Resource Security | AQA A-Level Geography (7037)

Resource Security

337 questions
27 subtopics
Component 2 Section C: one of three
Component 2

How resources are classified, evaluated and exhausted, worked through water, energy and mineral ores in turn, and what the alternatives might be as demand grows.

One of three Section C options in Component 2.

Sample questions from Resource Security

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

Stock and Flow Resources and Reserves

What are flow resources?

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Renewable resources that are naturally replenished over time and can be used indefinitely if managed sustainably.
Environmental Impact Assessment

Why are baseline studies conducted during an EIA?

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To establish existing environmental conditions against which potential impacts can be measured.
Water Sources and Demand

What forms of precipitation contribute to water supply?

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Rainfall and snowmelt.
The Costs of Supply and Managing Demand

Give two examples of water-efficient technologies.

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Low-flow appliances (e.g. dual-flush toilets, aerated taps) and drip irrigation systems.
TNCs, National Interests and Energy Impacts

How does maximising export revenues represent a national interest in energy?

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Energy-exporting nations seek to generate income from their resources to fund development and government spending.
Environmental Impacts and Sustainability of Energy

Why does nuclear waste present sustainability challenges?

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Its radioactivity persists for thousands of years, requiring secure long-term storage and posing risks of contamination.
Demand for and Occurrence of Mineral Ores

What role do commodity markets play in the global commerce of mineral ores?

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They set prices through trading, influence investment decisions, and create price volatility that affects producers and consumers.
Sustainability in Mineral Supply

How does price instability affect producer economies reliant on ore exports?

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Volatile prices cause unpredictable revenues, hindering economic planning and potentially causing boom-bust cycles.

