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← Unit 5: Liveable Communities

CGC1W · Unit 5 test review

Liveable Communities: Test Review

Everything for the Unit 5 test on one page: the key facts from all 6 lessons, the mistakes that cost the most marks, and a practice test that points you back to the lessons you need.

Key facts

Land Use in Communities

  • The seven main land uses are residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, transportation, open space and recreation, and agricultural.
  • Accessibility and land value explain much of a city's pattern: the CBD has the highest land values and tallest buildings, industry follows rail, highways and water, and suburbs spread outward along roads.
  • Planners separate incompatible uses (heavy industry and homes) with buffers, but separating everything increases driving.
  • Floodplains, wetlands, permafrost, fire-prone forests and unstable slopes limit where communities can safely build, and climate change is increasing several of these risks.

Urban Growth, Sprawl and Planning Tools

  • Urban sprawl is low-density, car-dependent growth with separated land uses; compact growth uses intensification (infill, redevelopment, more homes per lot) to fit more people on less land.
  • Population density = number of people ÷ land area; higher density makes frequent transit and walkable services practical.
  • In Ontario, the Planning Act and the Provincial Planning Statement (in effect since October 20, 2024) guide municipal official plans and zoning bylaws; appeals go to the Ontario Land Tribunal.
  • Ontario's Greenbelt was created in 2005; land removed in late 2022 was returned by a law that received royal assent on December 6, 2023.
  • Tools to manage growth include greenbelts, intensification, transit-oriented development, mixed use, missing middle housing and the 15-minute neighbourhood idea.

Sustainable Food Systems

  • A food system includes production, processing, distribution, retail, consumption and waste; a sustainable one feeds everyone now without harming the ability to feed people in the future.
  • Ontario's farm area fell 4.7 percent between 2016 and 2021, to about 11.8 million acres (Statistics Canada), with development near growing cities a major cause.
  • A 2019 Second Harvest study estimated that about 58 percent of food produced in Canada is lost or wasted along the chain.
  • Food insecurity is highest in the North: 46.1 percent of people in Nunavut lived in food-insecure households in 2022; Nutrition North Canada (since 2011) subsidizes eligible foods and supports harvesting.
  • Strategies include protecting farmland, local food, community gardens and urban farms, food rescue and composting, better access in food deserts, and Indigenous food sovereignty.

Transportation Systems and Their Sustainability

  • Transportation produced about 22 percent of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions in 2024, second only to oil and gas (Environment and Climate Change Canada).
  • Per passenger, walking, cycling and well-used transit use far less space and energy than driving alone; a short domestic flight has the highest emissions per passenger-km of the modes compared in this lesson.
  • Transit needs enough people near stops, so land use and transportation must be planned together; adding highway lanes often induces more driving.
  • Recent and planned Ontario systems include new LRT lines (Finch West, 2025; Eglinton, 2026), GO Expansion and the proposed Alto high-speed rail line from Toronto to Québec City.
  • Assess transportation options with environmental, social, economic and political perspectives at the local, provincial, national and international scale.

Energy Use in Communities: Policy and Choices

  • Buildings produced about 12 percent and transportation about 22 percent of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions in 2024 (Environment and Climate Change Canada).
  • Ontario's electricity is mostly low-emission (nuclear, hydro, wind, solar) since coal was phased out in 2014, so electrifying heating and transportation cuts emissions there.
  • A heat pump moves heat instead of making it, typically delivering two to three units of heat for each unit of electricity over a season, and it also cools in summer.
  • Governments (codes, standards, rebates, zoning), corporations (buildings, fleets, power purchases) and individuals (heating, vehicles, where to live) all shape community energy use.
  • District energy, such as Toronto's Deep Lake Water Cooling (since 2004) or Oujé-Bougoumou's wood-waste heating, serves many buildings from one efficient system.

Sustainable and Culturally Informed Community Design

  • A sustainable community balances environmental, economic and social goals; a complete community puts homes, jobs, schools, shops, parks and transit within walking or cycling distance.
  • Housing is usually considered affordable when it costs less than 30 percent of a household's before-tax income.
  • Green infrastructure (green roofs, rain gardens, bioswales, permeable pavement, trees) reduces flooding and urban heat; Toronto's green roof bylaw dates from 2009.
  • Ontario's Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (2005) set a goal of an accessible province by 2025; universal design makes places usable by everyone without later adaptation.
  • Culturally informed design involves communities from the start and reflects their cultures: for example, the Squamish Nation's Sen̓áḵw rental development in Vancouver and Douglas Cardinal's Canadian Museum of History (1989).

