Coastal Management (Edexcel AS Geography): Exam Questions

You have carried out an investigation into coastal landscapes and change.

Assess the usefulness of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) to process and present the data and information you have collected.

Geographical enquiry question

Study Figures 5a and 5b

Figure 5a
Land use at Portstewart Strand, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland

Figure 5b
Portstewart Strand, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland

Portstewart Strand is a major coastal attraction in Northern Ireland. It is managed by the National Trust.

The line AB is the distance from the start to the end of Portstewart Strand.

There are different approaches to managing coastal landscapes.

Identify which approach is the most likely to be suitable for Portstewart Strand.

Calculate the length of line AB in Figure 5a.

Show your working.

Give your answer, in kilometres, to 1 decimal place.

..............................................................km

Suggest one reason why this landscape has amenity value.

With reference to one named coastline, explain why policy decisions can lead to conflict between different players.

Named example

A group of students collected fieldwork data about cliff profiles at 15 different locations along a section of the north Cornwall coastline.

Study Figure 7

Figure 7
Collated data collection sheets from group fieldwork in an
active coastal landscape in Cornwall

Identify one risk students might have had to consider when carrying out fieldwork in this environment.

Explain two economic reasons why coastal recession is significant.

Study Figure 6

Figure 6
Geographic Information System (GIS) maps showing slope angle
around Southerndown, Glamorgan Heritage Coast, Wales

A group of students used GIS to find secondary information about the relief of
the Glamorgan Heritage Coast in South Wales in order to help plan their fieldwork investigation into coastal landscapes.

Explain two decisions these students would have to make as part of a risk assessment.

Study Figure 7a and Figure 7b

Figure 7: Information about Aqaba, Jordan, Middle East.

Figure 7a
Management strategies used in Aqaba

Figure 7b
Changing coastal landscapes in Gulf of Aqaba

The coastal landscape of Aqaba, Jordan, faces many threats.

Evaluate the effectiveness of the management strategies shown.

Assess the social and economic risks of rapid coastal retreat.

Study Figure 6

Figure 6
Kite diagrams showing footpath erosion in two areas
of sand dunes at Studland Bay, Dorset

A group of students collected data about footpath erosion at Studland Bay, a sand dune coastline in Southern England.

They measured vegetation cover across a transect on:

1. a managed footpath

2. an unmanaged footpath.

They presented their findings as two kite diagrams.

Identify two impacts of footpath management.

Suggest one reason why footpath management is necessary in sandy coastal landscapes.

The students also collected data at ten sites along the unmanaged footpath, measuring width at 30-metre intervals away from the car park, northwards.

They used this data to test the relationship between the width of the footpath and distance from the car park.

Explain how the use of a statistical method would help their investigation about footpath erosion.