Process
Edexcel GCSE Geography A 1GA0
Changing Cities
Topic overviewGlobal urbanisation trends and ratesThe UK’s urban population and why urbanisation varies by regionThe chosen UK city: site, situation, connectivity and structureUrbanisation, suburbanisation and migration in the chosen UK cityPopulation change and deindustrialisation in the chosen UK cityInequality and changes in retailing in the chosen UK cityMaking the chosen UK city more sustainableThe chosen developing or emerging city: site, situation and structurePopulation growth and migration in the chosen developing or emerging cityInequality and quality of life in the chosen developing or emerging cityRapid urbanisation: challenges, and bottom-up and top-down responsesGovernment policy and quality of life in the chosen city
Coastal Landscapes and ProcessesLandscape option
Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Management
Topic overviewThe world’s large-scale ecosystems and what controls their distributionThe biosphere as a resource, and its commercial exploitationUK terrestrial and marine ecosystemsTropical rainforest characteristics and the nutrient cycleRainforest biodiversity and plant and animal adaptationsRainforest goods and services, and the causes of deforestationSustainable management of a named rainforestDeciduous woodland characteristics and the nutrient cycleWoodland biodiversity and plant and animal adaptationsWoodland goods and services, and the causes of deforestationSustainable management of a named deciduous woodland
Energy Resource ManagementResource option
Geographical Investigations – Fieldwork
Topic overviewRiver fieldwork: enquiry questions, methods and secondary dataCoastal fieldwork: enquiry questions, methods and secondary dataUrban fieldwork: enquiry questions and methodsUrban fieldwork: secondary data sourcesRural fieldwork: enquiry questions and methodsRural fieldwork: secondary data sourcesThe enquiry process: asking questions and choosing methodsThe enquiry process: presenting, analysing and concludingThe enquiry process: evaluating fieldwork
Geographical Investigations − UK Challenges
Geographical Skills
Topic overviewAtlas and map skills: distributions, patterns and sketch mapsDescribing the site, situation and shape of settlementsInterpreting diagrams, sketches and photographsUsing online census sourcesHypotheses, sampling and risk assessmentCollecting, recording and presenting dataWriting about findings and building an argument
Glaciated Upland Landscapes and ProcessesLandscape option
Topic overviewGlacial processes and the processes at work on relict landscapes todayPast climate and present UK weather in glaciated uplandsGlacial landforms of erosion and depositionCrag and tail, and drumlinsHuman activity and development in glaciated uplandsA named distinctive glaciated upland landscape in the UK
Global Development
Topic overviewDefining and measuring developmentThe global pattern of development and why it is unevenThe consequences of uneven development for quality of lifeStrategies to reduce uneven development: aid, top-down and bottom-upThe chosen country: location, context and internal unevennessEconomic change, trade, aid and investment in the chosen countryPopulation and social change in the chosen countryGeopolitics and technology in the chosen countryThe impacts of rapid development and how they are managed
Mathematics and Statistics Skills
Topic overviewCartographic skills: contours, transects, scale and distanceUsing GIS and geo-spatial dataChoosing, constructing and interpreting graphs and chartsNumerical skills: number, scale, proportion and ratioDrawing conclusions from numerical dataStatistical skills: averages, spread, percentages and correlationSpotting weaknesses in how data is presented
Resource Management
River Landscapes and ProcessesLandscape option
The Changing Landscapes of the UK
Water Resource ManagementResource option
Topic overviewThe global distribution of fresh water, and water surplus and deficitChanging water supply and demandHow water use differs between countriesWater supply problems in the UK and in developing countriesStakeholder attitudes to water, and desalinationSustainable management of water resources
Weather Hazards and Climate Change
Topic overviewGlobal atmospheric circulation and the transfer of heatNatural climate change and the evidence for itThe enhanced greenhouse effect and the effects of climate changeThe climate of the UK and how it variesHow tropical cyclones form, and where they occurWhy tropical cyclones are hazardous, and their impactsResponses to tropical cyclonesThe causes of drought and why some places are more vulnerableThe impacts of drought and responses to it
Geographical Investigations – Fieldwork
- 9 subtopics
- 27 things to know
- Paper 3
What Geographical Investigations – Fieldwork covers
Geographical Investigations – Fieldwork is examined in Paper 3, Geographical Investigations: Fieldwork and UK Challenges. It covers river fieldwork: enquiry questions, methods and secondary data, coastal fieldwork: enquiry questions, methods and secondary data, urban fieldwork: enquiry questions and methods, urban fieldwork: secondary data sources, rural fieldwork: enquiry questions and methods, rural fieldwork: secondary data sources, the enquiry process: asking questions and choosing methods, the enquiry process: presenting, analysing and concluding and the enquiry process: evaluating fieldwork.
Where it is assessed
Paper 3
Geographical Investigations: Fieldwork and UK Challenges, 25% of the GCSE.
