IGCSE Geography / River environments
Long profile and cross profiles
Edexcel International GCSE Geography (4GE1), chapter 1: River environments, specification point 1.2b, 1.S2. Part of the full course.
Read the revision notes · IGCSE Geography past papers
A river’s long profile shows how its height changes from source to mouth, while cross profiles show how the valley’s shape changes along its course. Both profiles are affected by the river’s gradient, erosion and the type of rock beneath it.
More lessons in River environments
- The hydrological cycle: a closed system and its stores
- Transfers in the hydrological cycle
- Drainage basins and their features
- River regimes and what controls them
- Storm hydrographs
- How rivers erode
- Weathering and mass movement in river valleys
- How rivers carry and drop their load
- How a river changes downstream
- V-shaped valleys, interlocking spurs and waterfalls
- Meanders and oxbow lakes
- Flood plains and levees
- Case study: the River Tay from source to mouth
- Water: uses, rising demand and supply
- Water quality and pollution
- Storing and supplying clean water
- Case study: river management in Spain
- Case study: river management in China
- Case study: managing the Blue Nile in Ethiopia
- Why rivers flood
- Predicting and preventing river floods
- River fieldwork: collecting the data
- River fieldwork: results, conclusions and evaluation