Management of Cold Environments (AQA A Level Geography): Revision Note

Managing Cold Environments

• Management involves balancing the environment with economic demands

• The are 3 approaches:

  • Prevention

  • Reaction

  • Adaptation

• Prevention

  • Where an attempt is made to prevent a harmful event from happening

  • Complete conservation of an area or limited scientific research

  • Restrictions on tourism or resource exploitation

  • Legal prevention or protection of an area (e.g. Antarctica) through international agreements, national governments, non-government organisations (NGOs), and technology

• Reaction

  • Where there is a rapid response to an event once it has happened

  • Introducing temporary fishing quotas to allow a particular fish stock to recover

  • Cleaning up of an oil spill

  • The Alaskan government provides emergency food supplies to feed 40,000 people for 7 days after a natural disaster cuts people off from regular supplies

  • Offsetting carbon emissions to reduce global warming

  • Ability to monitor and react to impacts - limiting the numbers of tourists to certain areas 

    • Clean and disinfect footwear of tourists to Antarctica in an effort to prevent invasive flora to the continent

• Adaptation

  • Learning from and adapting to changes in the environment

  • Identifying the needs of the indigenous communities without preventing access to their native hunting grounds and maintain cultural heritage

  • Working practices are adapted - some employees take warming-up breaks to prevent frostbite and hypothermia

  • Calorie intake has to be increased to cope with extreme temperatures and keep healthy

  • Either increasing or decreasing protection of areas as necessary

  • Using technology to help prevent further melting of the permafrost by buildings and roads, for example:

    • Parts of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline are raised on stilts to prevent permafrost melt and creating unstable ground

    • Homes are raised on stilts to prevent their heat from melting the permafrost (which can cause the land to sink and subside)

    • To avoid damage to the permafrost, allow access and prevent freezing, domestic pipes are above ground

    • Reducing heating costs through triple glazed homes and geothermal power

    • Alaskan roads are built on 1-2-metre-thick gravel pads that stop heat transferring from vehicles to the soil beneath which would cause permafrost to melt and roads to crack