Single Regeneration Budget and New Deal for Communities, and on changing approaches, gentrification and criticisms of trickle-down.	19
Megacities and World Cities	Recall questions on the rapid growth, informal settlements, economic output, environmental challenges and complex governance of megacities, on the financial connectivity, international populations, infrastructure, cultural influence and TNC headquarters of world cities, and on developed and developing world contrasts.	11
What Shapes Urban Form	Recall questions on how relief, drainage, geology, water bodies and flood plains, historical development, planning policies, economic forces, transport networks and land ownership shape urban form, and on residential, commercial, industrial and recreational zones.	14
Cultural Diversity and Urban Segregation	Recall questions on cultural diversity and social segregation in cities and their causes in housing markets, property prices, discrimination, estate agent steering, chain migration, voluntary clustering and planning, on the benefits and challenges diversity brings, and on gated communities.	20
New Urban Landscapes and the Post-Modern City	Recall questions on town centre mixed developments, cultural and heritage quarters, fortress developments, gentrified areas and edge cities, and on the post-modern western city's fragmented land use, privatised public spaces, consumption, architectural diversity and loss of manufacturing, contrasted with modernist planning.	13
Economic Inequality within Cities	Recall questions on how economic inequality is expressed spatially through income, employment, housing quality and service access, and on how it differs between developed world cities, with their unequal schools and healthcare, and developing world cities and their housing divide.	9
Managing Urban Inequality and Diversity	Recall questions on progressive taxation, minimum wages, welfare and area-based investment, urban regeneration schemes, affordable housing, inclusionary zoning and mixed-tenure developments, and community cohesion, shared public spaces and multicultural education as ways of managing inequality and diversity.	14
Employment Programmes and Top-Down Strategies	Recall questions on training and access to labour markets and on what characterises top-down management of urban social issues.	8
The Urban Heat Island and Urban Precipitation	Recall questions on the urban heat island and its causes in dark surfaces, reduced vegetation, anthropogenic heat and urban canyons, when it is strongest, and on urban precipitation, condensation nuclei, thunderstorms, reduced radiation fog and historic smog.	12
Urban Winds and Air Quality	Recall questions on how tall buildings and the Venturi effect alter urban winds, on particulate pollution, PM10 and PM2.5, photochemical smog and temperature inversions, and on emission standards, low emission zones, congestion charging, transport and industrial controls, urban greening and air quality monitoring.	18
Impermeable Surfaces and Urban Catchments	Recall questions on intense urban rainfall, impermeable surfaces, high drainage density, compacted soils and reduced vegetation in urban catchments, and on how urbanisation reduces soil moisture, groundwater recharge, interception and depression storage compared with natural catchments.	12
Urban Hydrographs	Recall questions on shorter lag times, higher peak discharge, steeper rising limbs and the flashy response of an urban catchment.	9
Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems	Recall questions on what SUDS are and on permeable paving, green roofs and swales.	10
River Restoration and the Benefits of SUDS	Recall questions on the amenity and biodiversity gains from SUDS and on what river restoration and conservation involve.	14
Who Delivers River Restoration	Recall questions on the parts played by environment agencies, water companies, conservation organisations and local communities.	20
Cheonggyecheon river restoration in Seoul	The restoration of the Cheonggyecheon stream in central Seoul as an urban river restoration project, covering why the river was buried, how and when it was restored, and the environmental, social and economic results and criticisms.	11
Sources and Composition of Urban Waste	Recall questions on industrial, commercial and household waste and on how composition differs with income.	10
Recycling, Recovery and Waste Disposal	Recall questions on the benefits and infrastructure of recycling, waste recovery and its limits, incineration's volume reduction, energy, pollutants and residue, landfill emissions, leachate, land take and aftercare, waste submergence, and the ethics of the international waste trade.	17
Landfill and Incineration Compared	Recall questions on comparing landfill and incineration by capital cost, land requirement, long-term liabilities and local factors for a specified city, and on Copenhagen's low landfill use and its Amager Bakke (CopenHill) incinerator, the energy it provides, its advantages and its criticisms.	15
Urban Air and Water Pollutants	Recall questions on particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and ground-level ozone, their sources in vehicles, industry and domestic heating, and on urban water pollution from industrial effluent, surface runoff, storm sewage overflow and landfill leaching.	12
Dereliction and Pollution in Contrasting Cities	Recall questions on urban dereliction and on how air and water pollution differ between industrialising and post-industrial cities.	8
Managing Urban Pollution and Dereliction	Recall questions on managing air pollution through public transport, cycling infrastructure and emission standards and regulations, water pollution through sewage treatment, monitoring and land remediation, dereliction through brownfield redevelopment, partnerships, compulsory purchase and grants, and sustainable urban drainage systems, with why strategies vary between cities.	20
The Local Environmental Impact of Cities	Recall questions on urban air and water pollution, habitat destruction and the significance of waste generation.	9
Dimensions of Urban Sustainability	Recall questions on what natural, physical, social and economic sustainability each mean in an urban setting.	13
Compact Form, Mixed Use and Liveability	Recall questions on why mixed land use and compact form are sustainable, and on what liveability means and how it is measured.	20
Contrasting Urban Case Studies	Recall questions on why two contrasting areas are needed and on the economic and social wellbeing such studies must illustrate.	22

Contemporary Urban Environments is 386 of the 3,320 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £7

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.