This document contains three 20 marker and four 9 marker essays. The essay titles are available on the document preview and were written by an A* grade student. All 20 mark essays scores A* equivalent grade and the 9 marker essays scored grade A-A*.
Evaluate the risks of relative sea
level change faced by coastal 2
communities (20 marks)
18/20
Evaluate the risks of relative sea
level change faced by coastal 4
communities (20 marks)
17/20
With reference to tropical rainforest
biome, assess the view that latitude is the 6
most important factor in its natural
development (20 marks)
18/20
Assess the extent to which
environmental variables are linked to 7
the incidence of disease
(9 marks)
6/9
Assess the extent to which
environmental variables are linked to 8
the incidence of disease
(9 marks)
8/9
Assess the impacts of volcanic
hazards (9 marks) 9
8/9
Assess the impacts of volcanic
hazards (9 marks) 10
9/9
1
, Evaluate the risks of relative sea
level change faced by coastal communities (20 marks)
18/20
There are undoubtedly risks to coastal communities due to relative sea level change that may
occur in the future. However the significance of the risk heavily depends on the level of relative
sea level change and the ability of a place to mitigate the effects of them.
Coastal communities with very little money will be at most risk to relative sea level change most
of the time as they cannot afford to stop the effects of it such as flooding which can severely
harm communities and their ability to survive. Kiribati is at a huge risk from eustatic changes as
sea levels are rising caused by climate change melting ice caps and increasing the volume of
water in the sea. The problems arise from the low lying nature of the atolls with nearly all of the
811 km2 of land being merely feet above sea level, the capital of Tarawa being only 9.8 feet
higher. This poses a significant risk to the 112,000 inhabitants of Kiribati who all get put at risk
because of this and they have nowhere to retreat to as there are no high areas. Sea levels have
risen 3.1mm per year between 1993 and 2003 which is quite significant especially as it was only
1.8mm per year in the previous decades. This creates a problem as it shows a trend of a further
increase in sea level rise rate and the problems of this are shown in that by 2080 the risk of
flooding will be 200 times greater so it is almost inevitable that coastal communities in Kiribati
will struggle with the risks posed by relative sea level change. Even now islands are being
completely lost and communities destroyed by king tides and storms which have become much
more frequent recently. These pose serious risks to the coastal communities as they face
flooding which can cause their water supplies to be polluted and crops and houses to be
destroyed making survival incredibly difficult. The risk is incredibly large as well because Kiribati
is an incredibly poor nation and they simply cannot afford to mitigate against the effects of
relative sea level change. They have managed to implement mangroves and some very poor
quality, essentially temporary, coastal defences in order to protect themselves against flooding
by absorbing the energy of the waves. However these are not especially effective as they are so
cheap and this means that the risks these coastal communities face are still very large and will
only continue to get bigger as sea levels rise even more. While the immediate effects of sea
level change in Kiribati is kept fairly local, it will lead to international problems as the people will
have to immigrate and become refugees due to sea level rise. The risks faced by coastal
communities in poorer countries are huge as there will be big changes in the future that they
simply can't defend against.
However the risks of relative sea level change can also be fairly low, or at least reduced, by the
ability to fund defences and plans to keep people and properties safe and protected. This is the
case on Canvey Island in the Thames Estuary which benefits from being much richer and
having a better economy compared to Kiribati. The risk of relative sea level rise has the
potential to be even worse here than in Kiribati as properties are more expensive and there is
an oil storage facility on the south of the island which if destroyed could cause huge economic
and environmental impacts as oil and debris are lost and spread around the ocean. The relative
sea level rise is also worse here as on top of the 3.1mm per year eustatic change, there is also
2
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