AS Geography CJ units Revision framework and CJ course units specification
Module 1 10.1 Physical Geography
Cross refer the topics below with a) the index in Waugh, b) the descriptors in the Specification content, c) your Notes and d) the Skills Audit. This document links the taught themes together for revision.
Remember; there is a basic framework for good answers
Learn the technical term e.g. infiltration/percolation of water rather than “soaking in”….!
Describe and explain the process associated
Describe and explain the formation and appearance of the landform in detail
Be able to give an example and how it relates to associated landforms
It works for Human Geography too:
Technical term e.g. “FDI Foreign Direct Investment” or “TNC Transnational Corporation”
Define it; what does it mean
Explain the function/operation
Give an example and be as focused as possible e.g. location name/company or organisation name/
Time scale of operations e.g. “Toyota (UK) car factory at Burnaston nr. Derby, from 1989 to date”
Passage of a depression across the British Isles
Weather changes associated with the passage of a depression (cyclonic or low pressure system)
Air masses and properties
Warm frontWarm sectorCold frontOccluded front Isobar pattern
Wind patternweather symbols (be familiar)
Basic geography of the British Isles (to give location names to areas and places)
Anticyclonic weather (high pressure system)
Winter features
Summer features
Features of a drainage basin model (part of the water cycle):– component processes of the system
Storm hydrograph model:-
Component elements of the discharge curve (outputs) and precipitation (inputs)
Variations on the hydrograph
Underlying rock permeability
Gradient
Antecedent rainfall (prior to the period of the hydrograph)
Network pattern
Human activity:
Urbanisation: - impermeable surfaces + land drains
Aforestation/deforestation+ deciduous/coniferous canopy for seasonal variation
Land use in general and the effects upon the drainage basin processes of the drainage basin model.
Geomorphological variations within the drainage basin
E.g. Term Processes Landform Example and location (particularly with reference to associated landforms.)
Upper Middle Lower course and their associated Erosion and Deposition processes and landforms.
Practical experience of the River Cole discharge (Q=VA) downstream changes in discharge and channel morphology
10.3 Human Geography: Changes in the UK in the last 30 years.
Sectoral changes; classification of industry Primary, Secondary and Tertiary/Quaternary; learn UK regional changes 1970-2001
How it is identified e.g. Production/ employment/unemployment/
Manufacturing Industry decline: - iron and steel area:Brierley Hill (West Midlands) Round Oak steelworks and the traditional “metal bashing” metal products industries.
Leading to regeneration with e.g. service based Merry Hill through the Black Country Urban Development Council 1987-1997; a local (e.g.Richardsons) partnership with Regional Government (Dudley/Sandwell Council) UK Government and EU with the funding for the new roads from the ERDF and the Iron and Steel closures fund.
Manufacturing Industry growth: - car manufacturing at new greenfield location from overseas (Japanese) investment. area:- Toyota (UK) East Midlands Burnaston nr.Derby (recent engineering closures in Rolls Royce and British Rail.) and the Toyota engine plant at Shotton nr. Chester N.Wales (recent closures in the Shotton steelworks)
Service Sector growth :- retail services; out of town shopping malls/retail parksareas:- (related to population centres so does not display the classic North/South divide) major UK cities e.g. Gateshead MetroCentre ( developers Hall + also Newcastle United) and Merry Hill West Midlands (Richardson Developments).
High technology R&D and Quaternary service industries; areas;- The Southand SouthEast e.g.
M4 corridor with links to the Universities (Oxford/Reading/Bath/Bristol) cutting edge applications operations; MoD Bath (Naval architects) Farnborough (RAF) Porton Down (chemical warfare), Nuclear industry at Harwell, Bracknell (Met Office) good communications via M4, rail and Heathrow, for London (government, universities, investment capital) and the world by air (low bulk high value electronics) Quality of life attraction for mobile highly qualified staff. Rising property prices/traffic congestion from peak time commuting over wider radius.
e.g.MicroSoft campus European ICT contract support; Thames Valley Business Park Reading ( together with Oracle. British gas HQ.) Growth axis; Reading Swindon Bath Bristol via M4
Oxford Warwick via M40
Industry linked to other ICT based industries, universities and government bases.
Common accessibility, recruitment, market, links to R&D sites/universities.
Greenfield sites, quality environment, road communications, M4, Reading/Oxford/London Universities for new personnel.
High technology manufacturing; e,g Racall communications at Swindon; electronics/radios. Biotechnology firms in Oxford area.
Module 2 11.1 OPTION P Glacial Environments
Glacial budgets e.g. with today’s alpine glaciers.
Glaciated highland areas e.g. Snowdonia; Mt Snowdon/Llanberis valley glacial trough
Isle of Skye; Cuillins cirque location
Moraine; lateral moraines in Llanberis, cirque terminals in Cairngorms, ground moraine tills
Practical experience of the glacial and fluvioglacial deposits of the Wirral at Thurstaston
Fluvioglacial processes; Coastal Iceland; sandurs. (Active processes)
Fluvioglacial outwash of the ThamesValley gravels.(relic processes)
Drainage Diversions; 1)Local example;I ce Age ice dammed LakeHarrison/ Vale of Evesham
Reversal of drainage, erosion of gaps/spillways in Cotswold barrier
2)River Thames; southward diversion by advancing ice to modern course. (Gravel deposits of the relic northern course used in building M25.)
Periglacial processes: - Northern Canada today. (Active periglacial processes)
Cairngorm plateau today. (Relic periglacial processes)
Remember the sequence: 1) Weathering 2) Erosion 3) Transport 3) Deposition