AQA Level 3 Advanced GCE in Geography

An outline of the contemporary geography, including climate, of Antarctica (including the Southern Ocean as far north as the Antarctic Convergence) to demonstrate its role as a global common and illustrate its vulnerability to global economic pressures and environmental change.

Analysis and assessment of the geographical consequences of global governance for citizens and places in Antarctica and elsewhere to specifically consider how global governance underlies and impacts on students’ and other people's lives across the globe.

Critical appraisal of the developing governance of Antarctica. International government organisations to include United Nations (UN) agencies such as United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Whaling Commission. The Antarctic Treaty (1959), the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (1991); IWC Whaling Moratorium (1982) – their purpose, scope and systems for inspection and enforcement.

The role of NGOs in monitoring threats and enhancing protection of Antarctica.

Threats to Antarctica arising from: climate change; fishing and whaling; the search for mineral resources; tourism and scientific research.

Origin and development of landforms of mid and low latitude deserts: aeolian – deflation hollows, desert pavements, ventifacts, yardangs, zeugen, barchans and seif dunes; water – wadis, bahadas, pediments, playas, inselbergs.

The relationship between process, time, landforms and landscapes in mid and low latitude desert settings: characteristic desert landscapes.

The concept of the biome. The global distribution of major terrestrial biomes.

The nature of two contrasting biomes: tropical rainforest and savanna grassland to include: the main characteristics of each biome; ecological responses to the climate, soil and soil moisture budget – adaptations by flora and fauna; human activity and its impact on each biome; typical development issues in each biome to include changes in population, economic development, agricultural extension and intensification, implications for biodiversity and sustainability.

Atlas maps.

Maps showing movement – flow lines, desire lines and trip lines.

Maps showing spatial patterns – choropleth, isoline and dot maps.

Maps with located proportional symbols.

Weather maps – including synoptic charts (if applicable).

Case studies of two contrasting urban areas to illustrate and analyse key themes set out above, to include: patterns of economic and social well-being; the nature and impact of physical environmental conditions; with particular reference to the implications for environmental sustainability, the character of the study areas and the experience and attitudes of their populations.

Case study at a local scale of a landscape where desertification has occurred to illustrate and analyse key themes of desertification, causes and impacts, implications for sustainable development. Evaluation of human responses of resilience, mitigation and adaptation.

Case study at a local scale of a specified place in a hazardous setting to illustrate the physical nature of the hazard and analyse how the economic, social and political character of its community reflects the presence and impacts of the hazard and the community’s response to the risk.

Case study of a contrasting coastal landscape beyond the UK to illustrate and analyse how it presents risks and opportunities for human occupation and development and evaluate human responses of resilience, mitigation and adaptation.

Case study of a contrasting glaciated landscape from beyond the UK to illustrate and analyse how it presents challenges and opportunities for human occupation and development and evaluate human responses of resilience, mitigation and adaptation.

Case study of a country/society experiencing specific patterns of overall population change – increase or decline – to illustrate and analyse the character, scale, and patterns of change, relevant environmental and socio-economic factors and implications for the country/society.

Case study of a hot desert environment setting to illustrate and analyse key themes set out above and engage with field data (exemplifying field data may be gathered in settings that experience some of the aeolian processes associated with mid and low latitude desert environments such as coastal dunes).

Case study of a multi-hazardous environment beyond the UK to illustrate and analyse the nature of the hazards and the social, economic and environmental risks presented, and how human qualities and responses such as resilience, adaptation, mitigation and management contribute to its continuing human occupation.

Case study of a river catchment(s) at a local scale to illustrate and analyse the key themes above, engage with field data and consider the impact of precipitation upon drainage basin stores and transfers and implications for sustainable water supply and/or flooding.

Case study of a specified ecosystem at a local scale to illustrate and analyse key themes set out above, including the nature and properties of the ecosystem, human impact upon it and the challenges and opportunities presented in its sustainable development.

Case study of a specified local area to illustrate and analyse the relationship between place and health related to its physical environment, socio-economic character and the experience and attitudes of its populations.

