Intro To Pop & Env Flashcards
(32 cards)
What are the 6 key physical environmental elements that lead to a place being sparsely populated?
- hostile relief
- hostile climate
- thick vegetation
- poor quality soils
- few resources
- no water supply
What 2 things does hostile relief imply?
◦ Mountainous areas where temperatures may be low.
‣ E.g. the Andes, the Himalayas.
◦ Active volcanic areas.
‣ E.g. Iceland.
What 4 things does hostile climate imply?
◦ Areas of very low annual rainfall.
‣ E.g. the Sahara desert.
◦ Areas of long seasonal drought.
‣ E.g. the Sahel.
◦ Areas with high humidity.
‣ E.g. the Amazon.
◦ Very cold areas.
‣ E.g. Northern Canada, Siberia.
What 2 things does thick vegetation imply?
◦ E.g. the coniferous forests of northern Eurasia and northern Canada.
◦ E.g. the rainforests of the Amazon and the Zaire basins.
What 4 things does poor quality soils imply?
◦ E.g. the frozen soils (permafrost) of the Arctic and Siberia.
◦ E.g. the thin soils of mountainous areas.
◦ E.g. the leached soils of the Amazon rainforest where forest clearance has occurred.
◦ E.g. the overgrazed areas of the Sahel.
What does few resources imply?
Areas lacking in fuel resources and valuable mineral resources or areas where extensive farming takes place.
What does no water supply imply?
◦ Areas lacking a permanent supply of fresh clean water due to irregular rainfall, or few wells and reservoirs.
‣ E.g. Sudan and Ethiopia.
What are the 6 key physical environmental elements that lead to a place being densely populated?
- hospitable relief
- hospitable climate
- hospitable vegetation
- fertile soils
- lots of resources
- water resources
What 2 things does hospitable relief imply?
◦ Flat lowland areas.
‣ E.g. the Netherlands and Bangladesh.
◦ Relatively stable volcanic areas.
‣ E.g. Mt Etna in Italy.
What 2 things does hospitable climate imply?
◦ Areas with reliable, evenly distributed rainfall, a lengthy growing season, and no temperature extremes.
‣ E.g. Western Europe.
◦ Areas with high levels of sunshine.
‣ E.g. California.
What does hospitable vegetation imply?
◦ Areas of grassland encourage pastoral farming which supports a relatively dense population.
‣ E.g. Denmark or the Pampas of Argentina.
What does fertile soils imply?
◦ Areas with deep, rich in humus, soils such as those found in alluvial river basins support intensive farming.
‣ E.g. the Ganges valley, the Paris area or the Nile delta.
What 2 things does lots of resources imply?
◦ Areas with extensive deposits of coal close to the surface.
‣ E.g. the Rhine-Ruhr, Donbas or Yorkshire/Lancashire.
◦ Areas where intensive farming takes place.
‣ E.g. the Ganges valley, The Low Countries or the East coast of China.
What does water resources imply?
◦ Areas with a regular and reliable supply of water.
◦ These may be areas with an evenly distributed rainfall (E.g. NW Europe) or heavy seasonal rainfall (E.g. the monsoon lands of SE Asia).
What are the 4 key population parameters?
- population distribution
- population density
- population change
- population number
What does it mean by the distribution of the population?
Where people are located and where they are not
How is the distribution of a population measured?
Usually displayed by a dot map
What does it mean by the density of a population?
Refers to an number of people per unit area, for example per km^2
How is population density displayed?
Usually displayed by a choropleth map
What does it mean by population change?
refers to an increase or decrease in a population either through natural causes or migration, or a combination of both.
What does it mean by population number?
refers to the actual amount of people at any given time.
Can you give a statistic of population number?
In October 2018 the world’s population was 7.6 billion
How many people are living in developing countries?
6 billion
How many people are living in developed countries?
1.3 billion
