Sunday, July 24, 2011

K.Rudd vs. N. Korea

1. Foreign minister. This means he helps keep diplomatic relationships with other countries, and ensures that the safety of Australia is not threatened by any kind of international activities.
2. That the long range nuclear missiles developed by North Korea pose a substantial threat to Australia.
3. ASEAN.
4. Torpedoed a South Korean naval frigate, shelled civilians' homes across the border, and defied two UN Security Council by pursuing an enriched uranium weapons program.
5. North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile program.
6. K.Rudd is exposing North Korea's wrong-doings, strengthening Australia's diplomatic communications with the other countries of ASEAN.
7. The allies back Australia up, and they seem to have the same interests at hand. Reputation is also at stake, with Australia seeming to be more supportive of the other countries of ASEAN, including the US and South Korea. This slightly aids defence.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

2.8: Studying the Weather (Questions)


1.        
a.        
i.                     1016 isobars
ii.                   1010 isobars
iii.                  1018 isobars
iv.                 1022 isobars
b.      Hobart
c.       Will experience a cold front and low pressure with potential rain, almost definitely cloudy.
d.       
i.                     The Tasman Sea is in between a high and low pressure system, causing clouds.
ii.                   Warm front coming from the west, caused by the high pressure system behind it.
iii.                  A cold front caused by a low pressure system.
e.      Hobart, because it has a cold front of air and a low pressure system, while Sydney has a high pressure system.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Urban Renewal and Decay

Define the following terms and include an example of each and explain how your example relates the word:
1. Aesthetics - The looks and features of a particular object.

The Guggenheim in New York has been designed in an aesthetically pleasing way to give the city character and beauty.
2. Safety - Any defensive location or structure in a city, eg a seawall, a fortress, city built on a hill to protect from floods 



This seawall is protecting the city from very strong storm waves. These waves are potentially devastating.
3.  Slums - a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. 

This slum shows a lack of infrastructure, housing, medical and emergency facilities, and a general lack of wealth. The result of this being that the people in the slums live in poor conditions, tightly packed, and with a higher crime rate as a result too, because there is no authority to help keep law in order.
4. Decay - Decay is the way a specific building or city lasts over time. Whether the building is still standing or whether it still looks appealing etc.

This building has weathered and been vandalised and therefore has decayed. No organisation gives funds to help in the maintenance of the buildings so therefore the building stays in its state of decay.
5. Reconstruction and Renewal - Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use.




6. Transport - Transportation planning is a field involved with the evaluation, assessment, design and siting of transportation facilities (generally streets, highways, footpaths, bike lanes and public transport lines).
This is a before and after shot of Melbourne Docklands. This city was expanded to moderate its maximum capacity of land usage by residents, offices, shops, etc.


7. Suburbanization - a term used to describe the growth of areas on the fringes of major cities


8. Environmental Factors -  the process of facilitating decision making to carry out development with due consideration given to the natural environmental, social, political, economic and governance factors and provides a holistic frame work to achieve sustainable outcomes.

9. Light and Sound - The 'pollution' of light and sound throughout a city or urban area. This can also be the lack of light e.g. a building blocks out the sun making a part of the city in shade for 90% of the day.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

9.1 Questions

1. Urban sprawl is when a city's population is compacted extensively and isn't spread out evenly across the land available.
2. Urban consolidation is where they build on top of existing structures. This happens mostly in the city where they make multi storey apartment blocks and office buildings.
3. That they have a high population density. a high proportion of the population working in manufacturing and/or professional or service-related industries or centres of business.
4. Our population, our land area (in square kilometres), and the percentage of out population.

5. Infrastructure, and the area's accessibility to fresh water and food resources.
6. Population density is the average amount of people in a set area unit and is usually measured in square kilometres. 
7.It has the highest population density within Australia, however compared to other cities like in Mumbai, it has about a tenth of the population density. Generally Australia's population density is 3 people per square kilometre, whereas in some countries (usually povertised) their population density is about 500 people per square kilometre.

8. One of the main advantages is that electricity and water supplies are already in place so it doesn't require building and construction on top of the already made structures.
9. They've been innovative with their design of apartments and new estates to manage the impacts of population growth in cities.
10. a. Melbourne, VICTORIA
10. b. Population within that area divided by the square kilometres within that same area.
10. c. Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Wollongong, Perth, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Canberra, Brisbane, Gosford.
10. d. 8 out of the 10 major cities within Australia have a population density of greater than 1000/km^2
11. It will ruin their views, as well as put much greater pressure on their water and electrical supplies.
12. Advantage – You have significantly more space and freedom
      Disadvantage – It’s more expensive, living in a large complex requires less work around the house.

7.3 Coastal Geographical Processes







1. It was necessary to extend the Tweed River breakwaters because silt was being deposited at the river mouth and was clogging it up. 

2. Severe storm erosion added onto the effect of the breakwaters would mean that it would take a long time for the removed sand to return to its normal position on the beaches.

3. The Tweed River became unsafe to shipping because the silting caused the sandbars on the ships routes to be higher, making the water shallower. The natural process that caused it however was longshore drift. 

4. The dredging of the Tweed River and the associated beach nourishment program was only a short term solution as it was not efficient or sustainable for the environment.

5. The sand that is built up on the sandbank is pumped through a series of pipes, under Tweed River and is released at one of four deposit points.

8. The mouth of the river has extended further out as time has gone on and the mouth of the river has moved more to the right of the photograph. 





Sunday, March 6, 2011

Big Wave Profile - JAWS (Maui)




“Jaws” (Pe’ahi) is a beach on the island of Maui in Hawaii. It is known as Jaws due to the size and strength of the waves – apart from the actual visual referral to its jaws eating surfers -  reaching heights of 120ft and moving at 30mph. Jaws is also known as the home of a form of surfing called "tow-in surfing" in which the surfer is towed in by a jet ski and then released into the wave at high speeds.   

For the waves at Jaws to reach heights of up to 120 feet, a number of things need to occur. The only time that the ocean swells enough is in winter and this, paired with the fact that the waves come in around that time make for some gigantic waves. When compared to other big wave spots around the globe such as Mavericks and Cyclops, Jaws is famed for its "wave forming quality". The reef floor and rocks are shaped in a way that magnifies the wave’s uplifting energy and makes clear, left and right facing waves with great barrels.



Sunday, February 27, 2011

Science of BIG WAVES

Pre-viewing
1.     1. Wind stirs up water on the surface of the ocean, which grows larger, and the sudden elevation of the sea floor pushes the small waves up, where they get bigger and eventually break on the beach.
2.     2. What do you think a surfer should know about waves before they try and ride a wave while surfing?
      Yes, otherwise they may get caught out by something they did not expect and not know how to cope with it.



Questions for the Video
1.    Observe all the waves that you see and describe how they form and break. Use as many words found in the segment for your descriptions.
2.    Describe how waves are formed, how they originate, and how they are measured?
Waves are formed out at sea in things called “wave factories”. In the ocean the wind chops up the surface of the water, where it moves towards land and gets bigger, later they form into larger waves and eventually they break on the land as sandbars push their energy out of the water, making a wave.
3.    What is a maverick wave and what is special about the way it is formed?
Maverick waves are giant waves, reaching the size of four storey buildings. The way they are formed comes down to many determining factors. The wind speed and amount of ocean covered, further out in the ocean starts the creation of the wave. Once the wave comes into the launching pad, it hits the pad and the wave contracts and slows down. The forward energy has no way to go except up, creating a maverick wave
4.    How is energy stored and transferred during a wave?
Energy is stored and transferred through the water in a wave. When the wave hits the shore’s sandbar, the forward energy has nowhere to go but up, giving height to the wave, then crashing on the beach.
5.    List any kind of advice given by the surfers about how to survive these “big waves.”
It is good to know how the waves break, respect the waves' power, the trick is to get in there and get a good ride before the wave breaks and the water comes down on you.