Contour Interpretation, Cross-Section Construction, and Relief Analysis
Students will learn to identify hills and valleys on simple maps using shading or basic height indicators.
Key Questions
- Construct accurately scaled topographic cross-sectional profiles from 1:50,000 OS map extracts and use them to analyse the relationships between relief, geology, drainage patterns, and land-use distribution across a named Irish landscape.
- Calculate gradient values from contour data and apply drainage basin morphometric analysis — including drainage density, basin shape index, and relief ratio — to assess how catchment characteristics determine flood hydrograph response characteristics for Irish river systems.
- Evaluate how the topographic signatures of glacial, periglacial, and fluvial processes — including corrie lakes, U-shaped valleys, drumlins, eskers, and river terraces — can be systematically identified and interpreted from OS map evidence as a tool for reconstructing Quaternary landscape history.
NCCA Curriculum Specifications
Suggested Methodologies
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