Landscapes of the UK

What Landscapes of the UK covers

Landscapes of the UK is examined in Component 01, Living in the UK Today. It covers the UK’s upland, lowland and glaciated landscapes, Geomorphic processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition, river landforms and how they form, coastal landforms and how they form and two UK landscape case studies: a river basin and a coastline.

The 5 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• The UK’s upland, lowland and glaciated landscapesWhere upland and lowland landscapes lie, the Tees–Exe line, the evidence and landforms of past glaciation, the rocks beneath uplands and lowlands, upland rainfall and temperature, and the human activities each landscape supports.Open →
• Geomorphic processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and depositionWeathering against erosion, freeze-thaw, chemical and biological weathering, mass movement, sliding and slumping, abrasion, hydraulic action, attrition and solution, traction, saltation and suspension, and why deposition takes place.Open →
• River landforms and how they formHow V-shaped valleys, waterfalls, plunge pools and gorges form, why meanders erode their outer bends, river cliffs and slip-off slopes, ox-bow lakes, floodplains, levees, and why deposition dominates the lower course.Open →
• Coastal landforms and how they formHow headlands and bays form, why headlands are attacked, the sequence from cave to arch to stack to stump, longshore drift, beaches in bays, and how a spit forms and curves.Open →
• Two UK landscape case studies: a river basin and a coastlineThe geology, climate and processes of a river basin and a coastline, their landforms, the effects of towns, farming and groynes, hard and soft engineering, the River Tees from Cross Fell and High Force to Cow Green Reservoir and the Tees Barrage, and the Holderness coast from Flamborough Head to Spurn Head, with the Mappleton scheme.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Landscapes of the UK further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Weathering vs Erosion

  Weathering: the breakdown of rock where it stands without moving it. Erosion: the wearing away of rock and the carrying off of the loosened material.

• Abrasion vs Attrition

  Abrasion: rock fragments carried by water scraping against the bed, banks or cliff face. Attrition: carried rock pieces knocking into each other and becoming smaller, smoother and rounder.

• Traction vs Saltation

  Traction: the largest material rolling along the river bed. Saltation: sand and small pebbles bouncing along the river bed.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   In which parts of the UK are most upland landscapes found?

   Model answer

   Mainly in the north and west, including the Scottish Highlands, the Southern Uplands, the Lake District, the Pennines and the mountains of Wales.

2. 2

   Where in the UK are lowland landscapes concentrated?

   Model answer

   In the south and east, in areas such as East Anglia, the Fens and the London Basin.

3. 3

   Which imaginary line is used to separate upland Britain from lowland Britain?

   Model answer

   The Tees–Exe line, running from the mouth of the Tees in the north east to the Exe in the south west.

4. 4

   Which parts of the UK show the clearest evidence of past glaciation?

   Model answer

   The uplands of Scotland, the Lake District, north Wales and the northern Pennines, where ice sheets and valley glaciers once reached.

5. 5

   Which landforms show that an upland area was shaped by ice?

   Model answer

   U-shaped valleys, corries, arêtes and ribbon lakes.

6. 6

   How does the rock of upland areas differ from the rock beneath the lowlands?

   Model answer

   Uplands are formed of older, harder igneous and metamorphic rocks, while lowlands are underlain by younger, softer sedimentary rocks such as chalk, clay and sandstone.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Landscapes of the UK revision questions

What does Landscapes of the UK cover in OCR GCSE Geography A?

5 subtopics: the uk’s upland, lowland and glaciated landscapes, geomorphic processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition, river landforms and how they form, coastal landforms and how they form and two uk landscape case studies: a river basin and a coastline. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Landscapes of the UK organised?

By the OCR J383 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.