Key term
OCR A-Level Geography H481
Coastal Landscapes
Topic overviewThe coastal system: inputs, outputs and flows of energy and materialSediment cells, the sediment budget and the sources of coastal sedimentWinds, fetch and the generation of wavesConstructive and destructive waves, and how waves breakTides, tidal range and ocean currentsLithology, geological structure and the plan of the coastWeathering and mass movement on the coastMarine erosion, transport and depositionBays, headlands, cliffs and shore platformsGeos, blow holes, caves, arches, stacks and stumpsBeaches and the changing beach profileSpits, bars, tombolos and salt marshesHigh and low energy coastlines as characteristic landscapesEmergent coasts: raised beaches, marine terraces and abandoned cliffsSubmergent coasts: rias, fjords and shingle beachesCoastal management and its effect on the sediment budgetPorts, tourism and unintended change at the coast
Glaciated Landscapes
Topic overviewThe glacier system: inputs, stores, flows and outputsGlacier mass balance and the equilibrium lineClimate, latitude and altitude as controls on glaciationGeology, relief and aspect in glaciated landscapesFirn, glacier ice, valley glaciers and ice sheetsWarm-based and cold-based ice, and the mechanisms of glacier movementWeathering, mass movement and nivation in cold environmentsGlacial erosion and the marks it leaves on rockEntrainment, transport and deposition of glacial sedimentCorries, arêtes and pyramidal peaksGlacial troughs, hanging valleys and ribbon lakesMoraines, erratics, drumlins and till sheetsCharacteristic glaciated landscapes and how they change over timeGlacio-fluvial landforms of deglaciation: kames, eskers and outwash plainsPermafrost, patterned ground and pingosPeople in periglacial landscapes: resource extraction and thermokarstPeople in glaciated landscapes: dams, reservoirs and valley change
Dryland Landscapes
Topic overviewDryland landscape systems: inputs, stores, flows and outputsAridity, the water balance and the UNEP aridity indexRainfall, pressure belts and the global pattern of aridityRock type and structure in dryland landscapesRelief, aspect and desert microclimatesSediment supply and the dryland sediment budgetPolar drylands and the cold desertsHot deserts of the low and mid latitudesSemi-arid environments and the desert marginsWeathering and mass movement in dryland landscapesFluvial and aeolian processes in the desertWadis, canyons, pedestal rocks, ventifacts and desert pavementsBarchans, linear dunes, star dunes, alluvial fans and bajadasThe Mojave and the Sahara as desert landscape systemsInselbergs, pediments and relict landforms of past pluvialsFrost-shattered debris, nivation hollows and solifluction depositsWater supply, dams and landscape changeTourism, off-road vehicles and landscape change
Earth’s Life Support Systems
Topic overviewWater and carbon as the foundations of life on EarthOpen and closed systems, and the major global stores of water and carbonInputs and outputs of the water cycle: precipitation, snowmelt and evapotranspirationInputs and outputs of the carbon cycle, and the forms of chemical weatheringEvaporation, transpiration, condensation and the causes of rainfallInterception, runoff and catchment hydrologyPhotosynthesis, respiration, decomposition and combustion as carbon flowsNatural sequestration in oceans, vegetation, sediments and rockStores, flows and physical controls in the tropical rainforestDeforestation, farming and forest management in an Amazon drainage basinStores, flows and seasonal change in the Arctic tundraOil and gas development in the Arctic tundra, and its managementDynamic equilibrium, land use change and water extractionFossil fuel combustion, carbon sequestration and feedback loopsChange over time in the cycles, and the monitoring that records itLinks and interdependence between the water and carbon cyclesGlobal strategies to protect the carbon and water cycles
Changing Spaces; Making Places
Topic overviewThe characteristics that shape a place profileContrasting place profiles: Chelsea and BlackpoolPast and present connections, and the scales that embed a placeShifting flows of people, resources, money and ideasSpace, place and the effects of time-space compressionPerception, identity and emotional attachment to placeInformal representations of place in media and the artsFormal and statistical representations of placeMeasuring social inequality and its spatial patternsDeindustrialisation, globalisation and structural economic changeRecession, austerity and the government's role in inequalityLiving with inequality: Sparkbrook and Sutton ColdfieldPlayers driving economic change at different scalesThe Ruhr: a region reshaped by structural economic changePlacemaking and the marketing of places to investorsDesign, mixed use and community-led placemakingRebranding through reimaging and regenerationSalford Quays: from docks to MediaCityUK
