River Landscapes and Processes | Edexcel GCSE Geography A (1GA0)
River Landscapes and Processes
- 96 questions
- 5 subtopics
- Paper 1
- Paper 1
River Landscapes and Processes is examined in Paper 1, The Physical Environment.
It covers river processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition, the long profile of a river and the effect of UK weather, river landforms from source to mouth, land use, flood risk and river defences and a named distinctive river landscape in the UK.
Sample questions from River Landscapes and Processes
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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River processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition
What happens to material in a slide?
Show the answer
A block of saturated material moves downslope in a straight line along a flat surface, staying largely in one piece. -
River processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition
Which transport process moves the largest boulders, and how?
Show the answer
Traction, in which the flow rolls and drags them along the bed without ever lifting them clear of it. -
The long profile of a river and the effect of UK weather
Velocity usually rises downstream even though the slope gets gentler. Explain why.
Show the answer
The lower channel is deeper and smoother, so proportionally less of the water touches the bed and banks and less energy is lost to friction. -
The long profile of a river and the effect of UK weather
Why do UK rivers generally carry more water in winter than in summer?
Show the answer
Winter brings more rainfall while low temperatures and bare plants mean little water is lost to evaporation or taken up by vegetation, so more of it reaches the channel. -
River landforms from source to mouth
What is a flood plain?
Show the answer
The wide, flat area of land either side of a river in its lower course that is covered with water when the channel overflows. -
River landforms from source to mouth
What is the neck of a meander, and what happens to it over time?
Show the answer
The narrow strip of land between two bends of a tightening loop; erosion on both outer banks makes it narrower and narrower. -
Land use, flood risk and river defences
How does a dam reduce the flood risk downstream?
Show the answer
It holds back the flow so water is released steadily instead of surging through, so the peak discharge below it never arrives. -
Land use, flood risk and river defences
On a storm hydrograph, what is peak discharge?
Show the answer
The highest discharge the river reaches after the storm, shown by the top of the discharge line.
The 5 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| River processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition | Freeze-thaw, chemical and biological weathering on a valley side, slides and slumps, abrasion, hydraulic action, attrition and solution, transport by traction, saltation and suspension, and when a river deposits its load. | 14 |
| The long profile of a river and the effect of UK weather | How height, valley shape, channel size, gradient, discharge, velocity and sediment change from source to mouth, what storms, dry spells, seasons and the wetter west do to a river's energy, and how geology maps explain the steeper sections of a long profile. | 21 |
| River landforms from source to mouth | Interlocking spurs, waterfalls, plunge pools and gorges, river cliffs, flood plains, levees and point bars, how meanders develop into oxbow lakes and meander scars, and how valleys, meanders, flood plains and waterfalls are recognised on OS maps. | 19 |
| Land use, flood risk and river defences | How urban surfaces, farming, deforestation and industry change river flow, the physical and human causes and effects of flooding, dams, reservoirs, channelisation, flood plain zoning and washlands, and drawing and reading storm hydrographs, including lag time and the factors that shape them. | 32 |
| A named distinctive river landscape in the UK | Locating a studied river landscape, telling upland from lowland, the landforms of each, the part played by rock type, glaciation and physical processes, and the human influences and barriers that change it. | 10 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
Edexcel GCSE Geography A Active Recall Guide
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