3.2.3.7 Other contemporary urban environmental issues Quiz: AQA Geography, Unit 2

The 20 questions

1. Dereliction in an urban area most accurately refers to:

   • Land and buildings left vacant, neglected and often contaminated after previous uses have ended
   • Parks maintained by volunteers for public recreation
   • Newly built offices awaiting occupation by tenants
   • Agricultural land on the urban fringe under active cultivation

2. A brownfield site is best defined as:

   • Previously developed land that is now vacant or underused, often in an urban area
   • A site reserved for new harbour facilities only
   • Land never built on, such as a greenfield meadow
   • A protected area of woodland within the city boundary

3. Which pollutant is most typically associated with urban atmospheric pollution from coal burning?

   • Methane from landfill sites only
   • Chlorofluorocarbons from aerosol cans only
   • Sulphur dioxide
   • Radon gas from bedrock

4. Which water pollution problem in cities is most linked to sewage overflows during heavy rain?

   • Combined sewer overflows discharging untreated sewage into rivers
   • Thermal pollution from nuclear power stations
   • Eutrophication caused by farm fertiliser on rural fields
   • Acid rain falling directly into city reservoirs

5. Which strategy best manages atmospheric pollution from urban traffic?

   • Removing all public transport to reduce emissions
   • Increasing the number of diesel generators in the city
   • A clean air zone that charges or restricts the most polluting vehicles
   • Expanding car parking across the city centre

6. Water pollution from industrial effluent is best managed by:

   • Increasing the volume of effluent to dilute it
   • Storing effluent in unlined pits near rivers
   • Treating discharges and enforcing consent limits before water enters rivers
   • Discharging effluent straight into surface drains

7. A city's old gasworks site has contaminated soil and remains unused for twenty years. What is the most appropriate description?

   • Greenfield land ready for housing without treatment
   • Protected nature reserve with no human impact
   • Active industrial site producing new goods
   • Derelict brownfield land with legacy contamination

8. Which environmental problem most directly results from urban dereliction?

   • Increased agricultural productivity on city land, as the vacant plots are turned over to crops that improve local food supply each season
   • Reduced atmospheric pollution from vacant buildings, since empty structures no longer emit the gases once produced by their industry
   • Greater biodiversity across all brownfield sites, because abandoned land develops rich habitats that support a wide range of species
   • Visual decline, fly-tipping and contamination that can lower property values and health

9. Which strategy would most effectively address derelict urban land while limiting new greenfield loss?

   • Permitting new housing only on the urban fringe, so that all growth is directed onto greenfield farmland beyond the city boundary
   • Demolishing all buildings and leaving the land bare, which removes the structures but leaves the contaminated soil in place for decades
   • Redevelopment of brownfield sites through remediation and regeneration
   • Leaving derelict sites unmanaged to attract wildlife, on the basis that abandoned land gradually recovers its natural habitats over time

10. A city's air pollution data show nitrogen dioxide levels above legal limits on most major roads. Which statement is best supported?

    • Traffic is likely a major source, and targeted traffic management could reduce concentrations
    • Nitrogen dioxide has no health effects at any concentration, so the legal limits on roadside air quality serve no public health purpose
    • Nitrogen dioxide is produced only by volcanic activity, which releases the gas from fissures along the urban fault lines beneath the city
    • Air quality on these roads cannot be improved by any policy, because vehicle emissions are fixed by the design of the engines

11. Which argument best evaluates the view that urban water pollution is a purely local issue?

    • Pollution in urban rivers can affect downstream ecosystems and estuaries, so impacts extend beyond the city
    • Urban water is always clean because of treatment works, which remove every pollutant before any water returns to the local rivers
    • Water pollution only affects the atmosphere and never rivers, since pollutants evaporate on contact with the surface of the water
    • Urban water pollution never leaves the city boundary, because rivers are contained within the urban area and do not flow further

12. A river in a city is recorded with dissolved oxygen falling after heavy storm overflows. What is the most likely cause?

