1.3
Asking/Answering Geographic Questions and Analyze Geographic Problems
July 16, 2025
Julia Singer
6
Min Read
AI Summary
These revision notes emphasize the importance of using maps, data, and images to understand real-world problems by analyzing their social, economic, and environmental impacts. Geography goes beyond memorizing locations—it involves critical thinking about why events occur and how they affect people, economies, and the environment. By mastering these skills, students can better evaluate natural disasters and contribute to practical solutions.
Objective
To understand patterns, causes, and effects of real-world problems using maps, data, and images.
Core Concept
Geography is not only about knowing the 50 states of America but asking questions like why people live next to volcanoes, and how we can prepare for natural disasters. By thinking critically, we can better understand the world and think of how to make it better.
Content
When answering critical geography questions, we usually must cover three topics: social, economic, and environmental.
Social: The social aspect is all to do with humans. Some impacts could include loss of life or injury, displacement from homes (evacuations, homelessness), diseases outbreak, and any resulting crime or inequality.
Economic: On the other hand, economic impacts refer to building damage, costs of repair, loss of jobs, and country debt. Essentially anything to do with money and the infrastructure of the country.
Environmental: Finally, environmental impacts contain destruction of forests, any form of pollution, and wildlife loss.
When answering questions about the impacts for a natural disaster it is important to remember that the impacts do not need to fall under one factor. For example, crop loss due to droughts can socially affect the farmers, economically impact their future income, and environmentally destroy fertile land. It is important to always make sure you are covering these three factors, because they deepen your understanding of the impacts.
In most cases, a map or data will be provided to support your answer. This is where the map skills we covered apply!
EXAMPLE – ‘Explain one economic impact of a tropical cyclone hazard’
Step 1: Identify what the question is asking. Economic impact of a tropical cyclone hazard.
Step 2: Start thinking of impacts to do with loss of money, for example damage to buildings and infrastructure, cost of rebuilding, tourism loss, or job losses. Be careful not to get confused with social or environmental impacts, they are asking only for economic.
Step 3: Start with a simple statement sentence. For example, “one economic impact of a tropical cyclone is damage to many buildings and infrastructure.”
Step 4: Once you have your key idea, explain how and why it is an economic impact. “One economic impact of a tropical cyclone is damage to many buildings and infrastructure, because of the high cost of repair.” This clearly states the damage of the tropical cyclone, the impact to the economy, and avoids drifting into social or environmental impacts.
Things to Think About
Whenever we are annotating a map, it is important to always ask ourselves why. Developing a critical mind will only help with geography, because a large part of it is analyzing impacts from weather or human activities, explaining changes over time, and supporting geographical arguments. Make sure the purpose of your map is neat and clear.
Practice Questions
What are two economic and environmental effects of a volcanic eruption of farming regions?
How do floods impact low-income countries compared to high-income countries?
How can droughts affect farming communities in terms of social, economic, and environmental impacts?
Real-World Application
Answering these questions helps us understand geographic disasters in the world, and allows us to think critically to find effective ways to fix and prevent them.