GCSE Geography Paper 3
Covers Tectonic Hazards, Weather Hazards, Climate Change and 9 more.
Questions
Question 1 [1 marks]
Glacial Landscapes and Processes
Name the process by which rocks frozen into the base and sides of a glacier scratch and scrape the bedrock.
Question 2 [1 marks]
Urban Growth and Regeneration
Name the term used to describe a town or city's tendency to be warmer than the surrounding rural area, especially at night.
Question 3 [2 marks]
River Landscapes and Processes
State two characteristics of a river's upper course.
Question 4 [3 marks]
Coastal Landscapes and Processes
State three landforms of coastal deposition.
Question 5 [3 marks]
Climate Change
State three possible impacts of climate change on human activity.
Question 6 [3 marks]
Ecosystems and Biomes
A small pond ecosystem in a school field in Yorkshire contains pondweed, tadpoles, small fish and herons.
Explain how removing the small fish from this ecosystem could affect the rest of the food web.
Question 7 [3 marks]
Weather Hazards
A storm brought the following rainfall totals to three towns in southwest England over 24 hours:
Combe Hollow: 88mm Fenwick Bay: 61mm Aldercombe: 105mm
Calculate the mean rainfall total for the three towns, giving your answer to 1 decimal place.
Question 8 [5 marks]
Development in Extreme Environments
Explain two reasons why road building can cause environmental damage in a tropical rainforest.
Question 9 [5 marks]
Development and the Changing Economic World
A charity-run water project cost 180,000 US dollars and provided clean water access to 12,000 people in a rural area. A separate national government dam project cost 90 million US dollars and provided clean water access to 2.4 million people.
Calculate the cost per person reached by each project, then state which project reached people more cheaply.
Question 10 [5 marks]
Tectonic Hazards
A city has a population of 850,000. A hazard assessment estimates that 34,000 residents live within the zone most at risk from lahars (volcanic mudflows).
Calculate the percentage of the city's population living within the highest-risk zone, then state whether this is a small or large share of the total population, and give a reason for a hazard planning strategy that follows from this.
Question 11 [5 marks]
Geographical Skills
Explain two limitations of using a questionnaire to collect data on residents' opinions of a proposed urban regeneration scheme.
Question 12 [6 marks]
Resource Management
A country produces enough food to meet 62% of its own population's needs, importing the rest. Its population is 45 million.
Calculate how many million people's worth of food the country must import to meet total demand, then evaluate the risks associated with this level of food import dependence, and suggest one way the risk could be reduced.
Question 13 [6 marks]
Development and the Changing Economic World
Country W's total exports were worth 18 billion US dollars in one year, of which 13.5 billion US dollars came from a single commodity, coffee.
Calculate coffee as a percentage of Country W's total export earnings, then evaluate the risk this level of dependence poses to the country's economy, and suggest one way the risk could be reduced.
Question 14 [6 marks]
Coastal Landscapes and Processes
For a stretch of UK coastline you have studied, assess the extent to which rising sea levels are likely to increase the risk it faces in the future.
Question 15 [6 marks]
Development in Extreme Environments
For a hot desert environment you have studied, evaluate the opportunities and challenges that mineral extraction creates for the local population.
Model solutions
| Question 1[1 mark] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| abrasion | B1 |
| Question 2[1 mark] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| the urban heat island (effect) | B1 |
| Question 3[2 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| one valid characteristic, e.g. a steep gradient | B1 |
| a second valid characteristic, e.g. a narrow, shallow channel, or a V-shaped valley | B1 |
| Final answer: Any two of: steep gradient, narrow/shallow channel, V-shaped valley, large angular boulders on the bed | |
| Question 4[3 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying a valid landform, e.g. a beach | B1 |
| identifying a second valid landform, e.g. a spit or a bar | B1 |
| identifying a third valid landform, different from the first two, e.g. a tombolo or a sand dune | B1 |
| Final answer: Any three of: beach, spit, bar, tombolo, sand dune | |
| Question 5[3 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying a valid impact, e.g. reduced crop yields from changing rainfall or heat | B1 |
| identifying a second valid impact, e.g. increased coastal flood risk from rising sea levels | B1 |
| identifying a third valid impact, e.g. more frequent heatwaves affecting health, or migration of climate refugees | B1 |
| Final answer: Any three of: reduced crop yields from changing rainfall or heat, increased coastal flood risk from rising sea levels, more frequent heatwaves affecting health, spread of disease into new areas, migration of climate refugees | |
| Question 6[3 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying an immediate change, e.g. tadpole numbers would increase because a predator has been removed | B1 |
| a knock-on effect, e.g. more tadpoles means more pondweed is eaten, so pondweed declines | B1 |
| a further consequence, e.g. herons have less food available, so heron numbers may fall or they move elsewhere | B1 |
| Final answer: Removing a link causes knock-on changes through the food web, e.g. tadpole numbers rise, pondweed is grazed more, herons lose a food source | |
| Question 7[3 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| adding the three totals, 88 + 61 + 105 = 254 | M1 |
| dividing the total by 3 | M1 |
| 84.7mm | A1 |
| Question 8[5 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying that clearing a route for a road directly removes a strip of forest and habitat | B1 |
| developing this, e.g. fragmenting the remaining forest into smaller, isolated patches that are harder for wide-ranging species to move between | B1 |
| identifying that roads make previously inaccessible areas of forest easier to reach | B1 |
| developing this, e.g. opening the way for further illegal logging, mining or settlement along the route | B1 |