Trade in the Contemporary World
Topic overviewMerchandise, services and capital flowsGlobal trade patterns: inter-regional and intra-regional flowsTrade, export value and human developmentTrade as a driver of growth, stability and developmentTrade inequalities, conflict and injusticeTransport, technology and the global supply chainMultinationals, outsourcing and the new international division of labourRegional trading blocs and the European UnionSouth–south trade and the growth of traded servicesIndia: trade patterns of an emerging economyThe United States: a core economy shaping world tradeEthiopia: trade on the periphery of the global system
Global Migration
Topic overviewThe global migrant population: size, composition and direction of flowInter-regional and intra-regional flows, and the world's major migration corridorsRemittances, the Human Development Index and the migration-development linkMigration as a driver of stability, growth and developmentInequality, conflict and injustice in the global migration systemEconomic globalisation and the emergence of new source and host areasYoung workers, women migrants and the growth of South-South movementConflict, persecution and the world's refugee movementsNational immigration and emigration policy, and how it is changingMexico: an emerging economy shaped by a migration corridorThe United Kingdom: an advanced country driving change in the migration systemNepal: a low-income country with little leverage over its migration
Human Rights
Topic overviewThe idea of human rights and its legal foundationsNorms, intervention and geopoliticsForced labour and modern slaveryMaternal mortality and access to safe childbirthCapital punishment and where it persistsPatterns of gender inequality: schooling, reproductive health and workWomen's rights in IndiaHuman rights abuse as a cause and a consequence of conflictInstitutions, treaties and laws that protect human rightsGlobal governance of human rights in eastern DR CongoShort-term relief and long-term change in DR Congo
Power and Borders
Topic overviewStates, nations and the sovereign control of territoryNorms, intervention and geopoliticsContested borders and the legacy of colonial boundariesTransnational corporations and economic sovereigntyTrading blocs, supranational institutions and pooled sovereigntyEthnic dominance, minority marginalisation and separatismUkraine: sovereignty and territorial integrity under challengeResources, conflict and the causes of geopolitical instabilityGlobal institutions, international law and the flows that carry interventionSouth Sudan: governing a conflict from global to localShort-term and long-term outcomes of intervention for people and placesThe Democratic Republic of the Congo: global governance in an LIDC
Climate Change
Topic overviewReconstructing past climates from natural archivesIcehouse and greenhouse Earth, from Cenozoic cooling to the HoloceneContinental drift and volcanic activity as drivers of climateMilankovitch cycles and changes in solar outputThe natural greenhouse effect and the atmosphere's greenhouse gasesWarming of the surface, atmosphere and oceans since the late 19th centuryRetreating ice, shrinking snow cover and rising sea levelWhy greenhouse gas emissions have risen since the pre-industrial eraThe changing global balance of emissions, from an AC to an EDCThe enhanced greenhouse effect and the global energy balanceThe evolution of the global warming debateGovernments, international organisations and the media in the climate debateClimate models, the carbon cycle and feedbackFuture emission scenarios and projected temperature and sea level riseImpacts on ecosystems, health and extreme weatherThe vulnerability of people and environments to climate changeMitigation through energy efficiency, fuel shifts and low-carbon energyCarbon capture and storage, forestry strategies and geoengineeringRetreat, accommodation and protection as adaptationAdapted homes, cities, transport and economiesContrasting countries: impacts, opportunities and the challenges of respondingThe IPCC, international agreements and policy from global to local
Disease Dilemmas
