Geography Notes Physical

TRUST ACADEMY STUDY PACK
Introduction
GEOGRAPHY: Population and Settlement:
Settlement
 Refers to a structure where human beings reside.
 It may be made up of one or several dwellings.
 The term settlement is, however, commonly used to refer to several
dwellings.
 In Geography we study the form (shape) and function (purpose) of
settlements
 Site-this is the space or position occupied by a settlement.
 It is the land upon which a settlement is built.
 A settlement can be built upon a hill or on the slope of a hill or in a
valley.
 Settlements can also be described in terms of their location
/situation.
 Location/situation-this is the position of a settlement in relation to
its surroundings.
 For example a settlement can be located between mountains, at a
road junction or along a coastline.
 A settlement s location can also be described in relation with
other settlements.
 Settlements can also be described in terms of their size, structure
and function.
 Settlements can grow from being hamlets, to villages, then to
towns, to cities or even larger settlements known as conurbations
or megalopolis.
 As the village grows in size the range of activities within it
increases.
 In a town a there is a shift to non-agricultural activities thus
distinguishing it from a village.
 Urban sprawl-this is when two or more towns grow into each
other.
 The result of an urban sprawl is called a conurbation.
 A settlement s structure is known as its layout.
 The layout includes the settlement s transport network and land-
use.
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 A settlement s morphology-this is where a settlement s layout
is considered in terms of settlement s types of buildings, their
layout, age, type, and quality.
 Many settlements are described in their functions, hence the terms
like mining town, marketing center etc.
 Each settlement has a sphere of influence.
 Sphere of influence-is the area around the settlement which
depend on the town for various services.
 The sphere of influence can be determined length of the journey
between home and workplace of the settlement s workplaces or
the extent of the services for example newspaper distribution.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Population and Settlement:

Factors influencing the siting and location of settlements
 Several factors influence the location of settlements
 These can be divided into four:
 historical factors
 accessibility
 availability of resources; and
 human preferences and available technology
Historical Factors
 Include historical considerations including the desire to build

settlements on defensive grounds.
 Factors of legislation and land tenure also affect the position of
present settlement patterns and their locations.
 For example most settlements were located on higher ground
which was easier to defend.
 Higher ground also meant enemies could be seen while they were
still far off.
 This explains settlements like Great Zimbabwe, Khami and
Nyanga hill sites.
 In European settlements river bends and pronounced meanders
formed important settlements as they were favored as defensive
sites.
 Also European settlements often align themselves with the ancient
feudal systems of Europe.

 Much of the settlement in Zimbabwe especially in communal areas
are hugely influenced by the Land Apportionment Act of 1930.
 The linear settlement pattern often found in communal areas was a
result of planned and legislated land settlement patterns.
Accessibility
 The need to communicate with other areas for trade and travel
purposes is another important factor that influences settlement
patterns.
 Settlements are often located along transport routes and
communication lines.
 These may be roads, railway lines or water routes.
 Such settlements are also known as Nodal settlements
 Nodal settlements-these are settlements that converge along roads,
railway lines, water routes, mountain passes, gaps river
confluences and valleys.
 Nodal settlements are heavily influenced by communication
networks.
Availability of resources
Hwange is mostly a coal town.
 A lot of settlements are located near natural resources that are

necessary for people s livelihood.
 For example water, minerals, wood, fertile soil and grass.
 Water is a very important resource that attracts settlement.
 It is used for domestic/irrigation purposes, pastoral activities and in
some cases where the river is navigable, for transport purposes.
 Settlements also occur along springs.
 Settlements can also occur as a result of a combination of these
resources for example water and fertile lands for farming villages
and towns.
 Settlements can also be attracted by forests and mountain areas
where there is plentiful wood to be used as a fuel.
 Minerals such as asbestos have acted as a catalyst towards the
formation of towns like Zvishavane and coal in Hwange.

Human preferences and the influence of technology
 Most barriers that prevented settlements from being built in certain

areas have since been overcome.
 Settlements are now being built in areas previously marginalized.
 For example settlements are now being built even on steep slope
using landscaping.
 Settlements are now being planned according to human
preferences and desires.
 For example most land use patterns in resettlement areas are a
result of deliberate human planning more than anything else.
 Urban area settlements are always planned although spontaneous
settlements, which are usually illegal, often sprout out for example
Epworth and Hopely farm.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Classification of

settlements
 Settlements are generally classified as either rural or urban.

 Rural settlements are those settlements where mostly primary
activities occur.
 The majority of settlers in rural areas carry out primary activities in
order to earn their living.
 These include activities like mining, farming, fishing and forestry.
 The populations of these settlements often depend on the
surrounding land.
 As such settlements grow, they also increase the variety of
activities and may develop into urban settlements.
 An urban settlement is one which mainly carries out secondary and

tertiary functions.
 Examples of such functions include commerce, banking,
manufacturing and service provision businesses such as banking
and insurance.
 Urban settlements carry out a wider ranger of services when
compared to rural settlements

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Rural Settlements
in Zimbabwe
 Historic settlements were rural, as the populations were mainly

dependent on hunting, fishing and gathering fruits.
 Shelter was mostly basic and in the form of caves, tents made from
animal skins, huts made out of wood, leaves and grass.
 The development of farming brought with it the need for more
permanent settlements.
 The small nucleated settlements of the hunters and gatherers were
turned into more dispersed settlements as the farmers needed more
room for their fields, pastures and other farming operations.
 The Agrarian revolution which occurred in Europe in the 18th
century and spread to other countries led to the development of
isolated farm settlements.
 In Zimbabwe most commercial farms have nucleated settlements
as farming e.g. tobacco farming tends to be labour intensive.
 In rural areas especially communal lands the linear settlement
pattern tends to dominate.
 This is because people settle along rivers, mountain ranges, roads,
railway lines etc.
 Most communal areas are also have the nucleated settlement
patterns as homes are organized into kraals and people share
pastures and fields.
 Other settlement are also observed on a less frequent scale.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Rural settlement

patterns
Linear Pattern
 Consists of a line of huts or houses following a road, river, or

cultivated areas/fields.
 Such patterns can also develop along a watershed or a mountain
range.
 It should be pointed out that Zimbabwe s roads, especially the
major roads, are found on watersheds.

Radial Pattern
 This pattern usually develops at road junctions or nodal points.

 They radiate out from a central point like the spokes of a bicycle
wheel going outwards in all directions.
 These nodal points include rural service centers for example
District Council Offices or Growth Points.
Circular pattern
 Is a common pattern on desert nomadic camps, around dwalas,

volcanic hills or wells and watering holes in semi-arid areas.
 Some tribes e.g. The Kayapo in the Amazon Basin live in circular
villages for cultural reasons.
 They live in the outer houses and the central house is a meeting
place.
Nucleated/Compact
Settlements in rural areas can be nucleated/gathered around market

places, commercial farming areas or in camps.
Such settlements tend to be arranged in much the same manner as

electrons in an atom.
Dispersed and Haphazard Settlements patterns
 Settlements can also be dispersed especially in areas with fewer

resources that cannot support dense populations as people try to
give each other space to operate for example extensive farmers.
 This is also common pattern in commercial farming, communal
areas with ragged terrain and areas with poor soils.
 Haphazard settlement patterns can be dispersed or compact but
they usually do not conform to a recognizable shape showing a
lack of planning.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Quality of life in

rural areas in Zimbabwe
 More recently in Chiadzwa families had to be resettled as their

houses were on diamond fields.

 Several families had to be resettled and compensated when their
villages were submerged by the rising waters of the dam.
 The same disruption took place at the Osborne dam was built in
Manicaland.
 A massive resettlement program was undertaken to move the
people to higher ground.
 The construction of the Kariba Dam in the 1950s saw the
disruption of the Tonga People who were settled 5 200 square
kilometers.
 The Land Husbandry Act of the 1950s created a predominantly
linear settlement pattern that still exists to this day.
 Settlement patterns are also influenced by physical relief and
terrain as well as soil fertility.
 This is a result of past legislation as well as about availability and
access to resources for example water and land for cultivation and
pasture.
 Most of rural settlements tend to be nucleated or linear in
Zimbabwe.
 95% of the rural households used wood as the main source of fuel
for cooking.
 52% of the rural housing units had no access to a toilet or
sanitation facilities.
 63% of the rural housing units had access to safe drinking water.
 5% of rural housing units in the country had electricity.
 18% of the country s rural people lived in modern houses,
compared to 90% in urban areas.
 82% of the country s rural population lives in either traditional
structures, built out of pole and dagga with grass thatch, bricks
with grass thatch or mixed dwellings with one or more modern
structures with corrugated iron sheets, cement roofing or asbestos
roofing.
 According to the 1992 Census:
 do not have access to shops, clinics or schools.
 lack of access to safe drinking water,
 inadequate sanitation,
 as the lack of access to proper sanitation,
 Most of these squatter camps have problems such:
 Including plastics, card boards, poles, dagga, grass, old iron sheets
or whatever material the squatters can lay their hands on.

 They are usually build out of a combination of several building
materials
 These are especially common on commercial farms, mining
centres and some service areas e.g. District Council Offices.
 Squatter camps are also common in both rural and urban areas in
Zimbabwe.
 Fairly modern settlements built using brick and roofed with
asbestos, cement sheets or corrugated iron sheets are also now
common in most rural areas.
 In fact even if families build other houses round kitchens are a part
of every rural compound for cultural and practical reasons.
 Local poles and grass are still however used for thatching these
structures which are also usually round in shape betraying the fact
that they are influenced by the shape of the traditional pole and
dagga huts.
 Most of Zimbabwe s communal settlements have moved away
from the use of poles and dagga and now use fired bricks.
 Such traditional houses tend are still common although they are
slowly disappearing as people embrace the use of bricks and other
modern building materials.
 Traditional houses are round in shape, built of poles, dagga and
grass.
 In Zimbabwe traditional houses reflect the building materials
which are obtained from the surrounding environment.
 The quality of life in rural areas is greatly affected by the quality of
rural housing.
 According to the 2012 Census report 67% of Zimbabwe s
population lives in rural areas.
 Also over the past decade most commercial farms have been
subdivided into individual plots as people obtained land under the
Land Reform Act.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Urban

Settlements
The structure of Urban settlements
 This is the shape or form of urban areas in relation to land-use

models.

 The structure of urban settlements is also known as urban
morphology.
 Models are used to describe and explain the structure of cities.
 A model is a systematic description of an object in this case a
typical city.
 There are three urban land use models viz:
 The concentric model (1924) by Burgess
 The Sector Model (1939) by Hoyt
 The Multi-nuclei Model (1945) by Harris and Ullman
 These models attempt to describe what a typical town/city or urban
settlement looks like, how it came to be what it is (how it
developed over the years) and why
Factors that affect land use in urban areas
 The pattern of urban growth and land use depends on a number of

factors including:
 Communication- This includes roads, railway lines, telephone/fiber
lines etc. For example factories tend to be located along/near
railway lines and roads for them to receive raw materials easily
and ferry goods to the market. The Central Business District
(CBD) is at the center of towns and easily accessible from all sides
of town hence land tends to be expensive here. Only those
activities that can pay for this land are found in the CBD e.g.
Banks, Offices and Insurance businesses.
 The nature of the land for example whether it is gentle in terms of
terrain.
 The cost of the land. For example competition for land at the CBD
results in steep costs so only businesses that can pay for this land
our found there.
 The rent or rates payable. This is similar to the cost of the land.
 The position of the plots in relation to other settlements.
 The size of the piece of land. The smaller the land the larger the
size.
Types of Land uses in urban areas
 Land use i.e. what the land is used for in urban area differs with
each area.

 Although land uses are usually mixed for example some industries
can be found in residential areas land uses tend to be defined.
 Similar land uses attract each other and push other land uses out.
 For example if more and more industries locate in a
residential area more and more people will leave due to things like
pollution.
 Most areas have one dominant land use.
 There are different types of land uses in urban areas.
 These can be classified into:
 Industrial
 Commercial
 Residential
 In some areas these land uses may mix.
Historical developments of urban settlements
 Most modern towns in Africa and Europe are influenced by

industrialization
 As new factories were built large numbers of works migrated from
rural areas to towns.
 The large influx of people led to pressure on urban land and the
development of urban planning.
 Competition for land in the CBD led to a rise in its cost, rentals
and rates.
 Functions that could not afford this land were pushed out of the
city center to less expensive urban outskirts.
 Wealthy individuals also moved out of the CBD to escape
overcrowding and smoke from industries to the peripheral areas.
 They could build larger houses with gardens and recreational
parks.
 For example Borrowdale.
 Low income and unemployed migrates moved nearer to the places
of employment at the city center. For example Avenues houses and
flats and Mbare.
 Housing stands became smaller and smaller.
 Semi-detached housing and squatter camps became a common
feature in inner-city zones.
 For example Hopely farm.

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: The concentric
model/Burgess s model (1924)
 This is known alternatively as the concentric model, the ring model

for urban land use or Burgess model.
 It was formulated by Burgess and Park in 1924 after their studies
of the city of Chicago in the United States.
 Their study revealed that the city could be divided into a number of
concentric land-use zones :
 The Central Business District
 The Zone of transition
 The Zone of workingmen s houses
 The Zone of middle income or medium density housing
 The Commuter Zone
 The model assumes that the city grows from a single nucleus
(core) in concentric circles of distinct land uses.
 The city grows by urban ecology or expansion due to demand of
different goods and services.
 The city will continue to grow into surrounding rural areas.
The CBD
 It is the nucleus of the city

 All (communication) routes meet in this area.
 It has high rise buildings/skyscrapers.
 Rentals are normally high in this area.
 It has very few people and traffic during the night and high traffic
densities of people and traffic during the day.
 It is the commercial core where hotels, banks, specialized services,
theaters, departmental stores, finance houses and cinemas are
found.
Zone of transition
 It surrounds the CBD

 It has residential areas with poor housing.
 It has offices and light industries.
 It is characterized by industrial functions that require a lot of land.

 It infamous for its crimes and social problems for example
prostitution.
 It is characterized by transient population, migrant workers, the
poor, aged and unemployment.
 Examples are Mbare and Avenues.
Zone of workingmen s houses/Low class residential areas
 This is known as to the zone of workingmen s houses or low-

income residential zone
 This zone is found near heavy industries for example Highfield and
Glen Norah suburbs near Willowvale industries and Mbare and
Graniteside Industries.
 The density of houses per unit area is high
 The zone is characterized by high density suburbs with each house
located on a small plot of land.
 This area is occupied by factory works, single houses, small yards
and untarred roads.
Zone of middle income/medium density housing
 This is characterized by large houses,

 with gardens and broad tree-lined streets..
 A small commercial centre and
 greenbelts can be found within this zone.
 Social centers like pre-schools and schools can also be found in
this zone.
 Examples are Hillside and Cranborne suburbs in Harare.
Commuter zone
 Is located some distance away from the city center.

