GEO NOTES: Jasper Wetherill & Nate Ho

CHANGING PLACES
Population Density
• Population density in Australia is associated with different land
uses:
- The closely settled coastal strip contains almost all the major
urban centers and most of the large-scale industries and businesses
- The moderately settled zone is dominated by agriculture and
some small-scale industries
- The sparsely settled zone is dominated by extensive grazing and
scattered mining activities
• More than 86 percent of the population (19.6 million people) live
in urban centers
• 54% of the population (12.3 million people) live in Brisbane,
Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide
• Australia has the lowest population density out of every
continent, except Antarctica, with 2.9 people per square kilometer

Changing Distribution
• Rural communities are currently struggling to survive in Australia
due to their populations declining from movements to urbanized areas
• The fastest growing areas of Australia currently are the areas
surrounding large cities and capitals of resource-rich states
Factors affecting distribution
• Factors affecting distribution include:
- Physical factors (harsh climate, scarce water resources, low
rainfall, poor soil)
- Historical factors (Australia’s urban centers were sites developed
first when Europeans settled, this reinforces the dominance of capital
cities)
- Economic factors (Reliance on European goods at coasts with
ports that receive the goods)

Urban Concentrations
• Advantages to densely populated urban areas are:
- Better infrastructure (water, electricity, broadband, sewerage and
public transport)
- Better services (education, health care)
- A more diverse range of culture, sport, shops, restaurants,
entertainment
- Economic advantages (more jobs and more businesses supplying
goods)
• Disadvantages:
- Traffic congestion
- Air pollution
- Polluted rivers and creeks
- Expensive housing
- A lack of a sense of community
- Higher levels of crime
HABITAT LOSS
Habitat
• A habitat is the biophysical environment in which a community of
plants and animals lives
• As habitats are destroyed, the communities of plants and animals
that depend on them are displaced, with the result that some face
extinction

Pressures of biodiversity
• The results of the increase for food, clothing and shelter is that
whole habitats are lost and area’s biodiversity is destroyed
• While some species are already extinct, a growing number of
species are classified as endangered, vulnerable or threatened

Levels of Threat
• The IUCN classifies the threat to species on a scale, from
threatened to extinct:
- Threatened – close to qualifying for the endangered or vulnerable
categories in the near future
- Vulnerable – considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in
the wild
- Endangered – considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction
in the wild
- Critically endangered – considered to be facing an extremely high
risk of extinction in the wild
- Extinct in the wild – Found only in captivity (that is, in zoological
gardens or seed banks)
- Extinct – Not seen in the wild for the last 50 years

Habitat loss and degradation

• The main reason that so many species have become endangered
or extinct in the past hundred years is loss of habitat
• The clearing of land for housing, logging and farming is the main
cause of this habitat destruction

Introduced species
• Introduced species of plants and animals can be an important
factor in the decline of established native species
• They compete with native species and often eliminate them in
wide areas
• Many small species, such as the short-tailed hopping mouse and
the numbat, have become endangered because of hunting by
introduced species

Hunting (over-exploitation)
• Over-exploitation is a significant cause of species loss and
endangerment

Disease
• The emergence of infectious diseases in free-living wild animals is
a growing threat to biodiversity
• For example, Tasmanian devils have been affected by a facial
tumor disease
Pollution
• Many the pollutants released into the environment by human
activities have significant, large-scale impacts on the world’s terrestrial
and aquatic ecosystems

Climate Change
• Global warming has the potential to transform ecosystems which
affect the community of plants and animals within the ecosystems

Other Causes
• The impacts of natural disasters, urban development, tourism and
the illegal trade in wildlife and animal-based products are also seen as
threats to biodiversity

Wildlife Trade
• Second largest illegal trade-based activity, drug trade being
bigger
• It is the most serious threat to a number of endangered species
• The items traded can be alive or dead
• Illegal trade of wildlife is valued at US$10 -$20 billion per year

Human wellbeing:
Pg 309-310:
● Wellbeing:
“Human wellbeing” refers to the quality of life experienced by people
individually and collectively.
It is measured through life expectancy, educational attainment, income,
and subjective judgements people make.
The quality of life experienced by people depends on whether they live
in a developed or developing country.
● Global variations in wellbeing:
The quality of life experienced by people depends on the developed or
developing countries.
Variations in human wellbeing can be found within countries such as
homelessness, race, wealthy businessmen in developing country.
● Defining development:
Development is a contested term. It can be viewed as the outcome of
economic growth.
Development can be understood in terms of an outgoing, dynamic,
socio-economic process, the aim of which is sustained improvement in
people’s quality of life or wellbeing.
● Defining wealth:
Country’s wealth measured through gross domestic product (GDP): the
total value of the goods and services produced each year.
GDP per person or per captia is calculated by dividing the countries
GDP by the number of people. GDP divided Population.
Other measurements HDI & IHDI (inequality adjusted Human
Development Index) takes account of income, life expectancy and
education.
● Defining Poverty:
Poverty defined relative or absolute:
Relative: the situation where people are poorer than others in the
community but still have access to adequate resources.
Absolute: coping without the resources (food, clothing & shelter)
necessary for life. These people are barely surviving.
 ● Global inequalities:
A small group of people just enough to fill a double decker bus had
accumulated as much wealth as that shared by half the world’s people.
Inequality evident in the world.
The wealth of the richest 1% of the world population was about $110
trillion, 65x total wealth of the bottom 50% of the worlds population.

Pg 324-327:
● Poverty:
Extreme poverty most common in areas where poor health and lack of
education deprive people of productive employment; environmental
resources depleted or spoiled; and corruption, conflict and poor
governance result waste in public resources. 12.7% live below U.S
$1.90 per day.
● Low per capita income:
Developing countries tend to have low levels of per capita income
compared to wealthier countries.
● Lack of adequate shelter:
Around 33% of urban population in developing world/880 million
people live in slums.
● Lack of access to clean water and sanitation:
663 million people rely on water from unsafe sources. 83% live in rural
areas.
● Low life expectancy:
Many disease in poor countries are preventable and treatable- poverty
prevents this.
Diseases originating from contaminated water supplies, inadequate
sanitation, poor nutrition, inadequate or inappropriate health care and
poor health/hygiene.