Topic overviewWays of classifying disease, and the epidemic to pandemic scaleMapping the burden of malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, diabetes and heart diseaseDisease diffusion, the Hägerstrand model and the barriers that slow itTemperature, rainfall, relief and water supply as controls on diseaseMosquitoes, vectors and the seasonal rhythm of outbreaksClimate change, emerging infections and diseases that jump from animalsCholera in Haiti after the 2010 earthquakeRising living standards and the epidemiological transitionDiseases of poverty and diseases of affluenceAir pollution and lung cancer in ChinaMalaria in Nigeria: from causes to controlCardiovascular disease in the United KingdomThe World Health Organization and the surveillance of global outbreaksMédecins Sans Frontières and the West African Ebola epidemicPhysical barriers to treatment and the fight against HIV and AIDSMedicinal plants, their growing conditions and the trade that threatens themPharmaceutical transnationals and the global flow of medicinesEradication campaigns, grassroots education and the role of women
Exploring Oceans
Topic overviewThe size and spread of the world's oceansThe shape of the sea floor, from shelf to trenchSalinity and temperature through the water columnSurface currents and the great ocean gyresThe North Atlantic conveyor, from Gulf Stream to deep return flowLight, warmth and nutrients as limits on ocean lifeFood webs in the inter-tidal zone and the deep seaHarvesting Southern Ocean krillWhaling, stakeholder conflict and resource thresholdsOcean energy: oil, gas, waves and tidesMining the deep sea bed for metalsThe global commons, maritime zones and ocean governanceThe major sources of marine pollutionThe Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its aftermathDrifting plastic and the North Pacific garbage patchOcean acidification, warming seas and coral bleachingRising sea level and low-lying island communitiesSea ice, the albedo feedback and irreversible thresholdsThe changing Arctic: peoples, politics and new sea routesShipping lanes, container ships and seaborne tradeNaval power and contested seasPiracy and migration by sea
Future of Food
Topic overviewFood security and its three pillarsMeasuring hunger: undernourishment data and food security indicesShifting patterns of food security between and within countriesClimate, soil, water and relief as controls on where food can be grownThe journey of food from farm to plate, and the waste it leavesTypes of farming: intensive, extensive, subsistence and commercialGlobalisation, rising demand and global tastesThe issues and opportunities of a globalised food industryLand ownership, competition and land grabbingMalthus, Boserup and the population–resource debateYemen: conflict, aridity and the collapse of food accessVulnerable people and the pinchpoints in global food distributionDesertification and the drylands of the SahelExtreme weather, water scarcity and tectonic shocks to food productionInuit hunting and food security in the ArcticSalinisation, deforestation and agrochemical pollution from farmingThe Aral Sea: a landscape remade by irrigationHealth effects of hunger, over-nutrition and agrochemical exposureMalawi and the United States: contrasting experiences of food insecurityTrade policy, the World Trade Organization and appropriate aidAgribusiness, food TNCs, supermarkets and fair tradeFrom emergency relief to capacity building and system redesign
Hazardous Earth
Topic overviewThe Earth's internal structure and the global pattern of platesContinental drift and the evidence from fossils, rocks and ancient glaciationsSea-floor spreading, palaeomagnetism and the age of the ocean floorDivergent boundaries and the landforms of the mid-ocean ridgesSubduction at oceanic-continental and oceanic-oceanic boundariesContinental collision and conservative boundariesMagma chemistry, viscosity and explosive volcanism at subduction zonesEffusive eruptions, shield volcanoes and hot-spot volcanismVolcano size and shape, super-volcanoes and the Volcanic Explosivity IndexLava flows, pyroclastic flows and volcanic gasesTephra, ashfall, lahars and volcanic tsunamisEarthquake focus, depth and the seismic waves releasedMeasuring earthquakes: Richter, moment magnitude and Mercalli intensityFault scarps, rift valleys and the landscapes faulting createsGround shaking, ground displacement and liquefactionEarthquake-triggered landslides, avalanches and floodingTsunamis from sea-bed uplift and underwater landslidesWhy people choose to live in tectonically active placesThe impacts of volcanic eruptions in countries at contrasting levels of developmentThe impacts of earthquakes in countries at contrasting levels of developmentPredicting, monitoring and managing volcanic hazardsLand-use zoning, building design and managing earthquake riskChanging risk over time and the disaster risk equationThe Park model of disaster response
