3.1.3.1 Coasts as natural systems
The concepts of landform and landscape and how related landforms combine to form characteristic landscapes.

Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:

• The importance of coasts in both physical and human environments.
• How coastlines can have many different characteristics that make up the coastal landscape.

Suggested timing
1 hour

3.1.3.1 Coasts as natural systems
Systems in physical geography: systems concepts and their application to the development of
coastal landscapes - inputs, outputs, energy, stores/components, flows/transfers, positive/negative feedback, dynamic equilibrium. The concepts of landform and landscape and how related landforms combine to form characteristic landscapes.

Links with other units

3.1.1.1 Water and carbon cycles as natural systems
Systems in physical geography: systems concepts and their application to the water and carbon cycles inputs - outputs, energy, stores/components, flows/transfers, positive/negative feedback, dynamic equilibrium.

Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:

• What the coastal system is and how it relates to other Earth systems.
• What the inputs, outputs, stores and flows/transfers of coastal systems are.
• How positive and negative feedback change coastal systems and the concept of dynamic equilibrium.

Suggested timing
2 hours

3.1.3.2 Systems and processes
Sources of energy in coastal environments: winds, waves (constructive and destructive), currents and tides. Low energy and high energy coasts.

Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:

• The different sources of energy found in coastal environments.
• How wind impacts wave types and coastal processes.
• The differences between constructive and destructive waves.
• The different characteristics of low and high energy coasts.

Suggested timing
2 hours

Systems in physical geography: systems concepts and their application to the development of
coastal landscapes - inputs, outputs, energy, stores/components, flows/transfers, positive/negative feedback, dynamic equilibrium.

3.1.3.2 Systems and processes
Sources of energy in coastal environments: winds, waves (constructive and destructive), currents and tides. Low energy and high energy coasts. Sediment sources, cells and budgets.

Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:

• How sediment cells (littoral cells) operate at the coastline and impact coastal systems.
• Where sources of sediment originate and contribute to the coastal system.
• What a sediment budget is and how it can be used to predict the changing shape of a coastline over time.

Suggested timing
2 hours

3.1.3.2 Systems and processes

• Geomorphological processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transportation and deposition.
• Distinctively coastal processes: marine: erosion - hydraulic action, wave quarrying, corrasion/abrasion, cavitation, solution, attrition; transportation: traction, suspension (longshore/littoral drift) and deposition; sub-aerial weathering, mass movement and runoff.

Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:

• How weathering, erosion, transportation and deposition processes form coastal landscapes.
• Different types of mass movement occur in coastal environments, changing the coastal landscape.
• How geomorphological processes work together to form coastal landscapes.
• Distinctive marine processes form coastal landscapes.
• Coastal landscapes are dynamic due to marine processes.

Suggested timing
2 hours

3.1.3.3 Coastal landscape development

• This content must include study of a variety of landscapes from beyond the United Kingdom (UK) but may also include UK examples.
• Origin and development of landforms and landscapes of coastal erosion: cliffs and wave cut
• platforms, cliff profile features including caves, arches and stacks; factors and processes in their development.
• Recent and predicted climatic change and potential impact on coasts.
• The relationship between process, time, landforms and landscapes in coastal settings.

Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:

• How coastal morphology contributes to the formation of coastal landscapes
• How coastal erosion forms cliffs and wave-cut platforms. The factors that affect the cliff profile and its rate of retreat
• The different features of a cliff profile - caves, arches and stacks and the factors in their development over time.

Suggested timing
2 hours

3.1.3.3 Coastal landscape development

• This content must include study of a variety of landscapes from beyond the United Kingdom (UK) but may also include UK examples.
• Origin and development of landforms and landscapes of coastal deposition. Beaches, simple and compound spits, tombolos, offshore bars, barrier beaches and islands and sand dunes; factors and processes in their development.
• Estuarine mudflat/saltmarsh environments and associated landscapes; factors and processes in their development.
• Recent and predicted climatic change and potential impact on coasts.
• The relationship between process, time, landforms and landscapes in coastal settings.

Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:

• The factors that affect the rate of deposition.
• How coastal deposition leads to the formation of different landforms.
• The characteristics and formation of landforms of deposition.
• The factors and processes in the development of mudflats and saltmarsh environments.
• How landforms of deposition change over time.