| a valid concluding link, e.g. so the damage caused by a road often extends far beyond the land the road itself occupies | B1 |
| Final answer: Clearing a road route removes habitat directly and fragments the remaining forest into smaller, isolated patches; roads also make previously inaccessible forest easier to reach, opening the way for further illegal logging, mining or settlement, so the damage extends well beyond the road itself | |
| Question 9[5 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| the charity project, 180,000 / 12,000 | M1 |
| 15 US dollars per person | A1 |
| the government project, 90,000,000 / 2,400,000 | M1 |
| 37.50 US dollars per person | A1 |
| correctly stating the charity project reached people more cheaply, at 15 US dollars per person compared with 37.50 US dollars per person | B1 |
| Final answer: Charity project = 15 US dollars per person; government project = 37.50 US dollars per person; the charity project reached people more cheaply | |
| Question 10[5 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| setting up the percentage calculation, (34,000 / 850,000) x 100 | M1 |
| 4% | A1 |
| stating this is a small proportion of the total population | B1 |
| a valid reason, e.g. although the number at risk is large in absolute terms, it is a small fraction of the whole city | B1 |
| a valid planning implication, e.g. hazard mitigation resources should be targeted at the highest-risk zone rather than spread across the whole city | B1 |
| Final answer: 4%; a small proportion of the total population, so hazard mitigation resources should be targeted at the highest-risk zone rather than spread across the whole city | |
| Question 11[5 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying that people may not answer honestly, e.g. giving the answer they think the researcher wants to hear | B1 |
| developing this, e.g. this could make the results seem more positive or negative than residents' genuine opinions | B1 |
| identifying that it can be difficult to get a large or representative sample of responses, if some groups are less willing to respond than others | B1 |
| developing this, e.g. this could mean the results overrepresent the opinions of the groups who did respond, rather than the whole community | B1 |
| a valid concluding link, e.g. both limitations mean questionnaire results should be interpreted with some caution rather than treated as fully representative | B1 |
| Final answer: Respondents may not answer honestly, e.g. giving an answer they think is expected, skewing the apparent balance of opinion; and it can be hard to get a large or representative sample if some groups are less willing to respond, overrepresenting those who did, so results should be interpreted with some caution | |
| Question 12[6 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| finding the imported share of demand, 100% - 62% = 38% | M1 |
| finding 38% of the population, 0.38 x 45 | M1 |
| 17.1 million people's worth of food | A1 |
| a valid risk, e.g. the country is vulnerable to global food price rises it cannot control | B1 |
| a second valid risk, e.g. a disruption to trade routes or a poor harvest in an exporting country could threaten food security | B1 |
| a valid strategy to reduce the risk, e.g. investing in domestic agricultural technology to increase domestic food production | B1 |
| Final answer: 17.1 million people's worth of food must be imported; this level of dependence risks exposure to global price rises and supply disruptions, which increasing domestic production could help to reduce | |
| Question 13[6 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| setting up the percentage calculation, (13.5 / 18) x 100 | M1 |
| 75% | A1 |
| identifying that this is a very high level of dependence on a single commodity | B1 |
| a valid risk, e.g. a fall in the world price of coffee, or a poor harvest, would severely damage the country's export earnings | B1 |
| a second valid risk, e.g. the country has little influence over the world price it is paid, unlike the manufacturers who process and sell the finished product | B1 |
| a valid strategy to reduce the risk, e.g. diversifying into manufacturing or other export commodities to spread the risk | B1 |
| Final answer: 75%; this very high dependence on one commodity leaves the economy highly exposed to price falls or poor harvests, which diversifying exports could help to reduce | |
| Question 14[6 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| Names and locates the stretch of UK coastline studied (1 mark) | 1 |
| Describes the current level of risk the coastline faces, e.g. from erosion or flooding (1 mark) | 1 |
| Explains how rising sea levels could increase this risk, e.g. higher water levels allow waves to reach further up the beach or cliff, increasing erosion or flood frequency (1 mark) | 1 |
| Describes a management response that could help, e.g. managed retreat or upgraded coastal defences (1 mark) | 1 |
| Evaluates a limitation of this response, e.g. its high cost or that it may only delay rather than prevent the problem (1 mark) | 1 |
| Reaches a supported overall judgement on how serious the future risk is likely to be (1 mark) | 1 |
| Final answer: A named coastline with its current risk, an explained sea-level-rise effect, a management response and its limitation, and a supported judgement on the future risk | |
| Question 15[6 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| Names and locates the hot desert environment and mineral extraction activity studied (1 mark) | 1 |
| Describes an economic opportunity created, e.g. jobs in the mining industry or associated infrastructure (1 mark) | 1 |
| Describes a second opportunity, e.g. investment in local roads, schools or water supply funded by mining revenue (1 mark) | 1 |
| Describes a challenge or cost created, e.g. water used by the mining operation reduces the supply available to local communities and farming (1 mark) | 1 |
| Describes a second challenge, e.g. pollution or damage to fragile desert ecosystems from the extraction process (1 mark) | 1 |
| Reaches a supported overall judgement on whether the opportunities outweigh the challenges for the local population (1 mark) | 1 |
| Final answer: A named desert and mineral extraction activity with two described opportunities, two described challenges and a supported overall judgement | |