Geographical Skills
Topic overviewGeographical data, its types and the ethics of using itCollecting data: sampling, measurement error and digital devicesQualitative methods, sources and drawing conclusionsMeasures of central tendency and dispersionCorrelation, lines of best fit and Spearman's rankSignificance tests: chi-squared, Mann-Whitney U and the t-testClimate graphs, maps and graphical techniques
Coastal Landscapes
- 17 subtopics
- 45 things to know
- Component 01
What Coastal Landscapes covers
Coastal Landscapes is examined in Component 01, Physical systems. It covers the coast as a system of energy and sediment inputs, stores, flows and outputs; sediment cells and the sediment budget; how winds, fetch, waves, tides and ocean currents deliver energy to the shore; how lithology and geological structure shape the plan of the coast; and weathering, mass movement and marine erosion, transport and deposition. It also covers the landforms these processes build, from bays, headlands, cliffs, caves, arches and stacks to beaches, spits, bars, tombolos and salt marshes; high and low energy coastlines as characteristic landscapes, with the Dorset coast and the Wadden Sea; emergent and submergent coasts; and how coastal management at Mappleton, ports, tourism and land reclamation off Dubai change the coast and its sediment budget.
The 17 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- The coastal system: inputs, outputs and flows of energy and materialRecall questions on the coast as an open system: its energy and sediment inputs, stores, flows and outputs, the part played by waves and running water, dynamic equilibrium, negative and positive feedback, and what makes a coastline high or low energy.Open →
- Sediment cells, the sediment budget and the sources of coastal sedimentRecall questions on sediment cells and the eleven cells of England and Wales, why no cell is truly closed, positive and negative sediment budgets with worked budget and volume calculations, and the cliff, river, wind, offshore and nourishment sources of coastal sediment.Open →
- Winds, fetch and the generation of wavesRecall questions on how wind generates waves, fetch and the large waves of Britain's south-west coasts, wind speed, duration, direction and frequency, a fully developed sea, sea and swell, storm frequency, and wave height, wavelength, period and energy.Open →
- Constructive and destructive waves, and how waves breakRecall questions on how waves change in shallow water and when they break, wave steepness and orbital motion, swash and backwash, spilling, plunging and surging breakers, the features and effects of constructive and destructive waves, berms, and wave refraction around a headland.Open →
- Tides, tidal range and ocean currentsRecall questions on the causes of tides, spring and neap tides, tidal range and macrotidal and microtidal coasts, the Bay of Fundy, storm surges, the winds and gyres that drive ocean currents, the North Atlantic Drift, the cold Benguela Current and upwelling.Open →
- Lithology, geological structure and the plan of the coastRecall questions on lithology and geological structure, how clay, chalk, granite and glacial till resist the sea, discordant and concordant coastlines around Swanage, how coves form, how the dip of the strata shapes a cliff profile, and why faults and joints become caves and geos.Open →
- Weathering and mass movement on the coastRecall questions on freeze-thaw, salt crystallisation, wetting and drying, carbonation, hydrolysis and biological weathering of cliffs, and on rockfalls, rotational slumping on the Holderness coast, soil creep and mudflows, and how mass movement links weathering to marine erosion.Open →
- Marine erosion, transport and depositionRecall questions on hydraulic action, wave quarrying, abrasion, attrition, corrosion, river and aeolian erosion at the coast, transport by traction, saltation, suspension and solution, longshore drift and its direction, why waves deposit their load, and flocculation in an estuary.Open →
- Bays, headlands, cliffs and shore platformsRecall questions on how bays and headlands form, Handfast Point and Old Harry Rocks, how cliffs retreat from a wave-cut notch, shore platforms and their rock pools, bayhead beaches, bevelled cliffs, the role of subaerial weathering, and the retreat rate of the Holderness till cliffs.Open →
