← How a cultural process shapes geographic environments
Impacts, positive and negative, on the environment and on people
Four categories, and always both directions.| Category | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Environmental | Funding for conservation; restoration projects | Habitat loss, erosion, water and air quality |
| Economic | Jobs, income, export earnings, rates base | Cost of living, house prices, seasonal insecurity |
| Social | Services, facilities, population retention | Crowding, displacement, loss of community |
| Cultural | Revitalised identity, sites protected and interpreted | Commodification, restricted access to significant sites |
The examiner is looking for the redistribution: name a group that gains and a group that loses from the SAME impact.
✕Treating the process as purely good or purely bad
An essay that describes tourism (or any cultural process) as only damaging, or only beneficial, has not analysed it — a cultural process almost always REDISTRIBUTES rather than simply creating or destroying. Name a specific group that gains and a specific group that loses from the SAME mechanism (e.g. accommodation demand raises operator income AND raises rents for existing residents, at the same time, in the same place) — that pairing is what the top band is actually looking for. Exam-style The same mechanism, opposite outcomes for two named groups A council introduces a visitor levy funding wastewater upgrades in a tourist town. Analyse who gains and who loses. Visitors pay the levy directly, so their cost of visiting rises slightly — a small negative impact spread across a large group. Residents gain from the funded infrastructure upgrade without bearing its cost through higher rates — a positive impact concentrated on a smaller, local group. Accommodation operators may see a small drop in price-sensitive bookings, but benefit from infrastructure that supports continued visitor growth long-term. ✓ The SAME policy redistributes cost toward visitors and benefit toward residents and operators — naming all three groups by their actual position is what an Excellence-level impacts paragraph does.A fast check before writing an impacts paragraph
- Have I named a SPECIFIC group, not just "people" or "the environment"?
- Have I named a group that gains AND a group that loses from the same mechanism?
- Is there a figure attached to at least one side of the redistribution?