Key term
WJEC A-Level Geography 601-8455-3
Coastal Landscapes
Topic overviewThe coast as an open systemSediment sources and sediment cellsTides and coastal currentsConstructive and destructive wavesHigh energy coasts and erosional landscape systemsLow energy coasts and depositional landscape systemsFetch, wave refraction and wave energyLithology and structural geology at the coastSub-aerial weathering and mass movementMarine processes of erosionErosional landforms of rocky coastsCoastal transport and longshore driftDeposition, flocculation and sediment sortingDepositional landforms of sandy coastsSand dunes and aeolian processesEstuaries, tidal flats and salt marshesCoral reefs and mangrove coastlinesCoastal change over different timescalesCoastal processes and human activityHuman impact on coastal landscape systems
Glaciated Landscapes
Topic overviewThe glacier as an open systemClimate change and the glacier budgetGlacier movementTypes of ice mass and their distributionGlacial weathering and erosion processesMacro-scale erosional landformsGlacial transport and depositional landformsFluvioglacial landformsSuites of landforms in glacial landscapesPeriglacial processes and ground icePeriglacial action of water and windGlacial change over different timescalesGlacial environments and human activity
Tectonic Hazards
Topic overviewThe internal structure of the EarthMechanisms of plate movementDivergent and conservative plate marginsConvergent margins and subductionHot spots and the global distribution of tectonic hazardsThe hazard profile and measuring magnitudeTypes of volcano and styles of eruptionPrimary volcanic hazardsSecondary volcanic hazardsImpacts of volcanic activity at different scalesContrasting volcanic eruptionsEarthquake characteristics and seismic wavesEarthquake hazards and ground behaviourTsunami processes and impactsContrasting earthquake eventsRisk, vulnerability and human factorsMonitoring, prediction and warningMitigation, response and the hazard management cycle
Changing Places
Topic overviewWhat gives a place its characterFlows and connections that shape placesMeaning, perception and attachment to placeHow places are representedEconomic restructuring and the Clark Fisher modelDeindustrialisation and social inequalityThe service economy and its impactsThe knowledge economy and clustersRebranding rural placesManaging change in rural placesRebranding urban placesManaging change in urban placesComparing a home place with a contrasting placeHow place change affects people's lives
Water and Carbon Cycles
Topic overviewThe water cycle as a global system and mass balanceGlobal water stores and residence timesCryospheric processes and sea-level changeDrainage basin inputs, stores and outputsFlows within the drainage basinRiver regimes and their controlsStorm hydrographs and hydrograph shapeAir uplift, cloud formation and precipitationExcess runoff and floodingDeficit in the water cycle and aquifer rechargeThe global carbon cycle and its storesCarbon pathways between land and the atmosphereCarbon transfers involving the oceansCarbon stores in biomes and land-use changeChanging carbon stores in peatlandsRising atmospheric carbon and its impactsFeedback within and between the water and carbon cycles
Global Migration
Topic overviewGlobalisation and a shrinking worldClassifying and mapping migrationCauses of international economic migrationConsequences and management of economic migrationRefugee movements and internal displacementRural-urban migration in developing countriesSuperpowers and global hub citiesMigration policy and public debate in the UKManaging refugee crisesInformal settlements in developing cities
Global Governance of the Oceans
Topic overviewSupranational institutions and global governanceLaws and agreements governing the oceansStrategic value of the oceans and maritime securityShipping, cables and illicit flowsSovereignty over ocean resourcesManaging marine environmentsOcean pollution and its managementGovernance across scales: an ocean case study
EcosystemsContemporary theme
Topic overviewThe value of ecosystems to peopleThe distribution of global biomesEcosystem structure, energy flow and productivityNutrient cycling in contrasting biomesMeasuring and threatening biodiversityConserving biodiversitySuccession and local ecosystemsThe Arctic tundra biomeSustainable use of the Arctic tundra
Economic Growth and Challenge: IndiaContemporary theme
Economic Growth and Challenge: ChinaContemporary theme
Development in an African ContextContemporary theme
Energy Challenges and DilemmasContemporary theme
Weather and ClimateContemporary theme
Fieldwork and Geographical Skills
Economic Growth and Challenge: China
- 6 subtopics
- 18 things to know
- A2 Unit 4
- A2 Unit 4, two contemporary themes chosen from four
What Economic Growth and Challenge: China covers
Economic Growth and Challenge: China is examined in A2 Unit 4, Contemporary Themes in Geography, where two optional themes are chosen from four; India, China and development in an African context are alternatives within one theme, Economic Growth and Challenge, so you study only one of them. It covers China's relief, drainage and climate, China's population, society and governance, China's resources, hazards and economic geography, China's global role and economic growth, environmental pressures of China's growth and sustainable development strategies in China.
