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Edexcel GCSE Geography

Coastal landscapes and management — Edexcel GCSE Geography revision

Free revision notes, key terms, common exam traps and 5 practice questions with answers. About 8 minutes to read.

Waves and processes

  • Constructive waves have low frequency, low height and a strong swash, building beaches; destructive waves are high, frequent and have a strong backwash that removes sediment.
  • Erosion: hydraulic power, abrasion, attrition and solution. Weathering (freeze-thaw, salt, biological, chemical) and mass movement (rockfall, slumping, sliding) work with wave erosion.
  • Longshore drift moves sediment along the coast: swash follows the prevailing wind at an angle, backwash returns at right angles under gravity.

Landforms

  • Erosional: headlands and bays on discordant coasts, then wave-cut notch → wave-cut platform, and crack → cave → arch → stack → stump on the headland.
  • Depositional: beaches, spits (with recurved ends and salt marsh behind), bars across bays and tombolos linking an island to the mainland.
  • Rock type and structure control the rate of retreat: resistant rock (chalk, granite) forms cliffs and headlands; softer clay and sand erode quickly into bays.

Key terms

Swash
Water moving up the beach after a wave breaks.
Backwash
Water returning down the beach under gravity.
Longshore drift
Zig-zag movement of sediment along a coast.
Discordant coast
Coast where rock bands lie at right angles to the sea, forming headlands and bays.
Wave-cut platform
Flat rocky area left as a cliff retreats.
Spit
Long ridge of deposited sediment extending from the coast.

Common exam traps

  • Saying destructive waves build beaches — their strong backwash removes material.
  • Describing longshore drift without mentioning the prevailing wind angle.
  • Writing that groynes stop erosion everywhere — they starve beaches downdrift.

Practice questions with answers

  1. 1. Which wave type has a strong backwash?

    • • Constructive
    • • Destructive
    • • Standing
    • • Refracted

    Answer: Destructive

    Strong backwash drags sediment offshore, narrowing beaches.

  2. 2. Explain how longshore drift moves sediment.

    Answer: Swash carries material up the beach at the prevailing wind angle and backwash returns it at right angles, moving it in a zig-zag

    Angle of swash plus gravity-driven backwash is essential.

  3. 3. The sequence of headland erosion is:

    • • Stack → arch → cave → crack
    • • Crack → cave → arch → stack → stump
    • • Cave → stump → arch
    • • Notch → spit → bar

    Answer: Crack → cave → arch → stack → stump

    Erosion widens weaknesses until the arch roof collapses.

  4. 4. A wave-cut platform forms as:

    • • A beach builds seaward
    • • A cliff retreats leaving a flat rocky base
    • • A spit curves inward
    • • Sediment is deposited offshore

    Answer: A cliff retreats leaving a flat rocky base

    Undercutting and collapse leave the former cliff base exposed.

  5. 5. Explain why bays form on discordant coasts.

    Answer: Softer rock bands erode faster than resistant bands, which remain as headlands

    Differential erosion is the key term.

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