Paper 1 - Decision Making Exercise
Paper 1 is a decision making exercise. This will involve making some sort of decision (yes, really...) rather than using so much case study material. In lots of ways this paper often seems easier - but you have to know how to go about answering it to maximise your mark.
We know in advance the topic for your DME paper. This means you can prepare for the DME in advance - you know what the paper's going to be about. It will be your first exam - so you don't need to look at other units in your last minute revision. It is still useful to know some basic case studies for the unit. You won't need them in quite the same way but we do credit case study marks still if you use the material sensibly to support what you're saying
How to Pass Paper One
It's useful to think about how to answer Paper 1 effectively. There are a few key things you can do to improve your chances of a higher mark.
Download the How to Pass Paper 1 guide to help you to get these things right when it really counts.
By the way, I'm an examiner for Paper One. So assume that I know what I'm on about here, OK?
Download the Paper 1 2008 workbook. This will let you work through a number of the issues to get a better understanding in a slightly exam-based style. There is another version (as well as some other resources) on the LHS Web Portal
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Download the Malham Opinions sheet - this goes with the Paper 1 workbook
Download the National Parks Placemarks file for Google Earth
You might also want to take a look at the Great Langdale mini-DME resources.
2008 DME Topic
The topic for 2008 is:
Paper 1 will consider the issues associated with increasing visitor pressure in National Parks in the United Kingdom. It will explore the reasons for increasing visitor numbers and how the physical characteristics of National Parks attract different users. It will consider the effects of and conflicts associated with increasing visitor pressure in particular areas. It will then consider the impact of a strategy being used to manage an issue within one National Park.
This breaks down, for me, into 4 bits:
- the reasons for increasing visitor numbers
- how the physical characteristics of National Parks attract different users
- the effects of and conflicts associated with increasing visitor pressure
- the impact of a strategy being used to manage an issue
This is basically unit 8 - so there won't be very much about this unit on Paper 2.
Think about this - this is tourism in an MEDC yes? So there will almost certainly be some OS mapwork on this paper. This doesn't, however, guarantee there won't also be a map on Paper 2... Check the skills section for more on maps - there's lots of stuff on the LHS Web
Reasons for...
More people visit national parks than ever before. There are good basic reasons for this:
- more leisure time
- longer paid holidays
- more car ownership makes people more mobile and parks more accessible (especially because of motorways)
- people can take short breaks and many national parks are close to big cities
- greater affluence
- advertising
- a desire to do outdoor activities
Remember: you need to be able to develop these points. It's all very well knowing the basics, but you do need to be able to explain how come they have led to more people visiting national parks.
One thing that hasn't changed is the attractiveness of the parks. They are just as attractive as they always have been - so "because they're beautiful with lots of nice countryside" isn't a reason why the number of visitors has increased. Take care with questions about increase - this is a common trap.
Let's Get Physical...
Physical characteristics are natural things - things that are not made by people.
You can expect to have to link the physical features to what attracts people to the countryside. You may well get a map or some photos to use for this.
You may have to think about different groups of people and why they might be attracted. It's always good to link these to activities that people might do (in fact, you could easily get a question dealing with that element as well). You might want to think about things like:
- hills - walkers climbing mountains or skiing (in winter!);
- valleys - older people or children walking;
- woods - birdwatchers
- rivers - anglers fishing (yawn...)
- lakes - canoeists or water skiers or sailors (not just watersports - that's too vague)
- cliffs - climbers will like these
Make sure you talk about physical things when it asks for them. Buildings or roads aren't physical - I promise.
It might be worth looking quickly at landforms and erosion/deposition stuff. It doesn't say in the pre-release that this will be on the question but it might help to know the basics.
Effects and Conflicts
Tourism effects things - people and the environment. Some of these effects are positive, others negative.
You need to be able to talk about a range of effects for this section. You might want to think about it this way:
| Economic | Social | Environmental |
| + Jobs | + Quality of life (people are richer) | + Environment gets looked after because it's a tourist attraction |
| + Multiplier effect | + More shops/services for locals to use | + Nature reserves and conservation areas set up as tourist attractions |
| + Money to local businesses | + More buses etc... | - Footpath erosion |
| - Seasonal jobs | - High house prices due to second homes (effects young people) | - Habitat destruction (e.g. woods) |
| - Part time and poorly paid jobs | - Noise | - Water pollution (e.g. from speed boats on lakes) |
| - Congestion loses businesses money as workers and deliveries are caught in traffic | - Traffic fumes cause air pollution and problems like asthma | - New development can be eyesores |
| - Farmers may lose money as crops are trampled and gates left open | - Traffic makes parking difficult and causes accidents | - Litter |
> There's a good summary of conflicts in national parks on Wikipedia
It's an excellent idea to try to get a balance of ideas rather than just talk about economic stuff - unless, of course, the question asks just about economic stuff!
This is also the area where using case studies would be most useful. You could say something like: "One negative impact might be water pollution. In Costa Rica new tourist developments have led sewage being released into the sea which has killed coral reefs. This has destroyed the coral which attracted divers in the first place so jobs have now been lost as people no longer come."
Try and keep any examples you use to National Parks if you can. Other areas (like Southwold) might be useful as well, but the paper is about National Parks in the UK...
Often in national parks it's the physical environment which attracts people most - the hills, lakes or whatever. If too many people visit the area then the physical environment which attracted people in the first place starts to get damaged. This is when problems start to occur.
You might want to talk about the carrying capacity of an area at some point. This is the total number of people who can visit an area before problems start to occur - it starts to get damaged or conflicts happen.
Then you have conflict to think about. This is where the way different groups of people want to use the land conflicts with the ways other people want to use it.
Conflicts can be between different groups of tourists (e.g. canoeists and water skiers/mountain bikers and walkers/motorcycle scrambling and birdwatching) or it can be between tourists and locals (e.g. walkers leaving gates open and annoying farmers/tourists parking in front of local people houses and making lots of noise keeping their children awake at night etc...)
Try and make sure you can talk about conflicts sensibly. This would be another good place to use examples.
Management...
The paper will then go on to look at management. I'd expect that this could be where you might have to make some sort of decision - say between 3 possible management strategies - or talk about the possible impacts of a management strategy. You really need to make sure you explain your points here - there are more marks for this than anything else. Try and use case studies if you can to help support your answer (but briefly) and try and use technical terms - things like carrying capacity, multiplier effect, zoning and so on.
Sustainability is a big idea here. This means asking whether a new development or management strategy will last for a long time without causing other problems. It's a great technical term to use...
It might also be worth thinking about whether tourism and it's management can actually benefit people in National Parks. Will it bring jobs and money or problems and conflict? Will it help local people but drive jobs away because tourists go somewhere else? Will it benefit the environment but harm the economy (or vice versa)? Who benefits - local people or tourists or big businesses? Are the positive effects of managing tourism worth the possible impacts?
Revision Files
If you haven't already got it, it's worth downloading the revision file for the tourism unit::
There are also a number of resource files you may find useful to download:
Yorkshire Dales Impacts resource sheet - summarising some of the impacts of tourism and their management
Second Homes newspaper report - provides some interesting stuff to think about
The Great Langdale DME might also be worth taking a look at. It's a mini version which deals with management of traffic in the Lake District.