 People use commute to the CBD in order to get to work using
trains, cars and buses.
 The zone starts off with low density, high income residential areas,
 with large spaced houses and gardens.
 In some places market gardening may be practiced for example
Honey Dew farm in Greendale.
 They usually have a suburban shopping center for example Sam
Levy in Borrowdale and Kamphinsa in Greendale.

 The zone may also give way to larger farms supplying fresh fruits,
dairy products and vegetables to the town.
 Sometimes the farming zone may be interrupted by small
dormitory towns such as Chitungwiza.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Hoyt s Sector

model (1939)
 It was published as an alternative to Burgess and Park s

concentric model
 It was based on a study of 142 American cities.
Assumptions
 In making the model Hoyt made some assumptions

 The model assumes wealthy people who can afford the highest
rentals and rates chose the best sites.
 Wealthy residents can afford private cars or transportation thus
they live further from industry and near main roads.
 Similar land uses attract each other and repel other land uses.
 This process is referred to as sector development
 The city or town as a single CBD or core.
 People need to move from one area of the town to another.
The model
 According to Hoyt areas alongside main roads/communication

lines attract the highest rent and rates.
 The city grows in a series of wedges
 Land use follows transport routes from the CBD.
 Once a certain area has developed a distinctive land use or function
it tends to retain that land use as the city grows outwards
 Hoyt also identifies different residential zones in relation to
income, opportunity and class.
 Sectors thus replace the rings in Burgess and Park s model.
 This is because of unequal access as the city grows outwards along
major routes.
 Major routes attract manufacturing.

 Next to the industrial zone are low class worker s houses for
example Mbare and Leighton industries, Willowvale and
Highfields and Mbare and Graniteside.
 These houses are followed by middle class houses (Waterfalls next
to Mbare) and then high income houses.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Harris and

Ullman s Multi-nuclei model (1945)
They made their study well after the other two models had been
published and thus had the benefit of hindsight and cities had since
grown in size.
Findings
 They realized the fact that modern cities have a more complex
structure than described by the Concentric and Sector models
 Cities usually grow from several independent nuclei rather than or
in addition to the main CBD.
 These cores include sub-urban shopping centers in most modern
cities.
 Each of these nucleus acts as a point of growth and usually has
some of the functions found in the main CBD and other nuclei for
example it might have banks, shopping malls, supermarkets etc
 For example Sam Levy shopping center, Kamphinsa, Westgate,
Makoni shopping centers
 These centers grow with time to merge with each other to form one
large urban center.
 Harris and Ullman were able to study later urban settlements that
had satellite residential and industrial suburbs in their model.
 If the main city becomes too large and congested some functions
may disperse to form new nuclei.
 Multiple nuclei thus develop out of the need for quick access to the
center, to keep certain land uses apart and to decentralise.
 The city of Harare closely approximates this model with the main
large CBD at the center and various nuclei in the form of shopping
centers such as Borrowdale, Same Levy, Machipisa in Highfield,
Kamphinsa in Greendale, Westgate, Pendennis in Mt Pleasant etc.
 It also has satellite towns in Ruwa and Chitungwiza.

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Zimbabwe s
towns and Cities an Introduction
 An urban settlement in Zimbabwe is one whose population is more

than 2 500 or more with the majority of its workers (more than
50%) engaged in non-agricultural activities.
 It must have a compact settlement pattern
 This definition also, by custom, tends to omit Growth Points even
when they meet the definition.
 According to the 2012 census report 33% of the population in
Zimbabwe live in urban areas and 47% of the urban population
lives in Harare
 Most, if not all of Zimbabwe s towns are influenced by their
colonial heritage.
 Each town usually has a core/CBD
 An industrial zone e.g. Willowvale in Harare
 high density or low income residential zone e.g. Highfields in
Harare
 middle income residential zone (middle density suburb) e.g
Cranborne in Harare
 low density or high income residential zone e.g. Borrowdale in
Harare and
 sub-urban commercial centers e.g. Sam Levy and Westgate in
Harare
 Other cities have satellite towns around them for example Norton,
Chitungwiza and Ruwa around Harare
 There are very few large urban settlements in Zimbabwe
 As the number of settlements increases as their size decreases i.e.
there are multiple small urban centers.
 Most urban centers rose out of administrative centers for example
Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Bindura and Marondera act as
provincial administrative centers
 Some towns began as mining centers for example Hwange,
Zvishavane, Shurugwi, Kwekwe, Bindura, Kadoma and Gwanda.
 Some grew as service centers. For example some towns act as
agricultural service centers for surrounding farmlands e.g. Harare,
Gweru, Bulawayo, Mutare etc.
 A few towns grew as tourist/resort towns for example Victoria
Falls, Kariba and Masvingo.

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Transport:
Introduction
 -refers to the means by which goods and people are moved from
one point to another on the earth s surface.
Transport is an outcome of supply (production) and demand
(consumption).
 Goods or raw materials may be produced in one area while
consumers or manufacturers may be found in another area.
 Transport therefore acts as a link between the two.
 For example Cotton has to be transported from farms to the
weaving industries.
 The cloth then has to be transported to clothing industries where
they are turned into clothes.
 The clothes then have to be transported back to the customers.
 Also the spatial distribution of services such as homes and
workplaces creates the need for transport.
 For example people have to be ferried to and from work back to
their homes on a daily basis i.e. commuters.
 People also move to a from places of social and cultural activities.
 Transport is necessitated by distance.
 Wherever there is distance between two places, there will be need
for transport.
Factors affecting transport choice.
 The choice of transport that will be used between two points

depends on the following:
 The type of goods to be transported e.g. liquids can be carried by
pipeline or tankers
 The quantity of goods to be transported e.g. bulky or heavy goods
can be shipped or transported by rail while light goods can be
flown in.
 Quality for example perishables need to be transported quickly to
the market before they go bad.
 The number of people to transport.
 Human preference
 The cost of the type of transport
 Accessibility of the source and destination.
 Availability of roads, navigable river or railway lines to use.

 The affluence of the people involved.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Types of Transport
 Traditional
This refers to forms of transports that have been in use since
antiquity including:
 The human being (porter) i.e. walking, running, carrying goods on
their heads, shoulders or backs.
 Horses
 mules
 donkeys
 camels
 carts
 sledges
 rickshaws
 bicycles
 canoes
 Dhows.
Modern
 This refers to those forms of transport that have been brought

about by modern technological advancements.
 Vehicles for example cars,
 lorries
 tram cars
 buses,
 commuter omnibuses (kombis)
 trains
 ships
 planes
 pipelines
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Human

Beings/Porters
 Using human beings or porters for transport has the following

advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages

 It is cheap especially where small quantities of goods are involved.
 It is easy as there are no special requirements or laws.
 It is readily available.
 It is versatile i.e. humans can carry a variety of goods without the
need for adaptations
 Does not require special transport networks e.g. a railway line as
they can just use tracks.
 Can be used to reach remote areas and areas that are hard to access
using other means of transport e.g. mountainous regions.
Disadvantages
 There is a limit to the quantity of goods that a human being can

carry.
 Humans tire easily.
 It is a slow form of transport.
 Needs constant rest.
 Can cheat or steal.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Draught Power
Draught power
 Refers to the use of animals such as elephants, mules, donkeys,
camels and horses
Advantages
 It is cheap
 It is much more readily available
 Can scale steep terrain and reach inaccessible areas.
 Does not require special networks e.g. road/rail
Disadvantages
 Can only carry a limited amount of goods

 It is slow.
 It is not durable
 It can be inefficient and uncertain.

Advantages
 cheap
 clean
versatile
 simple and available technology which makes them easy to
manufacture and repair
 Usually they do not require route permits
Disadvantages
 They only carry a limited amount of goods/people

 Can cause traffic congestion or make it worse.
 They can be tiresome as they are powered by human energy.
 Slow
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Canoes and Dhows
 They are cheap

 clean
 They are versatile as they can carry a variety of goods
 They are simple to manufacture and repair.
Disadvantages
 Cannot carry large amounts of goods and passengers.

 They are very slow.
 They require navigable water bodies and canals.
 They may capsize causing death and/or injury/damage to goods
 Some of them are powered by human energy which can be taxing.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Motor vehicles
Advantages
 Is fast
 They are comfortable e.g. they have air conditioning and heating.
 They are protected from weather elements.
 They can conduct door to door deliveries.

 Independent i.e you can drive them to wherever you like whenever
you want as they do not have fixed time tables or route permits
Disadvantages
 They are expensive to buy and maintain

 They carry fewer passengers
 Most are not versatile e.g. there are kombis, trucks, vans, sedans
etc.
 They can cause fatal accidents.
 They pollute the environment.
 They create congestion
 They require roads.
 They require fuel which might make them expensive to operate
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Buses and Tram

cars
Advantages
 They are fast

 They are comfortable
 They are punctual
 They carry a lot of passengers at once.
 They are cheaper than other modern modes of transport.
 They have prescribed pick up and drop points (bus stops and
stations)
 The reduce traffic congestion
 They use cheaper fuels (i.e Diesel which is mistily cheaper than
petrol)
 Enjoy economies of scale.
Disadvantages
 They are less versatile
 Cannot provide door to door services.
 They are relatively slow.
 Require expensive good quality roads.
 Can cause fatal accidents.

 Cause air pollution
 Thefts can occur at bus stations
 Cannot access some remote areas e.g. some parts of the Eastern
Highlands were roads cannot be constructed.
 Touts who man these buses often cause havoc and chaos
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Trains and rail

transport
Advantages
 Is relatively cheap
 Caries bulk goods such as coal and unprocessed ores
 Carries large amounts of goods and
 Carries large amounts of passengers
 Can be very fast
 They are less prone to accidents
Disadvantages
 Does not provide door to door service.

 Cannot scale steep gradients e.g. Eastern Highlands
 Require railway lines which are expensive to construct.
 Restrictive e.g. trains in the SADC region may be unable to service
other countries as they use different railway gauges.
 Require special handling equipment to load and unload.
 Is not versatile as special trailers are required for some loads.
 Is relatively slower than other forms of transport e.g. air.
 Not suitable for perishable goods.
 In Zimbabwe we have only one track which means trains cannot
pass each other.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Air Transport
Advantages
 Is very fast for example a trip to the Victoria Falls takes 1 hour 15
minutes by air and over 12 hours by road.
 Is comfortable
 Not affected by weather elements.

 Not affected by surface relief
 Can be used in times of emergency for example helicopters are
used in air rescue missions such as after the earthquake in Nepal.
 Can cover large distances without the need to refuel.
 They can take direct routes.
 They can carry high value goods safely for example there are no
air pirates.
Disadvantages
 Airspace is usually restricted and controlled by host countries as a

matter of national security.
 They can be affected by extreme weather conditions e.g. cyclones.
 Require expensive air ports to take off and land.
 Airports are usually located far away from residential and
industrial areas which means additional modes of transport are
required.
 They are very expensive to purchase and maintain.
 Accidents are almost always fatal and costly in damage terms.
 Prone to sabotage and terrorism.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Sea Transport
Advantages
 Is relatively cheaper.
 Caries bulky goods at once
 They are very comfortable for example cruise ships and ocean
liners are often fitted with luxury facilities such as bathrooms,
toilets, casinos and entertainment facilities.
 Easy handling of goods for example RoRo ships.
Disadvantages
 Slower than other forms of transport e.g. air.

 Requires good ports
 Requires special handling equipment to load and unload.
 Can be susceptible to weather hazards such as cyclones.
 Accidents can cause damage to people, goods and the environment
for example Oil leaks.

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Pipeline
Advantages
 They are very efficient

 They are cheap once the installation has been completed.
 They can carry fluids in bulk.
Disadvantages
 They are immobile i.e. the route cannot be changed once they are
installed.
 Can only carry fluids such as oil, gas and water and not solids like
meat.
 They are very expensive to install and maintain.
 They are easy to sabotage e.g. the RENAMO bandits constantly
threatened and sabotaged Zimbabwe s Beira-Feruka pipeline
during the Mozambican Civil War.
 Leaks and damage can be difficult to detect if the pipeline is
underground.
 Special pipelines are required to carry flammables.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Weathering
 Earth movements (plate tectonics) create and lead to the

development of the earth s major landforms for example Block
Mountains, volcanic cones, lava plateaus and rift valleys.
 As soon as they are formed denudation processes attack, expose
and gradually wear these landforms away.
 Denudation is a term that is used to describe the forces that wear
away the land surface it includes the processes of weathering,
erosion, transportation and mass wasting.
Weathering
 Weathering refers to the weakening, breaking up, and

disintegration of rocks that form the surface of the ground and lie
exposed to the weather elements in situ.
 The little phrase in situ is a Latin phrase which simply means in
its original place / stationary.

Examiners at ZIMSEC, Cambridge and other examining bodies often
ask students to distinguish between weathering and erosion.
Weathering Erosion
Washing away of soil by
Breaking down of rocks
either wind, water or ice.
Happens in situ (is static) Washing away of top soil
Produces gullies and
Produces inselbergs and karst landscapes
dongas
Caused mostly by temperature variances and
Caused by the movement
acid rain (i.e there are two types chemical and
of water, wind and ice
mechanical)
Mass wasting
Creep movement on a slope. Image credit Myschoolstuff.co.za
 is the movement of regolith and other weathered material en masse

due to the force of gravity.
 It takes place in the form of mudslides and rock falls when a semi-
liquid spongy mass falls down a slope as a single mass as opposed
say to erosion when the soil and regolith is washed down the slope
instead.
 Mass wasting includes such processes as creeping, soil and rock
slides, topples and falls.
 It can take place at a slow almost imperceptible pace as in creep or
quickly in the form of sudden rock falls and landslides.
 There are two types of weathering:
1. Physical/Mechanical weathering.
2. Chemical weathering.
NB Aspects of biological weathering are either grouped as being

physical or chemical depending with their nature, a criterion which
ZIMSEC seems to favour at Ordinary Level.

