VCE GEOGRAPHY INFORMATION VIDEO
VCAA GEOGRAPHY STUDY DESIGN (2022 - 2026)
UNIT 1: HAZARDS and DISASTERS
In this unit students undertake an overview of hazards before investigating two contrasting types of hazards and the responses to them by people.
Hazards represent the potential to cause harm to people and or the environment whereas disasters are judgments about the impacts of hazard events. Hazards include a wide range of situations including those within local areas, such as fast moving traffic or the likelihood of coastal erosion, to regional and global hazards such as drought and infectious disease. Students examine the processes involved with hazards and hazard events, including their causes and impacts, human responses to hazard events and interconnections between human activities and natural phenomena. This unit investigates how people have responded to specific types of hazards, including attempts to reduce vulnerability to, and the impact of, hazard events.
Types of hazards are commonly classified by their causes:
- geological (or geophysical) hazards include volcanic activity, erosion, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides and avalanches
- hydro-meteorological (weather, climate, water) hazards include droughts, floods, storms, storm surges and bushfires
- biological hazards include infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, animal transmitted diseases, water borne diseases, and plant and animal invasion such as blackberries and cane toads in Australia
- technological hazards are human induced and exacerbated hazards including oil spills, air pollution, radiation leaks, flooding primarily caused by land clearances, epidemics caused by poor living conditions and hazards caused by current climate change such as rising sea levels or increased intensification of weather events.
There may be considerable interconnection between the causes and types of hazards. For example, a region may be at risk from a number of hazards: high seasonal rainfall may result in a primary flood hazard which may in turn generate a secondary hazard of landslides.
Students undertake fieldwork in this unit and report on fieldwork using the structure provided.
Outcomes:
On completion of this unit the student should be able to:
- analyse, describe and explain the nature of hazards and impacts of hazard events at a range of scales
- analyse and explain the nature, purpose and effectiveness of a range of responses to selected hazards and disasters.
UNIT 2: TOURISM
In this unit students investigate the characteristics of tourism, with particular emphasis on where it has developed, its various forms, how it has changed and continues to change and its impacts on people, places environments. They select contrasting examples of tourism from within Australia and elsewhere in the world to support their investigations. Tourism involves the movement of people travelling away from and staying outside of their usual environment for more than 24 hours but not more than one consecutive year (United Nations World Tourism Organization definition). Over one billion tourists a year cross international boundaries with greater numbers involved as domestic tourists within their own countries. The Asia and the Pacific hosts 23 per cent of international arrivals. The scale of tourist movements since the 1950s and its predicted growth has had and continues to have a significant impact on local, regional and national environments, economies and cultures. The travel and tourism industry is directly responsible for one in every twelve jobs globally and generates around 5 per cent of its GDP. (UN TWO Annual Reports 2011–2013).
The study of tourism at local, regional and global scales emphasizes the interconnection within and between places. For example, the interconnections of climate, landforms and culture help determine the characteristics of a place that can prove attractive to tourists. There is an interconnection between places tourists originate from and their destinations through the development of communication and transport infrastructure, employment, together with cultural preservation and acculturation. The growth of tourism at all scales requires careful management to ensure environmentally sustainable and economically viable tourism.
Students undertake fieldwork in this unit and report on fieldwork using the structure provided.
Outcomes:
On completion of this unit the student should be able to:
- analyse, describe and explain the nature of tourism at a range of scales
- analyse and explain the impacts of tourism on people, places and environments and evaluate the effectiveness of strategies for managing tourism.
ASSESSMENT FOR UNITS 1 & 2
- a fieldwork report of approximately 1500–2000 words
and at least one of:
- structured questions as a test and/or examination
- a case study
- a report
- a folio of exercises.