Where marks get lost

  • Calling roads and parking lots "nothing". Transportation is its own land use and often covers a large share of a suburb. (Land Use in Communities)
  • Classifying a school or hospital as commercial. Public services such as schools, hospitals and government offices are institutional land use. (Land Use in Communities)
  • Explaining a land-use pattern with "that is just where it is". Use accessibility, land value, physical features and planning rules to explain why. (Land Use in Communities)
  • Assuming that old floodplain or fire-risk maps show today's risk. Climate change is making heavy rain and wildfire seasons more intense in many places. (Land Use in Communities)
  • Treating density and crowding as the same thing. A well-designed mid-rise neighbourhood can be dense yet have parks, trees and quiet streets. (Urban Growth, Sprawl and Planning Tools)
  • Saying compact growth has no downsides. Intensification can strain old infrastructure, change neighbourhoods and raise nearby land values; it needs good planning too. (Urban Growth, Sprawl and Planning Tools)
  • Confusing the official plan (the long-term vision for the whole municipality) with the zoning bylaw (the detailed rules for each property). (Urban Growth, Sprawl and Planning Tools)
  • Getting the Greenbelt dates wrong: it was created in 2005; land was removed in late 2022, and the removal was reversed by a law that received royal assent in December 2023. (Urban Growth, Sprawl and Planning Tools)
  • Thinking the 15-minute neighbourhood limits where people can go. It is about having daily needs nearby, not about restricting travel. (Urban Growth, Sprawl and Planning Tools)
  • Thinking food waste happens only at home. Food is lost at every stage: on farms, in processing, in transport, in stores and restaurants, and in households. (Sustainable Food Systems)
  • Assuming that local food always has the lowest emissions. Food type and production method usually matter more than distance, except for air-freighted food. (Sustainable Food Systems)
  • Treating food insecurity as only a northern problem. It is highest in the North, but many low-income households in southern cities are food-insecure too. (Sustainable Food Systems)
  • Describing Nutrition North Canada as free food. It is a subsidy that lowers prices of eligible foods through retailers and suppliers. (Sustainable Food Systems)
  • Forgetting that farmland is a non-renewable resource once it is paved, even though crops are renewable. (Sustainable Food Systems)
  • Comparing modes only by emissions. Space, cost, travel time, safety and who can use them (equity) matter too. (Transportation Systems and Their Sustainability)
  • Assuming a car's emissions per person are fixed. They fall when the car is shared and are much lower for an electric car on Ontario's mostly low-emission grid. (Transportation Systems and Their Sustainability)
  • Thinking that adding highway lanes permanently ends congestion. Induced demand often refills new lanes within a few years. (Transportation Systems and Their Sustainability)
  • Describing Alto as already built or under construction. As of 2026 it is in design and consultation, with construction expected to start around 2029. (Transportation Systems and Their Sustainability)
  • Forgetting rural and northern transportation. Many communities depend on air service, winter roads and seasonal shipping, which climate change is affecting. (Transportation Systems and Their Sustainability)
  • Thinking a heat pump creates heat like a furnace. It moves heat from outside (or the ground) inside, which is why it delivers more heat than the electricity it uses. (Energy Use in Communities: Policy and Choices)
  • Assuming electrification always cuts emissions. It does where electricity is low-emission, as in Ontario or Québec; where electricity comes mostly from fossil fuels, the benefit is smaller. (Energy Use in Communities: Policy and Choices)
  • Focusing only on individual choices. Building codes, zoning and utility decisions shape what choices are even available to individuals. (Energy Use in Communities: Policy and Choices)
  • Ignoring cost and fairness. Upgrades save money over time but cost money up front, and renters often cannot make them. (Energy Use in Communities: Policy and Choices)
  • Treating sustainability as only environmental. A community also needs to be affordable (economic) and inclusive and accessible (social). (Sustainable and Culturally Informed Community Design)
  • Thinking accessibility features help only people with disabilities. Universal design, like curb cuts, helps parents, seniors, delivery workers and travellers too. (Sustainable and Culturally Informed Community Design)
  • Assuming a strategy that worked in one city will work everywhere. Medicine Hat's success depended partly on its size and housing costs. (Sustainable and Culturally Informed Community Design)
  • Describing culturally informed design as decoration. It means involving the community in decisions and reflecting its values and relationships with the land, not just adding artwork. (Sustainable and Culturally Informed Community Design)
  • Confusing grey infrastructure (pipes, sewers, concrete) with green infrastructure (plants, soil and natural systems that manage water and heat). (Sustainable and Culturally Informed Community Design)

Practice test

24 questions from across the unit. Each one shows the lesson it comes from.

