midterm 1 Flashcards
what factors are used to differentiate regions within BC?
Name these regions
The province is divided into 8 regions, devised mainly by considering historical development in combination with census subdivisions.
- Vancouver Island/central coast
- Lower mainland
- Okanagan
- Kootenay
- South Central Interior
- North Central interior
- North Coast/Northwest
- Peace River/Northeast
what is time space-convergence?
The process, made possible by technological innovations in transportation and communication, by which distant places are brought closer together in terms of the time taken to travel (send messages) between them.
how has the process of urbanization changed in BC?
Major occupations in 1871 (birth of the province) mostly in the primary sector ( mining, fishing, logging). ~85% population rural. Year after year this number decreased.
what % of BC is considered Urban?
2011 -85%
what are some of the reasons for the rural to urban shift in BC’s population?
Population moving to urban areas to look for jobs in the secondary and tertiary sectors. Also, immigration waves. Immigrants want to go to urban environments to have access to services, social networks and opportunities.
define regional Geography
Is a means of assessing geographic areas that have common physical or human/cultural characteristics and can thus be distinguished from other regions.
what main factors helped determine the areas where pre-contact First-Nations (FN) and post-contact settle?
BC has an abundant supply of resources, which have been the main attraction for the population and the reason for its rapid growth.
What attracted the FN people to the lower mainland?
Historically, salmon and other resources of the water and land attracted many FN to the region.
What attracted non-FN people to the lower mainland and Fraser River?
For non-native, gold was the main attraction following its discovery on the Fraser in 1858.
Agricultural settlements soon followed.
What proportion (%) of the province’s population lives in the lower mainland?
60%
What is the largest lake in the Okanagan?
Okanagan Lake
What spurred settlement in this region after the fur trade?
Some non-Native settlement occurred with the fur trade, but much more took place as the region became recognized for its farming potential as a fruit-growing area.
How many seasons occur in the Okanagan and how does this affect tourism?
Dry climate and 4 distinct seasons.
Tourism, which had mainly been a summer activity, expanded into a year-round endeavour, with golf courses and ski runs.
Name two crops grown in the Okanagan
Apples, peaches, cherries.
What are some examples of push factors?
A push factor is a flaw or distress that drives a person away from a certain place. Eg: unemployment, insecurity, political instability, drought, famine.
- Explain the difference between convective uplift and orographic uplift
a) where is convection a common process?
convective uplift occurs when air near the ground is warmed by the sun and begins to rise. air rises and cools, forming clouds and precipitation.
Orographic uplift occurs when air is forced upward by a topographic obstacle, like a mountain. rising air cools to form clouds and precipitation
a) convection is a common process of slow movement of material below the Earth’s crust
52.Energy use drives climate change through the production of _____________ through burning fossil fuels
greenhouse gases such as CO2
- Greenhouse gases trap primarily longwave or shortwave radiation
longwave
- Increased temperatures and decreased precipitation may cause drought and increase the prevalence of forest fires in BC’s interior
true
- Explain how the Mountain Pine Beetle outbreak in BC’s interior is associated with climate change
Milder winters and warmer summers contribute to both higher recruitment and survival rates of the pine beetle
- Glaciers act like ____________, pushing till and creating different soil textures over time
movers
- Soil type and climate can affect vegetation types. Explain the difference between the size of coastal trees and those in BC’s interior
coastal trees are taller than the trees in the interior due to more precipitation
- BC’s Government has set the goal of reducing it’s greenhouse gas emissions by ___% by 2020
33%
- Explain what a natural system is and what three types of hazards exist within natural systems?
natural systems are the product of millions of years of evolution in a changing world, where the climate and the layout of the continents themselves have interacted with the distribution and composition of life
- tectonic hazard
- gravitational hazard
- Climatic hazard
62.What are BC’s five main Geohazards?
floods wildfires avalanches debris flow/ landslides earthquakes
Who in BC are most vulnerable to earthquakes?
Why?
The entire West Coast of British Columbia is the most vulnerable earthquake zone in Canada, due to the tectonic process of the Juan de Fuca plate subducting under the North American Plate.
What push factors caused the Doukhobours to move to the Kootenays?
Escape religious persecution in Europe and political persecution in Saskatchewan.
Explain “boom and bust” cycles and how they relate to resources
A boom and bust cycle is a process of economic expansion and contraction that occurs repeatedly. Theboom and bust cycle is a key characteristic of today’s capitalist economies. During the boom the economy grows, jobs are plentiful.
Was gold ever discovered in the North Central Interior?
High or Low quantities of gold?
yes. Gold Rush started in the early 1860s. By the end of the 1860s, the gold discoveries were minimal.
What event created the largest “pull” and lead to more permanent non-Native settlement?
The region remained relatively uninhabited until the CNR connected it to the port of Prince Rupert in 1914.
What effect did cattle ranching have on the wild bunch grass in this region?
Why were they cattle ranching?
Were it not for the bunchgrass, the cattle drives to the Cariboo during the BC gold rush would not have been possible. Cattle fed on wild bunchgrass that was plentiful from Washington State, through the Okanagan, and along the river valleys of the Nicola, the Fraser and the Thompson River. Came to rely on the nutritious grain to sustain the cattle all the way to the gold diggings in the Cariboo.
The problem started to arise as more and more ranchers realized the need to protect grazing areas. It became necessary to move the cattle from one area to another in order that the grass could replenish itself.
Prince George and Kamloops are considered “hubs”. Explain?
Transportation hub of rail lines and highway systems, connecting different regions of BC.
Would you categorize the North Central Interior Region as resource dependent and if so, what part of the boom and bust cycle is it presently in?
Yes, it is extremely resource dependent and considering the mines that have been closed and also the forest industry downward cycle, it is in the bust part.
What effect is the pine beetle having on local forest in this region?
There has been an infestation of mountain pine beetle, which has devastated forests, affecting the forest industry, which is already in a serious downward cycle.
The creation of an aluminum plant in Kitimat is a good example of a push or pull factor?
Why?
Pull factor. One of the first areas outside the lower mainland to expand with the post WWII boom was Kitimat. This planned town was built to house the workers for a new aluminum plant in the early 1950s.
Why are there so few roads in the North Coast – Northwest region?
There are few road or rail lines through this area even today, and its growth is tied closely to resource development. The north coast/northwest region is slow growing, and recently, the population has declined.
The Peace River - Northeast region has a topography and geological structure similar to the _______ ( a Canadian Region that spans Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba).
Prairies
A portion of the Peace River - Northeast region is covered by ____, signed in 1899
treaty 8
The growth of what crop facilitated homesteading in peace river region?
Wheat farming on the excellent soil and cattle rearing have been the main agricultural activities of the Peace River area. However, agriculture has been difficult because the price of grain has been low consistently, and in 2003 beef industry affected by bovine disease.
What is geomorphology?
The study of processes that create landforms and transform the surface of the Earth.
Name the three different types of rock in the rock cycle?
Igneous rocks (basalt and granite), sedimentary rocks (coal and limestone) and metamorphic rocks (marble)
Explain how igneous rock is created?
They are created when molten magma cools and hardens into a solid state. As the temperature drops, crystals of minerals form. If the magma cools fast (over days, years, or even decades) the crystals formed are very small. These quickly cooled rocks are found near the Earth’s surface and are known as extrusive volcanic igneous rocks (eg: basalt). Magma that cools tens of kilometers below the Earth’s surface may require millions of years to solidify. These rocks are called intrusive or plutonic igneous rocks and are formed of big crystals. (eg: granite)
