UK physical and human landscapes
Geography · GCSE · The School
The shape of the UK
Broadly, upland and older rock to the north and west — the Scottish Highlands, the Pennines, Snowdonia, the Lake District; lowland and younger rock to the south and east. That split explains a great deal: rainfall is higher in the west, farming is mostly arable in the east and pastoral in the west, and the major population centres grew where coal, ports and flat land met.
A river from source to mouth
In the UPPER course the channel is narrow and steep with a rough bed, so vertical erosion dominates: V-shaped valleys, waterfalls, interlocking spurs. In the MIDDLE course the gradient eases and lateral erosion widens it: meanders and oxbow lakes. In the LOWER course it is wide and slow, carrying fine sediment: floodplains, levees, and a delta or estuary.
Cities, and what changed them
UK cities grew with industry, shrank in the inner areas as industry left, spread outwards, and in many cases have seen city centres repopulated by regeneration. The current challenges are consistent: housing cost and supply, congestion and air quality, inequality between neighbourhoods a mile apart, and how to grow without taking more green land.
Draw a line from the Tees to the Exe. North and west of it: older, harder rock — the Pennines, the Lake District, Snowdonia, the Highlands. South and east: younger, softer rock and lowlands. Now find the exceptions: Dartmoor and Exmoor are southern uplands of hard granite, and the Vale of York is northern lowland. The line runs diagonally because GEOLOGY runs diagonally, not because north means high.
Upper, middle and lower course, in the same three columns
River questions are answerable from one table you can carry in your head. UPPER: steep gradient, narrow shallow channel, large angular bedload, high friction so lower velocity than students expect, vertical erosion, and V-shaped valleys, interlocking spurs and waterfalls. MIDDLE: gentler gradient, wider channel, smaller rounder load, lateral erosion, meanders and river cliffs. LOWER: very gentle gradient, widest and deepest channel, fine load carried in suspension, deposition dominant, floodplains, levees and an estuary. Learn it as columns and any landform question can be placed instantly.
How a UK city actually changed
The pattern behind most British urban case studies is the same sequence, and knowing it lets you organise an answer fast. Industry drew workers in and terraced housing was built around it. Deindustrialisation removed the employment and left derelict land and high unemployment. Suburbanisation and then counter-urbanisation moved wealthier residents outwards, leaving inner areas with lower incomes and ageing housing. Regeneration then targeted the derelict sites, often waterfront, bringing investment and also raising prices so that some existing residents could no longer afford to stay. That last consequence is the evaluative point most answers omit.