Tectonic hazards
Plate margins, eruptions and earthquake management.
- Constructive, destructive and conservative margins
- Primary and secondary effects
- Case studies: Tohoku (2011), Nepal (2015)
AQA · Edexcel · OCR
Geography revision, organised and exam-ready.
Bite-sized topic notes, case studies and quick quizzes — plus a catalogue of interactive practice tools for checking your place knowledge and border skills.
Core topics
Everything on the specification, in plain English.
Rivers and flooding
Drainage basins, hydrographs and flood management.
- Long and cross profiles
- Physical and human flood causes
- Hard and soft engineering responses
Coasts
Landforms, erosion and coastal management.
- Weathering, mass movement and erosion
- Headlands, bays, spits and bars
- Management: Holderness and Lyme Regis
Ecosystems
Biomes, nutrient cycles and human impact.
- Small-scale ecosystems and food webs
- Rainforest and hot desert adaptations
- Case study: Malaysia deforestation
Urban issues
Urbanisation, megacities and sustainable cities.
- Rural-urban migration push and pull factors
- Opportunities and challenges in Mumbai
- Urban greening and transport in London
Resource management
Water, energy and food security.
- Global inequalities in supply
- Renewable and non-renewable energy
- Case study: Lesotho Highland water transfer
Case studies
Pick a case study and learn the six strands examiners look for.
Tohoku earthquake, Japan (2011)
A 9.0 magnitude megathrust earthquake and tsunami in a high-income country with world-leading preparation.
- Cause: subduction at the Japan Trench
- Effects: 15,000+ deaths and the Fukushima nuclear incident
- Responses: sea walls, early warning systems, rapid recovery
River Eden flood management, UK
Flood defences combining hard engineering in towns with natural flood management upstream.
- Cause: heavy rainfall and impermeable geology
- Effects: repeated flooding in Carlisle
- Responses: levees, storage basins and tree planting
Holderness Coast, UK
One of Europe's fastest eroding coastlines, with hard engineering concentrated at key settlements.
- Cause: soft boulder clay and strong wave energy
- Effects: rapid cliff retreat and lost villages
- Responses: sea walls, groynes and managed retreat
Quick quiz
Three questions most students get wrong. Click to reveal.
What is the difference between a primary and a secondary effect?
Primary effects happen immediately as a direct result of the hazard, such as buildings collapsing. Secondary effects happen later, often as a consequence of the primary effects — fires, disease and homelessness.
Name two hard engineering strategies used to protect coastlines.
Sea walls (concrete barriers that reflect wave energy) and rock armour (large boulders placed at the cliff base). Groynes are also acceptable — they trap sediment moving by longshore drift.
Which processes transfer water from the land surface back to the atmosphere?
Evaporation from rivers and lakes, and transpiration from plant leaves. Together these are often called evapotranspiration.