IGCSE Geography / Geographical skills
Photographs, satellite images and GIS revision notes
Edexcel International GCSE Geography (4GE1), chapter 11: Geographical skills, specification point G2, G5, G3. Free lesson.
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Photographs, satellite images and GIS help you interpret places from visual evidence and mapped data. Knowing what each image shows best, and how to combine map layers, helps you answer geographical skills questions.
What each kind of image shows best
The same place can look very different depending on where the image is taken from. Choose the image type that best shows the feature you need to describe. Ground photograph: taken at eye level. It shows detail, such as building materials, but nearby objects can hide distant ones. Oblique aerial photograph: taken from the air at an angle. It shows the shape of the land and the sides of buildings. Vertical aerial photograph: taken from straight above. It looks like a map, so you can compare sizes and distances, but height is hard to judge. Satellite image: taken from space. It…
How to use evidence from a photograph
A photograph question rewards evidence you can point to, followed by what that evidence suggests. A guess without evidence does not earn marks. For example, instead of writing only that an area floods a lot, identify that houses are built on stilts. This visible feature suggests that the area floods. The evidence earns one mark and the explanation of what it suggests earns another.
How to label, annotate and make a field sketch
The command word tells you how much to write. A label names a feature, while an annotation names it and explains something about it. For a river bend, a label could be “river cliff”. An annotation could be “river cliff: undercut by erosion on the outside of the bend”. A field sketch is a simple outline drawing of a view, made on site. Give it a title and the direction you faced, then add annotations.
How to find the direction a photograph faces
Match features visible in both the photograph and the map to work out where the camera was and which way it faced. On a map, north is at the top.
How GIS and census data help planners
A GIS (geographic information system) is software that stores geospatial data, meaning data with a location, as layers over a base map. You can switch layers on or off and compare where they overlap. Planners can put a flood zone layer over a homes layer to see which homes are at risk, then avoid new building in those places. Putting past earthquakes over population density shows where most people are at risk. Comparing land-use layers from different years shows how far a city has spread. Population figures for small areas can be shaded onto a map. They usually come from a census, an…