Vignettes

of geography - Vulnerable areas

David rbring
Doctoral student in Educational Sciences - Geography Education
Mail: david.orbring@uvet.lu.se
Mobile: 0736510394

Lund University, Campus Helsingborg
Department of Educational Sciences
Box 882,
25108 Helsingborg

Description
Teaching in geography could be about geographical conditions and spatial awareness,
and also about the interaction between people, society and nature.

One possible way to teach about this is to focus on vulnerable areas. Focus will be on
risks and threats, for example flooding, drought and earthquakes. The students/pupils
will develop knowledge that can help them identify vulnerable areas and also with
reasoning about reducing risks for individuals, groups and society.

For example, for people living near the coastline it can be vulnerable to have a house
near the coastline in some places because your home can be affected by a rising see level
and/or a declining coastline. Causes and consequences can differ and are related to the
interaction between society, individuals and nature.

Questions to think more about are: What does vulnerable areas mean? What makes a
vulnerable area vulnerable?

In the following map you can see a speculation about what would happen if all the ice on
land would melt. The melting ice can create vulnerable areas but at the same time
people and society stimulate a faster melting process through global warming problems.
The interaction between society, individuals and nature gets visible.




If all the ice melted

Source: National geographic society 2013. More info and interactive map:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/rising-seas/if-ice-melted-map

Discussion

For this example one has have to learn about natural processes and the interactions with
human activities. This, I think, is something that the pupils wouldnt get experience of
outside school. Of course, both the teacher and the pupils can have direct experiences of
different natural hazards but not in the sense that I am aiming at in this example. The
natural processes and the interactions with human activities are connected to systems
of thoughts that the pupils need to learn to get the full picture.

Pupils can get powerful knowledge in geography and learn to understand and make
analyses of the world. They can do this by using geographical sources, theories and
methods.