Edexcel B Synoptic Jan - Pafos, Cyprus

The resources for this synoptic have been issued this week. As usual, I would like to start a thread allowing people to put forward any ideas as well as asking for help and illumination about the materials. The examination is on Feb 1st.
As soon as I have assimilated the information I shall start to put up hints and ideas as a start.
Ayone doing the synoptic is very welcome to join in the discussion :biggrin:

The 2 websites referred to in the pack are www.moa.gov.cy/moa/wdd/wdd.nsf/
and www.visitcyprus.org.cy/

Reply 1

~*Sar*~

1

There's clearly an emphasis on a link between tourism and water demand. I personally think there may be questions on sustainable methods of ensuring there's enough water to cope with the huge demand in the summer months. Also taking into consideration evaporation rates due to high temps.

The resourses on the Akamas region probably suggests there's going to be an emphasis on sustainable tourism development and the conflicts between different groups due to development.

Looking at the three focus areas in the betginning of the pack I don't think there's going to be a very strong emphasis on the political situation in Cyprus (i.e the division since 1974) as the resources further on don't match up to this.

umm these are my main ideas so far!

Reply 2

Bubble Fairy

1

I'm defiantely doing that syllabus but an exam on Global Challenges. Is there a choice?

Do you think I will be doing that synoptic exam in the summer, or does it need little preparation, so my teachers will inform us when I get back to college, ready for the exam in feb?

Reply 3

Jenski

9

If you are doing it in the summer, you'll get a differnt IAE (issues analysis exercise). It needs a lot of preparation, yes, you really need to be familiar with the pre release booklet.

Reply 4

mel0112

Joys- two Geography modules in January. Is the synoptic supposed to be analysed in a simular way to the DME at GCSE but obviously at a more advanced level?

Reply 5

Jenski

9

Geogger

My students are doing this exam as many of them stand a good chance

are you a teacher?! the enemy! :p:

Reply 6

UnchangeableHyp

Only problem i have seen with this paper is the lack of reference of photos to the map, there are very few references to the map throughout the resources - there are a few in the points of view section at the end. I'm not sure what this implies?

Reply 7

Jenski

9

Geogger

If you don't want my help then you don't have to visit this thread - lots of students benefited last time.... your choice. :p:

It was a joke! This thread is dead useful.

Reply 8

UnchangeableHyp

This is all I have been able to find:

'As in the Turkish sector, water shortages are a perennial problem; a few desalination plants are now on-line. After 10 years of drought, the country received substantial rainfall from 2001-03, alleviating immediate concerns.'

However, one can easily refer to soil moisture budget graphs for any mediterranean climate (refer to AS revision book (the one specifically for Edexcel B - has one for Athens) to see the serious issue here, where there is never a surplus of water and recharge of supplies is limited.

The information obtained from http://www.moa.gov.cy as directed to in the resources may also be useful:

'Until recently, all water resources available in Cyprus came from rainfall. Based on a long series of observations, the mean annual precipitation, including snowfall, amounts to approx. 500 millimetres, whereas during the past thirty years (1971-2000) this amount was reduced to 460 millimetres. The amount of water, which corresponds to the total surface of the Government controlled area, totals 2.670 million cubic metres (MCM) whereas only 14% or 370 MCM is available for development since the remaining 86% returns to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration.'

The only problem when looking at this information is that the annual precipitation trend shown in the resources is a decrease (by about 1mm/yr), whereas this quote from the Water Department website states that it has increased since 2000. However, it may be that this annual precipitation trend refers only to the Troodos Mountains, as referred to in Fig 6 (c) point 1. Anyone care to explain this one?

Reply 9

glitzyfitzy

Do you think it will be necessary to know how the Akamas Peninsula was formed

Reply 10

glitzyfitzy

[In depth aerial photos – use multimap.com and find the maps on the insert – look at aerial photos there]

Google earth has some aerial images of the area.

Does anyone know a link or have an explanation of the Plog model?

Reply 11

UnchangeableHyp

glitzyfitzy

[In depth aerial photos – use multimap.com and find the maps on the insert – look at aerial photos there]

Google earth has some aerial images of the area.

Does anyone know a link or have an explanation of the Plog model?

I just found this page which is failry usefull in relation to Plog:

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~benbow/plog.html

I imagine it is pretty unlikely you need to know any of this, all the knowledge you need for this exam is from the A2 and AS courses, i.e. your textbooks.