The 27 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Stock and Flow Resources and Reserves	Recall questions on what a resource is, the distinction between stock resources such as fossil fuels and flow resources, with examples of each, and on measured and indicated reserves and how they differ.	9
Resource Certainty and Development Stages	Recall questions on inferred and possible resources and the hierarchy of stock resource evaluation from most to least certain, and on the exploration, exploitation and development stages of natural resource development and the order in which they occur.	8
Resource Frontiers, Peaks and Sustainable Development	Recall questions on resource frontiers and why rising commodity prices shift them, on resource peak and rising extraction costs after it, and on sustainable resource development and balancing economic, environmental and social factors.	9
Environmental Impact Assessment	Recall questions on Environmental Impact Assessment and its stages of screening, scoping, baseline studies, impact prediction and evaluation, mitigation measures, public consultation, and decision-making and monitoring, and on its contribution to sustainable development.	10
Global Production and Consumption of Energy and Minerals	Recall questions on the major fossil fuel producing regions, the largest energy-consuming countries and why their demand is high, the direction of energy trade, and the leading producers and consumers of iron ore, copper, rare earth elements and bauxite and how ores are transported.	10
The Geopolitics of Energy, Minerals and Water	Recall questions on the geopolitics of energy, transit chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz, OPEC, energy security and how nations pursue it, strategic minerals, rare earth elements and resource nationalism, tensions over transboundary rivers such as the Nile and Mekong, virtual water trade, the resource curse and international resource organisations.	16
Water Sources and Demand	Recall questions on why water availability varies around the world, physical and economic water scarcity, agriculture's share of withdrawals and the other drivers of demand, the most water-stressed regions, surface water, groundwater and precipitation as sources, domestic, agricultural, industrial and energy uses, water stress, and how climate, geology, aquifers, catchments and drainage affect supply and quality.	23
Water Supply Strategies	Recall questions on catchment management, diversion, storage and transfers as ways of increasing supply.	9
The Colorado River water supply scheme	The Colorado River water supply scheme as a case study of water resource development, covering Hoover Dam, the aqueducts that carry water to desert cities, the environmental costs downstream, and why the river is over-allocated.	11
The Costs of Supply and Managing Demand	Recall questions on the environmental effects of distribution networks, sediment trapped behind dams, and metering and pricing as demand tools.	16
Water Conflict and Major Supply Schemes	Recall questions on sustainability in water management, local, national and international water conflicts over quantity, quality and timing, and on the elements of a major water supply scheme and the environmental impacts of its dams, barrages and distribution networks.	12
Energy Types, Mix and Physical Controls on Supply	Recall questions on primary and secondary energy sources, domestic, industrial, transport and commercial demand, the energy mix and why it varies, and how solar radiation, wind, precipitation, sedimentary basins, tectonics, rock formations, rivers and water availability control supply, with energy volume and quality.	19
TNCs, National Interests and Energy Impacts	Recall questions on globalisation and competition for energy, TNC control of production, processing and distribution, national interests in domestic supply, export revenues, transit routes and energy independence, and the environmental impacts of extraction, processing, pipelines, tanker spills and transmission lines.	15
Increasing Energy Supply: Unconventional, Nuclear and Renewable	Recall questions on seismic surveying, deep-water drilling, hydraulic fracturing and unconventional reserves, on nuclear power and its advantages, and on solar photovoltaic, wind, hydroelectric, tidal barrage, wave, biomass and geothermal energy.	13
Reducing Energy Demand	Recall questions on insulation, appliance efficiency standards, public transport and carbon taxation.	9
Environmental Impacts and Sustainability of Energy	Recall questions on acid rain and its effects on forests, lakes and buildings, the enhanced greenhouse effect, nuclear waste disposal, the transport emissions, dependency and price volatility of energy trade, and the environmental impacts of oil, coal and gas field developments and their distribution networks.	15
The Alberta oil sands development	The Alberta oil sands as a case study of energy resource development, covering how bitumen is extracted, the effects on land, water, wildlife and nearby communities, the greenhouse gas emissions, and the pipelines that carry the oil to market.	11
Choosing a Mineral Ore Case Study	Recall questions on which ores may be chosen for a mineral security case study and why iron ore qualifies, the sources of ore supply, mineral reserves and resources and their uneven distribution, and the end uses of iron ore, copper, tin and manganese.	11
Demand for and Occurrence of Mineral Ores	Recall questions on industrial growth, technology, population, urbanisation and infrastructure as drivers of ore demand, on commodity markets, stockpiling, trade flows and supply chain dependencies, and on how rock type, tectonic setting, mineralisation, depth, accessibility, transport and climate affect ore occurrence and working.	17
The Environmental Cost of Mineral Extraction	Recall questions on habitat destruction, landscape scarring, soil erosion and biodiversity loss from mineral extraction, acid mine drainage, heavy metal contamination, sedimentation and air pollution, and on the wider damage caused by distribution networks, tailings dam failure, railways, roads and shipping.	19
The Bingham Canyon copper mine	Recall questions on the Bingham Canyon mine as a major mineral extraction scheme, its landscape impacts, the event of 10 April 2013, its effects on groundwater, how processing waste is stored, how its ore reaches markets and why part of it is treated as a contaminated site.	8
Sustainability in Mineral Supply	Recall questions on finite reserves, energy-intensive mining, land rehabilitation, trade and price instability, the energy use, waste, smelting pollution and water use of ore processing, and recycling, substitution, extraction efficiency and circular economy approaches.	13
Alternative Energy Futures	Recall questions on the technological, economic, environmental and political developments shaping alternative energy futures, including smart grids, the relative costs of renewables and fossil fuels, ecosystem degradation from fossil fuel extraction and government subsidies.	8
Alternative Water Futures	Recall questions on the technological, economic, environmental and political developments shaping alternative water futures, including precision irrigation, water pricing, aquifer depletion and transboundary water agreements.	8
Mineral Ore Futures	Recall questions on the technological, economic, environmental and political developments shaping mineral ore futures, including substitute materials, deep-sea and asteroid mining, rehabilitation requirements and resource nationalism.	8
Drivers of Resource Transitions	Recall questions on how technology increases resource availability, efficiency and alternatives, how markets, investment and economic growth shape resource development and demand, and how environmental limits, climate change, sustainability concerns, governance, international relations and policy drive resource transitions.	12
Resource Security and Human Welfare	Recall questions on what a global or regional case study should illustrate and on how human welfare depends on secure resources.	18

Resource Security is 337 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.