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
Key Concepts in Geography
- 4 subtopics
- 12 things to know
- All units
What Key Concepts in Geography covers
Key Concepts in Geography is examined in every unit — the specialised concepts are applied across all five, and Unit 3's synoptic section draws them together. It covers systems, equilibrium and feedback, causality, interdependence and mitigation, resilience, risk and sustainability and place, space, scale and representation.
Where it is assessed
All units
The specialised concepts applied throughout, and drawn together in the synoptic section.
Check the WJEC specification ↗The 4 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Systems, equilibrium and feedbackSystem in geography, open system and of a closed one in geography and four elements used to describe any geographical system.Open →
- Causality, interdependence and mitigationCausality in a geographical explanation, causal chain in physical geography and difference between a cause and a trigger.Open →
- Resilience, risk and sustainabilityThree pillars of sustainability and why resilience has become as important a goal as prevention.Open →
- Place, space, scale and representationScale in geography, why the scale of study changes the conclusion reached and process operating at several scales at once.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
Why is causal explanation hard in human geography, and what distinction sharpens it?
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How is risk expressed, and why does the same event overwhelm one community and not another?
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Contrast the two kinds of portrayal of a place, and say why what stays the same is worth studying.
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Give an example of a causal chain in physical geography.
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Distinguish an open system from a closed one.
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Define resilience.
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Distinguish space from place.
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Give an example of an open system and of a closed one in geography.
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Define causality in a geographical explanation.
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Distinguish resilience from resistance.
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Define scale in geography.
Take Key Concepts in Geography further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Open system vs Closed system
Open system: one that exchanges both matter and energy with its surroundings. Closed system: one that exchanges energy with its surroundings but not matter.
Resistance vs Resilience
Resistance: the ability to withstand a shock without being changed by it. Resilience: the ability to recover and keep functioning after being changed by it.
Hazard vs Disaster
Hazard: a potentially damaging event that may or may not cause harm. Disaster: what occurs when such an event overwhelms a community's ability to cope with it.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Define a system in geography.
Model answer
A system is a set of components linked by flows of energy and material, so that a change in one part produces effects in the others.
- 2
Distinguish an open system from a closed one.
Model answer
An open system exchanges both energy and matter with its surroundings, while a closed system exchanges only energy.
- 3
Give an example of an open system and of a closed one in geography.
Model answer
A drainage basin is open because water enters and leaves it, while the global water cycle is closed because water circulates without leaving the planet.
- 4
Name the four elements used to describe any geographical system.
Model answer
Inputs, outputs, stores and transfers.
- 5
Define dynamic equilibrium.
Model answer
Dynamic equilibrium is a balance between inputs and outputs maintained while the system itself continues to change.
- 6
Give one example of dynamic equilibrium in a physical system.
Model answer
A beach whose sediment gains and losses balance over a year, even though its profile changes with every storm and season.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Key Concepts in Geography revision questions
- What does Key Concepts in Geography cover in WJEC A-Level Geography?
- 4 subtopics: systems, equilibrium and feedback, causality, interdependence and mitigation, resilience, risk and sustainability and place, space, scale and representation. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Key Concepts in Geography organised?
- By the WJEC 601-8455-3 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Key Concepts in Geography, 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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