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Main types of weathering:
Chemical weathering
 Chemical weathering is the breaking down or decomposition of

rocks as a result of various chemical processes and reactions
altering the chemical components of the rock.
 Some types of rocks decompose when they come into contact with
water, oxygen, carbon dioxide and other naturally occurring acids
such as in the soil.
 These acids include humic acids, carbonic acids, acid rain and
smog (which is fog laced with toxic and sometimes corrosive
materials).
 Some minerals in the rocks for example calcium are susceptible to
chemical reaction.
 They undergo chemical changes and fall of the rock leading to the
reduction of the rock s size.
 Chemical weathering processes include oxidation, hydration,
hydrolysis, carbonation, organic weathering and acid rain.
 Chemical weathering is most prevalent in humid zones, against
reactive minerals in rocks at typically at the base of slopes where it
is likely to be wet and humid for extended periods of time to allow
the chemical processes to occur.
Oxidation
 Occurs when rocks or more specifically certain minerals within the

rocks are exposed to and react with oxygen in the air or water.
 The most prevalent of these is when rocks containing iron
compounds react with oxygen to in a form of oxidation
called rusting as the rock is transformed from what is known as a
ferrous state to a ferric state.
 During rusting rocks change their colour and become reddish-
brown (the colour of rust).
 This compromises the integrity and structure of the rock making
them crumble easily thus aiding other forms of weathering as well.
 Reduction (the opposite of oxidation) also occurs in waterlogged
areas where a process called gleying takes place.
Hydration

 Some types of rocks for example those that contain salt minerals
have the capacity to absorb water into their structure causing them
to swell and become susceptible to future breakdown.
 Hydration is in actual fact a physical-chemical weathering
processes since the rocks swell and exert pressure in addition to
changing their chemical structure.
 The rock swell during wet periods and contract during dry periods
causing them to fracture and to develop joints and weaknesses.
 For example anhydrite absorbs water to become gypsum.
Hydrolysis
 Hydrogen ions in water react with minerals ions in the rock

 That is the water reacts with minerals in the rock instead of
dissolving it.
 This gives rise to different compounds.
 This is very common in granite areas
 Where the feldspar in the granite/igneous reacts with hydrogen to
form clay.
 Mica another rock mineral can also be affected by hydrogen in
acidic water solutions.
Carbonation
 This is when carbon dioxide dissolves with rain water to form

carbonic acid.
 This weak acid reacts with rocks that are composed of calcium
carbonate for example limestone.
 The calcium is dissolved and removed in as a calcium bicarbonate
solution by running water.
 The may result in the formation of landform features such as
Underground caves such as the Chinhoyi caves as well as other
limestone features such as stalagmites and stalactites.
Solution
 Some minerals like rock salt are soluble in water

 When they come in contact with water they just dissolve in situ.

 As the rocks dissolve in water they may form clints and
grikes/grykes which are collectively known as limestone
pavements.
Organic Weathering
 Decomposing vegetation (humus) releases humic acid.

 This acid attacks calcium, magnesium and iron minerals within
rocks in a process called chelation.
 The respiration of bacteria and plant root increases carbon dioxide
levels within the soil thus accelerating the process of carbonation.
 Lichen extracts iron from rocks via reduction.
Acid rain
 Human and economic activities are realising more and more

carbon dioxide into the atmosphere together with other chemicals
such as Sulphur dioxide and nitric oxide.
 These gases then dissolved into rain water to form acidic solutions.
 Acid rain attacks and corrode limestones and at a lesser rapid rate
sandstones.
 Also the acidic solutions tend to free up oxygen ions thus fueling
the process of hydrolysis.
Physical weathering
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Physical Weathering
 Physical weathering is the disintegration of a rock into smaller

particles by mechanical processes and without any changes in the
chemical composition of the rock.
 It is more likely to occur in arid climates such as deserts, arctic
regions and areas that have little to no vegetation.
 Physical weathering typically produces sand soils.
 Physical weathering is also known as mechanical weathering.
 Physical weathering processes include exfoliation, frost shattering,
pressure release and thermal shattering.
Exfoliation

 Rocks expand when heated and contract when cooled much like all
solid materials.
 In deserts and areas with scant vegetation, diurnal temperatures can
exceed 50°C.
 During the excessive day heat the rocks expand.
 The outer layers of the rocks expand faster than the inner layers.
 At night the when temperatures drop, in deserts evening
temperatures can and usually fall to below freezing point, the rock
contracts and again the outer layers cool faster than the inner
layers.
 This results in stresses being set up within the rock causing outer
layers of the rock to peel off like the rings of an onion.
 Thus the process is sometimes called onion weathering.
 Also several different minerals within the rock expand and contract
at different rates depending on their physical characteristics.
 This will result in granular disintegration with the rock.
 This is the process that was thought to result in the creation of
exfoliation domes like Domboshava.
 This form of weathering is also known as thermal expansion or
insolation weathering.
NB At Ordinary Level you are supposed to accept this method of

weathering as fact. The occurrence of this method of weathering in the
real world is nowadays seriously doubted after a series of experiments
by people like David Griggs and others.
Frost shattering
 It occurs in rocks that have crevices and joints and where there is
limited vegetation cover and temperatures revolve fluctuate around
0°C.
 During the day when temperatures are warmer, water enters the
crevices or joints.
 When temperatures fall at night the water freezes leading to
breakdown:
 Ice occupies more space than water i.e as the temperature of water
falls below 4°C it starts to expand.
 As the water freezes within the rock it attracts more small particles
of water which forms more ice crystals and expands further,
fueling the process.

 With each freeze and thaw cycle the joints expand until the rocks
shatter and fall off the main rock as blockfields, scree and talus.
 The process is also known as frost wedging
Salt crystallization
 Saline(water containing salt) water enters pore spaces in rocks.

 As it evaporates salt crystals are likely to form.
 This process usually occurs in deserts where water is drawn to the
surface of rocks (sandstone rocks) by capillary action.
 As the crystals become larger they exert stress upon the rocks
causing it to disintegrate ( granular disintegration).
 Salt crystallization occurs on costs where there is a ready supply of
salt water.
 The process results in the development of weathering pits.
Pressure release
Intrusive granite landforms such as batholiths are formed deep below the
surface and under intense pressure due to the weight of the overlying
overburden.
 If the overburden is removed by denudation processes there is a

substantial reduction in pressure.
 The reduction in pressure causes fractures to develop especially on
the top layers of the rock.
 These cracks develop parallel to the surface in a process that is
referred to as sheeting.
 This results in the formation of exfoliation domes like
Domboshava
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Factors affecting weathering.
 The rate and prevailing type of weathering at any given place is

affected by:
1. Climate
2. Relief
3. Vegetation
4. Rock type

Climate
 Weathering types are distributed according to the prevailing

climate of given areas especially when considering.
 Temperature and rainfall have the greatest effect on weathering.
 In cold areas especially regions where temperatures fluctuate
around 0°C physical weathering in the form of frost shatter
(freeze-thaw) is dominant.
 In hot areas such as deserts where there are large diurnal
temperature ranges exfoliation insolation weathering (heating and
cooling) is dominant.
 In hot and wet areas like the savannah and rainforest chemical
weathering takes place in aided by the easily available moisture
and high temperatures which favour chemical reactions.
 In rain forests the decomposition of humus creates humic acid
leading to organic weathering.
 Mechanical weathering processes.
 Thus chemical weathering occurs is dominant in hot and humid
climate areas
 Climate also indirectly affect weathering by affecting the amount
of vegetation and presence of organisms that can lead to chemical
weathering.
Relief
 Mountain regions have steep slopes which means that in the event
of rain they drain quickly leaving the dry.
 As a result physical weathering is dominant at mountain topics
especially when considering how some peaks tend to have
temperatures that fluctuate around the freezing point even if
temperatures are quite higher at the start of the slopes.
 Moisture tends to accumulate at the base of mountains aiding
chemical weathering processes.
 Granite regions sometimes lead to the development of vleis which
are water logged since granite is impermeable thus favouring
chemical weathering in the moist conditions.
Vegetation

 Tree roots penetrate into rocks, widening cracks, release carbon
dioxide during respiration resulting in biological weathering. These
processes are naturally dominant in areas where there are more
trees.
 When tree roots decay humic acids are produced causing
biological weathering a process which more readily occurs in areas
with dense vegetation cover and moisture such as in rainforests and
in the tropics.
 Lichen and moss grow on rock plateaus and domes aided by
moisture from rain and at the base of slopes forming acids that eat
into rocks.
Rock type
 Limestone is very soft and porous (being porous is not the same
thing as being impervious/impermeable) and therefore more easily
affected by processes such as carbonation, more so given the
 Granite rock is hard and non-porous and thus less susceptible to
chemical weathering processes which require a certain amount of
moisture in order to occur.
 Different rock types are composed or different chemicals that stand
on different places of the reactivity series.
 Chemicals found in limestone readily react with weak acids while
granite rocks are more resistant.
Exposure
 Rocks that are exposed to the surface tend to be weathered faster

than bedrock which is covered.
 However mechanical weathering processes such as pressure
release can still occur if the overburden is being removed by
denudation processes.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Landforms resulting from

weathering.
 Weathering processes and usually in conjunction with other

denudation processes such as water and wind erosion and mass
wasting results in the formation of various landscapes.

 In temperate and tropical latitudes these include:
1.Inselbergs/Monadnocks
 The word inselberg is German for island mountain

 Monadnock is West Indian for isolated mountain.
 An inselberg or monadnock is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or
small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or
virtually level surrounding plain.
 They are hills made up of rock piles or blocks of rocks that rise
from an area of relatively flat and/or lower terrain.
 If the monadnock is dome-shaped and formed from granite-gneiss,
it can also be called a bornhardt.
 Common inselbergs include: castle kopjes, tors , balancing rocks
and conical hills with rectangular sides.
Weathering also forms:
2) Ruwares/Dwalas/Whalebacks
3) Karst landscapes
4) Mountain peaks that are usually made up of rocks when the mountain
core is exposed.

weathering: Dwala
 Known as ruware in Shona, dwala in Ndebele (Nguni languages)
and whaleback in English.
 An example is Domboshava where several such landforms can be
found.
 It is a hill or rock which is dome shaped and rises several metres
from the ground.
 It is a near level rock outcrop, that develops where the basal
surface is undulating.
 Dwalas are gently sloping,low lying and rounded or elongated
hills.
 They are about 2-5m in height.

 They have a gentle, convex summit that is usually smooth but can
have sheet joints as a result of pressure release and regolith that is
onion-peel shaped as a result of exfoliation.
 Its slopes are convex/rectilinear and gentle.
 Might also have vertical joints which begin as fractures as a result
of pressure release but are further widened weathering processes.
 They are surrounded by deeply weathered regolith
 They are usually bare of vegetation but can be lightly populated by
shrubs and bushes.
The formation of dwalas
The diagrams below detail the possible formation of a dwala.
An underground intrusion e.g. batholith is exposed by denudation.
The overburden is removed by denudation processes resulting in

pressure release and the formation of a dwala/ruware.
A dwala/ruware is formed when the overbuden is removed.

Weathering: Kopjes
Tors/Kopjes/Castle kopjes
 Tors/kopjes/castle kopjes are inselbergs.

 Tors the same as kopjes even though some books make an attempt
to distinguish between the two.
 Different names are applied in different localities to what are
essentially the same landforms.
 Kopje is an Afrikaans word meaning a small and isolated hill made
of granite rock piles.
 Tor is a Scotish word meaning hill.
 They appear appear as a large, free-standing rock outcrop that
rises abruptly from the surrounding smooth and gentle slopes of a
rounded hill summit or ridge crest.

 They are resistant rock features that have been made by
weathering.
 They are usually less than 5 meters in height.
 They are a result of marginal subsurface weathering of domed
landforms.
 Granite intrusions are weathered beneath the surface due to acidic
water penetrating joints in the rock.
 When the rock is exposed the rotten parts are washed away by
erosion.
 Weathering continues in the form of both mechanical and chemical
weathering.
 Because these rocks have rectangular joints, chemical and
mechanical weathering takes place in these joints.
 The regolith (weathered/rotten parts of the rock) is stripped away
by erosion to form a kopje/tor.
 If the joints are close together the whole mass collapses and is
washed away,
 However if the joints a wider blocks of rocks fall away from the
main rock creating tors/kopjes.
 They are sometimes remnants of dwalas and bornhardts such as
Dwalas/ Bornhadts and inselbergs/Monadnocks.
 They are usually found in temperate latitudes.
 Because of their morphology (shape) kopjes are known is some
localities as castle kopjes.
Balancing rocks
 These are a result of continued weathering on kopjes and tors.

 If the joints in the rocks that form kopjes and tors are further apart
massive chunks of rock may withstand the denudation processes to
remain balancing one on top of another.
 An example are the Balancing Rocks in Epworth.
Limestone pavements
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Limestone pavements
 Limestone pavements are flat areas of exposed limestone rocks.

 They are part of the dissolved bedding plate which may have been
exposed because the surface soil may have been removed by
glacial activity and never replaced.
 Where the pavement has joints that reach the surface, these joints
may be widened by acid rain water.
 This process is called carbonation.
 The widening of the joints leaves deep incisions/gashes/fissures
called grikes.
 Some grikes such as found in the Limestone regions of England
can be about half a meter wide.
 Separating the grikes are flat-topped yet dissected blocks referred
to as clints.
 As time passes these clints are levelled by denudation processes
including the widening of the grikes until a lower bedding plane is
exposed.
 This bedding plane s joints are in turn attacked by weathering in
the form of carbonation forming grikes and thus repeating the
process all over again.
 Grikes can also be formed by subsurface weathering in much the
same way as tors are formed.
 Acidic water may seep into the ground into joints in the underlying
limestone bedding rock.
 Over time it widens these joints and when the overlying soil is
washed away by erosion the clints and grikes are exposed.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: People and weathering
How humans influence weather?
 Human activities such as industrialisation and driving of cars

produce emissions such as sulphur dioxide,nitric oxide and carbon
dioxide leading to increased incidences of acid rain which in turn
accelerates chemical weathering processes such as carbonation.
 These industries sometimes dump acidic chemicals into drains and
rivers leading to chemical weathering.
 Deforestation increases runoff and reduces the moisture retention
of certain areas leading to a decrease in biological and chemical
weathering and an increase in mechanical weathering.

 Humans are also indirectily affecting weathering through the
process of global warming. The effects depend on the ensuing
climatic conditions in each given area.
 Plating of trees can lead to increased chemical weathering.
 Blasting and mining operations can lead to seismic movements that
can create fractures that can be exploited by weathering processes
such as freeze and thaw and crystallization thus aiding weathering.
Benefits of weathering to people.
 Creates tourist attractions for example the balancing rocks in

Epworth draw regular crowds bringing in much needed income to
the community dwellers.
 It produces soil which is essential for agricultural activities,
biodiversity and development of vegetation.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: River processes:Basic

Concepts.
 Rivers are perhaps the most important denudation agent.