Case study of a specified place to illustrate and analyse how aspects of its physical environment affects the availability and cost of water or energy or mineral ore and the way in which water or energy or mineral ore is used.

Case study of a specified region experiencing ecological change to illustrate and analyse the nature of the change and the reasons for it, how the economic, social and political character of its community reflects its ecological setting and how the community is responding to change.

Case study of a tropical rainforest setting to illustrate and analyse key themes in water and carbon cycles and their relationship to environmental change and human activity.

Case study of either water or energy or mineral ore resource issues in a global or specified regional setting to illustrate and analyse theme(s) set out above, their implications for the setting including the relationship between resource security and human welfare and attempts to manage the resource.

Case study(ies) of coastal environment(s) at a local scale to illustrate and analyse fundamental coastal processes, their landscape outcomes as set out above and engage with field data and challenges represented in their sustainable management.

Case study(ies) of glaciated environment(s) at a local scale to illustrate and analyse fundamental glacial processes, their landscape outcomes as set out above and engage with field data.

In relation to the local place within which students live or study and then at least one further contrasting place and encompassing local, regional, national, international and global scales: the ways in which the following factors: relationships and connections, meaning and representation, affect continuity and change in the nature of places and our understanding of place and the ways in which students’ own lives and those of others are affected by continuity and change in the nature of places and our understanding of place.

Coastlines of emergence and submergence. Origin and development of associated landforms: raised beaches, marine platforms; rias, fjords, Dalmatian coasts.

Estuarine mudflat/saltmarsh environments and associated landscapes; factors and processes in their development.

Eustatic, isostatic and tectonic sea level change: major changes in sea level in the last 10,000 years.

Origin and development of landforms and landscapes of coastal deposition. Beaches, simple and compound spits, tombolos, offshore bars, barrier beaches and islands and sand dunes; factors and processes in their development.

Origin and development of landforms and landscapes of coastal erosion: cliffs and wave cut platforms, cliff profile features including caves, arches and stacks; factors and processes in their development.

Recent and predicted climatic change and potential impact on coasts.

The relationship between process, time, landforms and landscapes in coastal settings.

This content must include study of a variety of landscapes from beyond the United Kingdom (UK) but may also include UK examples.

Human intervention in coastal landscapes. Traditional approaches to coastal flood and erosion risk: hard and soft engineering. Sustainable approaches to coastal flood risk and coastal erosion management: shoreline management/integrated coastal zone management.

Distinctively coastal processes: marine: erosion – hydraulic action, wave quarrying, corrasion/ abrasion, cavitation, solution, attrition; transportation: traction, suspension (longshore/littoral drift) and deposition; sub-aerial weathering, mass movement and runoff.

Geomorphological processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transportation and deposition.

Sediment sources, cells and budgets.

Sources of energy in coastal environments: winds, waves (constructive and destructive), currents and tides. Low energy and high energy coasts.

Students must engage with a range of quantitative and relevant qualitative skills, within the theme landscape systems. These should include observation skills, measurement and geospatial mapping skills and data manipulation and statistical skills applied to field measurements.

Systems in physical geography: systems concepts and their application to the development of coastal landscapes – inputs, outputs, energy, stores/components, flows/transfers, positive/negative feedback, dynamic equilibrium. The concepts of landform and landscape and how related landforms combine to form characteristic landscapes.

Literacy – use of factual text and discursive/creative material and coding techniques when analysing text.

Numeracy – use of number, measure and measurement.

Questionnaire and interview techniques.

Use and annotation of illustrative and visual material: base maps, sketch maps, OS maps (at a variety of scales), diagrams, graphs, field sketches, photographs, geospatial, geo-located and digital imagery.

Use of overlays, both physical and electronic.

The changing extent and distribution of hot deserts over the last 10,000 years. The causes of desertification – climate change and human impact; distribution of areas at risk; impact on ecosystems, landscapes and populations. Predicted climate change and its impacts; alternative possible futures for local populations.

