Geography Paper 3 WASSCE (SC), 2018

Question 3

  1. Define environmental intervention.
  2. Name three types of environmental intervention.
  3. Outline five impacts of environmental intervention.

 

Not many candidates attempted this question. Most of those who attempted the question misunderstood environmental intervention for environmental hazard and expectedly missed the (b) and (c ) components of the question. Environmental intervention refer to the forces of nature and activities of man that alter the natural existence of the components of the ecosystem. The types of environmental intervention include
            -           desert encroachment
            -           volcanism
            -           sea level changes
            -           earthquakes
            -           tectonic movements
            -           soil erosion
            -           bush burning
            -           overgrazing
            -           climate change
            -           bad farming practices
            -           mining
            -           pollution
            -           cloud seeding
            -           hunting
            -           water contamination
            -           urbanization
            -           land reclamation
            -           construction works
            -           bad fishing practices
            -           deforestation
-           flooding
-           land slide and mudflow
-           tsunami
-           thunderstorm
-           windstorms e.g. hurricane, tornadoes, typhoon etc\
-           oil spillage
-           gas flaring
-           large scale silting
-           wars and testing of bombs
-           breakdown of nuclear facilities
-           industrialization

            The Impacts of environmental intervention are:
-           changes in the initial characteristics of vegetation
-           affects plant life
-           extinction of bio diversity
-           changes in landform
-           reduction of annual rainfall amounts
-           causes migration
-           low crop yield
-           dwindling of forest cover
-           climate change
-           reduction of air quality
-           bronchial diseases
-           poor visibility
-           shortage of food
-           shortage of raw materials
-           acid rain and smog
-           inbalance in ecosystem
-           drought
-           ozone layer depletion
-           reduction in quality of water
-           outbreak of epidemic
-           death and reduction of biodiversity of marine life
-           soil erosion
-           leaching
-           scarcity of water
-           degradation