 They carve channels, form valleys,transport and deposit regolith
over great distances and other material to form other types of
landforms.
Terms used in describing a river channel.
 A channel is an area that contains flowing water confined by

banks.
 Channel width is the distance in meters across the surface of a
river, it is the distance between the two banks i.e. the distance from
bank to the other.
 Depth is the distance in meters of the level of water down to the
river bed. This is the vertical distance from the surface to the bed.
 Gradient/Slope is the angle between the horizon and the river s
surface.
 Velocity is the speed at which the water flows through the channel.
Speed is low at the sides near the banks and at the river bed due to
friction and highest at the center.
 The source is where the river begins.

 The mouth is where a river empties/ends usually into a lake, sea or
ocean.
Flow of water in streams
 Rivers always flow downstream because of the pull of gravity.

 A river s erosion, transport and deposition depends on the flow of
water in its channel.
 This flow is determined by several factors viz:
 The energy which is provided by gravity and is affected directly
by they gradient of the river s bed the steeper the slope the more
energy a river has.
 Volume is the amount of water in a river s channel. Volume
increases during the wet seasons when most of the precipitation
occurs or if a river s course passes through a region experiencing
wet climatic conditions
 Conversely a river s volume falls during dry seasons such as
winter and spring in Zimbabwe or if it passes through arid
conditions/regions experiencing dry conditions.
 The nature of flow also affects and channel shape also affect a
river s energy.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: River Profile
 Rivers can be studied from two aspects viz:

 The long profile-this is the cross section along the river s entire
length from its source to its mouth.
 The short profile-this is the cross section across a river s valley
from the crest line( on one bank) to the channel to the other
crest line. This is known as the river s valley.
 There is only one cross profile but an innumerable short profiles
that can be taken at any point in a river s length.
 The short profile however tends to widen the further one moves
downstream.
 The diagram above shows the three main sections of a
river/stream s long profile and the diagram below shows the
corresponding typical short profiles at each stage.

Short profiles that correspond to the long profile.
 A river s long profile can be divided into three sections viz:

 the upper course or headwater reaches, the middle course or
middle reaches, the lower course or the lower reaches.
 The base level of a river is the lowest point a river can erode its
channel, this is equal to the sea level of the ocean into which the
river empties.
Upper course
 it has a steep gradient, less volume of water, there is eddying and

splashing as the water flows turbulently.
 Common features include:V-shaped narrow valleys, potholes,
interlocking spurs, water falls and rapids, gorges, strewn boulders.
 The most dominant form of erosion is vertical erosion and
headward erosion also takes place.
Middle course
 Its less steep, has more water volume, a wider channel and more
velocity due to reduced channel roughness.
 Common features include: Open V-shaped valleys, truncated
spurs, meanders, ox-bow lakes and braids.
 Erosion is mostly in the form of lateral erosion.
Lower course
 Is flat and has a very wide channel with less energy.

 Common features include: bluffs and other flood plain features
such as swamps, braiding, deltas, alluvial fans, deferred junctions
and natural levees.
 These features are mostly due to deposition which is more
dominant than erosion due to the reduced river energy due to the
lower gradient and increased wetted perimeter.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: River Erosion
 River erosion involves the wearing away of rock and soil found
along the river bed and banks.

 It also involves the breaking down of the rock particles being
carried downstream by the river.
 There are four main processes of erosion.
 These are corrasion, attrition, hydraulic action and solution (also
known as corrosion).
Corrasion
 Is the wearing down of the sides and bed of the river by the load as
it is being transported by the river.
 Corrasion occurs when a river picks up material and rubs its bed
and bank wear them away by abrasion like sandpaper.
 Corrasion therefore happens when the river s sides and bed are
scrapped off by the material being transported by the river.
 This process is most pronounced during flooding.
 This is the major means of erosion by which a river extends both
vertically and horizontally.
 If there are hollows in the river bed, pebbles can get trapped in
these and whirled by turbulent eddies (in circular motion) to form
potholes.
 When pebbles are trapped in existing potholes these are deepened
further by the whirling pebbles.
 Corrasion wears away the channel s river bed and add more
material to the river s load thus amplifying the processes as more
load means more corrasion.
Attrition
 Is a process by which the river s own load is broken down from

larger particles into smaller ones.
 This happens because the river s load which is made up of
different sized particles which collide and knock into each other
causing them to break into smaller fragments.
 As the load progresses downstream it gets smaller and smaller.
 Also angular rocks become increasingly rounded.
Hydraulic Action
 refers to the sheer force and turbulence of the moving water which
can be able to remove loose material such as gravel, sand and silt.

 This force can also weaken solid rocks by surging into cracks in
the rock.
 This processes can be aided when there is air in the cracks which is
compressed causing eventual bank collapse.
 Cavitation is a form of hydraulic action caused by bubbles of air
collapsing and the resultant shock waves hit and weaken the banks
of the river.
 Hydraulic action by itself is very effective if the river does not
have some load to produce corrosive erosion/abrasive erosion.
 Hydraulic action is the weakest and least effective form of erosion.
Solution or Corrosion
 The water in the river dissolves some soluble rocks such as rock
salt and sometimes limestone.
 This is most effective in areas where the stream bed and banks are
composed of soluble rock for example in limestone regions.
 This method of erosion takes place all the time and is independent
of a river s velocity or discharge.
 It is similar to the chemical weathering process of solution.
 The river s corrosive ability is aided, however, if there are acids
within it.
Forms of Erosion
 The above four processes make up a river s erosion processes.

 River erosion takes place in three ways:
 Headward erosion, lateral erosion and vertical erosion.
Headward Erosion
 Is the processes by which a river increases its length upstream.

 This is achieved by a river cutting back at its source.
 Rain wash and soil creep are other processes by which a river
extends its channel up the slope.
Lateral Erosion

Forms of Erosion, Up arrow shows headward erosion, the two arrows
lateral erosion/widening or channel and the downpointin arrow vertical
erosion. Image Credit WikiCommons
 The processes by which the river s sides are worn away and the
channel being extended in width.
 This is more pronounced along the bends (outside banks) of
meanders.
Vertical Erosion
 This is a process by which a river deepens its channel.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: River Transportation

Processes.
 Any energy left after a river has overcome friction is used to

transport sediment.
 This energy varies directly with a river s discharge, velocity and
turbulence
 That is if they increase the amount of a river s energy to erode
and transport also increases until a river reaches flooding level
when deposition is likely to occur due to an increase in the wetted
perimeter and thus friction.
 There are three main processes by which a river s load is
transported:
 suspension, solution and bedload (sometimes divided into saltation
and traction making them four methods instead of three in this
case).
Suspension
 This is when light silt and mud floats along with the water.
 Very fine particles of silt and clay are dislodged and carried away
in the turbulence of the flowing water.
 The greater the turbulence the greater larger the quantity and size
of particles picked up by and carried away by the river.
 This partly explains why flooded river often have mud coloured
water, it is due to the heavy amounts of suspended material with
the water.

 The suspended material usually forms the largest part of a river s
total load.
 It increases in amount towards a river s mouth also giving the
black/brownish colour to the water that is similar to that of most
rivers after a storm.
Solution/Dissolved Load
 Is when material dissolves in the water and is carried away in

solution form for example rock salt.
 Flowing water within river channels almost always contain acids in
the form carbonic and nitrous acids especially after a storm or due
to pollution.
 This dissolves the bedrock especially if it is soluble for example
limestone.
 It dissolves in water and is carried away in solution form.
 This is a very active form of transportation in limestone regions
and in other regions it forms a comparatively small part of the
load.
Bedload
 Is divided into two processes traction and saltation.

 Saltation is when smaller particles bounce along the bed of the
river.
 Traction is when larger boulders and pebbles roll and are dragged
along the river s bed.
 Since larger particles cannot be picked up by the current they are
moved along the bed of the river in these two ways.
 Saltation happens when pebbles,sand and gravel are temporarily
lifted up by the river s current and bounced along the bed of the
river in a hopping motion.
 Traction occurs when the largest cobbles and boulders roll or slide
along the bed of the river.
 The largest loads can only be moved in this way during flood
periods for example after a storm.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: River deposition

 Deposition occurs when a river no longer as sufficient energy to
transport its load.
 When its velocity begins to fall and has less energy, a river s
competence (maximum size of material which a river is capable of
transporting) and capacity ( maximum amount of load that a river
is capable of transporting) falls and therefore deposition begins.
 Deposition occurs when:
 Discharge is reduced after a period of low precipitation.
 Velocity is reduced upon the river reaching the dam, lake,sea or
ocean resulting in the formation of deltas.
 Shallow water occurs on the inside section of a meander for
example.
 The load is suddenly increased for example in the event of a
landslide for instance when a portion of bank collapses into the
river.
 When the river overflows its banks so that the velocity outside the
channel is reduced resulting in the formation of a floodplain.
 During floods, especially in the lower course rivers spread to the
sides of the channel.
 Frictional drag and the reduced gradient slow down the flowing
water resulting in deposition.
 Deposition occurs along the entire course of the river:
1. On the channel bed.

2. The river valley floor especially during floods.
3. On the river s banks as in a meander.
4. At the river s mouth when it empties into the sea.
NB Deposition occurs at any part of a river s course depending on a

river s energy and velocity. The division of a river into stages is
therefore useful but by no means conclusive.
Deposition
 When the river loses its energy to any of the reasons pointed out
above the following happens.
 The heaviest material/load is deposited first this is why rivers are
littered with boulders in the upper course.
 This is because traction load and siltation loads require more
energy to transport.

 The finest material is deposited last and may reach the sea where it
is deposited onto and to form deltas.
 The dissolved load which is in solution water is deposited at all but
transported to the sea where it maintains the saltiness of oceans.
 The deposition of sand and silt leads to the development of a
gently sloping plain known as a flood plain.
 Deposition can result in aggredation where the river s bed and
gradient are increased. This can happen at deltas and on alluvial
fans.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes

 The following factors affect the river s energy and ability to
erode, transport and deposit its load.
 Type of flow, gradient of channel, volume/discharge, cross-
sectional channel shape, channel roughness.
Type of flow
 When water flows downhill under gravity it follows the path of

least resistance.
 There are two patterns of flow: laminar and turbulent.
 Laminar-is a horizontal movement of water in a river with
minimal vertical mixing.
 The water is in layer, such a form of flow would result in minimal
erosion and more deposition
 In reality such a type of flow does not exist although something
close to this can be observed in flat terrain when rivers are
relatively calm during their flow.
 Turbulent flow-consists of a series of vertical and horizontal
eddies and a lot of vertical mixing of the water as it flows
downhill.
 Turbulent flow results in more erosion and transportation and this
form of flow increases with an increase in a river s energy.
Gradient of the channel
 The gradient of the channel determines a river s ability to erode,

transport and deposit its load.

 The upper course of a river is associated with steep gradients
therefore a lot of velocity and energy and therefore river erosion
and transportation takes place in the upper course.
 The middle and lower course have a much gentler gradient and
therefore the slower moving waters have less erosive power and
therefore more deposition takes place and less transportation and
erosion.
Discharge/Volume
 As already said, water flows in response to the pull of gravity

which is also determined by the mass and in turn the volume of the
moving water.
 Rivers have less water in the upper course because of most have
fewer tributaries at this stage therefore they have less energy to
erode.
 Middle course and lower course river sections have higher
volumes of water since they have more upstream tributaries at this
stage resulting in more energy to transport and erode and transport
in terms of water volume.
Cross Sectional Channel shape.
 Channel A has a larger wetted perimeter which means more

friction and leaves less energy to erode its bed and to transport
load.
 Channel B has a smaller a smaller wetted perimeter resulting in
more vertical erosion because it has more energy left over from
overcoming friction.
 In terms of channel cross section upper course streams have more
energy to erode when compared to lower and middle course
streams.
Channel Roughness
Channel roughness channel A) is typical in the upper course streams and

B) in the lower course streams

 Upper course streams encounter more friction due to their rough
channels which are a result of protruding boulders and rocky
outlines. This means such channels will have less energy left over
to erode and transport their load.
 Middle and Lower course streams have more energy to transport
and erode since they have smooth channels resulting in less
friction.
Conclusion
 More erosion takes place in the middle course since the channels
are smooth, the gradient steeper than in the lower course, the
wetted perimeter smaller than in the lower course and the volume
of water is high.
 A lot of vertical erosion takes place in the upper course.
 Most deposition takes place in the lower course of the river since
the gradient is smaller, the wetted perimeter larger, and the
gradient considerably less steep when compared to the other two
courses.
NB It is important to remember that this is a generalised approach since

erosion, deposition and transportation can take place in any part of the
course due to various circumstances regardless of the course of the river.
ZIMSEC Geography Notes: Landforms resulting from river

processes
Topics linked to this page are currently being edited and may change
appearance or be unavailable.
 A river through its processes of erosion, transportation and

deposition forms several landforms.
 These can be broadly divided into those landforms resulting from
erosion and deposition.
Landforms resulting mainly from erosion
1. Narrow valleys
2. Interlocking spurs
3. Waterfalls and rapids
4. Pot holes

5. Gorges
Those resulting from mainly deposition
1. Flood Plains
2. Meanders
3. Ox-bow lakes
4. Braids
5. Levées
6. Deltas
Click on each one to learn more about it and where it is most likely to be
formed in a river s course.
It is important to note that this division into landforms as either resulting

from deposition or erosion is not hard and fast as it would appear. For
example a lot of river features such as floodplains and meanders are
formed by both erosion and deposition acting in tandem.
Also minor river features such as bluffs (sometimes known as river cliffs
or bluff lines), point bars, pools and riffles are included in the
descriptions of river landforms that they are often associated with.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Floodplains and Levees
Floodplain
 These are typically found in the middle and lower course sections
of the river.
 They are gently sloping surfaces of alluvium that result from
lateral erosion and material deposited onto the valley floor.
 A flood plain commonly has the following river features alluvium,
marshes, meanders and ox-bow lakes which are remnants of cut off
meanders.
 When a river is in flood it overflows its banks and covers the
whole plain upon which it deposits some of its load.
 The continual deposition results in the formation of levees.
 These are ridge like features resulting from deposition.
 Flood plains may become so large and wide the the edges of the
meanders may not be able to reach the sides of the valley for
example the Nile River and the (Yellow River) Huang Ho.

