Secondary 6 Geography Practice Paper (Set 2): Plate Tectonics And Earthquakes, River Landforms And Flood Management, Urban Climate And Heat Island, Changing Industrial Location, Population Ageing And Migration, Sustainable Urban Management (100 Marks)

Secondary 6 Geography Practice Paper (Set 2): plate tectonics and earthquakes, river landforms and flood management, urban climate and heat island, changing industrial location, population ageing and migration, sustainable urban management (100 marks)

2026-11-15

Geography – S6

S6 Geography practice paper set 2: 24 questions with mark schemes on plate tectonics, rivers and floods, urban heat islands, industry, ageing and urban sustainability.

Paper details　S6 Geography practice paper set 2 with 24 questions and full worked answers: plate boundaries and earthquakes, river landforms and flood control, urban heat island, industrial relocation, population ageing, sustainable urban management.

Section A Plate tectonics and earthquakes

This section covers plate boundaries, seismic waves and earthquake-resistant design. Cite data and places.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
1	Describe the plate movement at divergent, convergent and transform boundaries, and explain why the earthquake risk in Hong Kong is relatively low. (4 marks)	Answer: divergent boundaries move apart (1 mark); convergent boundaries move together with one plate subducting (1 mark); transform boundaries slide past horizontally (1 mark); Hong Kong sits inside a plate far from active margins, so tremors are mostly distant South China events, small and much attenuated (1 mark).
2	A station lies 260 km from the epicentre; P waves travel at 6.5 km/s and S waves at 3.7 km/s. Work out the arrival time difference to one decimal place and explain how it locates the epicentre. (4 marks)	Answer: P waves take 40.0 s and S waves 70.3 s (2 marks); the difference is 30.3 s (1 mark); arcs drawn from three or more stations intersect at the epicentre (1 mark).
3	Compare the surface damage of shallow-focus and deep-focus earthquakes and list three factors that affect the degree of damage. (4 marks)	Answer: for the same magnitude a shallow focus does more damage because the source is near the surface and less energy is lost (1 mark); deep-focus energy is much attenuated over distance (1 mark); three factors: focal depth, local geology and soft soils that amplify shaking, and building resistance plus population density (2 marks).
4	Name two earthquake-resistant design measures and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of one of them for a densely populated city. (4 marks)	Answer: two measures such as base isolation bearings and shear walls or steel frames (2 marks); the evaluation must weigh benefits (fewer collapses, lives saved, lower rescue and rebuilding costs) against costs (higher construction price, costly retrofitting, long works) (2 marks).

Section B River landforms and flood management

A basin of 480 square kilometres with 2400 mm annual rainfall and a runoff coefficient of 0.45.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
5	Explain how a meander forms and how an oxbow lake develops from a meander. (4 marks)	Answer: centrifugal force at a bend speeds up flow on the outer bank and erodes it (1 mark); the inner bank is slower and gains deposition (1 mark); the meander neck narrows until a flood cuts it off (1 mark); the abandoned channel silts up at both ends and becomes an oxbow lake (1 mark).
6	Calculate the annual precipitation volume of the basin in hundred million cubic metres and the effective runoff using the coefficient. (4 marks)	Answer: total volume equals area times rainfall depth, giving 11.52 hundred million cubic metres (2 marks); effective runoff is 11.52 times 0.45, equal to 5.184 (2 marks).
7	Compare hard and soft flood management measures, giving one example of each and its limitation. (4 marks)	Answer: hard works such as embankments, storage tanks or channel improvement hold or pass water quickly and act at once (1 mark) but are costly and may shift risk downstream (1 mark); soft measures such as zoning, warning systems and insurance are cheap and flexible (1 mark) but depend on compliance and forecast accuracy (1 mark).
8	A basin must choose between upstream afforestation and raising downstream embankments. Compare them for long-term flood control and give a recommendation with reasons. (4 marks)	Answer: afforestation intercepts rain, delays runoff and cuts erosion with wider ecological benefits (1 mark) but works slowly, needs long upkeep and reduces peaks only partly in extreme storms (1 mark); embankments act fast yet raise water levels and breach risk (1 mark); recommend forest first with embankments as support plus warnings (1 mark).

Section C Urban climate and the heat island

Temperatures on one day: rural 28.4 C, urban park 29.6 C, dense urban 32.8 C.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
9	Explain three causes of the urban heat island effect. (4 marks)	Answer: impervious concrete and asphalt absorb heat quickly and release it slowly, replacing cooling vegetation (1 mark); tall buildings form street canyons that trap long-wave radiation (1 mark); traffic, air conditioning and industry release waste heat (1 mark); the explanation must be specific rather than simply stating that cities are hotter (1 mark).
10	Using the data, calculate the heat island intensity and the cooling effect of the park against the dense urban area. (4 marks)	Answer: intensity is 32.8 minus 28.4, equal to 4.4 C (2 marks); the park cooling is 32.8 minus 29.6, equal to 3.2 C (2 marks).
11	Suggest three planning measures that mitigate the heat island and say which is most effective in dense districts. (4 marks)	Answer: green roofs and vertical greening, ventilation corridors with wider building gaps, high-albedo light materials, and retained open space and water bodies (3 marks, 1 each); name the most effective with a reason, for example corridors that move heat at district scale (1 mark).
12	Explain how the heat island interacts with air pollution and public health, and identify the two highest-risk groups. (4 marks)	Answer: heat speeds photochemical reactions so ozone and particulates build up (1 mark); weak night cooling traps pollutants (1 mark); the highest-risk groups are the elderly and chronically ill, and outdoor workers (2 marks).