Characteristics of hot desert environments and their margins: climate, soils and vegetation (and their interaction). Water balance and aridity index.

Systems in physical geography: systems concepts and their application to the development of desert landscapes – inputs, outputs, energy, stores/components, flows/transfers, positive/negative feedback, dynamic equilibrium. The concepts of landform and landscape and how related landforms combine to form characteristic landscapes.

The causes of aridity: atmospheric processes relating to pressure, winds, continentality, relief and cold ocean currents.

The global distribution of mid and low latitude deserts and their margins (arid and semi-arid).

Application of systems concepts to ecosystems – inputs, outputs, stores and transfers of energy and materials. Concepts of biomass and net primary production.

Concepts of succession: seral stages, climatic climax, sub-climax and plagioclimax.

Factors influencing the changing of ecosystems, including climate change and human exploitation of the global environment.

Mineral nutrient cycling.

Nature of ecosystems – their structure, energy flows, trophic levels, food chains and food webs.

Nature of terrestrial ecosystems and the inter-connections between climate, vegetation, soil and topography which produce them. Ecosystem responses to changes in one or more of their components or environmental controls.

Ecosystems and their importance for human populations in the light of continuing population growth and economic development. Human populations in ecosystem development and sustainability.

The concept of biodiversity. Local and global trends in biodiversity. Causes, rates and potential impacts of declining biodiversity.

Succession and climatic climax as illustrated by lithoseres and hydroseres.

The characteristics of the climatic climax: temperate deciduous woodland biome.

The effects of human activity on succession – illustrated by one plagioclimax such as a heather moorland.

Energy supplies in a globalising world: competing national interests and the role of transnational corporations in energy production, processing and distribution.

Environmental impacts of a major energy resource development such as an oil, coal or gas field and associated distribution networks.

Relationship of energy supply (volume and quality) to key aspects of physical geography – climate, geology and drainage.

Sources of energy, both primary and secondary. Components of demand and energy mixes in contrasting settings.

Strategies to increase energy supply (oil and gas exploration, nuclear power and development of renewable sources).

Strategies to manage energy consumption (including reducing demand).

Sustainability issues associated with energy production, trade and consumption: acid rain, the enhanced greenhouse effect, nuclear waste and energy conservation.

Characteristics and distribution of two key zonal soils to exemplify relationship between soils and human activities especially agriculture. Soil problems and their management as they relate to agriculture: soil erosion, waterlogging, salinisation, structural deterioration.

Characteristics and distribution of two major climatic types to exemplify relationships between climate and human activities and numbers. Climate change as it affects agriculture.

Global and regional patterns of food production and consumption. Agricultural systems and agricultural productivity. Relationship with key physical environmental variables – climate and soils.

Strategies to ensure food security.

Global patterns of health, mortality and morbidity. Economic and social development and the epidemiological transition.

Role of international agencies and NGOs in promoting health and combating disease at the global scale.

The global prevalence and distribution of one specified non-communicable disease, eg a specific type of cancer, coronary heart disease, asthma; its links to physical and socio-economic environment including impacts of lifestyles. Impact on health and well-being. Management and mitigation strategies.

The global prevalence, distribution, seasonal incidence of one specified biologically transmitted disease, eg malaria; its links to physical and socio-economic environments including impacts of environmental variables on transmission vectors. Impact on health and well-being. Management and mitigation strategies.

The relationship between environment variables eg climate, topography (drainage) and incidence of disease. Air quality and health. Water quality and health.

Impact and human responses as evidenced by a recent wild fire event.

Nature of wildfires. Conditions favouring intense wild fires: vegetation type, fuel characteristics, climate and recent weather and fire behaviour. Causes of fires: natural and human agency. Impacts: primary/secondary, environmental, social, economic, political. Short and long-term responses; risk management designed to reduce the impacts of the hazard through preparedness, mitigation, prevention and adaptation.

collect, analyse and interpret such information, and demonstrate the ability to understand and apply suitable analytical approaches for the different information types

communicate and evaluate findings, draw well-evidenced conclusions informed by wider theory, and construct extended written argument about geographical matters.

