An overview of the location of the UK's major upland and lowland areas and its main rivers, as the foundation for studying coastal, river and glacial landscapes.

What this dot point is asking

This is AQA GCSE Geography (8035) Paper 1, Section C (3.1.3 Physical landscapes in the UK). AQA expects you to give an overview of the UK's physical landscape: the location of the main upland and lowland areas, and the location of its major rivers. It is a short, map-based introduction that sets up the three landscape options (coasts, rivers and glaciation), of which you study coasts plus at least one other. Questions here often test map skills (AO4) as well as locational knowledge.

Upland and lowland Britain

The UK's relief (the shape and height of the land) follows a broad pattern from north-west to south-east, sometimes described by an imaginary "Tees-Exe line" running from north-east England to the south-west. The uplands (higher, more rugged land made of older, harder rock) are concentrated in the north and west, while the lowlands (gentler, flatter land of younger, softer rock) lie in the south and east. This pattern is the product of geology: the resistant igneous and metamorphic rocks and tough older sandstones of the north and west erode slowly and stand high, while the softer clays, chalk and limestone of the south and east wear down to give lower relief.

The UK's major rivers

Rivers begin in the uplands, where rainfall is high, and flow towards the coast and the surrounding seas (the North Sea, the Irish Sea, the English Channel and the Atlantic), eroding, transporting and depositing material along the way.

Because the UK is geologically varied, the same processes (weathering, erosion, transport and deposition) create very different landforms in different places, which is why AQA studies coasts, rivers and glaciation as separate landscape options. Reading these landscapes on an Ordnance Survey map (interpreting contour lines for relief, and following the blue lines of rivers from source to mouth) is a skill examined throughout Paper 1.

Try this

Q1. Describe the distribution of upland areas in the UK. [2 marks]

• Cue. They are found mainly in the north and west, for example the Scottish Highlands, Lake District and Pennines.

Q2. Name one major UK river and the sea it flows into. [2 marks]

• Cue. The River Thames flows into the North Sea, or the River Severn flows into the Bristol Channel.