Geography summer exam revision

What is a settlement?

A place where people live. They come in all sizes from an isolated dwelling to a mega city. They can be permanent or temporary, temporary settlements can become permanent.

What is a settlement site?

The piece of land where a settlement is built.

What is a settlement situation?

The position in relation to the surrounding physical and human features.

What are location factors?

Reasons why a certain site may be chosen for development of a settlement.

What is a settlement function?

The main purpose/ purposes of a settlement. These functions include ports, industrial, market town, holiday resorts and commuter.

What is a drainage basin?

The area of land drained by a river and its tributary's. Includes the confluence, mouth, source and the watershed.

What is a river long profile?

A diagram that shows the course of the river. Shows he upper, middle and lower course. The upper course is steep and contains the source and waterfalls. The middle course contains meanders and the lower course is flat and contains the mouth of the river.

What are the 3 river processes?

How the rivers change and shape the landscape around them. Erosion, transportation, deposition.

What is erosion?

Involves the breaking away of rock and soil from the bed and banks. Also includes the breaking apart of rock particles being carried by the river. There are 4 types of erosion.

What are the 4 types of erosion?

Hydraulic action- river wears away the bank from underneath. Abrasion- rocks being carried by the river wear down the bed and banks.
Attrition- rocks being carried by the river smash together and break into smaller particles.
Solution- Smaller particles are dissolved into the river.

What is transportation?

Rivers pick up and carry materials flowing downstream. When energy levels are very high large boulders can be transported. Energy levels are high near the source, where it is steep and narrow. Low energy levels carry only small particles. They are low near the mouth.

What is Deposition?

When a river looses energy it drops and deposits some of the material it was carrying. Deposition may take place in shallow water or when the volume of water decreases (after a flood). Deposition is common towards the mouth, deposition at the mouth can form deltas.

What are meanders?

Meanders are bends in the river caused by sideways erosion. The water force erodes the outside bank of the river and deposits material on the inside.

How are oxbow lakes formed

The narrow neck of the meander gets corroded.

The meander neck gets cut through completely and the water takes the quickest route.

Deposition occurs and the oxbow lake gets cut off.

What are the human causes of river flooding?

Cutting down trees, reduces infiltration and the water flows quicker.

building roads and buildings (urbanization) reduces infiltration and the water flows quicker

farming the land/changing natural vegetation, reduces infiltration and the water flows quicker.

What are the natural/physical causes of flooding.

Heavy rainfall- The river is full and can't absorb any more water.

Snow melt- Can increase the amount of water in the river causing it to flood.

Impermeable rocks- The water can't soak through into the ground so it flows into the river.

Steep slopes in the valley or drainage basin- Rainwater flows down more quickly as it can't soak into the ground.

How is a waterfall formed?

Soft rock erodes more quickly than hard rock.

An overhang of hard rock develops.

The overhang falls into the plungepool.

Process repeats and the waterfall retreats.

What are choropleth maps?

They use different shades of the same colour to show distribution of data.

What are grid references?

They are used to located places on OS maps.

What are 4 figure grid references?

They are used to find a specific square on a map.

What is a 6 figure grid reference?

They are used to find a specific point on a map, they divide each square into tenths.

What are contour lines?

They are used to show how steep the land is. Close together is steep far apart is flat.

How are symbols used on OS maps

Maps use symbols to show different features e.g. a cross with a circle at the bottom is used to show a church with a spire and a cross with a square shows a church with a tower. Different colour lines are also used e.g. a pink line shows an A road.

What are line graphs?

Show continuous changes over time.

What are bar charts?

They compare different categories. They must be separated by small gaps.

What are combined graphs?

They shows related but different data e.g. climate graphs (bar charts for rainfall, line graphs for temperature).

What are pie charts?

They use percentages and labels.

How can photos be used in geography?

They can be used to look closely at the landscape of an area.