- Geos, blow holes, caves, arches, stacks and stumpsRecall questions on how geos, blow holes, sea caves, arches, stacks and stumps form, the sequence of erosional landforms on a headland, the roles of jointing and trapped air, and examples such as Durdle Door and the Needles.Open →
- Beaches and the changing beach profileRecall questions on beach zones, berms, storm ridges, cusps, ridges and runnels, shingle and sand beach gradients, winter and summer profiles, swash-aligned and drift-aligned beaches, sediment sorting, and fieldwork methods for surveying profiles, pebbles and longshore drift, including Spearman's rank.Open →
- Spits, bars, tombolos and salt marshesRecall questions on how spits form and recurve, Spurn Head, onshore bars and Slapton Sands, tombolos and Chesil Beach with its graded shingle, and how salt marshes develop behind them through pioneer halophytes, creeks and salt pans.Open →
- High and low energy coastlines as characteristic landscapesRecall questions on high energy rocky coasts, with the Dorset coast and Lulworth Cove as the example, low energy estuarine coasts, with the barrier islands and tides of the Wadden Sea, how landforms and sediment interact in each, and coastal change over seconds, seasons and millennia.Open →
- Emergent coasts: raised beaches, marine terraces and abandoned cliffsRecall questions on emergent coastlines, eustatic and isostatic change in sea level, the last glacial maximum and isostatic rebound, why raised beaches are common in Scotland, marine terraces, abandoned cliffs and their features, and how present-day sea level rise could change them.Open →
- Submergent coasts: rias, fjords and shingle beachesRecall questions on submergent coastlines, thermal expansion and the Flandrian transgression, rias in Devon and Cornwall, fjords in Norway and their thresholds, how rising sea level built the shingle beaches of southern England, and coastal squeeze.Open →
- Coastal management and its effect on the sediment budgetRecall questions on hard and soft engineering at the coast, how groynes, sea walls and revetments alter sediment movement, the Mappleton scheme on the Holderness coast and its downdrift effects, offshore dredging, managed realignment, beach nourishment, and planning by whole sediment cell.Open →
- Ports, tourism and unintended change at the coastRecall questions on how ports, tourism and land reclamation reshape coastlines, harbour breakwaters and channel dredging, the Palm Jumeirah and the World Islands off Dubai, damage to coral reefs, erosion of dune coasts by tourists, and the rising cost of defending developed shorelines.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
Explain what positive feedback means at the coast, using an example.
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Why do chalk cliffs stand almost vertically even though chalk is a fairly weak rock?
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Explain why unconsolidated glacial till erodes far faster than the chalk beside it.
Process
Explain the process of hydraulic action.
Process
Explain the process of longshore drift.
Key term
Describe how a cliff retreats.
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What is a coastal sediment cell?
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How do waves obtain their energy from the wind?
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Describe the circular orbital motion of water in a deep water wave.
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What causes tides?
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Define weathering as it acts on the coast
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What is a geo?
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Define a beach.
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Why do many spits end in a recurved hook?
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What physical conditions make a coastline high energy?
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What is an emergent coastline?
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What is a submergent coastline?
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What is hard engineering at the coast?
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Name three kinds of economic development that reshape a coastline.
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Why are sediment cells treated as closed systems when a coast is managed?