  1. Land Use in Communities
    1
    Match each place to its land-use category.
    An auto parts factory
    A regional hospital
    A ravine park with trails
    A shopping plaza
    A GO train line
  2. Land Use in Communities
    2
    In a typical older Canadian city like the one in the urban-structure model, put these zones in order from the centre outward.
    1. 1Farmland and countryside
    2. 2Rural–urban fringe
    3. 3Newer car-oriented suburbs
    4. 4Central business district
    5. 5Older inner-city neighbourhoods
  3. Land Use in Communities
    3
    A town has 400 ha of land inside its boundary. Residential land covers 180 ha. What percentage of the town's land is residential?
    %
  4. Land Use in Communities
    4
    Why do many planners now mix some land uses (homes, shops and offices) instead of separating them completely?
  5. Urban Growth, Sprawl and Planning Tools
    5
    A new suburb has 6,000 residents on 4 km² of land. What is its population density, in people per km²?
    people/km²
  6. Urban Growth, Sprawl and Planning Tools
    6
    Which effect is MOST directly linked to low-density urban sprawl?
  7. Urban Growth, Sprawl and Planning Tools
    7
    Match each growth-management tool to its description.
    Transit-oriented development
    Infill
    Greenbelt
    Missing middle housing
  8. Urban Growth, Sprawl and Planning Tools
    8
    A city adopts the goal of 15-minute neighbourhoods. What does this mean?
  9. Sustainable Food Systems
    9
    Put the stages of the food system in order.
    1. 1Consumption
    2. 2Retail
    3. 3Waste and recovery
    4. 4Production on the farm
    5. 5Processing
    6. 6Distribution
  10. Sustainable Food Systems
    10
    Why are fresh foods so expensive in many Nunavut communities?
  11. Sustainable Food Systems
    11
    According to Statistics Canada data reported by PROOF, about what share of people in Nunavut lived in food-insecure households in 2022?
  12. Sustainable Food Systems
    12
    Why does food waste contribute to climate change?
  13. Transportation Systems and Their Sustainability
    13
    Using the UK government emission factors in this lesson, order these from LOWEST to HIGHEST emissions per passenger-kilometre.
    1. 1National rail
    2. 2Domestic flight
    3. 3Petrol car with one person
    4. 4Walking
  14. Transportation Systems and Their Sustainability
    14
    Which sector produced the largest share of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions in 2024, ahead of transportation?
  15. Transportation Systems and Their Sustainability
    15
    What is the name of the proposed high-speed rail project between Toronto and Québec City announced in 2025?
  16. Transportation Systems and Their Sustainability
    16
    A city widens a busy highway, and within a few years traffic is as bad as before. Which idea explains this?
  17. Energy Use in Communities: Policy and Choices
    17
    A heat pump delivers 2.5 units of heat for every unit of electricity. How many kWh of electricity does it need to deliver 10 000 kWh of heat?
    kWh
  18. Energy Use in Communities: Policy and Choices
    18
    Match each energy decision to who made it.
    Requiring new buildings to meet the Toronto Green Standard
    Closing the province's last coal-fired power plant in 2014
    Switching a delivery company's vans to electric
    Turning down the thermostat at night
  19. Energy Use in Communities: Policy and Choices
    19
    Put the steps of Toronto's Deep Lake Water Cooling system in order.
    1. 1The cold lake water passes through heat exchangers at a pumping station
    2. 2The chilled loop water is piped to downtown buildings to cool them
    3. 3The heat exchangers chill a separate closed loop of water
    4. 4Cold water (about 4 °C) is drawn from deep in Lake Ontario
  20. Energy Use in Communities: Policy and Choices
    20
    Why might a family that rents an apartment find it hard to switch to a heat pump?
  21. Sustainable and Culturally Informed Community Design
    21
    A household earns 48,000 dollars a year before tax. Using the 30 percent guideline, what is the most it can spend on housing per month and still be considered affordable (in dollars)?
    dollars
  22. Sustainable and Culturally Informed Community Design
    22
    Match each strategy to the sustainability issue it most directly addresses.
    Rain gardens and permeable pavement
    Housing First programs
    Level boarding at transit platforms
    Street trees and cool roofs
  23. Sustainable and Culturally Informed Community Design
    23
    Who designed the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, which opened in 1989?
  24. Sustainable and Culturally Informed Community Design
    24
    Which feature would make a new neighbourhood MOST like a complete community?

Endless drill

Fresh numbers every time, for the calculation questions in this unit.

Endless drillnew numbers every time

Generating a problem…

Keep going