Competence in geographical skills should be developed during study of the course content, in an integrated way and not as a separate theme or topic. While the relative balance of quantitative and qualitative methods and skills will differ between each of the core elements and the options, students must be introduced to a roughly equal balance of quantitative and qualitative methods across the specification.

Students at A-level are required to demonstrate all the skills and approaches detailed below.

understand the nature and use of different types of geographical information, including qualitative and quantitative data, primary and secondary data, images, factual text and discursive/creative material, digital data, numerical and spatial data and other forms of data, including crowd-sourced and 'big data'

undertake informed and critical questioning of data sources, analytical methodologies, data reporting and presentation, including the ability to identify sources of error in data and to identify the misuse of data

Students must engage with a range of quantitative and relevant qualitative skills, within the theme landscape systems. These should include observation skills, measurement and geospatial mapping skills and data manipulation and statistical skills applied to field measurements.

Erosional and depositional landforms: corries, arêtes, glacial troughs, hanging valleys, truncated spurs, roches moutonnées. Characteristic glaciated landscapes.

Fluvioglacial landforms of erosion and deposition: meltwater channels, kames, eskers, outwash plains. Characteristic fluvioglacial landscapes.

Origin and development of glaciated landscapes.

Origin and development of landforms and landscapes of glacial deposition: drumlins, erratics, moraines, till plains. Characteristic glaciated landscapes.

Periglacial landforms: patterned ground, ice wedges, pingos, blockfields, solifluction, lobes, terracettes, thermokarst. Characteristic periglacial landscapes.

The relationship between process, time, landforms and landscapes in glaciated settings: characteristic glaciated and periglacial landscapes.

This content must include study of a variety of landscapes from beyond the UK and may also include UK examples.

Systems in physical geography: systems concepts and their application to the development of glaciated landscapes – inputs, outputs, energy, stores/components, flows/transfers, positive/ negative feedback, dynamic equilibrium. The concepts of landform and landscape and how related landforms combine to form characteristic landscapes.

Issues associated with attempts at global governance, including how: agencies, including the UN in the post-1945 era, can work to promote growth and stability but may also exacerbate inequalities and injustices; interactions between the local, regional, national, international and global scales are fundamental to understanding global governance.

The emergence and developing role of norms, laws and institutions in regulating and reproducing global systems.

Health impacts of global environmental change: ozone depletion – skin cancer, cataracts; climate change – thermal stress, emergent and changing distribution of vector borne diseases, agricultural productivity and nutritional standards.

Prospects for the global population. Projected distributions. Critical appraisal of future population-environment relationships.

Form and nature of economic, political, social and environmental interdependence in the contemporary world.

Issues associated with interdependence including how: unequal flows of people, money, ideas and technology within global systems can sometimes act to promote stability, growth and development but can also cause inequalities, conflicts and injustices for people and places; unequal power relations enable some states to drive global systems to their own advantage and to directly influence geopolitical events, while others are only able to respond or resist in a more constrained way.

Dimensions of globalisation: flows of capital, labour, products, services and information; global marketing; patterns of production, distribution and consumption.

Factors in globalisation: the development of technologies, systems and relationships, including financial, transport, security, communications, management and information systems and trade agreements.

The impacts of globalisation to consider the benefits of growth, development, integration, stability against the costs in terms of inequalities, injustice, conflict and environmental impact.

Bar graphs – simple, comparative, compound and divergent.

Dispersion diagrams.

Graphs with logarithmic scales.

Line graphs – simple, comparative, compound and divergent.

Pie charts and proportional divided circles.

Scatter graphs, and the use of best fit line.

Triangular graphs.

Distinctively arid geomorphological processes: weathering (thermal fracture, exfoliation, chemical weathering, block and granular disintegration).

Geomorphological processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transportation and deposition.

Sediment sources, cells and budgets.

Sources of energy in hot desert environments: insolation, winds, runoff.

