https://brendantoohey.com/urban-biodiversity-singapore/

1. Watch

Use pages 58-63 of Pearson textbook to answer Questions 1-4.

Read the yellow box “Spotlight: The biggest estate on earth” on p. 63. Use it, the video above (and the extension video below if you wish [15 min long]) to answer the following question in about 150-200 words: Compare the management practices of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with those of contemporary management in Australia. Assess the sustainability of each.

Extension:

This is Bill Gammage, who wrote a key book (The Greatest Estate on Earth) about Aboriginal land management. The first Europeans described what they saw as ‘parks’, but they never assumed that ‘wandering savages’ could have made such a thing. It is an interesting and different explanation of pre-European land use and management to what we tend to think about.

Links: 

Aboriginal Land Care

Aboriginal Fire Management

Our environment

List as many words as you can think of to describe ‘environment’ or its components. [2 min]

How do humans use ‘the environment’ – ie the resources of the earth? Classify these resources as Renewable, Somewhat Renewable or Not Renewable.

Refer to this document. Outline how the earth functions as source, sink, service and spiritual.
What are some examples of these not listed in the document?

Homework

1. Finish the above.

2. Some ecosystem services are below. Give an example for each, and classify as source, sink, service or spirituality:

• Dispersing seeds
• Places for recreation and reflection
• Purifying the air, providing oxygen
• Moderating weather extremes
• Building and maintaining soil fertility
• Decomposing and dispersing waste
• Providing food and fibre
• Protection from river and coastal erosion
• Filtering water
• Plant pollination
• Providing shade
• Protection from UV rays
• Controlling farming pests

[If time … could you draw this? Feel free to do this if you wish, but no compulsion!]

In Geography this Semester we will look at:

Environmental Management and Change

Key Focus 1 – The human-induced environmental changes that challenge sustainability
Key Focus 2 – Urban environments: A comparative study of Australian and international eg’s

Geographies of Human Wellbeing

Key Focus 1 – Human Wellbeing
Key Focus 2 – Inequalities in Human Wellbeing
Key Focus 3 – Improving Human Wellbeing

Week 1

8 groups of 3 to read from photocopy (Oxford Big Ideas – Geo 10, pp 6-12)

1 Place Space

2 Environment Interconnection

3 Scale Change

4 Place Environment

5 Space Scale

6 Interconnection Change

7 Sustainability Environment

8 Interconnection Sustainability

Geographical Concepts – table

 Answer these questions for your two conceptsin the table above:

• What is it?
• Does this concept have different categories?
• What do geographers study in relation to this concept?
• Why is this concept important?

Then, find someone who has a concept you need, and you have a concept they need. Share your answers. Discuss and clarify (go back to the handout if necessary)