UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL EXAMINATIONS

International General Certificate of Secondary Education(IGCSE)

Contents

Topic Page No.
1. Theme 1: Population and Settlement
1.1 Population Dynamics 3
1.2 Over-population and under-population
1.3: Migration 13
1.4: Population Distribution and Density
1.5: Population structure 18
1.6: Rural Settlements 25
1.7: Urban Settlements
1.8: Urbanisation 32
1.9: Urban Problems
1.10: Urban Sprawl 37
Theme 2: The Natural Environment
2.1: Plate tectonic movement 41
2.2. Volcanoes
2.3 Earthquake 47
2.4 River system 51
2.5 Coastal system 58
2.6 Coral reef 65
2.7 Weather Instruments and measurements 67
2.8 Climate and natural vegetation 69
2.9 Tropical Rainforest 72
2.10 Tropical Hot desert 78
Theme 3: Economic development
3.1 Development 80
3.2 Food production – Agricultural system 88
3.3 Food Shortages 92
3.4 Industry 96
3.5 Hi-tech Industry 102
3.6 Tourism 103
3.7 Energy 106
3.8 Water Resources 113
3.9 Environmental risks of economic development 120
Syllabus IGCSE

Key Term:

  1. The World population in 2011 was 7.0 billion. In 2023 it will be 8 billion
  2. Population: the number of people living in a particular geographical area
  3. Population explosion – the rapid growth of world population is known as population explosion. There was a sudden increase of world population growth in the 1950s.
  4. Population density: the average number of people in a given area per square kilometer. Or the total number of people living in a square kilometer of land.
  5. Birth rate: the number of live births per 1000 people per year
  6. Death rate: the number of deaths per 1000 people per year
  7. Natural increase: the difference between birth and death rate is known as natural increase.

Natural increase = Birth rate – Death rate

  1. Census: an official count of the population at a regular interval.
  2. Infant mortality rate: the number of deaths in a year per 1000 children below the age of one
  3. Life expectancy: the average number of years of a person is expected to live
  4. Demography: the study of human population, their size, distribution, and composition.
  5. Population structure: Age and sex composition of a country population
  6. Population Pyramid: Is a diagram that shows the proportion of the total population of sex (male and female) and their age group. The population Pyramid helps us to judge and predict about the future population.
  7. Elderly Dependent: the age group of 60 years and above (may change as retirement ages increase)
  8. Young Dependent: the age group between 16 year and under is considered as young dependent
  9. Working population: the age group between 15 years and 64 year is the working population