Sources of water: exogenous, endoreic and ephemeral; the episodic role of water; sheet flooding, channel flash flooding.

The role of wind – erosion: deflation and abrasion; transportation; suspension, saltation, surface creep, deposition.

Students must engage with a range of quantitative and relevant qualitative skills, within the theme landscape systems. These should include observation skills, measurement and geospatial mapping skills and data manipulation and statistical skills applied to field measurements.

Concept of environmental fragility. Human impacts on fragile cold environments over time and at a variety of scales. Recent and prospective impact of climate change. Management of cold environments at present and in alternative possible futures.

Use of electronic databases.

Use of ICT to generate evidence of many of the skills provided above such as producing maps, graphs and statistical calculations.

Use of innovative sources of data such as crowd sourcing and ‘big data’.

Use of remotely sensed data (as described above in Core skills).

Analysis and assessment of the geographical consequences of global systems to specifically consider how international trade and variable access to markets underly and impacts on students' and other people's lives across the globe.

Differential access to markets associated with levels of economic development and trading agreements and its impacts on economic and societal well-being.

Global features and trends in the volume and pattern of international trade and investment associated with globalisation.

The nature and role of transnational corporations (TNCs), including their spatial organisation, production, linkages, trading and marketing patterns, with a detailed reference to a specified TNC and its impacts on those countries in which it operates.

Trading relationships and patterns between large, highly developed economies such as the United States, the European Union, emerging major economies such as China and India and smaller, less developed economies such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia and Latin America.

World trade in at least one food commodity or one manufacturing product.

The environmental context for human population characteristics and change. Key elements in the physical environment: climate, soils, resource distributions including water supply. Key population parameters: distribution, density, numbers, change. Key role of development processes. Global patterns of population numbers, densities and change rates.

Local factors in ecological development and change (such as agriculture, urban change, the planned and unplanned introduction of new species).

The impacts of change and measures to manage these impacts. Conservation strategies and their implementation in specific settings.

The main characteristics of a distinctive local ecosystem (such as an area of heathland, managed parkland, pond, dune system). Ecological responses to the climate, soil and soil moisture budget – adaptations by flora and fauna.

The distribution and main characteristics of coral reef ecosystems. Environmental conditions associated with reef development.

The following aspects should be examined with reference to a named, located coral reef: Factors in the health and survival of reefs: Natural: Water temperature, acidity, salinity, algal blooms.; Human activity and its impact: Major drainage basin schemes, onshore development, desalination, pollution, tourism, fishing.; Future prospects for coral reefs.

How both past and present processes of development can be seen to influence the social and economic characteristics of places and so be implicit in present meanings.

How external agencies, including government, corporate bodies and community or local groups make attempts to influence or create specific place-meanings and thereby shape the actions and behaviours of individuals, groups, businesses and institutions.

How humans perceive, engage with and form attachments to places and how they present and represent the world to others, including the way in which everyday place meanings are bound up with different identities, perspectives and experiences.

How places may be represented in a variety of different forms such as advertising copy, tourist agency material, local art exhibitions in diverse media (eg film, photography, art, story, song etc) that often give contrasting images to that presented formally or statistically such as cartography and census data.

The importance of the meanings and representations attached to places by people with a particular focus on people's lived experience of place in the past and at present.

Environmental impacts of a major mineral resource extraction scheme and associated distribution networks.

Key aspects of physical geography associated with ore occurrence and working: geological conditions and location.

Sources of the specified ore. Distribution of reserves/resources. End uses of the ore. Components of demand for ore. Role of specified ore in global commerce and industry.

Sustainability issues associated with ore extraction, trade and processing.

With reference to iron ore or a specified globally traded non-ferrous metal ore eg copper, tin, manganese.

Global patterns of production, consumption and trade/movements of energy and ore minerals. Global patterns of water availability and demand.

The geopolitics of energy, ore mineral and water resource distributions, trade and management.

Environmental problems in contrasting urban areas: atmospheric pollution, water pollution and dereliction.

Strategies to manage these environmental problems.

