Urban Change in the UK: Air Quality and Waste Management in London

AQA GCSE Geography lesson for the new specification Unit 2A: In this lesson we look at air quality and waste management issues in London.

There is a photo interpretation starter around landfill in London, e usually discuss how landfill and disposal is not a sustainable method of waste disposal.

We then look at air quality in London, we consider the causes of poor air quality in the city and the pupils explain the causes using the hexagons. We then consider which is the most likely cause of air pollution in London. We then use nitrogen dioxide as a proxy for air pollution and the pupils create a map to show where the concentrations are high. We discuss why this might be. We briefly look at London’s cycle super highways as a potential solution to air pollution.
Moving on to waste management the pupils create a pie chart to show how London disposes of its waste, we use the pie chart and look at the city of London’s hierarchy for dealing with waste and consider how successful they have been at meeting their targets.

Once we have completed the diagram we tackle a 6-mark question on waste disposal. There is guidance should the pupils need it.

In a nutshell lesson includes:

Photo Interpretation Starter
Causes of air pollution hexagon task.
Mapping activity using nitrogen dioxide as a proxy for air pollution
Video clips where appropriate
Pie chart activity
GCSE-style question with guidance or live writing exercise.

Hope this saves you some valuable planning time.

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