IBDP Geography- New Syllabus – 2019
Option A: Freshwater
- Drainage basin hydrology and geomorphology
- How physical processes influence drainage basin systems and landforms
- Flooding and flood mitigation
- How physical and human factors exacerbate and mitigate flood risk for different places
- Water scarcity and water quality
- The varying power of different actors in relation to water management issues
- Water management futures
- Future possibilities for management intervention in drainage basins
Option B: Oceans and coastal margins
- Ocean–atmosphere interactions
- How physical processes link Earth’s atmospheric and ocean systems
- Interactions between oceans and coastal places
- How coastal places are shaped by their interactions with oceans
- Managing coastal margins
- The varying power of different stakeholders in relation to coastal margin management
- Ocean management futures
- Future possibilities for managing the oceans as a global commons
Option C: Extreme environments
- The characteristics of extreme environments
- Why some places are considered to be extreme environments.
- Physical processes and landscapes
- How physical processes create unique landscapes in extreme environments.
- Managing extreme environments
- The varying power of different stakeholders to extract economic value from extreme environments.
- Extreme environments futures
- Future possibilities for managing extreme environments and their communities
Option D: Geophysical hazards
- Geophysical systems
- How geological processes give rise to geophysical events of differing type and magnitude
- Geophysical hazard risks
- How geophysical systems generate hazard risks for different places
- Hazard risk and vulnerability
- The varying power of geophysical hazards to affect people in different local contexts
- Future resilience and adaptation
- Future possibilities for lessening human vulnerability to geophysical hazards
Option E: Leisure, tourism and sport
- Changing leisure patterns
- How human development processes give rise to leisure activities
- Tourism and sport at the local and national scale
- How physical and human factors shape places into sites of leisure
- Tourism and sport at the international scale
- The varying power of different countries to participate in global tourism and sport
- Managing tourism and sport for the future
- Future possibilities for management of, and participation in, tourism and sport at varying scales
Option F: Food and health
- Measuring food and health
- Ways of measuring disparities in food and health between places
- Food systems and spread of diseases
- How physical and human processes lead to changes in food production and consumption, and incidence and spread of disease
- Stakeholders in food and health
- The power of different stakeholders in relation to influence over diets and health
- Future health and food security and sustainability
- Future possibilities for sustainable agriculture and improved health
Option G: Urban environments
- The variety of urban environments
- The characteristics and distribution of urban places, populations and economic activities
- Changing urban systems
- How economic and demographic processes bring change over time to urban systems
- Urban environmental and social stresses
- The varying power of different stakeholders in relation to the experience of, and management of, urban stresses
- Building sustainable urban systems for the future
- Future possibilities for the sustainable management of urban system.
Syllabus content—Part two: SL and HL core
Unit 1: Changing population
- Population and economic development patterns
- How population varies between places
- Changing populations and places
- Processes of population change and their effect on people and places
- Challenges and opportunities
- Population possibilities and power over the decision-making process
Unit 2: Global climate—vulnerability and resilience
- Causes of global climate change
- How natural and human processes affect the global energy balance
- Consequences of global climate change
- The effects of global climate change on places, societies and environmental systems
- Responding to global climate change
- Possibilities for responding to climate change and power over the decision-making process
Unit 3: Global resource consumption and security
- Global trends in consumption
- How natural and human processes affect the global energy balance
- Impacts of changing trends in resource consumption
- How pressure on resources affects the future security of places
- Resource stewardship
- Possibilities for managing resources sustainably and power over the decision-making process
Syllabus content—Part two: HL core extension
Unit 4: Power, places and networks
- Global interactions and global power
- How global power and influence varies spatially
- Global networks and flows
- How different places become interconnected by global interactions
- Human and physical influences on global interactions
- How political, technological and physical processes influence global interactions
Unit 5: Human development and diversity
- Development opportunities
- Ways of supporting the processes of human development
- Changing identities and cultures
- How global interactions bring cultural influences and changes to places
- Local responses to global interactions
- The varying power of local places and actors to resist or accept change
Unit 6: Global risks and resilience
- Geopolitical and economic risks
- How technological and globalizing processes create new geopolitical and economic risks for individuals and societies
- Environmental risks
- How global interactions create environmental risks for particular places and people
- Local and global resilience
- New and emerging possibilities for managing global risks