Both place studies must focus equally on: people's lived experience of the place in the past and at present and either changing demographic and cultural characteristics or economic change and social inequalities.

Contrasting place study exploring the developing character of a contrasting and distant place.

Local place study exploring the developing character of a place local to the home or study centre.

Place studies must apply the knowledge acquired through engagement with prescribed specification content and thereby further enhance understanding of the way students' own lives and those of others are affected by continuity and change in the nature of places. Sources must include qualitative and quantitative data to represent places in the past and present.

Suitable data sources could include: statistics, such as census data; maps; geo-located data; geospatial data, including geographic information systems (GIS) applications; photographs; text, from varied media; audio-visual media; artistic representations; oral sources, such as interviews, reminiscences, songs etc.

Destructive, constructive and conservative plate margins. Characteristic processes: seismicity and vulcanicity. Associated landforms: young fold mountains, rift valleys, ocean ridges, deep sea trenches and island arcs, volcanoes.

Earth structure and internal energy sources. Plate tectonic theory of crustal evolution: tectonic plates; plate movement; gravitational sliding; ridge push, slab pull; convection currents and sea-floor spreading.

Magma plumes and their relationship to plate movement.

Factors in natural population change: the demographic transition model, key vital rates, age–sex composition; cultural controls. Models of natural population change, and their application in contrasting physical and human settings. Concept of the Demographic Dividend.

International migration: refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants: environmental and socio-economic causes, processes. Demographic, environmental, social, economic, health and political implications of migration.

Population growth dynamics. Concepts of overpopulation, underpopulation and optimum population. Implications of population size and structure for the balance between population and resources; the concepts of ‘carrying capacity’ and ‘ecological footprint’ and their implications.

Population, resources and pollution model: positive and negative feedback. Contrasting perspectives on population growth and its implications; Malthusian, neo-Malthusian and alternatives such as associated with Boserup and Simon.

an ability to collect and use digital and geo-located data, and understand a range of approaches to use and analyse such data

interpretation and evaluation of a range of source material including textual and visual sources

understanding of the ethical and socio-political implications of collecting, studying and representing geographical data about human communities.

understanding of the opportunities and limitations of qualitative techniques such as coding and sampling, and appreciation of how they actively create particular geographical representations

understanding of the purposes and difference between the following and to use them in appropriate contexts: descriptive statistics of central tendency and dispersion; descriptive measures of difference and association, inferential statistics and the foundations of relational statistics; measurement, measurement errors, and sampling; understanding of the ethical and socio-political implications of collecting, studying and representing geographical data about human communities.

understanding of what makes data geographical and the geospatial technologies (eg GIS) that are used to collect, analyse and present geographical data

use and understanding of a mixture of methodological approaches, including interviews

Students must engage with a range of quantitative and qualitative approaches across the theme as a whole. Quantitative data, including the use of geospatial data, must be used to investigate and present place characteristics, particular weight must be given to qualitative approaches involved in representing place, and to analysing critically the impacts of different media on place meanings and perceptions. The use of different types of data should allow the development of critical perspectives on the data categories and approaches.

Students must engage with a range of quantitative and relevant qualitative skills, within the theme water and carbon cycles. Students must specifically understand simple mass balance, unit conversions and the analysis and presentation of field data.

Students must engage with quantitative and qualitative approaches across the theme as a whole.

How past and present connections, within and beyond localities, shape places and embed them in the regional, national, international and global scales.

How the demographic, socio-economic and cultural characteristics of places are shaped by shifting flows of people, resources, money and investment, and ideas at all scales from local to global.

The characteristics and impacts of external forces operating at different scales from local to global, including either government policies or the decisions of transnational corporations or the impacts of international or global institutions.

The impact of relationships and connections on people and place with a particular focus on: either changing demographic and cultural characteristics or economic change and social inequalities.

Concept of a resource. Resource classifications to include stock and flow resources. Stock resource evaluation: measured reserves, indicated reserves, inferred resources, possible resources. Natural resource development over time: exploration, exploitation, development. Concept of the resource frontier. Concept of resource peak.

