This is an 11-page summary of the 'Coastal Landscapes in the UK' topic in the AQA GCSE Geography specification. I believe it covers the entire topic but I cannot guarantee that it includes every element. Documents like this helped me achieve a Grade 9 in AQA GCSE Geography.
● The coast is home to many people
● Tourism is concentrated in this area
● Sea levels are rising, resulting in more erosion and flooding than ever before
● Farmland is often affected
The coastal zone is the transitional area between land and sea, and is a band rather
than a line. It is also known as a littoral zone.
Waves are formed when wind blows over the sea. Friction between the wind and the
surface of the water creates ripples which develop into waves. The type of wave
depends on tides and weather conditions, as well as how the beach wad formed.
The strength of the wave depends on:
● The strength of the wind
● The distance over which the wind blows (fetch) - the longer the wind blows,
the bigger the wave
Waves can also be formed due to tectonic movement, creating tsunamis.
Fetch: the maximum length of open water over which the wind can blow
unobstructed
A very short fetch isn’t long enough for the amount of energy needed to make big
waves. You can’t have 10m high waves on a 50m wide lake, even if it is very deep.
Much larger lakes like the North American Great Lakes (Erie, Michigan) have longer
fetches which create larger and more powerful waves
In the UK, the southwest coast is exposed to the Atlantic and some waves may even
come from South American coasts. This means the energy and power of waves are
much higher in the southwest than in the southeast, which is only 40km from the
coast of France.
Swash - the water that rushes up the beach
Backwash - the water that flows back towards the sea
, Waves
Wave characteristic Constructive Destructive
Wave height Low waves High, steep waves
Wavelength Long wavelength Short wavelength
Frequency Infrequent - less than 10 a Frequent - 10 to 15 a
minute minute
Swash/backwash Strong swash and weak Weak swash and strong
backwash backwash
Carry and deposit large Erode the beach (remove
amounts of sand and sand and pebbles),
pebbles, constructing the causing the gradual
beach and making it more destruction of the beach
extensive (leads to gentle (leads to steep beaches)
beaches)
Net gain of sediment Net loss of sediment
Elliptical orbit Circular Elliptical
Weather conditions Created in calm Created in stormy
conditions conditions when the wind
is powerful
Wave break Spilling waves Plunging waves
Wave formation Formed by storms which Formed by local storms
are often hundreds of close to the coast
kilometres away
4 mark question: compare the characteristics of constructive and destructive
waves
Constructive waves are created in calm conditions and are low waves with a strong
swash and a weak backwash. They construct beaches by depositing sediment,
creating and extending gently sloping beaches. At the same time, constructive
waves are spilling waves with a much longer wavelength and lower frequency than
destructive waves, with less than ten waves breaking a minute. Conversely,
destructive waves are created in stormy conditions when the wind is powerful. They
have a much shorter wavelength and therefore break between ten and fifteen times
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