Where it is assessed
A2 Unit 4
Contemporary Themes in Geography, where two optional themes are chosen from four.
Check the WJEC specification ↗The 6 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- China's relief, drainage and climateBroad relief of China from west to east, three main river systems of China and loess plateau.Open →
- China's population, society and governanceDistribution of China's population, one-child policy and hukou system.Open →
- China's resources, hazards and economic geographyThree resources China possesses in large quantity, how relief constrains agriculture in China and effect of climate variability on Chinese agriculture.Open →
- China's global role and economic growthWhy manufacturers relocated production to China, how China's economy is now changing structurally and global shift.Open →
- Environmental pressures of China's growthFour environmental pressures created by China's economic growth, scale of water pollution in China and how industrial growth polluted Chinese rivers.Open →
- Sustainable development strategies in ChinaTwo strategies China has used to reduce air pollution, china's investment in renewable energy and south-North Water Transfer Project.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
Set out the pressures on China's soil and on its security of water, food and energy.
Key term
What has urban and industrial expansion cost China environmentally, and why did the damage build up so fast?
Key term
Name the three main river systems of China.
Numbers
What was the one-child policy?
Key term
Explain why manufacturers relocated production to China.
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Give one obstacle to China replacing coal with renewables.
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Explain the general pattern of rainfall across China.
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Give two demographic consequences of the one-child policy.
Key term
Name three resources China possesses in large quantity.
Key term
Describe how China's economy is now changing structurally.
Evaluation
Give one criticism of large-scale tree planting to halt desertification.
Key term
Why is northern China so much drier than the south?
Key term
Why has China moved to encourage larger families?
Key term
Explain how relief constrains agriculture in China.
Key term
Define the global shift.
Key term
Name four environmental pressures created by China's economic growth.
Key term
Name one Chinese strategy to improve food security.
Take Economic Growth and Challenge: China further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Special economic zone vs Export processing zone
Special economic zone: a large designated area with liberalised tax, trade and ownership rules and wider reforms attached. Export processing zone: a narrower site where firms manufacture goods for sale abroad under relaxed tariff and tax rules.
Hukou vs Passport
Hukou: a registration system that ties a citizen's entitlement to schooling, healthcare and welfare to where they are registered. Passport: a document issued by a state that permits its holder to travel between countries.
Soil erosion vs Desertification
Soil erosion: the removal of the surface layer from a site by wind or running water. Desertification: the wider degradation of a dryland region to barren conditions, of which that removal is one process.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Describe the broad relief of China from west to east.
Model answer
It falls in three great steps: the Tibetan Plateau in the west, a belt of basins and plateaux in the centre, and the low coastal plains of the east.
- 2
Name the three main river systems of China.
Model answer
The Yangtze, the Yellow River or Huang He, and the Pearl River in the south.
- 3
Why is the Yellow River known as China's sorrow?
Model answer
It carries an enormous silt load from the loess plateau, which raises its bed above the surrounding plain so that a breach causes catastrophic and widespread flooding.
- 4
What is the loess plateau, and why does it erode so readily?
Model answer
It is a thick deposit of wind-blown silt in north-central China, and being unconsolidated it is cut into deep gullies by run-off wherever vegetation is removed.
- 5
Describe the climate of eastern China.
Model answer
It is monsoonal, with hot wet summers as moist Pacific air moves inland and cold dry winters as high pressure builds over Siberia.
- 6
Describe the climate of western China.
Model answer
It is arid to semi-arid and strongly continental, with very cold winters and hot summers, and the Tibetan Plateau is cold at all seasons because of its altitude.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Economic Growth and Challenge: China revision questions
- What does Economic Growth and Challenge: China cover in WJEC A-Level Geography?
- 6 subtopics: china's relief, drainage and climate, china's population, society and governance, china's resources, hazards and economic geography, china's global role and economic growth, environmental pressures of china's growth and sustainable development strategies in china. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Economic Growth and Challenge: China organised?
- By the WJEC 601-8455-3 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Economic Growth and Challenge: China, 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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