The Long Profile of a River

The long profile of a river Student task 1

Working with another student, place these six photographs in order from the source to the mouth of a river. What are the reasons for your choices? Share your ideas with another pair

Student task 2

Sort the river characteristics cards into three piles – the upper, middle and lower sections of a river.

Wide river. Wet and boggy valley. Very flat floodplain.

Used for arable and Area of high altitude and Waterfall. pastoral farming. Towns rainfall. also built here.

Small streams. No power for erosion. Very wide river.

Area of warmer Small sized bedload – Ox bow lake. temperatures and less very fine silt and mud. rain.

Steep ‘V’ shaped valley Large cities and big Large sized bedload; becoming a flat valley factories built on the rocks have started to with a flood plain and marshy flat land. become smooth. meanders.

Area used for hill sheep Lateral erosion from side Vertical erosion cuts farming and tourism. to side. downwards.

Large bridges across the Lots of energy for Medium sized bedload – river are important to erosion. rocks smooth. industry.

Teaching notes

Additional resource Statements can be used in conjunction with video clips from the Channel 4 Clipbank or the BBC Learning zone websites etc. Students could then check their statements after each relevant section of the video clip.

Extension tasks  Draw a labelled diagram of a river long profile  Write a story or a cartoon of a water droplet travelling from the source to the mouth of the river  Choose one major river and research the upper, middle and lower parts of the long profile. Present your work as a series of labelled photographs. This could be done using images captured from Google Earth or maps to show the river at the different stages of the long profile.

Answers Upper  Wet and boggy valley  High altitude and high rainfall  Small streams  Vertical erosion - Erosion cuts downwards  Lots of energy for erosion  Large bedload where the rocks have started to become smooth  Used for hill sheep farming and tourism

Middle  Waterfall  Wider river  Ox bow lake  Used for arable and pastoral farming. Towns also built here.  Steep V shape valley leading to a flat valley with a flood plain and meanders  Erosion is lateral, from side to side  Medium sized bedload – rocks smooth

Lower  Very flat floodplain  No power for erosion  Very wide river  Warmer temperatures and less rain  Small bedload – very fine silt and mud  Large cities and big factories built on the marshy flat land.  Large bridges across the river important to industry

Image credits © 2009 John Seb Barber, http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnseb/5935807453/ © 2004 Phil Whitehouse, http://www.flickr.com/photos/philliecasablanca/2051945007/ © 2008 ben-benjamin, http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaminjamin/4389746216/ © 2010 eutrophication&hypoxia http://www.flickr.com/photos/48722974@N07/4562778707/ © 2007 Ragrawal, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall © 2006 Maciej Lewandowski, http://www.flickr.com/photos/macieklew/176146765/