 In meanders both lateral and vertical erosion takes place resulting
in the removal of the original floodplain and the formation of a
new one.
 The pieces that survive the erosion form terraces which have
varying heights and often times the heights of terraces might not
match those on the other side.
 This differentiates these terraces from the ones formed by river
rejuvenation.
 The river Benue has a well developed flood plain.
 It is important to note that floodplains are both a depositional and
erosional feature.
Natural terraces resulting from successive erosion of floodplains. Image

credit Kent.edu
Levees and tributaries with deferred junctions
 Flooding causes deposition to take place on a river s banks

because the water is slower there and therefore has less energy to
transport the load.
 As already said above, continued flooding results in the formation
of raised banks.
 These ridges are known as natural levees.
 Most flooding takes place at the edges of the channel since the
water is slower
 The river then flows above the level of the floodplain which causes
tributaries to defer joining with the main stream.
 Tributaries flow parallel to the river, with some flowing into
depressions resulting into swamps, while others eventually join the
main river further downstream forming what are known as
deferred junctions.
 Rivers that flow above the flood plain present great risk of
flooding to nearby settlements for example the (Yellow
River)Huang Ho in China and the Mississippi in the United States.
Swamps/Marshes
 This is stagnant water that is clogged with water loving vegetation.

 They occur in the flood plain due to frequent flooding and where
tributaries fail to enter the main stream (i.e. deferred junctions
where a tributary flows over a depression).
Bluffs
 This is a prominent slope that mark the edge of a floodplain.

 These steep promontory cliffs are sometimes found on the outside
bend of a meander.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Meanders and Ox-bow lakes
Meanders
 Meanders are pronounced bends in a river s course

 They are formed when a river twists and turn in wide bends.
 They are common on the floodplain but can develop in any part of
the river s course.
 Meandering is a common behaviour of fluids that avoid a straight
path to flow in a twisting and turning path.
 It is believed that meandering is a thermodynamics behaviour that
maximizes velocity and reduces friction.
 Other experts have theorized that Meanders start when friction
with the channel bed and banks causes turbulence in the water
flow.
 This results helicoidal flow.
 This is a corkscrew like movement of the water as it spirals

downstream from bank to bank as shown in the diagram above.
 This often occurs during floods and results in the formation of
meanders and their associated features such as pools and riffles.
Helicoidal flow in a meander and the resulting features at each point.

Image credit WordPress.com
Pools and riffles

 Pool-this is a deep section in a meander where a lot of erosion
takes place where the river s energy builds up due to reduced
friction and the water has higher velocity.
 Riffle-this is a shallow section in a river where there is deposition
due to reduced capacity in a river resulting from energy dissipation
(reduction) in a river due to increased friction and a reduction in a
river s velocity.
 The spacing of the pools and riffles are fairly regular in a river
channel about six to five times the width of the channel.
 Helicoidal flow is responsible for the erosion on the outside bends
and then depositing it into the inside bends of meanders.
Point bars and meander cross section
 Water flows fastest on the outer bend (concave bank) of the river
where the channel is deeper and there is less friction.
 It erodes this bank laterally by attrition and hydraulic action.
 There also vertical erosion which deepens the channel, which
reduces friction and increases in energy results in further erosion.
 The lateral erosion results in undercutting of the river bank and the
formation of a steep sided river cliff these cliffs are also known as
bluffs.
 the inner bend water is slow flowing, due to it being a low energy
zone, deposition occurs resulting in a shallower channel.
 This increased friction further reduces the velocity (thus further
reducing energy), encouraging further deposition.
 Over time a small river beach or runoff slope builds up on the
inner bend.
 The greater erosion of the concave bank occurs just downstream of
the axis of the meander bend, because the course of the maximum
velocity zone in the channel does not reflect the meander shape.
 This causes meander to migrate down the valley.
 The lateral erosion of the meanders and their migration widen the
flood plain.
 A point bar is a depositional feature made of alluvium that
accumulates on the inside bend of streams and rivers below the
slip-off slope.
 They are crescent-shaped and located on the inside of a stream
bend of meanders.

Introduction
Settlement
 Refers to a structure where human beings reside.

 It may be made up of one or several dwellings.
 The term settlement is, however, commonly used to refer to several
dwellings.
 In Geography we study the form (shape) and function (purpose) of
settlements
 Site-this is the space or position occupied by a settlement.
 It is the land upon which a settlement is built.
 A settlement can be built upon a hill or on the slope of a hill or in a
valley.
 Settlements can also be described in terms of their location
/situation.
 Location/situation-this is the position of a settlement in relation to
its surroundings.
 For example a settlement can be located between mountains, at a
road junction or along a coastline.
 A settlement s location can also be described in relation with
other settlements.
 Settlements can also be described in terms of their size, structure
and function.
 Settlements can grow from being hamlets, to villages, then to
towns, to cities or even larger settlements known as conurbations
or megalopolis.
 As the village grows in size the range of activities within it
increases.
 In a town a there is a shift to non-agricultural activities thus
distinguishing it from a village.
 Urban sprawl-this is when two or more towns grow into each
other.
 The result of an urban sprawl is called a conurbation.
 A settlement s structure is known as its layout.
 The layout includes the settlement s transport network and land-
use.

 A settlement s morphology-this is where a settlement s layout
is considered in terms of settlement s types of buildings, their
layout, age, type, and quality.
 Many settlements are described in their functions, hence the terms
like mining town, marketing center etc.
 Each settlement has a sphere of influence.
 Sphere of influence-is the area around the settlement which
depend on the town for various services.
 The sphere of influence can be determined length of the journey
between home and workplace of the settlement s workplaces or
the extent of the services for example newspaper distribution.

Factors influencing the siting and location of settlements
 Several factors influence the location of settlements
 These can be divided into four:
 historical factors
 accessibility
 availability of resources; and
 human preferences and available technology
Historical Factors
 Include historical considerations including the desire to build

settlements on defensive grounds.
 Factors of legislation and land tenure also affect the position of
present settlement patterns and their locations.
 For example most settlements were located on higher ground
which was easier to defend.
 Higher ground also meant enemies could be seen while they were
still far off.
 This explains settlements like Great Zimbabwe, Khami and
Nyanga hill sites.
 In European settlements river bends and pronounced meanders
formed important settlements as they were favored as defensive
sites.
 Also European settlements often align themselves with the ancient
feudal systems of Europe.

 Much of the settlement in Zimbabwe especially in communal areas
are hugely influenced by the Land Apportionment Act of 1930.
 The linear settlement pattern often found in communal areas was a
result of planned and legislated land settlement patterns.
Accessibility
 The need to communicate with other areas for trade and travel
purposes is another important factor that influences settlement
patterns.
 Settlements are often located along transport routes and
communication lines.
 These may be roads, railway lines or water routes.
 Such settlements are also known as Nodal settlements
 Nodal settlements-these are settlements that converge along roads,
railway lines, water routes, mountain passes, gaps river
confluences and valleys.
 Nodal settlements are heavily influenced by communication
networks.
Availability of resources
Hwange is mostly a coal town.
 A lot of settlements are located near natural resources that are

necessary for people s livelihood.
 For example water, minerals, wood, fertile soil and grass.
 Water is a very important resource that attracts settlement.
 It is used for domestic/irrigation purposes, pastoral activities and in
some cases where the river is navigable, for transport purposes.
 Settlements also occur along springs.
 Settlements can also occur as a result of a combination of these
resources for example water and fertile lands for farming villages
and towns.
 Settlements can also be attracted by forests and mountain areas
where there is plentiful wood to be used as a fuel.
 Minerals such as asbestos have acted as a catalyst towards the
formation of towns like Zvishavane and coal in Hwange.

Human preferences and the influence of technology
 Most barriers that prevented settlements from being built in certain

areas have since been overcome.
 Settlements are now being built in areas previously marginalized.
 For example settlements are now being built even on steep slope
using landscaping.
 Settlements are now being planned according to human
preferences and desires.
 For example most land use patterns in resettlement areas are a
result of deliberate human planning more than anything else.
 Urban area settlements are always planned although spontaneous
settlements, which are usually illegal, often sprout out for example
Epworth and Hopely farm.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Classification of

settlements
 Settlements are generally classified as either rural or urban.

 Rural settlements are those settlements where mostly primary
activities occur.
 The majority of settlers in rural areas carry out primary activities in
order to earn their living.
 These include activities like mining, farming, fishing and forestry.
 The populations of these settlements often depend on the
surrounding land.
 As such settlements grow, they also increase the variety of
activities and may develop into urban settlements.
 An urban settlement is one which mainly carries out secondary and

tertiary functions.
 Examples of such functions include commerce, banking,
manufacturing and service provision businesses such as banking
and insurance.
 Urban settlements carry out a wider ranger of services when
compared to rural settlements

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Rural Settlements
in Zimbabwe
 Historic settlements were rural, as the populations were mainly

dependent on hunting, fishing and gathering fruits.
 Shelter was mostly basic and in the form of caves, tents made from
animal skins, huts made out of wood, leaves and grass.
 The development of farming brought with it the need for more
permanent settlements.
 The small nucleated settlements of the hunters and gatherers were
turned into more dispersed settlements as the farmers needed more
room for their fields, pastures and other farming operations.
 The Agrarian revolution which occurred in Europe in the 18th
century and spread to other countries led to the development of
isolated farm settlements.
 In Zimbabwe most commercial farms have nucleated settlements
as farming e.g. tobacco farming tends to be labour intensive.
 In rural areas especially communal lands the linear settlement
pattern tends to dominate.
 This is because people settle along rivers, mountain ranges, roads,
railway lines etc.
 Most communal areas are also have the nucleated settlement
patterns as homes are organized into kraals and people share
pastures and fields.
 Other settlement are also observed on a less frequent scale.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Rural settlement

patterns
Linear Pattern
 Consists of a line of huts or houses following a road, river, or

cultivated areas/fields.
 Such patterns can also develop along a watershed or a mountain
range.
 It should be pointed out that Zimbabwe s roads, especially the
major roads, are found on watersheds.

Radial Pattern
 This pattern usually develops at road junctions or nodal points.

 They radiate out from a central point like the spokes of a bicycle
wheel going outwards in all directions.
 These nodal points include rural service centers for example
District Council Offices or Growth Points.
Circular pattern
 Is a common pattern on desert nomadic camps, around dwalas,

volcanic hills or wells and watering holes in semi-arid areas.
 Some tribes e.g. The Kayapo in the Amazon Basin live in circular
villages for cultural reasons.
 They live in the outer houses and the central house is a meeting
place.
Nucleated/Compact
Settlements in rural areas can be nucleated/gathered around market

places, commercial farming areas or in camps.
Such settlements tend to be arranged in much the same manner as

electrons in an atom.
Dispersed and Haphazard Settlements patterns
 Settlements can also be dispersed especially in areas with fewer

resources that cannot support dense populations as people try to
give each other space to operate for example extensive farmers.
 This is also common pattern in commercial farming, communal
areas with ragged terrain and areas with poor soils.
 Haphazard settlement patterns can be dispersed or compact but
they usually do not conform to a recognizable shape showing a
lack of planning.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Quality of life in

rural areas in Zimbabwe
 More recently in Chiadzwa families had to be resettled as their

houses were on diamond fields.

 Several families had to be resettled and compensated when their
villages were submerged by the rising waters of the dam.
 The same disruption took place at the Osborne dam was built in
Manicaland.
 A massive resettlement program was undertaken to move the
people to higher ground.
 The construction of the Kariba Dam in the 1950s saw the
disruption of the Tonga People who were settled 5 200 square
kilometers.
 The Land Husbandry Act of the 1950s created a predominantly
linear settlement pattern that still exists to this day.
 Settlement patterns are also influenced by physical relief and
terrain as well as soil fertility.
 This is a result of past legislation as well as about availability and
access to resources for example water and land for cultivation and
pasture.
 Most of rural settlements tend to be nucleated or linear in
Zimbabwe.
 95% of the rural households used wood as the main source of fuel
for cooking.
 52% of the rural housing units had no access to a toilet or
sanitation facilities.
 63% of the rural housing units had access to safe drinking water.
 5% of rural housing units in the country had electricity.
 18% of the country s rural people lived in modern houses,
compared to 90% in urban areas.
 82% of the country s rural population lives in either traditional
structures, built out of pole and dagga with grass thatch, bricks
with grass thatch or mixed dwellings with one or more modern
structures with corrugated iron sheets, cement roofing or asbestos
roofing.
 According to the 1992 Census:
 do not have access to shops, clinics or schools.
 lack of access to safe drinking water,
 inadequate sanitation,
 as the lack of access to proper sanitation,
 Most of these squatter camps have problems such:
 Including plastics, card boards, poles, dagga, grass, old iron sheets
or whatever material the squatters can lay their hands on.

 They are usually build out of a combination of several building
materials
 These are especially common on commercial farms, mining
centres and some service areas e.g. District Council Offices.
 Squatter camps are also common in both rural and urban areas in
Zimbabwe.
 Fairly modern settlements built using brick and roofed with
asbestos, cement sheets or corrugated iron sheets are also now
common in most rural areas.
 In fact even if families build other houses round kitchens are a part
of every rural compound for cultural and practical reasons.
 Local poles and grass are still however used for thatching these
structures which are also usually round in shape betraying the fact
that they are influenced by the shape of the traditional pole and
dagga huts.
 Most of Zimbabwe s communal settlements have moved away
from the use of poles and dagga and now use fired bricks.
 Such traditional houses tend are still common although they are
slowly disappearing as people embrace the use of bricks and other
modern building materials.
 Traditional houses are round in shape, built of poles, dagga and
grass.
 In Zimbabwe traditional houses reflect the building materials
which are obtained from the surrounding environment.
 The quality of life in rural areas is greatly affected by the quality of
rural housing.
 According to the 2012 Census report 67% of Zimbabwe s
population lives in rural areas.
 Also over the past decade most commercial farms have been
subdivided into individual plots as people obtained land under the
Land Reform Act.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Urban

Settlements
The structure of Urban settlements
 This is the shape or form of urban areas in relation to land-use

models.

 The structure of urban settlements is also known as urban
morphology.
 Models are used to describe and explain the structure of cities.
 A model is a systematic description of an object in this case a
typical city.
 There are three urban land use models viz:
 The concentric model (1924) by Burgess
 The Sector Model (1939) by Hoyt
 The Multi-nuclei Model (1945) by Harris and Ullman
 These models attempt to describe what a typical town/city or urban
settlement looks like, how it came to be what it is (how it
developed over the years) and why
Factors that affect land use in urban areas
 The pattern of urban growth and land use depends on a number of

factors including:
 Communication- This includes roads, railway lines, telephone/fiber
lines etc. For example factories tend to be located along/near
railway lines and roads for them to receive raw materials easily
and ferry goods to the market. The Central Business District
(CBD) is at the center of towns and easily accessible from all sides
of town hence land tends to be expensive here. Only those
activities that can pay for this land are found in the CBD e.g.
Banks, Offices and Insurance businesses.
 The nature of the land for example whether it is gentle in terms of
terrain.
 The cost of the land. For example competition for land at the CBD
results in steep costs so only businesses that can pay for this land
our found there.
 The rent or rates payable. This is similar to the cost of the land.
 The position of the plots in relation to other settlements.
 The size of the piece of land. The smaller the land the larger the
size.
Types of Land uses in urban areas
 Land use i.e. what the land is used for in urban area differs with
each area.