Check the Pearson Edexcel specification ↗The 9 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- River fieldwork: enquiry questions, methods and secondary dataDischarge and how it is calculated from cross-sectional area and velocity, measuring width, depth and velocity with floats and flow meters, quantitative and qualitative methods, change downstream, drainage basins, and flood risk maps and other published data for river fieldwork.Open →
- Coastal fieldwork: enquiry questions, methods and secondary dataBeach morphology, measuring a beach profile, breaks of slope and gradient with a clinometer, sediment size and roundness, unbiased sampling with quadrats, field sketches, wave counts and wave type, profiles either side of a groyne, and using geology maps, old maps and records in coastal fieldwork.Open →
- Urban fieldwork: enquiry questions and methodsEnvironmental quality surveys and bipolar scales, reducing bias, land use surveys and base maps, urban transects, vacancy rates, pedestrian and traffic counts, questionnaires with open and closed questions, and how relief, rivers, waterfronts and parks shape inner urban areas.Open →
- Urban fieldwork: secondary data sourcesWhat census data reveals about an urban area, how often it is collected, the most useful figures, why it is reliable and its main drawback, small-area statistics, showing change over time, and using other published sources alongside your own data.Open →
- Rural fieldwork: enquiry questions and methodsRural settlements, questionnaires, interviews, fair sampling and rating scales, asking the public ethically, pedestrian flow and traffic counts, commuter villages, services surveys, honeypot sites and footpath erosion, and sampling and recording housing in a village.Open →
- Rural fieldwork: secondary data sourcesNeighbourhood summary reports, census evidence of population growth, counterurbanisation and ageing, car ownership and housing tenure, why the census alone is not enough, timetables and historic maps, and the risk of relying on published data alone.Open →
- The enquiry process: asking questions and choosing methodsGood fieldwork questions and hypotheses, the six stages of an enquiry, choosing the question before the methods, hazards and controls for river and urban fieldwork, pilot surveys, random, systematic and stratified sampling, and observation as a technique.Open →
- The enquiry process: presenting, analysing and concludingUsing GIS, choropleth and proportional symbol maps, located bar charts and scatter graphs, positive and negative correlation and why correlation is not cause, anomalies, using theory in analysis, the median and interquartile range, evidenced conclusions and percentage change.Open →
- The enquiry process: evaluating fieldworkEvaluating fieldwork, reliable and accurate data and how to improve them, the weaknesses of questionnaires and environmental quality scores, data from a single day, human error in river measurements, making conclusions more secure and saying what you would change.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
What do a drainage basin and a flood risk map describe, and which other published data would support a river investigation?
Key term
Name three hazards you would record before fieldwork on a riverbank, and one control for each.
Key term
Which two measurements are combined to work out discharge in the field?
Key term
What is meant by beach morphology?
Key term
How is a beach profile measured?
Key term
What is an environmental quality survey?
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Why is an environmental quality survey counted as a qualitative method?
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How often is a census of the population taken in the UK?
Key term
Which census figures are most useful when investigating change in an inner urban area?
Key term
What counts as a rural settlement?
Key term
What is the difference between a questionnaire and an interview?
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What is a neighbourhood summary report?
Key term
Which census figures show whether a village population is growing or shrinking?
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What is GIS?
Key term
Which presentation method suits fieldwork data collected for whole areas rather than points?
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What does evaluating a piece of fieldwork involve?
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What is meant by reliable data?
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How is discharge worked out once both measurements have been taken?
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What is a break of slope?
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How can bias in an environmental quality survey be reduced?
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Why is census data considered reliable?
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How can a sample of people be chosen fairly when asking about a village?
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How would an ageing rural population appear in the figures?
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Why must a fieldwork question be one you can gather evidence for?
Key term
Which presentation method suits pedestrian counts taken at ten separate street corners?
Key term
What is meant by accurate data?
Take Geographical Investigations – Fieldwork further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Quantitative method vs Qualitative method
Quantitative method: a technique producing numbers that can be measured, compared and graphed. Qualitative method: a technique recording descriptions, impressions or opinions rather than numbers.
Reliable data vs Accurate data
Reliable data: results that would come out much the same if repeated the same way. Accurate data: readings each close to the true value of what was measured.
Systematic sampling vs Stratified sampling
Systematic sampling: taking readings at fixed regular intervals along a line. Stratified sampling: taking a share from each distinct group in proportion to its size.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is meant by the discharge of a river?
Model answer
It is the volume of water flowing past a point in the channel each second, given in cubic metres per second (m³ s⁻¹).
- 2
Which two measurements are combined to work out discharge in the field?
Model answer
The cross-sectional area of the channel and the mean velocity of the water flowing through it.
- 3
How is discharge worked out once both measurements have been taken?
Model answer
Multiply the cross-sectional area in m² by the mean velocity in m s⁻¹.
- 4
A channel is 3 m wide with a mean depth of 0.4 m and the water moves at a mean of 0.5 m s⁻¹. What is its discharge?
Model answer
The cross-sectional area is 1.2 m², so the discharge is 0.6 m³ s⁻¹.
- 5
How is the cross-sectional area of a channel measured?
Model answer
Stretch a tape across the water to get the width, measure the depth at regular intervals along it, then multiply the width by the mean depth.
- 6
How is velocity measured using a float?
Model answer
Time a floating object as it travels a measured length of channel, divide the distance by the time, and repeat to take a mean.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Geographical Investigations – Fieldwork revision questions
- What does Geographical Investigations – Fieldwork cover in Edexcel GCSE Geography A?
- 9 subtopics: river fieldwork: enquiry questions, methods and secondary data, coastal fieldwork: enquiry questions, methods and secondary data, urban fieldwork: enquiry questions and methods, urban fieldwork: secondary data sources, rural fieldwork: enquiry questions and methods, rural fieldwork: secondary data sources, the enquiry process: asking questions and choosing methods, the enquiry process: presenting, analysing and concluding and the enquiry process: evaluating fieldwork. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Geographical Investigations – Fieldwork organised?
- By the Edexcel 1GA0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Geographical Investigations – Fieldwork, 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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