Main Focus

• The landforms associated with river channels, river valleys and drainage basins and the processes that form them.
• The causes and effects of river floods and how people respond to and try to control the flood hazard.

Secondary Focus

• Geographical patterns in relation to physical and human processes.
• The issues that arise from people’s interaction with their environment.
• How places are interdependent, and how they may be affected by processes operating at different scales — for example, how a locality is affected by a regional economic policy.
• The causes and effects of migration.
• How population and resources are interrelated.
• Types and patterns of urban land use, how conflicts can arise over the use of land, and how they can be addressed.
• Different paths of development and their effect on the quality of life of different groups of people.
• How conflicting demands on the land can arise.
• How attempts are made to plan and manage areas of natural beauty or ecological importance, and how these can have unintended effects.
• Provision of a reliable supply of energy, and the effect on the environment of the development of different energy sources.

GCSE

Main Focus

• Understand the significance and effects of the different ways in which decisions are made about the use and management of environments.

Secondary Focus

• Acquire knowledge and understanding of a range of places, environments, spatial patterns and distributions at a range of scales from local to global, and understand the physical and human processes that affect their development.
• 'Develop a sense of place and appreciate a sensitive awareness of the environment; the significance of the attitudes and values of decision-makers in the management of the environment and human activities on the planet earth and an empathy with people in our own and other societies through an awareness of the contrasting opportunities and constraints facing people living in different places under different physical and human conditions.'
• Develop awareness of the ways in which people interact with their environments, and appreciate the opportunities, challenges and constraints that face people in different places.

• Managing Natural Environments: landscape systems; drainage basin systems; people and ecosystems; causes, effects and consequences of hazardous natural events and human responses to them.
• The Impact of Economic Change: changes in the location of economic activity; economic growth and decline.

Scotland: Standard Grade

Intermediate Geography

• People and the Environment (Global Issues): development and health; environmental hazards.

Higher Geography

• Atmosphere: climatic maps, diagrams and graphs.
• Hydrosphere: interpretation of river flow data.
• Lithosphere: main landscape features.
• Population geography: population data; migration.
• Rural geography: land use data and crop yields.
• Industrial geography: old and new industries; employment surveys.
• Urban geography: land use; spheres of influence.
• Applications: rural land resources; rural land degradation; river basin management; urban change and its management.