IB Geography HL — Future resilience and adaptation

Key Idea: Topic 10.4 is about living more safely with geophysical hazards — earthquakes, eruptions and mass movement that we cannot stop, only prepare for. It pulls together two micros: 10.4.1 — predicting and preparing (pre-event): the four families of strategy a place puts in place before a hazard strikes — prediction & monitoring, warning & evacuation, land-use zoning and resilient building design — all aimed at lowering vulnerability, not the hazard itself. 10.4.2 — responding, recovery and resilience (post-event + future): the response → recovery → resilience cycle after an event, the communications technology that speeds it, and how future risk rises in some places (population pressure, urbanisation, climate change) but falls in others (zoning, codes, education). This is Option D, examined on Paper 1. Each chosen option has a short structured question (Describe/Explain/Suggest) plus a [10] extended answer (Examine, Evaluate, To what extent or Discuss). SL students answer two options; HL students answer three — the same questions at both levels.

🛡️ 10.4.1 — Predicting and preparing (pre-event)

You cannot change the size of an earthquake or eruption — so pre-event management attacks vulnerability instead: how exposed and unable to cope a population is. The same hazard kills far fewer people in a prepared place than an unprepared one. The marks come from Explain parts (name a strategy → give the chain to fewer deaths → add an example) — one strategy for [3], or two marked 3 + 3 for [6] — with every strategy carrying a strength and a limit that powers the [10] essay later.

Never write that a strategy 'stops the eruption'. Write that it reduces the number of people exposed or helps them survive. Zoning → fewer people in the danger zone → fewer deaths. An Explain [3] = name + mechanism + example.

🔄 10.4.2 — Responding, recovery and future resilience

After a hazard, management runs response → recovery → resilience. Response = the first hours and days (search and rescue, aid, shelter). Recovery = the months and years of rebuilding. Resilience = the long-term capacity that means the next event causes less harm. Post-event Explain parts work like the pre-event ones — name a strategy, develop how it cuts harm, add a named event. The strand closes on the [10] essay about how future risk changes across places.

Watch what the question names. Personal resilience = kits, insurance, warning apps, family plans. Community/national resilience = building codes, hazard mapping, SAR teams, reconstruction. And tie each strategy to a phase: response (rescue) → recovery (rebuild) → resilience (codes, zoning).

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