 Although land uses are usually mixed for example some industries
can be found in residential areas land uses tend to be defined.
 Similar land uses attract each other and push other land uses out.
 For example if more and more industries locate in a
residential area more and more people will leave due to things like
pollution.
 Most areas have one dominant land use.
 There are different types of land uses in urban areas.
 These can be classified into:
 Industrial
 Commercial
 Residential
 In some areas these land uses may mix.
Historical developments of urban settlements
 Most modern towns in Africa and Europe are influenced by

industrialization
 As new factories were built large numbers of works migrated from
rural areas to towns.
 The large influx of people led to pressure on urban land and the
development of urban planning.
 Competition for land in the CBD led to a rise in its cost, rentals
and rates.
 Functions that could not afford this land were pushed out of the
city center to less expensive urban outskirts.
 Wealthy individuals also moved out of the CBD to escape
overcrowding and smoke from industries to the peripheral areas.
 They could build larger houses with gardens and recreational
parks.
 For example Borrowdale.
 Low income and unemployed migrates moved nearer to the places
of employment at the city center. For example Avenues houses and
flats and Mbare.
 Housing stands became smaller and smaller.
 Semi-detached housing and squatter camps became a common
feature in inner-city zones.
 For example Hopely farm.

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: The concentric
model/Burgess s model (1924)
 This is known alternatively as the concentric model, the ring model

for urban land use or Burgess model.
 It was formulated by Burgess and Park in 1924 after their studies
of the city of Chicago in the United States.
 Their study revealed that the city could be divided into a number of
concentric land-use zones :
 The Central Business District
 The Zone of workingmen s houses
 The Zone of middle income or medium density housing
 The Commuter Zone
 The model assumes that the city grows from a single nucleus
(core) in concentric circles of distinct land uses.
 The city grows by urban ecology or expansion due to demand of
different goods and services.
 The city will continue to grow into surrounding rural areas.
The CBD
 It is the nucleus of the city

 All (communication) routes meet in this area.
 It has high rise buildings/skyscrapers.
 Rentals are normally high in this area.
 It has very few people and traffic during the night and high traffic
densities of people and traffic during the day.
 It is the commercial core where hotels, banks, specialized services,
theaters, departmental stores, finance houses and cinemas are
found.
Zone of transition
 It surrounds the CBD

 It has residential areas with poor housing.
 It has offices and light industries.
 It is characterized by industrial functions that require a lot of land.

 It infamous for its crimes and social problems for example
prostitution.
 It is characterized by transient population, migrant workers, the
poor, aged and unemployment.
 Examples are Mbare and Avenues.
Zone of workingmen s houses/Low class residential areas
 This is known as to the zone of workingmen s houses or low-

income residential zone
 This zone is found near heavy industries for example Highfield and
Glen Norah suburbs near Willowvale industries and Mbare and
Graniteside Industries.
 The density of houses per unit area is high
 The zone is characterized by high density suburbs with each house
located on a small plot of land.
 This area is occupied by factory works, single houses, small yards
and untarred roads.
Zone of middle income/medium density housing
 This is characterized by large houses,

 with gardens and broad tree-lined streets..
 A small commercial centre and
 greenbelts can be found within this zone.
 Social centers like pre-schools and schools can also be found in
this zone.
 Examples are Hillside and Cranborne suburbs in Harare.
Commuter zone
 Is located some distance away from the city center.

 People use commute to the CBD in order to get to work using
trains, cars and buses.
 The zone starts off with low density, high income residential areas,
 with large spaced houses and gardens.
 In some places market gardening may be practiced for example
Honey Dew farm in Greendale.
 They usually have a suburban shopping center for example Sam
Levy in Borrowdale and Kamphinsa in Greendale.

 The zone may also give way to larger farms supplying fresh fruits,
dairy products and vegetables to the town.
 Sometimes the farming zone may be interrupted by small
dormitory towns such as Chitungwiza.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Hoyt s Sector

model (1939)
 It was published as an alternative to Burgess and Park s

concentric model
 It was based on a study of 142 American cities.
Assumptions
 In making the model Hoyt made some assumptions

 The model assumes wealthy people who can afford the highest
rentals and rates chose the best sites.
 Wealthy residents can afford private cars or transportation thus
they live further from industry and near main roads.
 Similar land uses attract each other and repel other land uses.
 This process is referred to as sector development
 The city or town as a single CBD or core.
 People need to move from one area of the town to another.
The model
 According to Hoyt areas alongside main roads/communication

lines attract the highest rent and rates.
 The city grows in a series of wedges
 Land use follows transport routes from the CBD.
 Once a certain area has developed a distinctive land use or function
it tends to retain that land use as the city grows outwards
 Hoyt also identifies different residential zones in relation to
income, opportunity and class.
 Sectors thus replace the rings in Burgess and Park s model.
 This is because of unequal access as the city grows outwards along
major routes.
 Major routes attract manufacturing.

 Next to the industrial zone are low class worker s houses for
example Mbare and Leighton industries, Willowvale and
Highfields and Mbare and Graniteside.
 These houses are followed by middle class houses (Waterfalls next
to Mbare) and then high income houses.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Harris and

Ullman s Multi-nuclei model (1945)
They made their study well after the other two models had been
published and thus had the benefit of hindsight and cities had since
grown in size.
Findings
 They realized the fact that modern cities have a more complex
structure than described by the Concentric and Sector models
 Cities usually grow from several independent nuclei rather than or
in addition to the main CBD.
 These cores include sub-urban shopping centers in most modern
cities.
 Each of these nucleus acts as a point of growth and usually has
some of the functions found in the main CBD and other nuclei for
example it might have banks, shopping malls, supermarkets etc
 For example Sam Levy shopping center, Kamphinsa, Westgate,
Makoni shopping centers
 These centers grow with time to merge with each other to form one
large urban center.
 Harris and Ullman were able to study later urban settlements that
had satellite residential and industrial suburbs in their model.
 If the main city becomes too large and congested some functions
may disperse to form new nuclei.
 Multiple nuclei thus develop out of the need for quick access to the
center, to keep certain land uses apart and to decentralise.
 The city of Harare closely approximates this model with the main
large CBD at the center and various nuclei in the form of shopping
centers such as Borrowdale, Same Levy, Machipisa in Highfield,
Kamphinsa in Greendale, Westgate, Pendennis in Mt Pleasant etc.
 It also has satellite towns in Ruwa and Chitungwiza.

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Zimbabwe s
towns and Cities an Introduction
 An urban settlement in Zimbabwe is one whose population is more

than 2 500 or more with the majority of its workers (more than
50%) engaged in non-agricultural activities.
 It must have a compact settlement pattern
 This definition also, by custom, tends to omit Growth Points even
when they meet the definition.
 According to the 2012 census report 33% of the population in
Zimbabwe live in urban areas and 47% of the urban population
lives in Harare
 Most, if not all of Zimbabwe s towns are influenced by their
colonial heritage.
 Each town usually has a core/CBD
 An industrial zone e.g. Willowvale in Harare
 high density or low income residential zone e.g. Highfields in
Harare
 middle income residential zone (middle density suburb) e.g
Cranborne in Harare
 low density or high income residential zone e.g. Borrowdale in
Harare and
 sub-urban commercial centers e.g. Sam Levy and Westgate in
Harare
 Other cities have satellite towns around them for example Norton,
Chitungwiza and Ruwa around Harare
 There are very few large urban settlements in Zimbabwe
 As the number of settlements increases as their size decreases i.e.
there are multiple small urban centers.
 Most urban centers rose out of administrative centers for example
Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Bindura and Marondera act as
provincial administrative centers
 Some towns began as mining centers for example Hwange,
Zvishavane, Shurugwi, Kwekwe, Bindura, Kadoma and Gwanda.
 Some grew as service centers. For example some towns act as
agricultural service centers for surrounding farmlands e.g. Harare,
Gweru, Bulawayo, Mutare etc.
 A few towns grew as tourist/resort towns for example Victoria
Falls, Kariba and Masvingo.

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Transport:
Introduction
 -refers to the means by which goods and people are moved from
one point to another on the earth s surface.
Transport is an outcome of supply (production) and demand
(consumption).
 Goods or raw materials may be produced in one area while
consumers or manufacturers may be found in another area.
 Transport therefore acts as a link between the two.
 For example Cotton has to be transported from farms to the
weaving industries.
 The cloth then has to be transported to clothing industries where
they are turned into clothes.
 The clothes then have to be transported back to the customers.
 Also the spatial distribution of services such as homes and
workplaces creates the need for transport.
 For example people have to be ferried to and from work back to
their homes on a daily basis i.e. commuters.
 People also move to a from places of social and cultural activities.
 Transport is necessitated by distance.
 Wherever there is distance between two places, there will be need
for transport.
Factors affecting transport choice.
 The choice of transport that will be used between two points

depends on the following:
 The type of goods to be transported e.g. liquids can be carried by
pipeline or tankers
 The quantity of goods to be transported e.g. bulky or heavy goods
can be shipped or transported by rail while light goods can be
flown in.
 Quality for example perishables need to be transported quickly to
the market before they go bad.
 The number of people to transport.
 Human preference
 The cost of the type of transport
 Accessibility of the source and destination.
 Availability of roads, navigable river or railway lines to use.

 The affluence of the people involved.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Types of Transport
 Traditional
This refers to forms of transports that have been in use since
antiquity including:
 The human being (porter) i.e. walking, running, carrying goods on
their heads, shoulders or backs.
 Horses
 mules
 donkeys
 camels
 carts
 sledges
 rickshaws
 bicycles
 canoes
 Dhows.
Modern
 This refers to those forms of transport that have been brought

about by modern technological advancements.
 Vehicles for example cars,
 lorries
 tram cars
 buses,
 commuter omnibuses (kombis)
 trains
 ships
 planes
 pipelines
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Human

Beings/Porters
 Using human beings or porters for transport has the following

advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages

 It is cheap especially where small quantities of goods are involved.
 It is easy as there are no special requirements or laws.
 It is readily available.
 It is versatile i.e. humans can carry a variety of goods without the
need for adaptations
 Does not require special transport networks e.g. a railway line as
they can just use tracks.
 Can be used to reach remote areas and areas that are hard to access
using other means of transport e.g. mountainous regions.
Disadvantages
 There is a limit to the quantity of goods that a human being can

carry.
 Humans tire easily.
 It is a slow form of transport.
 Can cheat or steal.
Draught power
 Refers to the use of animals such as elephants, mules, donkeys,
camels and horses
Advantages
 It is cheap
 It is much more readily available
 Can scale steep terrain and reach inaccessible areas.
 Does not require special networks e.g. road/rail
Disadvantages
 Can only carry a limited amount of goods

 It is slow.
 It is not durable
 It can be inefficient and uncertain.

Advantages
 cheap
 clean
versatile
 simple and available technology which makes them easy to
manufacture and repair
 Usually they do not require route permits
Disadvantages
 They only carry a limited amount of goods/people

 Can cause traffic congestion or make it worse.
 They can be tiresome as they are powered by human energy.
 Slow
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Canoes and Dhows
 They are cheap

 clean
 They are versatile as they can carry a variety of goods
 They are simple to manufacture and repair.
Disadvantages
 Cannot carry large amounts of goods and passengers.

 They are very slow.
 They require navigable water bodies and canals.
 They may capsize causing death and/or injury/damage to goods
 Some of them are powered by human energy which can be taxing.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Motor vehicles
Advantages
 Is fast
 They are comfortable e.g. they have air conditioning and heating.
 They are protected from weather elements.
 They can conduct door to door deliveries.

 Independent i.e you can drive them to wherever you like whenever
you want as they do not have fixed time tables or route permits
Disadvantages
 They are expensive to buy and maintain

 They carry fewer passengers
 Most are not versatile e.g. there are kombis, trucks, vans, sedans
etc.
 They can cause fatal accidents.
 They pollute the environment.
 They create congestion
 They require roads.
 They require fuel which might make them expensive to operate
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Buses and Tram

cars
Advantages
 They are fast

 They are punctual
 They carry a lot of passengers at once.
 They are cheaper than other modern modes of transport.
 They have prescribed pick up and drop points (bus stops and
stations)
 The reduce traffic congestion
 They use cheaper fuels (i.e Diesel which is mistily cheaper than
petrol)
 Enjoy economies of scale.
Disadvantages
 They are less versatile
 They are relatively slow.
 Require expensive good quality roads.
 Can cause fatal accidents.

 Cause air pollution
 Thefts can occur at bus stations
 Cannot access some remote areas e.g. some parts of the Eastern
Highlands were roads cannot be constructed.
 Touts who man these buses often cause havoc and chaos
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Trains and rail

transport
Advantages
 Is relatively cheap
 Caries bulk goods such as coal and unprocessed ores
 Carries large amounts of goods and
 Carries large amounts of passengers
 Can be very fast
 They are less prone to accidents
Disadvantages
 Does not provide door to door service.

 Cannot scale steep gradients e.g. Eastern Highlands
 Require railway lines which are expensive to construct.
 Restrictive e.g. trains in the SADC region may be unable to service
other countries as they use different railway gauges.
 Require special handling equipment to load and unload.
 Is not versatile as special trailers are required for some loads.
 Is relatively slower than other forms of transport e.g. air.
 Not suitable for perishable goods.
 In Zimbabwe we have only one track which means trains cannot
pass each other.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Air Transport
Advantages
 Is very fast for example a trip to the Victoria Falls takes 1 hour 15
minutes by air and over 12 hours by road.
 Is comfortable
 Not affected by weather elements.

 Not affected by surface relief
 Can be used in times of emergency for example helicopters are
used in air rescue missions such as after the earthquake in Nepal.
 Can cover large distances without the need to refuel.
 They can take direct routes.
 They can carry high value goods safely for example there are no
air pirates.
Disadvantages
 Airspace is usually restricted and controlled by host countries as a

matter of national security.
 They can be affected by extreme weather conditions e.g. cyclones.
 Require expensive air ports to take off and land.
 Airports are usually located far away from residential and
industrial areas which means additional modes of transport are
required.
 They are very expensive to purchase and maintain.
 Accidents are almost always fatal and costly in damage terms.
 Prone to sabotage and terrorism.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Sea Transport
Advantages
 Is relatively cheaper.
 Caries bulky goods at once
 They are very comfortable for example cruise ships and ocean
liners are often fitted with luxury facilities such as bathrooms,
toilets, casinos and entertainment facilities.
 Easy handling of goods for example RoRo ships.
Disadvantages
 Slower than other forms of transport e.g. air.