Sustainable resource development. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in relation to resource development projects.

Alternative energy, water and mineral ore futures and their relationship with a range of technological, economic, environmental and political developments.

Impacts and human responses as evidenced by a recent seismic event.

Impacts: primary/secondary; environmental, social, economic, political. Short and long-term responses; risk management designed to reduce the impacts of the hazard through preparedness, mitigation, prevention and adaptation.

The nature of seismicity and its relation to plate tectonics: forms of seismic hazard: earthquakes, shockwaves, tsunamis, liquefaction, landslides. Spatial distribution, randomness, magnitude, frequency, regularity, predictability of hazard events.

Issues associated with economic inequality, social segregation and cultural diversity in contrasting urban areas.

Strategies to manage these issues.

The following sections identify specific qualitative and quantitative skills to be developed.

Inferential and relational statistical techniques to include Spearman’s rank correlation and Chi-square test and the application of significance tests.

Measures of central tendency – mean, mode, median.

Measures of dispersion – range, inter-quartile range and standard deviation.

Impacts and human responses as evidenced by two recent tropical storms in contrasting areas of the world.

Impacts: primary/secondary, environmental, social, economic, political. Short and long-term responses: risk management designed to reduce the impacts of the hazard through preparedness, mitigation, prevention and adaptation.

The nature of tropical storms and their underlying causes. Forms of storm hazard: high winds, storm surges, coastal flooding, river flooding and landslides. Spatial distribution, magnitude, frequency, regularity, predictability of hazard events.

Contemporary opportunities and challenges in developing more sustainable cities.

Impact of urban areas on local and global environments. Ecological footprint of major urban areas. Dimensions of sustainability: natural, physical, social and economic. Nature and features of sustainable cities. Concept of liveability.

Strategies for developing more sustainable cities.

Ablation and accumulation – historical patterns of ice advance and retreat.

Fluvioglacial processes: meltwater, erosion transportation and deposition.

Geomorphological processes – weathering: frost action, nivation; ice movement: internal deformation, rotational, compressional, extensional and basal sliding; erosion: plucking, abrasion; transportation and deposition.

Glacial systems including glacial budgets.

Periglacial features and processes: permafrost, active layer and mass movement.

Warm and cold based glaciers: characteristics and development.

The concept of the ‘global commons’. The rights of all to the benefits of the global commons. Acknowledgement that the rights of all people to sustainable development must also acknowledge the need to protect the global commons.

Changes in the carbon cycle over time, to include natural variation (including wild fires, volcanic activity) and human impact (including hydrocarbon fuel extraction and burning, farming practices, deforestation, land use changes).

Factors driving change in the magnitude of these stores over time and space, including flows and transfers at plant, sere and continental scales. Photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, combustion, carbon sequestration in oceans and sediments, weathering.

Global distribution, and size of major stores of carbon – lithosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere biosphere, atmosphere.

The carbon budget and the impact of the carbon cycle upon land, ocean and atmosphere, including global climate.

Nature, forms and potential impacts of natural hazards (geophysical, atmospheric and hydrological). Hazard perception and its economic and cultural determinants. Characteristic human responses – fatalism, prediction, adjustment/adaptation, mitigation, management, risk sharing – and their relationship to hazard incidence, intensity, magnitude, distribution and level of development. The Park model of human response to hazards. The Hazard Management Cycle.

Physical characteristics of cold environments. Climate, soils and vegetation (and their interaction).

The global distribution of cold environments.

The global distribution of past and present cold environments (polar, alpine, glacial and periglacial) and of areas affected by the Pleistocene glaciations.

Categories of place: near places and far places, experienced places and media places.

Factors contributing to the character of places: Endogenous: location, topography, physical geography, land use, built environment and infrastructure, demographic and economic characteristics. Exogenous: relationships with other places.

Insider and outsider perspectives on place.

The concept of place and the importance of place in human life and experience.

Changes in the water cycle over time to include natural variation including storm events, seasonal changes and human impact including farming practices, land use change and water abstraction.

