Economic geography: resources, agriculture, industry, transport and trade
Economic geography
Expect classification of resources and activities, agricultural systems, industrial location theory, transport networks and trade balances, applied to Indian and West Bengal examples.
Core rules
- Activities: primary (extractive), secondary (manufacturing), tertiary (services), quaternary (knowledge/decision).
- Resources are classified by renewability (renewable/non-renewable), origin (biotic/abiotic), ownership and stage of development (potential, developed, reserve, stock).
- Von Thünen: land use rings around a market - perishable, bulky, low-value goods far out; intensive horticulture and dairy near the market - driven by transport cost and land rent.
- Weber's least-cost location uses the material index = weight of localized inputs ÷ weight of finished product. Material index > 1 means weight-losing (locate near raw material, e.g. sugar, cement); < 1 means weight-gaining (locate near market, e.g. bottling).
- Agricultural systems: shifting cultivation, intensive subsistence (rice), plantation (tea, rubber), commercial grain farming, mixed farming, dairy.
Worked example
A cement plant uses 1.6 tonnes of limestone and 0.4 t of coal per tonne of cement. Where should it locate? Reasoning: localized inputs = 1.6 + 0.4 = 2.0 t; finished product = 1.0 t; material index = 2.0, well above 1. The process is strongly weight-losing, so the plant sits on or beside the limestone deposit (as at cement works near limestone belts), and transport of raw material is minimised even at the cost of being far from the market.
Traps that cost marks
Reversing the material index; calling quarrying secondary; mixing up shifting cultivation with plantation agriculture; listing location factors without ranking the dominant one; confusing balance of trade with balance of payments.