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Define fetch.
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Why does the orbit of the water particles become elliptical close to the shore?
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Why do most coasts experience two high tides each day?
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How does freeze-thaw weathering break up a cliff face?
Process
How does a bay form on a discordant coast?
Key term
What is a stump?
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Distinguish between the backshore, the foreshore and the nearshore.
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Why does a spit rarely close off a river mouth completely?
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Which landforms dominate a high energy rocky coastline?
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Explain how a cooling climate lowers sea level.
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Explain how a warming climate raises sea level.
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What is soft engineering at the coast?
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Why are so many cities and industries located on the coast?
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State three sources of energy entering a coastal landscape system.
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Explain why it is wrong to call a sediment cell truly closed.
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Why do the south-west facing coasts of Britain receive the largest waves?
Key term
Define swash and backwash.
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Define tidal range.
Key term
Define lithology as it affects the coast
Process
Explain the process of salt crystallisation weathering.
Key term
Define abrasion at the coast.
Key term
Why does a headland eventually begin to erode faster than the bay behind it?
Process
Put the sequence of erosional landforms on a headland into order.
Key term
Why is a shingle beach steeper than a sand beach?
Take Coastal Landscapes further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Abrasion vs Attrition
Abrasion: rock at the shore is worn away by sand and shingle that the waves hurl and drag across it. Attrition: the loose particles themselves knock together and are gradually rounded and reduced in size, leaving the rock face untouched.
Eustatic change vs Isostatic change
Eustatic change: a worldwide rise or fall in sea level caused by the volume of water held in the oceans varying. Isostatic change: a local rise or fall of the land itself, as the crust sinks beneath an ice load or rebounds once that load is removed.
Discordant coast vs Concordant coast
Discordant coast: bands of rock of differing resistance meet the sea end-on, so the weaker bands are cut back into bays and the more resistant stand out as headlands. Concordant coast: bands of rock run parallel to the sea, giving a straight shoreline broken only where the outer band is breached to open a cove.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What does it mean to describe a coastal landscape as an open system?
Model answer
It is a set of linked stores and flows in which both energy and material can enter from the surrounding environment and leave it again.
- 2
State three sources of energy entering a coastal landscape system.
Model answer
Wind, waves and tides.
- 3
Which materials are the main inputs to a coastal landscape system?
Model answer
Sediment delivered by rivers, released by cliff erosion and mass movement, drawn in from the sea bed offshore, and added artificially by beach nourishment.
- 4
What is a store in a coastal landscape system?
Model answer
A place where sediment is held for a period of time, such as a beach, a dune field, a spit or an offshore bar.
- 5
State two outputs from a coastal landscape system.
Model answer
Sediment carried out into deep water beyond the system, and wave energy dissipated as waves break on the shore.
- 6
What is a flow or transfer within a coastal system?
Model answer
The movement of energy or sediment between stores, such as longshore drift carrying shingle from one beach to the next.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Coastal Landscapes revision questions
- What does Coastal Landscapes cover in OCR A-Level Geography?
- 17 subtopics: the coastal system: inputs, outputs and flows of energy and material, sediment cells, the sediment budget and the sources of coastal sediment, winds, fetch and the generation of waves, constructive and destructive waves, and how waves break, tides, tidal range and ocean currents, lithology, geological structure and the plan of the coast, weathering and mass movement on the coast, marine erosion, transport and deposition, bays, headlands, cliffs and shore platforms, geos, blow holes, caves, arches, stacks and stumps, beaches and the changing beach profile, spits, bars, tombolos and salt marshes, high and low energy coastlines as characteristic landscapes, emergent coasts: raised beaches, marine terraces and abandoned cliffs, submergent coasts: rias, fjords and shingle beaches, coastal management and its effect on the sediment budget and ports, tourism and unintended change at the coast. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Coastal Landscapes organised?
- By the OCR H481 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Coastal Landscapes, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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