--------------

glitzyfitzy

[In depth aerial photos – use multimap.com and find the maps on the insert – look at aerial photos there]

Google earth has some aerial images of the area.

Does anyone know a link or have an explanation of the Plog model?

I just found this page which is failry usefull in relation to Plog:

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~benbow/plog.html

I imagine it is pretty unlikely you need to know any of this, all the knowledge you need for this exam is from the A2 and AS courses, i.e. your textbooks, edexcel does not refer to such models of tourism within the syllabus so it is not needed to be known.

Reply 12

UnchangeableHyp

glitzyfitzy

[In depth aerial photos – use multimap.com and find the maps on the insert – look at aerial photos there]

Google earth has some aerial images of the area.

Does anyone know a link or have an explanation of the Plog model?

I just found this page, which is fairly usefull in relation to Plog:

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~benbow/plog.html

However, as tourism models such as this are not mentioned in the edexcel b specification/syllabus, examiners will not expect you to know or refer to these, so the above reference may not be worth viewing!

Reply 13

UnchangeableHyp

Geogger

Although I agree you don't need to know tourism models in detail, I think a working knowledge of, say, Butler's model could be helpful in terms of looking at the type of tourism Cyprus can aim for...

Yer but this model is referred to (though not by name) in the edexcel b revision guide, so I guess that model is worth getting comfortable with.

Reply 14

Nawks

Does anyone know exactly what Figure 6 (a) is trying to say? Is it saying they have the potential to hold that much water? Or that they have that much water in storage?

Are the jumps when they build new reservoirs/dams, etc.?

If the graph is showing they've reached full capacity, I think it might be good to note in the exam that, because Figure 5 shows an increase in water demand, that they will need to build more storage facilities in the future. If you did, you would be showing to the examiner that you had cross-referenced two sources.

Reply 15

princesswiz

1

Nawks

Does anyone know exactly what Figure 6 (a) is trying to say? Is it saying they have the potential to hold that much water? Or that they have that much water in storage?

Are the jumps when they build new reservoirs/dams, etc.?

If the graph is showing they've reached full capacity, I think it might be good to note in the exam that, because Figure 5 shows an increase in water demand, that they will need to build more storage facilities in the future. If you did, you would be showing to the examiner that you had cross-referenced two sources.

i think fig 6. is how much water they are able to store, when there is a big increase it is when a new reservoir has been built. in recent years not many reservoirs have been built because impermeable rock is needed of which cyprus has little. hope that's helpful. :biggrin:

Reply 16

no1tennisguy

so what could be we say were the main problems for the water demand and tourism in cyprus for the future, and how can it be sustained and overcome??

Reply 17

princesswiz

1

no1tennisguy

so what could be we say were the main problems for the water demand and tourism in cyprus for the future, and how can it be sustained and overcome??

i reckon that will be one of the problems they ask us about. got any ideas about how it can be overcome? :confused:

all i've got so far is what they say in part (d) Water Development Department policy and then stuff about recycling water i.e. using bath water for crop irrigation, and tourist taxes, by making people pay tourist taxes they can carry out more desalination etc... as they'll have more money :tongue:

Reply 18

Elanor_Gamgee

princesswiz

i reckon that will be one of the problems they ask us about. got any ideas about how it can be overcome? :confused:

all i've got so far is what they say in part (d) Water Development Department policy and then stuff about recycling water i.e. using bath water for crop irrigation, and tourist taxes, by making people pay tourist taxes they can carry out more desalination etc... as they'll have more money :tongue:

Hey!

It mentions increasing taxes for those who live there, another option to further that point could be to use water meters (i think) as this would discourage the use of excess water:/

Also, there is the consideration of "virtual water". For example, a cow drinks about 180litres of water each day(or something like that), whereas to import a pint of milk is relatively cheap. I dont quite understand it properly, as i only just learnt about it, but i think that's right! :smile:

Reply 19

no1tennisguy

we have mainly been considering thei6 options to do with water:
ie. recycle.. put in water meters..a fixed rate.. erm also to complete the reservoir dam constructions...we ranked these of most likely to happen and most susstainable. that wos v useful. here r wat our results wer:

1. recyling water to be used for irrigation, forestry and environmental uses
2. completing the few remaining reservoir schemes by 2015
3. making greater use of ICT...etc
4. increasing domestic water charges
5. building more seawater deslination plants
6. re-examining irrigation costs/benefits given the falling importance of agriculture

hope helps. any1 else add their info from classes please.

Edexcel B Synoptic Jan - Pafos, Cyprus

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