    • Organic pollution from sewage depleting oxygen as it decomposes
    • Increased photosynthesis in the river during storms, as algae multiply rapidly and release oxygen into the water column each day
    • Greater turbulence removing all oxygen from the water, since fast-flowing storm water strips gas out of the river at every weir
    • Cold water temperatures holding more oxygen, because storm runoff chills the river and so raises the oxygen content of the water

13. Which feature of contaminated brownfield sites most limits their redevelopment?

    • The cost of remediation needed to make the soil safe for new uses
    • The proximity of the site to a national park, which places strict limits on any building work near the protected landscape boundary
    • The high fertility of the soil for growing crops, which makes it valuable for agriculture and rules out any use as residential land
    • The abundance of wildlife on the site, which makes any development unacceptable because it would disturb habitats that support many species

14. Which measure would best indicate progress in reducing urban air pollution?

    • Falling annual mean concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and fine particulates at monitoring sites
    • A rise in the number of sites classified as derelict, which shows that more land is being left vacant and unmanaged each year
    • More days with heavy fog caused by emissions, which reduces visibility across the city and shows that smog is increasing each season
    • An increase in the number of diesel vehicles in the city centre, which raises the share of older and more polluting vehicles each year

15. A city introduces a clean air zone that reduces traffic on a main road by 25%. Which outcome would be most expected?

    • No change in pollution because traffic flow is still present on the road, so the zone makes no measurable difference to air quality
    • A reduction in roadside nitrogen dioxide concentrations, with the largest gains near the zone
    • A rise in pollution because drivers avoid the zone entirely by taking longer routes through residential streets with more homes nearby
    • An increase in particulates from the zone boundary only, as stop-start traffic at the edge of the zone produces more dust and exhaust

16. A city council plans to clean up a contaminated former industrial site for housing. Which factor most determines whether the scheme is viable?

    • The distance of the site from the city's oldest church, because heritage buildings nearby restrict every type of new development
    • Whether the site has wildflowers growing on it, since any plants that appear on derelict ground make the land unsuitable for building
    • Balancing remediation costs against the expected value of the new development
    • The total area of greenfield land in the rural hinterland, which determines how much farmland can be built on in the surrounding district

17. Which statement about urban atmospheric pollution is most accurate?

    • Pollution levels can be locally high in street canyons because tall buildings trap emissions at street level
    • Pollution from traffic is always dispersed evenly across the city, so no street ever experiences higher concentrations than another
    • Street-level pollution is unaffected by building layout, since emissions disperse evenly whatever the height of nearby buildings
    • Pollution is always highest in open countryside away from cities, because farms and open fields release more emissions per hectare

18. A water company finds sewage contamination in a stream that flows through an urban estate. Which problem does this indicate?

    • Increased crop yields from fertilised fields, because sewage nutrients boost the growth of crops irrigated from the stream each season
    • Improved oxygen levels for fish, as sewage adds dissolved gases to the water and so improves conditions for aquatic life each day
    • Reduced flood risk because of higher flow volume, since extra water in the stream spreads across the floodplain and lowers peak levels
    • Pathogens and nutrients from sewage contaminating water and posing health risks

19. Which argument best supports the use of planning controls to limit urban dereliction?

    • Controls are unnecessary because dereliction never affects property values, and neighbouring areas are unaffected by vacant buildings
    • Controls increase the spread of dereliction across the city, because restrictions on new building leave more sites vacant for longer
    • Controls can prioritise reuse of vacant land and enforce site clean-up, preventing decline spreading to neighbouring areas
    • Controls remove any need for maintenance on vacant sites, so that landowners are no longer required to secure or clean their property

20. A housing scheme covers 100 hectares, and 60% of the new housing is to be built on brownfield land. How many hectares of brownfield would be used?

    • 75 hectares
    • 60 hectares
    • 90 hectares
    • 30 hectares

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