Drainage basins as open systems – inputs and outputs, to include precipitation, evapo-transpiration and runoff; stores and flows, to include interception, surface, soil water, groundwater and channel storage; stemflow, infiltration overland flow, and channel flow. Concept of water balance.

Global distribution and size of major stores of water – lithosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and atmosphere.

Processes driving change in the magnitude of these stores over time and space, including flows and transfers: evaporation, condensation, cloud formation, causes of precipitation and cryospheric processes at hill slope, drainage basin and global scales with reference to varying timescales involved.

Runoff variation and the flood hydrograph.

Pollution reduction policies.

The impact of urban forms and processes on local climate and weather.

Urban temperatures: the urban heat island effect. Precipitation: frequency and intensity. Fogs and thunderstorms in urban environments. Wind: the effects of urban structures and layout on wind speed, direction and frequency. Air quality: particulate and photo-chemical pollution.

Issues associated with catchment management in urban areas. The development of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS).

River restoration and conservation in damaged urban catchments with reference to a specific project. Reasons for and aims of the project; attitudes and contributions of parties involved; project activities and evaluation of project outcomes.

Urban precipitation, surfaces and catchment characteristics; impacts on drainage basin storage areas; urban water cycle: water movement through urban catchments as measured by hydrographs.

Contemporary characteristics of mega/world cities. Urban characteristics in contrasting settings. Physical and human factors in urban forms. Spatial patterns of land use, economic inequality, social segregation and cultural diversity in contrasting urban areas, and the factors that influence them.

New urban landscapes: town centre mixed developments, cultural and heritage quarters, fortress developments, gentrified areas, edge cities. The concept of the post-modern western city.

Comparison of incineration and landfill approaches to waste disposal in relation to a specified urban area.

Urban physical waste generation: sources of waste - industrial and commercial activity, personal consumption. Relation of waste components and waste streams to economic characteristics, lifestyles and attitudes. The environmental impacts of alternative approaches to waste disposal: unregulated, recycling, recovery, incineration, burial, submergence and trade.

Economic, social, technological, political and demographic processes associated with urbanisation and urban growth.

Urban change: deindustrialisation, decentralisation, rise of service economy.

Urban policy and regeneration in Britain since 1979.

Urbanisation and its importance in human affairs. Global patterns of urbanisation since 1945. Urbanisation, suburbanisation, counter-urbanisation, urban resurgence. The emergence of megacities and world cities and their role in global and regional economies.

Impacts and human responses as evidenced by a recent volcanic event.

Impacts: primary/secondary, environmental, social, economic, political. Short and long-term responses: risk management designed to reduce the impacts of the hazard through preparedness, mitigation, prevention and adaptation.

The nature of vulcanicity and its relation to plate tectonics: forms of volcanic hazard: nuées ardentes, lava flows, mudflows, pyroclastic and ash fallout, gases/acid rain, tephra. Spatial distribution, magnitude, frequency, regularity and predictability of hazard events.

Systems in physical geography: systems concepts and their application to the water and carbon cycles inputs – outputs, energy, stores/components, flows/transfers, positive/negative feedback, dynamic equilibrium.

Environmental impacts of a major water supply scheme incorporating a major dam and/or barrage and associated distribution networks.

Relationship of water supply (volume and quality) to key aspects of physical geography – climate, geology and drainage.

Sources of water; components of demand, water stress.

Strategies to increase water supply to include catchment, diversion, storage and water transfers and desalination.

Strategies to manage water consumption (including reducing demand).

Sustainability issues associated with water management: virtual water trade, conservation, recycling, ‘greywater’ and groundwater management.

Water conflicts at a variety of scales – local, national, international.

Human interventions in the carbon cycle designed to influence carbon transfers and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

The key role of the carbon and water stores and cycles in supporting life on Earth with particular reference to climate. The relationship between the water cycle and carbon cycle in the atmosphere. The role of feedbacks within and between cycles and their link to climate change and implications for life on Earth.