Cameron Dunn - Edexcel A-Level Year 2 Geography Student Guide 3: The Water Cycle and Water Insecurity; The Carbon Cycle and Energy Security; Superpowers

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Cameron Dunn and Michael Witherick 2017

ISBN 978-1-4718-6408-7
eISBN 978-1-4718-6571-8

First printed 2017

Impression number 5 4 3 2 1

Year 2020 2019 2018 2017

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Exam tips

Advice on key points in the text to help you learn and recall content, avoid pitfalls, and polish your exam technique in order to boost your grade.

Knowledge check

Rapid-fire questions throughout the Content Guidance section to check your understanding.

Knowledge check answers

Turn to the back of the book for the Knowledge check answers.

Summaries

Each core topic is rounded off by a bullet-list summary for quick-check reference of what you need to know.

Much of the knowledge and understanding needed for A-level geography builds on what you have learned for GCSE geography, but with an added focus on key geographical concepts and depth of knowledge and understanding of content. This guide offers advice for the effective revision of The water cycle and water insecurity, The carbon cycle and energy security and Superpowers.

The water cycle and water insecurity, and The carbon cycle and energy security are tested in A-level Paper 1. The whole exam (including the other areas of study not covered here) lasts 2 hours and 15 minutes and makes up 30% of the A-level qualification. Superpowers is covered in Paper 2, which also lasts 2 hours and 15 minutes and makes up 30% of the A-level qualification. More information on the external exam papers is given in the Questions & Answers section at the back of this book.

To be successful in this unit you have to understand:

This guide has two sections:

this summarises some of the key information that you need to know to be able to answer the examination questions with a high degree of accuracy and depth. In particular, the meaning of key terms is made clear and some attention is paid to providing details of case study material to help meet the spatial context requirement within the specification.

this includes some sample questions similar in style to those you might expect in the exam. There are some sample student responses to these questions as well as detailed analysis, which will give further guidance on what exam markers are looking for to award top marks.

The best way to use this book is to read through the relevant topic area first before practising the questions. Only refer to the answers and examiner comments after you have attempted the questions.

This section outlines the following areas of the A-level geography specifications:

Read through the topic area before attempting a question from the Questions & Answers section.

Water is essential to life on Earth. It is important that we understand its global circulation and distribution, as well as the human demands on it. It is a scarce resource, and therefore its use needs to be carefully managed. Failure to do so promises water insecurity.

The global hydrological cycle is the circulation of water around the Earth. It is a closed system of linked processes so there are no external inputs or outputs. For this reason, the amount of global water is finite and constant. The only thing that does change is the state in which the water exists (liquid, vapour or ice). The proportions of global water held in each state vary over time with changes in climate.

The power that drives the global hydrological cycle comes from two sources: