Every card in Population and urbanisation, Year 11: a major UK city
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- Many of the UK's major cities grew very quickly in the nineteenth century. What drew so many people into them from the countryside?
Jobs in the factories, mills and docks of the Industrial Revolution
HintThink about the big change in how goods were made at that time.
WhyThis was national migration: people moving within the UK. Rural workers left farms for paid work in mills, factories, mines and docks. The terraced streets and old industrial districts of many UK cities date from this period of growth.
- From the late 1940s many people from Commonwealth countries, at first mainly from the Caribbean and later from South Asia, moved to UK cities, and employers such as transport services and hospitals recruited some of them directly. What problem in Britain made employers do this?
A shortage of workers after the Second World War
HintThe country was rebuilding and many posts stood empty.
WhyBritain needed staff for transport, factories and the new National Health Service. Migrants from Commonwealth countries filled many of these posts and settled mostly in the large cities where the work was. Their families and communities are a lasting part of the character of those cities.
- People arriving in a UK city from abroad often settle first in a district where others from the same country already live. What is the main reason?
An established community can support them with family, familiar shops, places of worship and help finding work
HintImagine arriving somewhere new, and what would make the first weeks easier.
WhyThis is how districts with a distinct character develop: shops, restaurants, places of worship and festivals reflect the people who settled there. It is a normal pattern of migration everywhere, including British people who move abroad. Over time many families move on to other parts of the city.
- A UK city's population grows quickly as people move in from the rest of the UK and from abroad, but few new homes are built. What happens to rents and house prices, and why?
They rise, because demand for homes grows faster than new homes are built
HintThink of what happens to the cost of anything when lots of buyers chase too little of it.
WhyMigration brings workers, skills and spending, but homes take years to plan and build. In the short term more households compete for the same housing, so costs go up. This is one reason housing inequality is a challenge in growing UK cities.
- AQA sorts migration into a UK city into two types by where the migrants come from. What does it call the movement of people into the city from elsewhere in the UK?
National migration (also called internal migration)
HintIt is the same word used for the scale of a whole country.
WhyNational migration is movement within one country, for example students and graduates moving to a big city. Many textbooks call it internal migration. International migration is movement from one country to another. Your case study should show the effect of both on the city.
- Buses, trains, trams and cycle routes that are planned to work together, with timetables that connect, shared stations and one ticket for the whole journey
An integrated transport system
HintThe first word of the answer means "joined into one whole".
WhyWhen services connect, a journey by public transport can compete with a car journey door to door. Passengers change easily between bus, tram and train and pay once. More people then leave the car at home, which cuts congestion and air pollution.
- Adding plants to the built-up parts of a city: street trees, small parks, green roofs and planted walls
Urban greening
HintThe second word is a colour turned into an action.
WhyThis is the environmental opportunity AQA lists for a changing UK city. Plants give shade, soak up rain, take in some air pollution and make streets more pleasant. Old industrial land, railway lines and riversides are often turned into green space.
- How do street trees, parks and green roofs reduce the risk of flash flooding in a city during heavy rain?
They catch rain and let it soak into soil, so less runs straight off hard surfaces into the drains
HintCompare what a raindrop does on tarmac with what it does on a lawn.
WhyConcrete and tarmac are impermeable, so rain runs off them at once and can overwhelm the drains. Leaves catch some rain, and soil lets water soak in slowly. Planted areas therefore slow the flow of water into drains and rivers.
- Food, music, languages and festivals brought by people who have moved to a UK city from many places are part of what geographers call its ____ mix.
cultural
HintThe missing word describes a people's shared way of life.
WhyAQA lists cultural mix as a social and economic opportunity of urban change. It widens what residents can eat, hear and take part in. It also supports restaurants, shops and events that create jobs and attract visitors.
- A disused waterfront in a UK city is rebuilt with shops, museums and a concert arena. This gives residents more to do. How does it also help the city's economy?
It creates jobs and brings in visitors who spend money
HintCount the people needed to run such places, and those who travel in to use them.
WhyRecreation and entertainment is both a social and an economic opportunity. Venues need staff, and visitors also pay for hotels, food and transport nearby. In the exam, say which effects are social and which are economic.
- Land in a town or city that has been built on before and can be redeveloped, such as the site of a closed factory
A brownfield site
HintThe name uses the colour of bare earth and rubble.
WhyPlanning law in England calls this "previously developed land". Reusing it brings derelict land back into use and saves countryside. It can cost more, because old buildings must be cleared and polluted ground cleaned first.
- House-building companies usually prefer greenfield sites to brownfield sites. What makes a greenfield site cheaper to build on?
There is nothing to demolish or clean up before building starts
HintThink about what has to happen on an old factory plot ahead of laying the first brick.
WhyA greenfield site has never been built on, so it is usually farmland at the edge of a city. Builders can start straight away and lay out the estate as they wish. The costs fall elsewhere: farmland and habitats are lost, and new roads and services are needed.
- By the 1980s many inner areas of UK cities had large amounts of derelict land. What had happened to cause it?
Factories, docks and warehouses had closed and been abandoned
HintThink about where people in those districts used to work.
WhyAs manufacturing declined and ports moved to deeper water, the buildings and land they had used were left empty. Derelict land attracts vandalism and puts off new investment. It is one of the main reasons inner-city areas later needed regeneration.
- Deprivation is about more than low income. England's official measure combines seven kinds, including health, education and housing, into the Index of ____ Deprivation.
Multiple
HintThe missing word means "more than one".
WhyThe index ranks every small neighbourhood in England from most to least deprived. Its seven parts include income, employment, education, health, crime, housing and the living environment. Geographers use it to map inequality within a city, district by district. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own versions.
- Two districts of one UK city are served by the same hospitals, yet people in one live several years less on average. What is the most likely underlying reason?
That district is more deprived: lower incomes bring poorer housing, diet and health
HintLook beyond the doctors, at the conditions of everyday life.
WhyHealth depends on much more than health care. Damp or crowded housing, insecure work, stress, diet and air quality all affect how long people live. This is why inequalities in health, housing, education and employment tend to appear in the same districts.
- UK cities are trying to send less waste to landfill. As food and garden waste rots in a landfill site it gives off carbon dioxide and a second greenhouse gas that traps far more heat. Name the second gas. (one word)
methane
HintIt is also the main gas in the natural gas burnt in cookers.
WhyLandfill takes up land that cities are short of, and rotting waste releases this gas, which adds to climate change. Councils therefore collect food waste and recycling separately and burn some of the rest to generate electricity. Waste disposal is one of the environmental challenges AQA lists for a UK city.
1★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0016
2★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0017
3★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0018
4★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0019
5★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0020
6★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0021
7★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0022
8★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0023
9★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0024
10★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0025
11★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0026
12★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0027
13★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0028
14★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0029
15★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0030
16★ GCSE-GEOG-POP-0031
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