 Requires good ports
 Requires special handling equipment to load and unload.
 Can be susceptible to weather hazards such as cyclones.
 Accidents can cause damage to people, goods and the environment
for example Oil leaks.

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Pipeline
Advantages
 They are very efficient

 They are cheap once the installation has been completed.
 They can carry fluids in bulk.
Disadvantages
 They are immobile i.e. the route cannot be changed once they are
installed.
 Can only carry fluids such as oil, gas and water and not solids like
meat.
 They are very expensive to install and maintain.
 They are easy to sabotage e.g. the RENAMO bandits constantly
threatened and sabotaged Zimbabwe s Beira-Feruka pipeline
during the Mozambican Civil War.
 Leaks and damage can be difficult to detect if the pipeline is
underground.
 Special pipelines are required to carry flammables.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Weathering
 Earth movements (plate tectonics) create and lead to the

development of the earth s major landforms for example Block
Mountains, volcanic cones, lava plateaus and rift valleys.
 As soon as they are formed denudation processes attack, expose
and gradually wear these landforms away.
 Denudation is a term that is used to describe the forces that wear
away the land surface it includes the processes of weathering,
erosion, transportation and mass wasting.
Weathering
 Weathering refers to the weakening, breaking up, and

disintegration of rocks that form the surface of the ground and lie
exposed to the weather elements in situ.
 The little phrase in situ is a Latin phrase which simply means in
its original place / stationary.

Examiners at ZIMSEC, Cambridge and other examining bodies often
ask students to distinguish between weathering and erosion.
Weathering Erosion
Washing away of soil by
Breaking down of rocks
either wind, water or ice.
Happens in situ (is static) Washing away of top soil
Produces gullies and
Produces inselbergs and karst landscapes
dongas
Caused mostly by temperature variances and
Caused by the movement
acid rain (i.e there are two types chemical and
of water, wind and ice
mechanical)
Mass wasting
Creep movement on a slope. Image credit Myschoolstuff.co.za
 is the movement of regolith and other weathered material en masse

due to the force of gravity.
 It takes place in the form of mudslides and rock falls when a semi-
liquid spongy mass falls down a slope as a single mass as opposed
say to erosion when the soil and regolith is washed down the slope
instead.
 Mass wasting includes such processes as creeping, soil and rock
slides, topples and falls.
 It can take place at a slow almost imperceptible pace as in creep or
quickly in the form of sudden rock falls and landslides.
 There are two types of weathering:
1. Physical/Mechanical weathering.
2. Chemical weathering.
NB Aspects of biological weathering are either grouped as being

physical or chemical depending with their nature, a criterion which
ZIMSEC seems to favour at Ordinary Level.

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Main types of weathering:
Chemical weathering
 Chemical weathering is the breaking down or decomposition of

rocks as a result of various chemical processes and reactions
altering the chemical components of the rock.
 Some types of rocks decompose when they come into contact with
water, oxygen, carbon dioxide and other naturally occurring acids
such as in the soil.
 These acids include humic acids, carbonic acids, acid rain and
smog (which is fog laced with toxic and sometimes corrosive
materials).
 Some minerals in the rocks for example calcium are susceptible to
chemical reaction.
 They undergo chemical changes and fall of the rock leading to the
reduction of the rock s size.
 Chemical weathering processes include oxidation, hydration,
hydrolysis, carbonation, organic weathering and acid rain.
 Chemical weathering is most prevalent in humid zones, against
reactive minerals in rocks at typically at the base of slopes where it
is likely to be wet and humid for extended periods of time to allow
the chemical processes to occur.
Oxidation
 Occurs when rocks or more specifically certain minerals within the

rocks are exposed to and react with oxygen in the air or water.
 The most prevalent of these is when rocks containing iron
compounds react with oxygen to in a form of oxidation
called rusting as the rock is transformed from what is known as a
ferrous state to a ferric state.
 During rusting rocks change their colour and become reddish-
brown (the colour of rust).
 This compromises the integrity and structure of the rock making
them crumble easily thus aiding other forms of weathering as well.
 Reduction (the opposite of oxidation) also occurs in waterlogged
areas where a process called gleying takes place.
Hydration

 Some types of rocks for example those that contain salt minerals
have the capacity to absorb water into their structure causing them
to swell and become susceptible to future breakdown.
 Hydration is in actual fact a physical-chemical weathering
processes since the rocks swell and exert pressure in addition to
changing their chemical structure.
 The rock swell during wet periods and contract during dry periods
causing them to fracture and to develop joints and weaknesses.
 For example anhydrite absorbs water to become gypsum.
Hydrolysis
 Hydrogen ions in water react with minerals ions in the rock

 That is the water reacts with minerals in the rock instead of
dissolving it.
 This gives rise to different compounds.
 This is very common in granite areas
 Where the feldspar in the granite/igneous reacts with hydrogen to
form clay.
 Mica another rock mineral can also be affected by hydrogen in
acidic water solutions.
Carbonation
 This is when carbon dioxide dissolves with rain water to form

carbonic acid.
 This weak acid reacts with rocks that are composed of calcium
carbonate for example limestone.
 The calcium is dissolved and removed in as a calcium bicarbonate
solution by running water.
 The may result in the formation of landform features such as
Underground caves such as the Chinhoyi caves as well as other
limestone features such as stalagmites and stalactites.
Solution
 Some minerals like rock salt are soluble in water

 When they come in contact with water they just dissolve in situ.

 As the rocks dissolve in water they may form clints and
grikes/grykes which are collectively known as limestone
pavements.
Organic Weathering
 Decomposing vegetation (humus) releases humic acid.

 This acid attacks calcium, magnesium and iron minerals within
rocks in a process called chelation.
 The respiration of bacteria and plant root increases carbon dioxide
levels within the soil thus accelerating the process of carbonation.
 Lichen extracts iron from rocks via reduction.
Acid rain
 Human and economic activities are realising more and more

carbon dioxide into the atmosphere together with other chemicals
such as Sulphur dioxide and nitric oxide.
 These gases then dissolved into rain water to form acidic solutions.
 Acid rain attacks and corrode limestones and at a lesser rapid rate
sandstones.
 Also the acidic solutions tend to free up oxygen ions thus fueling
the process of hydrolysis.
Physical weathering
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Physical Weathering
 Physical weathering is the disintegration of a rock into smaller

particles by mechanical processes and without any changes in the
 It is more likely to occur in arid climates such as deserts, arctic
regions and areas that have little to no vegetation.
 Physical weathering typically produces sand soils.
 Physical weathering is also known as mechanical weathering.
 Physical weathering processes include exfoliation, frost shattering,
pressure release and thermal shattering.
Exfoliation

 Rocks expand when heated and contract when cooled much like all
solid materials.
 In deserts and areas with scant vegetation, diurnal temperatures can
exceed 50°C.
 During the excessive day heat the rocks expand.
 The outer layers of the rocks expand faster than the inner layers.
 At night the when temperatures drop, in deserts evening
temperatures can and usually fall to below freezing point, the rock
contracts and again the outer layers cool faster than the inner
layers.
 This results in stresses being set up within the rock causing outer
layers of the rock to peel off like the rings of an onion.
 Thus the process is sometimes called onion weathering.
 Also several different minerals within the rock expand and contract
at different rates depending on their physical characteristics.
 This will result in granular disintegration with the rock.
 This is the process that was thought to result in the creation of
exfoliation domes like Domboshava.
 This form of weathering is also known as thermal expansion or
insolation weathering.
NB At Ordinary Level you are supposed to accept this method of

weathering as fact. The occurrence of this method of weathering in the
real world is nowadays seriously doubted after a series of experiments
by people like David Griggs and others.
Frost shattering
 It occurs in rocks that have crevices and joints and where there is
limited vegetation cover and temperatures revolve fluctuate around
0°C.
 During the day when temperatures are warmer, water enters the
crevices or joints.
 When temperatures fall at night the water freezes leading to
breakdown:
 Ice occupies more space than water i.e as the temperature of water
falls below 4°C it starts to expand.
 As the water freezes within the rock it attracts more small particles
of water which forms more ice crystals and expands further,
fueling the process.

 With each freeze and thaw cycle the joints expand until the rocks
shatter and fall off the main rock as blockfields, scree and talus.
 The process is also known as frost wedging
Salt crystallization
 Saline(water containing salt) water enters pore spaces in rocks.

 As it evaporates salt crystals are likely to form.
 This process usually occurs in deserts where water is drawn to the
surface of rocks (sandstone rocks) by capillary action.
 As the crystals become larger they exert stress upon the rocks
causing it to disintegrate ( granular disintegration).
 Salt crystallization occurs on costs where there is a ready supply of
salt water.
 The process results in the development of weathering pits.
Pressure release
Intrusive granite landforms such as batholiths are formed deep below the
surface and under intense pressure due to the weight of the overlying
overburden.
 If the overburden is removed by denudation processes there is a

substantial reduction in pressure.
 The reduction in pressure causes fractures to develop especially on
the top layers of the rock.
 These cracks develop parallel to the surface in a process that is
referred to as sheeting.
 This results in the formation of exfoliation domes like
Domboshava
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Factors affecting weathering.
 The rate and prevailing type of weathering at any given place is

affected by:
1. Climate
2. Relief
3. Vegetation
4. Rock type

Climate
 Weathering types are distributed according to the prevailing

climate of given areas especially when considering.
 Temperature and rainfall have the greatest effect on weathering.
 In cold areas especially regions where temperatures fluctuate
around 0°C physical weathering in the form of frost shatter
(freeze-thaw) is dominant.
 In hot areas such as deserts where there are large diurnal
temperature ranges exfoliation insolation weathering (heating and
cooling) is dominant.
 In hot and wet areas like the savannah and rainforest chemical
weathering takes place in aided by the easily available moisture
and high temperatures which favour chemical reactions.
 In rain forests the decomposition of humus creates humic acid
leading to organic weathering.
 Mechanical weathering processes.
 Thus chemical weathering occurs is dominant in hot and humid
climate areas
 Climate also indirectly affect weathering by affecting the amount
of vegetation and presence of organisms that can lead to chemical
weathering.
Relief
 Mountain regions have steep slopes which means that in the event
of rain they drain quickly leaving the dry.
 As a result physical weathering is dominant at mountain topics
especially when considering how some peaks tend to have
temperatures that fluctuate around the freezing point even if
temperatures are quite higher at the start of the slopes.
 Moisture tends to accumulate at the base of mountains aiding
chemical weathering processes.
 Granite regions sometimes lead to the development of vleis which
are water logged since granite is impermeable thus favouring
chemical weathering in the moist conditions.
Vegetation

 Tree roots penetrate into rocks, widening cracks, release carbon
dioxide during respiration resulting in biological weathering. These
processes are naturally dominant in areas where there are more
trees.
 When tree roots decay humic acids are produced causing
biological weathering a process which more readily occurs in areas
with dense vegetation cover and moisture such as in rainforests and
in the tropics.
 Lichen and moss grow on rock plateaus and domes aided by
moisture from rain and at the base of slopes forming acids that eat
into rocks.
Rock type
 Limestone is very soft and porous (being porous is not the same
thing as being impervious/impermeable) and therefore more easily
affected by processes such as carbonation, more so given the
 Granite rock is hard and non-porous and thus less susceptible to
chemical weathering processes which require a certain amount of
moisture in order to occur.
 Different rock types are composed or different chemicals that stand
on different places of the reactivity series.
 Chemicals found in limestone readily react with weak acids while
granite rocks are more resistant.
Exposure
 Rocks that are exposed to the surface tend to be weathered faster

than bedrock which is covered.
 However mechanical weathering processes such as pressure
release can still occur if the overburden is being removed by
denudation processes.

weathering.
 Weathering processes and usually in conjunction with other

denudation processes such as water and wind erosion and mass
wasting results in the formation of various landscapes.

 In temperate and tropical latitudes these include:
1.Inselbergs/Monadnocks
 The word inselberg is German for island mountain

 Monadnock is West Indian for isolated mountain.
 An inselberg or monadnock is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or
small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or
virtually level surrounding plain.
 They are hills made up of rock piles or blocks of rocks that rise
from an area of relatively flat and/or lower terrain.
 If the monadnock is dome-shaped and formed from granite-gneiss,
it can also be called a bornhardt.
 Common inselbergs include: castle kopjes, tors , balancing rocks
and conical hills with rectangular sides.
Weathering also forms:
2) Ruwares/Dwalas/Whalebacks
3) Karst landscapes
4) Mountain peaks that are usually made up of rocks when the mountain
core is exposed.

weathering: Dwala
 Known as ruware in Shona, dwala in Ndebele (Nguni languages)
and whaleback in English.
 An example is Domboshava where several such landforms can be
found.
 It is a hill or rock which is dome shaped and rises several metres
from the ground.
 It is a near level rock outcrop, that develops where the basal
surface is undulating.
 Dwalas are gently sloping,low lying and rounded or elongated
hills.
 They are about 2-5m in height.

 They have a gentle, convex summit that is usually smooth but can
have sheet joints as a result of pressure release and regolith that is
onion-peel shaped as a result of exfoliation.
 Its slopes are convex/rectilinear and gentle.
 Might also have vertical joints which begin as fractures as a result
of pressure release but are further widened weathering processes.
 They are surrounded by deeply weathered regolith
 They are usually bare of vegetation but can be lightly populated by
shrubs and bushes.
The formation of dwalas
The diagrams below detail the possible formation of a dwala.
An underground intrusion e.g. batholith is exposed by denudation.
The overburden is removed by denudation processes resulting in

pressure release and the formation of a dwala/ruware.
A dwala/ruware is formed when the overbuden is removed.

Weathering: Kopjes
Tors/Kopjes/Castle kopjes
 Tors/kopjes/castle kopjes are inselbergs.

 Tors the same as kopjes even though some books make an attempt
to distinguish between the two.
 Different names are applied in different localities to what are
essentially the same landforms.
 Kopje is an Afrikaans word meaning a small and isolated hill made
of granite rock piles.
 Tor is a Scotish word meaning hill.
 They appear appear as a large, free-standing rock outcrop that
rises abruptly from the surrounding smooth and gentle slopes of a
rounded hill summit or ridge crest.

