Examine the costs and benefits of urban redevelopment for different groups of stakeholders.

Examine the influence of economic and political factors on the location of low-quality residential areas in cities.

Marks should be allocated according to the Paper 1 markbands (available under the "Your tests" tab > supplemental materials).

Urban redevelopment, in both low- and high-income countries, may have a significant impact on neighbourhoods and local communities. Costs and benefits will vary between different stakeholders, who may have differing perspectives and power.

Possible applied themes (AO2) demonstrating knowledge and understanding (AO1):

• Urban redevelopment includes land use changes, such as slum clearances and gentrification, development of brownfield and greenfield sites, affecting neighbourhoods and their populations.
• Slum clearances may include areas in cities of different levels of economic development – eg squatter settlements and inner-city slums.
• Residential populations in affected local neighbourhoods may have different viewpoints concerning land use changes, and be affected in different ways.
• Costs and benefits will vary between different stakeholders, such as local communities, city planners, developers and TNCs, who have differing perspectives and power.

Good answers may be well structured (AO4) and may additionally offer a critical evaluation (AO3) that examines how perspectives will vary based on who is benefitting; these may change on longer timescales. Costs and benefits may be spread according to the power of different stakeholders. In different places there may also be more or less protection for disenfranchised stakeholders.

For 5–6 marks, expect some weakly evidenced outlining of the costs and/or benefits of urban redevelopment for people/stakeholders.

For 7–8 marks, expect a structured account that includes:

• either an evidenced explanation of costs and benefits of urban redevelopment(do not expect balance) for different groups of stakeholders
• or a discursive conclusion (or ongoing evaluation) grounded in geographical concepts and/or perspectives.

For 9–10 marks, expect both of these traits.

Marks should be allocated according to the Paper 1 markbands (available under the "Your tests" tab > supplemental materials).

The location of low-quality residential areas in cities may vary over space and time. It may vary between cities in low-income and high-income countries. Their location is affected by a variety of economic, social, political and physical factors, and importance is affected by the relative power of different stakeholders.

Possible applied themes (AO2) demonstrating knowledge and understanding (AO1):

• Examples may be taken from one or more cities.
• Economic factors include variations in land value and the relative wealth/poverty of the populations. Also, employment, industrial activity and proximity to other types of urban land use.
• Transportation networks and accessibility.
• Political factors include urban planning, including possible segregation of low-income groups.
• Political factors may be more important in autocratic than democratic governments and societies.
• Other factors may also be important, such as physical (eg, high relief and poorly drained areas) and social (ethnic minorities and immigrant groups, segregation).

Good answers may be well structured (AO4) and may additionally offer a critical evaluation (AO3) that examines the importance of scale – eg, small cities or megacities. Another consideration is the interaction between different political and economic stakeholders. This depends on different places in the world (developing or developed) and different power structures in autocracies/democracies. Perspectives may differ on what “low quality” means.

For 5–6 marks, expect some weakly evidenced outlining of the influence of economic and/or political factors on the location of residential urban areas.

For 7–8 marks, expect a structured account that includes:

• either an evidenced explanation of how economic and political factors (do not expect balance) may influence the location of low-quality residential areas in cities
• or a discursive conclusion (or ongoing evaluation) grounded in geographical concepts and/or perspectives.

For 9–10 marks, expect both of these traits.

This was a broad question with numerous possibilities to use a wide variety of examples in covering different types of redevelopment. Examples used tended to be Rio de Janeiro, London, Mumbai (Dharavi) and New York. Responses were often descriptive and did not identify different groups of stakeholders.

Too often, the key word "location" was ignored, and responses described aspects of low-quality residential areas, with no reference to locational factors. Others looked at the location of low-quality housing in HICs and LICs but details were missing on the economic and political factors that determine the location of such housing. Generally, there were many poor responses but the ones that were well done selected low-quality housing areas in New York along with Dharavi and the Rio favelas to bring out the role of economic and political factors.