Section D Changing industrial location

Manufacturing shares of total employment in a developed economy: 38.0 per cent in 1980 and 6.0 per cent in 2020; services were 52.0 and 89.0 per cent.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
13	Explain why manufacturing has moved from inner cities to the fringe and overseas. (4 marks)	Answer: high inner-city rents and wages make low-value production unviable (1 mark); containerisation and motorways freed factories from central rail and docks (1 mark); fringe and overseas sites offer cheap land and labour (1 mark); environmental and planning controls push out polluting processes (1 mark).
14	Calculate the change in the manufacturing and service shares between 1980 and 2020 in percentage points and describe the shift in employment structure. (4 marks)	Answer: manufacturing falls from 38.0 to 6.0, a change of 32.0 points (1 mark); services rise from 52.0 to 89.0, plus 37.0 points (1 mark); employment shifts from secondary to tertiary activity (1 mark), that is deindustrialisation with services dominant (1 mark).
15	Explain three effects of manufacturing relocation on the local employment structure. (4 marks)	Answer: low-skilled production workers lose jobs or move into poorly paid services (1 mark); employment becomes more professional with more finance and business posts (1 mark); skill mismatch widens the wage gap (1 mark); women and older workers find re-employment harder (1 mark).
16	Evaluate the feasibility of a reindustrialisation policy in that economy, giving one strength and one limitation. (4 marks)	Answer: strength, a base in research, finance and international links supports high-value automated manufacturing linked to innovation (2 marks); limitation, scarce land and skilled labour with high costs make mass production uncompetitive (2 marks). A bare verdict earns nothing.

Section E Population ageing and migration

A city has 7,500,000 people, of whom 1,500,000 are aged 65 or over and 5,000,000 are aged 15 to 64.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
17	Explain two causes of population ageing in the city and distinguish ageing from hyper-ageing. (4 marks)	Answer: fertility stays below replacement so the young share falls (1 mark); better health care and living standards lengthen life expectancy (1 mark); the baby-boom cohort reaches old age together, lifting the share quickly (1 mark); ageing societies are commonly defined at 7 per cent aged 65 and over, deeply aged at 14 per cent and hyper-aged at 20 per cent (1 mark).
18	Calculate the share of the population aged 65 and over and the old-age dependency ratio per hundred people aged 15 to 64. (4 marks)	Answer: the share is 1,500,000 divided by 7,500,000, giving 20.0 per cent (2 marks); the ratio is 1,500,000 divided by 5,000,000, giving 30.0 (2 marks).
19	Explain three pressures that ageing puts on public finances and propose two policy responses. (5 marks)	Answer: rising health and long-term care costs (1 mark); higher retirement protection and elderly welfare spending (1 mark); a smaller workforce narrows the tax base (1 mark); two responses such as a later retirement age, the silver economy, flexible work or community care (2 marks).
20	Compare importing labour with pronatalist incentives in tackling ageing, and state which works faster. (5 marks)	Answer: labour import adds workers at once and eases shortages (1 mark) but depends on outside supply, may damp low-skilled wages and stir social debate (1 mark); pronatalist policy addresses the root and improves the long-run structure (1 mark) but takes two decades to show and cash incentives move fertility only slightly (1 mark); conclude that imports act faster and should run alongside long-term family policy (1 mark).

Section F Sustainable urban management

A city generates 11,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste a day, recycles 30 per cent and landfills the rest.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
21	Explain the three pillars of sustainable development and illustrate them with municipal waste management. (4 marks)	Answer: environmental, cutting landfill and pollution while saving resources (1 mark); economic, recycling industries create jobs and material value (1 mark); social, fair siting so poor districts do not bear the pollution (1 mark); the three must be balanced, as growth alone harms environment and equity (1 mark).
22	Calculate the daily landfilled tonnage and the annual total in ten thousand tonnes. (4 marks)	Answer: recycled is 3,300 tonnes (1 mark); landfilled is 11,000 minus 3,300, that is 7,700 tonnes (1 mark); the annual total is 7,700 times 365, about 281.1 ten-thousand tonnes (2 marks).
23	Compare a charging scheme by volume with public education for waste reduction and propose one supporting measure. (5 marks)	Answer: charging gives a direct economic incentive and measurable cuts (1 mark) but is regressive for poor households and raises fly-tipping (1 mark); education changes habits and sorting quality at low cost (1 mark) but works slowly and is hard to measure (1 mark); a supporting measure such as a wider recycling network, food waste collection or producer responsibility (1 mark).
24	Design a sustainable urban management plan for a community of 30,000 and assess two constraints on implementation. (5 marks)	Answer: a concrete plan covering source-separated recycling and food waste collection, walking and public transport priority, roof greening and community gardens, and energy audits (3 marks); two constraints such as scarce land and funding, low participation, or conflicts with existing contracts and rules (2 marks).

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