What does Changing Landscapes cover in WJEC A-Level Geography?

Changing Landscapes is the physical option of AS Unit 1. Students study at least one landscape system in depth, choosing from coastal landscapes and glaciated landscapes, plus the management of these dynamic landscapes. The content covers the landscape as an open system, the marine, glacial and sub-aerial processes operating within it, the erosional and depositional landforms produced, and how human activity and management strategies change the landscape over time.

How is Changing Landscapes examined?

It is assessed in the AS Unit 1 written paper alongside Changing Places. Expect data-response and structured questions plus extended responses that ask you to explain landform formation, describe processes, and assess management strategies. Located Welsh and UK examples such as the Pembrokeshire coast, Snowdonia and Fairbourne are rewarded, as is a clear sequence of processes.

Should I study coasts or glaciation?

Centres usually teach one of the two landscape systems in depth, so follow what your school has covered. The skills are parallel: treat the landscape as an open system, learn the processes of erosion, transport and deposition, sequence the landforms, and learn the management content. Whichever you study, learn located examples precisely.

What are the most common mistakes in this unit?

Common errors are describing landforms without sequencing the processes that form them, forgetting sub-aerial processes in cliff retreat, calling glacial till sorted, treating hard engineering as always best, and omitting a located example. WJEC rewards process detail, balance in evaluation and named places, so build these habits.

How should I revise Changing Landscapes?

Work from the specification statements. Draw and annotate each landform with its sequence of processes, build a table of management strategies with advantages and disadvantages, and memorise one or two located examples (Pembrokeshire, Snowdonia, Fairbourne) you can deploy in any answer. Practise past-style questions on formation and on assessing management.

WalesGeography

WJEC A-Level Geography Changing Landscapes (AS Unit 1): a deep dive on coastal and glaciated landscapes and their management

A deep-dive WJEC A-Level Geography guide to Changing Landscapes (AS Unit 1). Covers coastal and glaciated landscapes as systems, the processes of erosion, transport and deposition, the landforms they create, and how these landscapes are managed, with Welsh examples and the exam patterns WJEC repeats.

Generated by Claude Opus 4.818 min readWJECUpdated 2026-06-02

Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed

Jump to a section

What Changing Landscapes actually demands
Coastal landscapes and processes
Glaciated landscapes
Landform systems and management
How Changing Landscapes is examined
Check your knowledge

What Changing Landscapes actually demands

Changing Landscapes is the physical-geography core of WJEC AS Unit 1. You study a landscape as an open system, learn the processes that operate within it, account for the landforms those processes produce, and evaluate how the landscape is managed as it changes over time. Examiners test two linked skills: precise, sequenced explanation of processes and landforms, and balanced evaluation of management, both anchored in located examples.

This guide ties together the three dot-point pages for the unit: coastal landscapes and processes, glaciated landscapes, and landform systems and management. Each has its own page with practice questions; this overview shows how they fit.

Coastal landscapes and processes

The coast is an open system with inputs (wave, wind and tidal energy, sediment), stores (beaches, dunes, spits) and outputs (sediment lost offshore), organised into sediment cells. Marine processes are erosion (hydraulic action, abrasion, attrition, solution), transport (longshore drift) and deposition; sub-aerial processes are weathering and mass movement. Destructive waves and resistant geology produce erosional landforms (wave-cut platforms, caves, arches, stacks), while constructive waves and longshore drift build depositional landforms (beaches, spits, bars). The Pembrokeshire coast shows headland-and-bay erosion on varied geology.

Glaciated landscapes

A glacier is an open system whose mass balance is the difference between accumulation and ablation. Ice erodes by abrasion and plucking, aided by freeze-thaw weathering, and transports debris on, in and under the ice. Erosional landforms include corries, aretes, pyramidal peaks, glacial troughs, hanging valleys and ribbon lakes; depositional landforms include moraines, drumlins and erratics. Snowdonia preserves classic corries, aretes and U-shaped valleys from the last glaciation, making it the natural Welsh case study.

Landform systems and management

Coastal and glaciated landscapes sit in dynamic equilibrium, restored by negative feedback and amplified by positive feedback. Human activity (building, tourism, dredging, farming) and climate change shift the balance, so these landscapes are managed. Hard engineering (sea walls, groynes, rock armour) resists processes but is costly and can starve neighbouring coasts of sediment; soft engineering (beach nourishment, managed realignment, dune restoration) works with processes and is more sustainable. Shoreline management plans choose to hold the line, advance, retreat or do nothing, as the Fairbourne decision in Gwynedd illustrates.

How Changing Landscapes is examined

A typical WJEC profile for this unit:

Process and formation questions. Sequence the processes that form a named landform (a stack, a corrie, a glacial trough).
Data response. Interpret maps, photographs, hydrographs or field data on a landscape.
Management evaluation. Assess hard versus soft engineering with a located example and a clear judgement.
Extended answers. Explaining landform formation and assessing management are both predictable extended-response tasks.

Check your knowledge

A mix of process, formation and evaluation questions covering the whole unit. Attempt them under timed conditions, then check against the solutions.

Define the term sediment cell. (2 marks)
Explain how a wave-cut platform is formed. (4 marks)
Describe how longshore drift transports sediment along a coast. (3 marks)
Define glacial mass balance. (2 marks)
Explain the formation of a corrie and the features associated with it. (4 marks)
Distinguish between erosional and depositional glacial landforms, giving an example of each. (3 marks)
Explain one disadvantage of using groynes to manage a coastline. (3 marks)
Assess the use of managed realignment as a coastal management strategy. (4 marks)

Solutions

Q1: A largely self-contained stretch of coastline, bounded by headlands, within which the movement of sediment (sources, transfers and sinks) is effectively closed off from neighbouring cells.
Q2: Destructive waves erode the cliff base by hydraulic action, abrasion and solution, cutting a wave-cut notch. The overhang collapses and the cliff retreats; the eroded base left behind is a gently sloping wave-cut platform exposed at low tide.
Q3: Swash carries material up the beach at the angle of wave approach, and backwash returns it straight down the steepest gradient under gravity, producing a net zig-zag movement of sediment along the coast.
Q4: The net difference between accumulation (snow and ice inputs) and ablation (melting and other losses) over a year; a positive balance advances a glacier and a negative balance makes it retreat.
Q5: Snow collects in a north or east-facing hollow and compacts into ice. Rotational sliding and abrasion deepen the hollow while plucking steepens the back wall; less erosion at the lip leaves a rock bar that dams a tarn. Two corries back to back form an arete, three or more a pyramidal peak.
Q6: Erosional landforms are cut by ice, for example a corrie or glacial trough. Depositional landforms are built from till dropped by melting ice, for example a moraine or drumlin.
Q7: Groynes trap sediment moving by longshore drift to widen the local beach, but this starves the next stretch of coast of sediment, increasing erosion downdrift (terminal scour).
Q8: Managed realignment lets the sea flood low-value land to create salt marsh, which absorbs wave energy and is sustainable and cheaper than maintaining defences. However, it sacrifices land and property and can be unpopular, so it suits low-value coasts more than high-value ones; the Fairbourne decision shows the social difficulty.