HOME | Coastal systems and landscapes (Autumn 1) | Impact of sea-level change on the coastal landscape
Impact of sea-level change on the coastal landscape
Online Lesson | 18 Sep 2026 | Start: 16:00 | DURATION: 2 HOURS Specification content
3.1.3.3 Coastal landscape development
- This content must include study of a variety of landscapes from beyond the United Kingdom (UK) but may also include UK examples.
- Eustatic, isostatic and tectonic sea level change: major changes in sea level in the last 10,000 years.
- Coastlines of emergence and submergence. Origin and development of associated landforms: raised beaches, marine platforms; rias, fjords, Dalmatian coasts.
- Recent and predicted climatic change and potential impact on coasts.
- The relationship between process, time, landforms and landscapes in coastal settings.
3.1.1 Water and carbon cycles
3.1.1.4 Water, carbon, climate and life on Earth
The key role of the carbon and water stores and cycles in supporting life on Earth with particular reference to climate. The relationship between the water cycle and carbon cycle in the atmosphere. The role of feedbacks within and between cycles and their link to climate change and implications for life on Earth.
3.1.5 Hazards
3.1.5.2 Plate tectonics
Destructive, constructive and conservative plate margins. Characteristic processes: seismicity and vulcanicity. Associated landforms: young fold mountains, rift valleys, ocean ridges, deep sea trenches and island arcs, volcanoes.
Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:
- The characteristics of coastlines of emergence and the associated landforms.
- The characteristics of coastlines of submergence and the associated landforms.
- How climate change might affect coastlines in the future and alternative futures in landscape development.
- The impact of sea-level rise on coastal communities and the natural environment.
Suggested timing
2 hours
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Course Module: Coastal systems and landscapes (Autumn 1) | Lesson Impact of sea-level change on the coastal landscape:
Online Lesson | 18 Sep 2026 | Start: 16:00 | DURATION: 2 HOURS Specification content
3.1.3.3 Coastal landscape development
- This content must include study of a variety of landscapes from beyond the United Kingdom (UK) but may also include UK examples.
- Eustatic, isostatic and tectonic sea level change: major changes in sea level in the last 10,000 years.
- Coastlines of emergence and submergence. Origin and development of associated landforms: raised beaches, marine platforms; rias, fjords, Dalmatian coasts.
- Recent and predicted climatic change and potential impact on coasts.
- The relationship between process, time, landforms and landscapes in coastal settings.
3.1.1 Water and carbon cycles
3.1.1.4 Water, carbon, climate and life on Earth
The key role of the carbon and water stores and cycles in supporting life on Earth with particular reference to climate. The relationship between the water cycle and carbon cycle in the atmosphere. The role of feedbacks within and between cycles and their link to climate change and implications for life on Earth.
3.1.5 Hazards
3.1.5.2 Plate tectonics
Destructive, constructive and conservative plate margins. Characteristic processes: seismicity and vulcanicity. Associated landforms: young fold mountains, rift valleys, ocean ridges, deep sea trenches and island arcs, volcanoes.
Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:
- The characteristics of coastlines of emergence and the associated landforms.
- The characteristics of coastlines of submergence and the associated landforms.
- How climate change might affect coastlines in the future and alternative futures in landscape development.
- The impact of sea-level rise on coastal communities and the natural environment.
Suggested timing
2 hours
Related Lessons
Geomorphological coastal processes
Online Lesson | 09 Sep 2026 | Start: 18:00 | DURATION: 2 HOURS Specification content
3.1.3.2 Systems and processes
- Geomorphological processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transportation and deposition.
- Distinctively coastal processes: marine: erosion - hydraulic action, wave quarrying, corrasion/abrasion, cavitation, solution, attrition; transportation: traction, suspension (longshore/littoral drift) and deposition; sub-aerial weathering, mass movement and runoff.
Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:
- How weathering, erosion, transportation and deposition processes form coastal landscapes.
- Different types of mass movement occur in coastal environments, changing the coastal landscape.
- How geomorphological processes work together to form coastal landscapes.
- Distinctive marine processes form coastal landscapes.
- Coastal landscapes are dynamic due to marine processes.
Suggested timing
2 hours
The movement of water
Online Lesson | 04 Sep 2026 | Start: 18:00 | DURATION: 2 HOURS Specification content
3.1.1.2 The water cycle
Processes driving change in the magnitude of these stores over time and space, including flows and transfers: evaporation, condensation, cloud formation, causes of precipitation and cryospheric processes - at hill slope, drainage basin and global scales with reference to varying timescales involved.
Learning outcomes
This lesson will help students to understand:
- That on Earth water exists in three forms: solid ice, liquid water and gaseous water vapor, and identify the factors that move water between these different states and stores.
- The idea of latent heat and energy in the context of evaporation and condensation, and how they relate to major atmospheric processes like cloud formation and precipitation.
- Different forms of precipitation in the UK and other areas of the world, such as the tropics.
- Cryospheric processes: concept of glacial and interglacial periods and the impact on the cryosphere.
- That the water cycle operates at different scales.
Suggested timing
2 hours