Singapore JC Subject List - Geography (H2, Revised)

This course explores the complexities of the interactions between the physical environment, economy, and society, enabling students to inquire, analyze, and discuss global efforts towards sustainable development. The syllabus is framed by four geographical concepts: Space, Place, Environment, and Scale. These concepts are applied to investigate and describe the world, analyze human-nature relationships, and discuss sustainable development efforts.

Cluster 1: Development, Economy and Environment

This cluster examines the interplay between human development, economic activities, and the environment.

Topic 1.1: Environment and Resources

This topic explores the importance of the environment for sustainable development, focusing on resource management and the challenges of balancing human needs with environmental limitations.

• Understanding Sustainable Development: This subtopic introduces the concept of sustainable development, encompassing economic, environmental, and social dimensions. It examines the interdependence and potential trade-offs between these dimensions, as well as the limitations imposed by technology and the environment's capacity. It also explores ways to measure progress towards sustainable development using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and discusses the challenges in measuring progress.
• Environment and Resources: This subtopic emphasizes the importance of ecosystem services and the classification of resources based on renewability and availability. It also explores the ideas of Thomas Malthus and Ester Boserup regarding population growth and resource availability.
• Managing Resources: This subtopic focuses on managing renewable energy sources, resolving conflicts over transboundary water resources, and managing the extraction of non-renewable resources by extractive industries.

Topic 1.2: Development and the Global Economy

This topic investigates the global economy's impact on different places, exploring the geographical patterns of trade, investment, and labor flows.

• Development: This subtopic examines variations in development levels across space and the relationship between these variations and global flows of trade, capital, and labor. It also considers how shifts in global patterns of manufacturing, services, and agriculture affect a country's economy.
• Geography of the Global Economy and Transnational Corporations (TNCs): This subtopic explores the interconnectedness of the global economy through trade, capital, and labor flows. It also examines how TNCs' global production networks connect places and impact home and host economies.
• Relative Influence of Actors in Shaping the Global Economy: This subtopic analyzes the influence of states, labor, and multilateral institutions on economic activities.

Cluster 2: Tropical Environments

This cluster focuses on the characteristics and processes within tropical environments.

Topic 2.1: Tropical Climates and Drainage Basins

This topic examines the interrelationships between climate and hydrological systems in the tropics.

• Tropical Climates: This subtopic classifies tropical climate zones based on temperature and rainfall patterns, exploring the influence of global and synoptic scale circulations on rainfall.
• Drainage Basin Hydrology: This subtopic investigates the balance between input and output of moisture in drainage basin systems, variations in water storage, and pathways of water movement.
• Floods in the Humid Tropics: This subtopic examines the factors contributing to fluvial flooding, the varying impacts on people and places, and flood management strategies.

Topic 2.2: Landforms in the Tropics

This topic explores the influence of natural processes and human activities on landforms in the tropics.

• Geomorphic Processes: This subtopic examines weathering processes, movement of materials on slopes, and fluvial processes, including the factors influencing these processes.
• Karst Landforms in the Humid Tropics: This subtopic describes karst landforms, their formation, and their importance, including the impact of human activities.
• Fluvial Landforms in the Humid Tropics: This subtopic describes fluvial landforms, their formation, and the importance of deltas, including the impact of human activities.

Cluster 3: Sustainable Future and Climate Change

This cluster investigates the challenges and opportunities for a sustainable future in the context of climate change.

Topic 3.1: Cities in a Sustainable Future

This topic explores the challenges and opportunities of creating sustainable and liveable cities.

• Sustainable Urban Development: This subtopic discusses how to measure sustainable urban development and the challenges involved. It also examines how urban population trends and the demand placed on natural environments influence progress towards sustainability.
• Sustainable Cities: This subtopic explores the importance of effective waste management, slum management, and urban reimaging for sustainable urban development.
• Liveable Cities: This subtopic examines the relationship between sustainable urban development and liveability, focusing on creating liveable cities for the elderly and women.

Topic 3.2: The Future with Climate Change

This topic investigates contemporary climate change, its potential impacts, and responses to it.

• The Science of Climate Change: This subtopic examines past climate variability, the role of natural factors in contemporary climate change, and the significance of human activities.
• Possible Effects of Climate Change: This subtopic explores the potential impacts of climate change on humans, variations in these impacts, and the uncertainties associated with predicting future impacts.
• Responses to Climate Change: This subtopic discusses mitigation and adaptation strategies, the role of key actors, and the challenges in implementing effective responses.

Cluster 4: Fieldwork

This cluster involves student-led fieldwork on a chosen geographical topic. Students develop a research question or hypothesis, plan and execute data collection, analyze data, and evaluate the fieldwork process. Possible fieldwork areas include community response to climate change, needs analysis of the elderly living in an urban neighborhood, and fluvial flood risk mitigation strategies.