A-Level Geography: Resource Security

Resource security is an A level Geography option in its own right, for example AQA section 3.2.5, and water and energy security also run through Pearson Edexcel's compulsory Topics 5 and 6. This material covers the concepts and calculations these specifications share, applied to invented countries so that the reasoning, not a remembered case study, does the work.

It opens with the idea of a resource. Stock resources are finite on a human timescale, flow resources are renewed, and stock resources are evaluated by confidence, from measured and indicated reserves to inferred and possible resources. You calculate a reserves-to-production ratio and interpret a production curve that rises, peaks and declines while oil is still underground, the pattern known as resource peak, and you meet the resource frontier.

Water security comes next. You convert a country's renewable freshwater from cubic kilometres to cubic metres per person and classify it against the commonly used thresholds of 1,700 m³ per person per year for water stress and 1,000 m³ for water scarcity. You separate physical from economic water scarcity, distinguish supply-side strategies such as dams, transfers and desalination from demand management such as tiered pricing and efficient appliances, explain virtual water trade, and identify the conditions that make conflict over a shared river more likely.

The energy section calculates the fossil fuel share of an energy mix, separates primary energy from secondary energy, and explains energy security, including the vulnerability of energy pathways such as pipelines and shipping routes and the costs of unconventional fuels such as tar sands and shale gas. The final questions turn to minerals, the environmental impacts of open-pit copper mining and the role of environmental impact assessment.

The material offers a quiz with explanations, flashcards for the key terms and thresholds, a printable written sheet of calculations and evaluations, and an oral exam in which an examiner asks one question at a time, including about the resource case study you have prepared, and gives brief feedback at the end.

• Distinguish stock and flow resources and the categories of stock resource evaluation
• Calculate reserves-to-production ratios, water per person and energy-mix shares
• Classify water stress and scarcity and distinguish physical from economic scarcity
• Evaluate supply-side and demand-side water strategies, including virtual water
• Explain energy security, energy pathways, primary and secondary energy and unconventional fuels
• Assess the environmental impacts of mineral extraction and the role of EIA

Practice material written by Zestly, based on board specifications such as AQA A-level Geography 7037, section 3.2.5 (Resource security), and Pearson Edexcel A level Geography 9GE0, Topics 5.7–5.9 (water insecurity) and 6.4–6.6 (energy security). Water thresholds (1,700 and 1,000 m³ per person per year) as stated in Edexcel Topic 5.7.