The Challenge of Resource ManagementTopic Summary
Topic Summary: Resource Management Overview
Part of Resource Management Overview — GCSE Geography
This topic summary covers Topic Summary: Resource Management Overview within Resource Management Overview for GCSE Geography. Revise Resource Management Overview in The Challenge of Resource Management for GCSE Geography with 15 exam-style questions and 22 flashcards. This is a high-frequency topic, so it is worth revising until the explanation feels precise and repeatable. It is section 16 of 16 in this topic. Use this topic summary to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Topic position
Section 16 of 16
Practice
15 questions
Recall
22 flashcards
Topic Summary: Resource Management Overview
Key Terms
- Resource security — reliable, affordable access to sufficient food, water, and energy
- Resource insecurity — inability to access enough of a resource due to shortage, cost, governance, or infrastructure gaps
- FEW Nexus — the interconnection between food, energy, and water; managing one affects the others
- Water stress — using more than 25% of available renewable freshwater supply
- Energy poverty — lack of access to affordable, reliable modern energy
- Sustainable management — meeting present needs without compromising future generations (Brundtland, 1987)
- Renewable resource — naturally replenished at a rate sufficient for sustainable use (wind, solar)
- Non-renewable resource — forms over geological timescales; cannot be replenished (coal, oil, gas)
Global Data
- Food: 733 million hungry (FAO, 2023); world produces enough calories for everyone
- Water: Only 1% of Earth's water is accessible freshwater; 2.3 billion in water-stressed countries
- Energy: 733 million without electricity (IEA, 2022); mostly Sub-Saharan Africa
- Agriculture: Uses 70% of all global freshwater withdrawals
- Population: 8 billion (2022) → projected 9.7 billion (2050)
- Meat vs wheat water: 1 kg beef = ~15,500 litres; 1 kg wheat = ~1,600 litres
UK Facts
- Imports 46% of food; 97% of tomatoes are imported
- South-East England: "seriously water-stressed" (<600mm/year); most populated region
- Thames Water loses 24% of supply through pipe leakage
- Energy mix (2023): gas 38%, renewables 32%, nuclear 15%
- 80% of homes use gas boilers — major challenge for net zero
- Hornsea One (1.2 GW offshore wind) — world's largest when opened 2019
- Net zero target: 2050; Clean Power target: 2030
Exam Must-Know Points
- PUCC: Population, Urbanisation, Changing diets, Climate change — four demand drivers that compound each other
- FEW Nexus: solutions to one resource can worsen another; always look for interconnections
- Resource insecurity is NOT just about physical shortage — governance, infrastructure, poverty, and access matter equally
- Level 3 answers show nexus thinking AND use specific named statistics
- UK is NOT fully resource secure — use South-East water stress and food import dependence as evidence
- SDGs 2, 6, 7 = Zero Hunger, Clean Water, Affordable Clean Energy