Suggested timing
3 hours

3.1.3.3 Coastal landscape development

• This content must include study of a variety of landscapes from beyond the United Kingdom (UK) but may also include UK examples.
• Eustatic, isostatic and tectonic sea level change: major changes in sea level in the last 10,000 years.
• Recent and predicted climatic change and potential impact on coasts.
• The relationship between process, time, landforms and landscapes in coastal settings.

Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:

• The reasons why sea-levels change - eustatic, isostatic and tectonic changes.
• How sea-levels have changed over the past 10,000 years.
• How climate change might affect sea-level in the future.

Suggested timing
1 hour

3.1.3.3 Coastal landscape development

• This content must include study of a variety of landscapes from beyond the United Kingdom (UK) but may also include UK examples.
• Eustatic, isostatic and tectonic sea level change: major changes in sea level in the last 10,000 years.
• Coastlines of emergence and submergence. Origin and development of associated landforms: raised beaches, marine platforms; rias, fjords, Dalmatian coasts.
• Recent and predicted climatic change and potential impact on coasts.
• The relationship between process, time, landforms and landscapes in coastal settings.

3.1.1 Water and carbon cycles
3.1.1.4 Water, carbon, climate and life on Earth
The key role of the carbon and water stores and cycles in supporting life on Earth with particular reference to climate. The relationship between the water cycle and carbon cycle in the atmosphere. The role of feedbacks within and between cycles and their link to climate change and implications for life on Earth.

3.1.5 Hazards
3.1.5.2 Plate tectonics
Destructive, constructive and conservative plate margins. Characteristic processes: seismicity and vulcanicity. Associated landforms: young fold mountains, rift valleys, ocean ridges, deep sea trenches and island arcs, volcanoes.

Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:

• The characteristics of coastlines of emergence and the associated landforms.
• The characteristics of coastlines of submergence and the associated landforms.
• How climate change might affect coastlines in the future and alternative futures in landscape development.
• The impact of sea-level rise on coastal communities and the natural environment.

Suggested timing
2 hours

3.1.3.4 Coastal management
Human intervention in coastal landscapes. Traditional approaches to coastal flood and erosion risk: hard and soft engineering. Sustainable approaches to coastal flood risk and coastal erosion management: shoreline management/integrated coastal zone management.

Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:

• Why different approaches to coastal management are needed.
• The costs and benefits of traditional approaches.
• How sustainable integrated approaches to coastal management can be used to protect coastal communities.
• The difference between shoreline management plans and integrated coastal zone management.
• The different values and attitudes towards coastal management.

Suggested timing
2 to 3 hours

3.1.3.6 Case studies
Case study(ies) of coastal environment(s) at a local scale to illustrate and analyse fundamental coastal processes, their landscape outcomes as set out in the specification and engage with field data and challenges represented in their sustainable management.

Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:

• The factors that affect the case-study area for example geology, land-use, fetch and prevailing winds.
• The coastal processes impacting the landscape.
• The characteristics of the landforms found within the coastal landscape.
• Opportunities and challenges in managing the case-study area.
• Traditional approaches used in the area and the impact on natural processes.
• Sustainable management strategies used in the area.
• Future challenges and opportunities for the case-study area.

Suggested timing
3 hours

3.1.3.6 Case studies
Case study of a contrasting coastal landscape beyond the UK to illustrate and analyse how it presents risks and opportunities for human occupation and development and evaluate human responses of resilience, mitigation and adaptation.

This depends on the case-study chosen. For the Sundarbans case-study suggested below, there are clear links to storm hazards.

3.1.5 Hazards
3.1.5.5 Storm hazards
The nature of tropical storms and their underlying causes. Forms of storm hazard: high winds,
storm surges, coastal flooding, river flooding and landslides. Spatial distribution, magnitude,
frequency, regularity, predictability of hazard events.
Impacts: primary/secondary, environmental, social, economic, political. Short and long-term responses: risk management designed to reduce the impacts of the hazard through preparedness, mitigation, prevention and adaptation.

Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:

• The locational background to the case-study area.
• Coastal processes and the characteristics of the coastal landforms and landscape.
• The opportunities for human occupation and development.
• The challenges for human occupation and development.
• How humans can respond to the challenges, resilience, mitigation and adaptation.
• The future challenges and opportunities in the case-study area.

Suggested timing
2 hours