GCSE Geography Paper 4
Covers Tectonic Hazards, Weather Hazards, Climate Change and 9 more.
Questions
Question 1 [1 marks]
Ecosystems and Biomes
Name one producer that might be found in a UK pond ecosystem.
Question 2 [1 marks]
Tectonic Hazards
Name the type of plate boundary found along the San Andreas Fault in California.
Question 3 [1 marks]
Climate Change
Name one piece of evidence scientists use to study the Earth's climate from thousands of years before instrumental records began.
Question 4 [2 marks]
Geographical Skills
A campsite has a six-figure grid reference of 462 718.
State the four-figure grid reference of the square it lies in, and state whether the campsite is nearer the western or eastern edge of that square.
Question 5 [2 marks]
Resource Management
State two reasons why global demand for food is increasing.
Question 6 [3 marks]
Urban Growth and Regeneration
State three features of a sustainable urban settlement.
Question 7 [3 marks]
Coastal Landscapes and Processes
Explain one reason why a headland and bay coastline forms where bands of resistant and less resistant rock meet the sea at right angles to the coast.
Question 8 [4 marks]
Weather Hazards
A reservoir supplying a drought-affected region held 420 million litres of water at the start of a dry summer.
Over 90 days, the region used water at an average rate of 4 million litres per day and received no significant rainfall. Calculate how many litres of water were left in the reservoir at the end of the 90 days.
Question 9 [4 marks]
Development and the Changing Economic World
Country X has a life expectancy of 58 years and an adult literacy rate of 61%.
Country Y has a life expectancy of 81 years and an adult literacy rate of 99%.
Using only this data, calculate the difference in life expectancy between the two countries, then state which country has the higher level of development, and explain why using two indicators together gives a more reliable picture of development than using just one.
Question 10 [5 marks]
River Landscapes and Processes
Explain how an ox-bow lake forms from a meander.
Question 11 [5 marks]
Development in Extreme Environments
A region of hot desert had 210,000 hectares of grazing land in 2000. By 2020, desertification had reduced this to 147,000 hectares.
Calculate the percentage decrease in grazing land between 2000 and 2020, then calculate the average annual rate of loss in hectares per year.
Question 12 [5 marks]
Glacial Landscapes and Processes
Explain the formation of a corrie (cirque).
Question 13 [6 marks]
River Landscapes and Processes
Compare the causes and effectiveness of a hard engineering flood management scheme with a soft engineering flood management scheme, both on rivers you have studied.
Question 14 [6 marks]
Development and the Changing Economic World
Country V received 220 million US dollars in international aid last year, of which an independent audit found only 132 million US dollars was spent on its intended development projects, with the rest lost to administration costs and corruption.
Calculate the percentage of the aid that reached its intended projects, then evaluate the implications of this finding for how effective aid is as a development strategy.
Question 15 [6 marks]
Resource Management
For a named example of fracking (shale gas extraction) you have studied, evaluate whether it is a sustainable way of increasing a country's energy supply.
Question 16 [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.
Model solutions
| Question 1[1 mark] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| a valid producer, e.g. pondweed or algae | B1 |
| Final answer: Any valid producer, e.g. pondweed or algae | |
| Question 2[1 mark] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| conservative (transform) plate boundary | B1 |
| Question 3[1 mark] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| a valid source of evidence, e.g. ice cores (or tree rings/pollen analysis) | B1 |
| Final answer: Any valid source, e.g. ice cores, tree rings, or pollen analysis | |
| Question 4[2 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| 4671 | B1 |
| nearer the western edge, because the easting digit of 2 is low, close to the left-hand grid line | B1 |
| Final answer: 4671; nearer the western edge of the square | |
| Question 5[2 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| one valid reason, e.g. the global population is rising | B1 |
| a second valid reason, e.g. rising incomes are increasing demand for more varied or higher-quality diets | B1 |
| Final answer: Any two of: rising global population, rising incomes changing diets, urbanisation reducing local food production | |
| Question 6[3 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying a valid feature, e.g. good public transport reducing car use | B1 |
| identifying a second valid feature, e.g. accessible green space for residents | B1 |
| identifying a third valid feature, e.g. energy-efficient buildings, effective recycling schemes, or affordable housing | B1 |
| Final answer: Any three of: good public transport, accessible green space, energy-efficient buildings or renewable energy use, effective recycling/waste schemes, affordable housing | |
| Question 7[3 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying that the less resistant rock is eroded more quickly than the resistant rock | B1 |
| developing this, e.g. waves and processes such as hydraulic action wear away the weaker rock faster, leaving it set back as a bay | B1 |
| a valid concluding link, e.g. the resistant rock remains, protruding out into the sea as a headland | B1 |
| Final answer: Less resistant rock is eroded faster than resistant rock by processes such as hydraulic action, so it is worn back into a bay while the resistant rock remains, protruding as a headland | |
| Question 8[4 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| finding the total used, 4 x 90 | M1 |
| 360 million litres used | A1 |
| subtracting this from the starting volume, 420 - 360 | M1 |
| 60 million litres remaining | A1 |
| Question 9[4 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| subtracting the two life expectancies, 81 - 58 | M1 |
| a difference of 23 years | A1 |
| correctly identifying Country Y as more developed, with reference to both indicators being higher | B1 |
| noting that using two indicators together gives a more reliable picture of development than either alone | B1 |
| Final answer: A difference of 23 years; Country Y has the higher level of development | |
| Question 10[5 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying that erosion on the outer bends of adjacent meanders makes the neck of land between them narrower over time | B1 |
| developing this, e.g. often during a flood, when the river has more energy, it breaks through the narrow neck and takes the shorter, straighter route | B1 |
| identifying that deposition then seals off the entrance to the old meander bend | B1 |
| developing this, e.g. leaving the old bend isolated from the main channel as a curved, standalone lake | B1 |
| correctly naming the resulting landform, an ox-bow lake | B1 |
| Final answer: Erosion narrows the neck of land between adjacent meander bends until the river breaks through, often during a flood, taking a shorter, straighter route; deposition then seals off the old bend, leaving it isolated as a curved ox-bow lake | |
| Question 11[5 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| finding the decrease, 210,000 - 147,000 = 63,000 | M1 |
| setting up the percentage calculation, (63,000 / 210,000) x 100 | M1 |
| 30% decrease | A1 |
| dividing the decrease by 20 years, 63,000 / 20 | M1 |
| 3150 hectares per year | A1 |
| Final answer: 30% decrease; an average loss of 3150 hectares per year | |
| Question 12[5 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| identifying that snow accumulates in a north-facing hollow and compresses into ice | B1 |
| identifying rotational movement of the ice within the hollow | B1 |
| explaining that plucking steepens the back wall of the hollow | B1 |
| explaining that abrasion deepens the floor of the hollow | B1 |
| naming a UK example of a corrie, e.g. Red Tarn on Helvellyn, or Cwm Idwal in Snowdonia | B1 |
| Final answer: Ice accumulates in a hollow and moves with a rotational motion; plucking steepens the back wall and abrasion deepens the floor, leaving an armchair-shaped hollow once the ice melts | |
| Question 13[6 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| Names and locates a hard engineering scheme studied, e.g. a flood relief channel or embankments on a named river (1 mark) | 1 |
| Names and locates a soft engineering scheme studied, e.g. river restoration or floodplain zoning on a named river (1 mark) | 1 |
| Explains how the hard engineering scheme reduces flood risk (1 mark) | 1 |
| Explains how the soft engineering scheme reduces flood risk (1 mark) | 1 |
| Compares their relative cost, speed of protection, or environmental impact (1 mark) | 1 |
| Reaches a supported overall judgement on which scheme has been more effective (1 mark) | 1 |
| Final answer: A named hard scheme and a named soft scheme with explained mechanisms, a compared cost or impact, and a supported judgement on which was more effective | |
| Question 14[6 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| setting up the percentage calculation, (132 / 220) x 100 | M1 |
| 60% | A1 |
| a valid implication, e.g. a large share, 40%, of the aid did not reach its intended purpose, reducing its real impact on development | B1 |
| a second valid implication, e.g. donor countries or organisations may become less willing to give aid in future if a high proportion is lost this way | B1 |
| a valid counterpoint, e.g. even 60% reaching its target may still fund significant development projects, and not all aid or all countries experience losses this large | B1 |
| a supported overall judgement on how effective aid is likely to be as a development strategy given this finding | B1 |
| Final answer: 60%; this means 40% of the aid did not reach its intended purpose, which reduces its development impact and could make donors less willing to give in future, though the remaining 60% may still fund significant projects and this scale of loss is not true of all aid or all countries | |
| Question 15[6 marks] | |
|---|---|
| Answer or working | Marks |
| Names and locates the fracking site or area studied (1 mark) | 1 |
| Describes a benefit of fracking as an energy source, e.g. it uses domestic reserves, reducing reliance on imported gas (1 mark) | 1 |
| Describes a second benefit, e.g. it can create local jobs and tax revenue (1 mark) | 1 |
| Describes an environmental or social cost, e.g. risk of groundwater contamination, minor earthquakes, or local opposition (1 mark) | 1 |
| Explains why this cost makes fracking less sustainable long-term, e.g. gas remains a fossil fuel that still produces carbon dioxide when burned (1 mark) | 1 |
| Reaches a supported overall judgement on whether fracking is a sustainable way to increase energy supply (1 mark) | 1 |
| Final answer: A named fracking site with two described benefits, a described cost and its long-term implication, and a supported judgement on sustainability | |
| Question 16[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 | |