 They are resistant rock features that have been made by
weathering.
 They are usually less than 5 meters in height.
 They are a result of marginal subsurface weathering of domed
landforms.
 Granite intrusions are weathered beneath the surface due to acidic
water penetrating joints in the rock.
 When the rock is exposed the rotten parts are washed away by
erosion.
 Weathering continues in the form of both mechanical and chemical
weathering.
 Because these rocks have rectangular joints, chemical and
mechanical weathering takes place in these joints.
 The regolith (weathered/rotten parts of the rock) is stripped away
by erosion to form a kopje/tor.
 If the joints are close together the whole mass collapses and is
washed away,
 However if the joints a wider blocks of rocks fall away from the
main rock creating tors/kopjes.
 They are sometimes remnants of dwalas and bornhardts such as
Dwalas/ Bornhadts and inselbergs/Monadnocks.
 They are usually found in temperate latitudes.
 Because of their morphology (shape) kopjes are known is some
localities as castle kopjes.
Balancing rocks
 These are a result of continued weathering on kopjes and tors.

 If the joints in the rocks that form kopjes and tors are further apart
massive chunks of rock may withstand the denudation processes to
remain balancing one on top of another.
 An example are the Balancing Rocks in Epworth.
Limestone pavements
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Limestone pavements
 Limestone pavements are flat areas of exposed limestone rocks.

 They are part of the dissolved bedding plate which may have been
exposed because the surface soil may have been removed by
glacial activity and never replaced.
 Where the pavement has joints that reach the surface, these joints
may be widened by acid rain water.
 This process is called carbonation.
 The widening of the joints leaves deep incisions/gashes/fissures
called grikes.
 Some grikes such as found in the Limestone regions of England
can be about half a meter wide.
 Separating the grikes are flat-topped yet dissected blocks referred
to as clints.
 As time passes these clints are levelled by denudation processes
including the widening of the grikes until a lower bedding plane is
exposed.
 This bedding plane s joints are in turn attacked by weathering in
the form of carbonation forming grikes and thus repeating the
process all over again.
 Grikes can also be formed by subsurface weathering in much the
same way as tors are formed.
 Acidic water may seep into the ground into joints in the underlying
limestone bedding rock.
 Over time it widens these joints and when the overlying soil is
washed away by erosion the clints and grikes are exposed.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: People and weathering
How humans influence weather?
 Human activities such as industrialisation and driving of cars

produce emissions such as sulphur dioxide,nitric oxide and carbon
dioxide leading to increased incidences of acid rain which in turn
accelerates chemical weathering processes such as carbonation.
 These industries sometimes dump acidic chemicals into drains and
rivers leading to chemical weathering.
 Deforestation increases runoff and reduces the moisture retention
of certain areas leading to a decrease in biological and chemical
weathering and an increase in mechanical weathering.

 Humans are also indirectily affecting weathering through the
process of global warming. The effects depend on the ensuing
climatic conditions in each given area.
 Plating of trees can lead to increased chemical weathering.
 Blasting and mining operations can lead to seismic movements that
can create fractures that can be exploited by weathering processes
such as freeze and thaw and crystallization thus aiding weathering.
Benefits of weathering to people.
 Creates tourist attractions for example the balancing rocks in

Epworth draw regular crowds bringing in much needed income to
the community dwellers.
 It produces soil which is essential for agricultural activities,
biodiversity and development of vegetation.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: River processes:Basic

Concepts.
 Rivers are perhaps the most important denudation agent.

 They carve channels, form valleys,transport and deposit regolith
over great distances and other material to form other types of
landforms.
Terms used in describing a river channel.
 A channel is an area that contains flowing water confined by

banks.
 Channel width is the distance in meters across the surface of a
river, it is the distance between the two banks i.e. the distance from
bank to the other.
 Depth is the distance in meters of the level of water down to the
river bed. This is the vertical distance from the surface to the bed.
 Gradient/Slope is the angle between the horizon and the river s
surface.
 Velocity is the speed at which the water flows through the channel.
Speed is low at the sides near the banks and at the river bed due to
friction and highest at the center.
 The source is where the river begins.

 The mouth is where a river empties/ends usually into a lake, sea or
ocean.
Flow of water in streams
 Rivers always flow downstream because of the pull of gravity.

 A river s erosion, transport and deposition depends on the flow of
water in its channel.
 This flow is determined by several factors viz:
 The energy which is provided by gravity and is affected directly
by they gradient of the river s bed the steeper the slope the more
energy a river has.
 Volume is the amount of water in a river s channel. Volume
increases during the wet seasons when most of the precipitation
occurs or if a river s course passes through a region experiencing
wet climatic conditions
 Conversely a river s volume falls during dry seasons such as
winter and spring in Zimbabwe or if it passes through arid
conditions/regions experiencing dry conditions.
 The nature of flow also affects and channel shape also affect a
river s energy.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: River Profile
 Rivers can be studied from two aspects viz:

 The long profile-this is the cross section along the river s entire
length from its source to its mouth.
 The short profile-this is the cross section across a river s valley
from the crest line( on one bank) to the channel to the other
crest line. This is known as the river s valley.
 There is only one cross profile but an innumerable short profiles
that can be taken at any point in a river s length.
 The short profile however tends to widen the further one moves
downstream.
 The diagram above shows the three main sections of a
river/stream s long profile and the diagram below shows the
corresponding typical short profiles at each stage.

Short profiles that correspond to the long profile.
 A river s long profile can be divided into three sections viz:

 the upper course or headwater reaches, the middle course or
middle reaches, the lower course or the lower reaches.
 The base level of a river is the lowest point a river can erode its
channel, this is equal to the sea level of the ocean into which the
river empties.
Upper course
 it has a steep gradient, less volume of water, there is eddying and

splashing as the water flows turbulently.
 Common features include:V-shaped narrow valleys, potholes,
interlocking spurs, water falls and rapids, gorges, strewn boulders.
 The most dominant form of erosion is vertical erosion and
headward erosion also takes place.
Middle course
 Its less steep, has more water volume, a wider channel and more
velocity due to reduced channel roughness.
 Common features include: Open V-shaped valleys, truncated
spurs, meanders, ox-bow lakes and braids.
 Erosion is mostly in the form of lateral erosion.
Lower course
 Is flat and has a very wide channel with less energy.

 Common features include: bluffs and other flood plain features
such as swamps, braiding, deltas, alluvial fans, deferred junctions
and natural levees.
 These features are mostly due to deposition which is more
dominant than erosion due to the reduced river energy due to the
lower gradient and increased wetted perimeter.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: River Erosion
 River erosion involves the wearing away of rock and soil found
along the river bed and banks.

 It also involves the breaking down of the rock particles being
carried downstream by the river.
 There are four main processes of erosion.
 These are corrasion, attrition, hydraulic action and solution (also
known as corrosion).
Corrasion
 Is the wearing down of the sides and bed of the river by the load as
it is being transported by the river.
 Corrasion occurs when a river picks up material and rubs its bed
and bank wear them away by abrasion like sandpaper.
 Corrasion therefore happens when the river s sides and bed are
scrapped off by the material being transported by the river.
 This process is most pronounced during flooding.
 This is the major means of erosion by which a river extends both
vertically and horizontally.
 If there are hollows in the river bed, pebbles can get trapped in
these and whirled by turbulent eddies (in circular motion) to form
potholes.
 When pebbles are trapped in existing potholes these are deepened
further by the whirling pebbles.
 Corrasion wears away the channel s river bed and add more
material to the river s load thus amplifying the processes as more
load means more corrasion.
Attrition
 Is a process by which the river s own load is broken down from

larger particles into smaller ones.
 This happens because the river s load which is made up of
different sized particles which collide and knock into each other
causing them to break into smaller fragments.
 As the load progresses downstream it gets smaller and smaller.
 Also angular rocks become increasingly rounded.
Hydraulic Action
 refers to the sheer force and turbulence of the moving water which
can be able to remove loose material such as gravel, sand and silt.

 This force can also weaken solid rocks by surging into cracks in
the rock.
 This processes can be aided when there is air in the cracks which is
compressed causing eventual bank collapse.
 Cavitation is a form of hydraulic action caused by bubbles of air
collapsing and the resultant shock waves hit and weaken the banks
of the river.
 Hydraulic action by itself is very effective if the river does not
have some load to produce corrosive erosion/abrasive erosion.
 Hydraulic action is the weakest and least effective form of erosion.
Solution or Corrosion
 The water in the river dissolves some soluble rocks such as rock
salt and sometimes limestone.
 This is most effective in areas where the stream bed and banks are
composed of soluble rock for example in limestone regions.
 This method of erosion takes place all the time and is independent
of a river s velocity or discharge.
 It is similar to the chemical weathering process of solution.
 The river s corrosive ability is aided, however, if there are acids
within it.
Forms of Erosion
 The above four processes make up a river s erosion processes.

 River erosion takes place in three ways:
 Headward erosion, lateral erosion and vertical erosion.
Headward Erosion
 Is the processes by which a river increases its length upstream.

 This is achieved by a river cutting back at its source.
 Rain wash and soil creep are other processes by which a river
extends its channel up the slope.
Lateral Erosion

Forms of Erosion, Up arrow shows headward erosion, the two arrows
lateral erosion/widening or channel and the downpointin arrow vertical
erosion. Image Credit WikiCommons
 The processes by which the river s sides are worn away and the
channel being extended in width.
 This is more pronounced along the bends (outside banks) of
meanders.
Vertical Erosion
 This is a process by which a river deepens its channel.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: River Transportation

Processes.
 Any energy left after a river has overcome friction is used to

transport sediment.
 This energy varies directly with a river s discharge, velocity and
turbulence
 That is if they increase the amount of a river s energy to erode
and transport also increases until a river reaches flooding level
when deposition is likely to occur due to an increase in the wetted
perimeter and thus friction.
 There are three main processes by which a river s load is
transported:
 suspension, solution and bedload (sometimes divided into saltation
and traction making them four methods instead of three in this
case).
Suspension
 This is when light silt and mud floats along with the water.
 Very fine particles of silt and clay are dislodged and carried away
in the turbulence of the flowing water.
 The greater the turbulence the greater larger the quantity and size
of particles picked up by and carried away by the river.
 This partly explains why flooded river often have mud coloured
water, it is due to the heavy amounts of suspended material with
the water.

 The suspended material usually forms the largest part of a river s
total load.
 It increases in amount towards a river s mouth also giving the
black/brownish colour to the water that is similar to that of most
rivers after a storm.
Solution/Dissolved Load
 Is when material dissolves in the water and is carried away in

solution form for example rock salt.
 Flowing water within river channels almost always contain acids in
the form carbonic and nitrous acids especially after a storm or due
to pollution.
 This dissolves the bedrock especially if it is soluble for example
limestone.
 It dissolves in water and is carried away in solution form.
 This is a very active form of transportation in limestone regions
and in other regions it forms a comparatively small part of the
load.
Bedload
 Is divided into two processes traction and saltation.

 Saltation is when smaller particles bounce along the bed of the
river.
 Traction is when larger boulders and pebbles roll and are dragged
along the river s bed.
 Since larger particles cannot be picked up by the current they are
moved along the bed of the river in these two ways.
 Saltation happens when pebbles,sand and gravel are temporarily
lifted up by the river s current and bounced along the bed of the
river in a hopping motion.
 Traction occurs when the largest cobbles and boulders roll or slide
along the bed of the river.
 The largest loads can only be moved in this way during flood
periods for example after a storm.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: River deposition

 Deposition occurs when a river no longer as sufficient energy to
transport its load.
 When its velocity begins to fall and has less energy, a river s
competence (maximum size of material which a river is capable of
transporting) and capacity ( maximum amount of load that a river
is capable of transporting) falls and therefore deposition begins.
 Deposition occurs when:
 Discharge is reduced after a period of low precipitation.
 Velocity is reduced upon the river reaching the dam, lake,sea or
ocean resulting in the formation of deltas.
 Shallow water occurs on the inside section of a meander for
example.
 The load is suddenly increased for example in the event of a
landslide for instance when a portion of bank collapses into the
river.
 When the river overflows its banks so that the velocity outside the
channel is reduced resulting in the formation of a floodplain.
 During floods, especially in the lower course rivers spread to the
sides of the channel.
 Frictional drag and the reduced gradient slow down the flowing
water resulting in deposition.
 Deposition occurs along the entire course of the river:
1. On the channel bed.

2. The river valley floor especially during floods.
3. On the river s banks as in a meander.
4. At the river s mouth when it empties into the sea.
NB Deposition occurs at any part of a river s course depending on a

river s energy and velocity. The division of a river into stages is
therefore useful but by no means conclusive.
Deposition
 When the river loses its energy to any of the reasons pointed out
above the following happens.
 The heaviest material/load is deposited first this is why rivers are
littered with boulders in the upper course.
 This is because traction load and siltation loads require more
energy to transport.

 The finest material is deposited last and may reach the sea where it
is deposited onto and to form deltas.
 The dissolved load which is in solution water is deposited at all but
transported to the sea where it maintains the saltiness of oceans.
 The deposition of sand and silt leads to the development of a
gently sloping plain known as a flood plain.
 Deposition can result in aggredation where the river s bed and
gradient are increased. This can happen at deltas and on alluvial
fans.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes

 The following factors affect the river s energy and ability to
erode, transport and deposit its load.
 Type of flow, gradient of channel, volume/discharge, cross-
sectional channel shape, channel roughness.
Type of flow
 When water flows downhill under gravity it follows the path of

least resistance.
 There are two patterns of flow: laminar and turbulent.
 Laminar-is a horizontal movement of water in a river with
minimal vertical mixing.
 The water is in layer, such a form of flow would result in minimal
erosion and more deposition
 In reality such a type of flow does not exist although something
close to this can be observed in flat terrain when rivers are
relatively calm during their flow.
 Turbulent flow-consists of a series of vertical and horizontal
eddies and a lot of vertical mixing of the water as it flows
downhill.
 Turbulent flow results in more erosion and transportation and this
form of flow increases with an increase in a river s energy.
Gradient of the channel
 The gradient of the channel determines a river s ability to erode,

transport and deposit its load.

 The upper course of a river is associated with steep gradients
therefore a lot of velocity and energy and therefore river erosion
and transportation takes place in the upper course.
 The middle and lower course have a much gentler gradient and
therefore the slower moving waters have less erosive power and
therefore more deposition takes place and less transportation and
erosion.
Discharge/Volume
 As already said, water flows in response to the pull of gravity

which is also determined by the mass and in turn the volume of the
moving water.
 Rivers have less water in the upper course because of most have
fewer tributaries at this stage therefore they have less energy to
erode.
 Middle course and lower course river sections have higher
volumes of water since they have more upstream tributaries at this
stage resulting in more energy to transport and erode and transport
in terms of water volume.
Cross Sectional Channel shape.
 Channel A has a larger wetted perimeter which means more

friction and leaves less energy to erode its bed and to transport
load.
 Channel B has a smaller a smaller wetted perimeter resulting in
more vertical erosion because it has more energy left over from
overcoming friction.
 In terms of channel cross section upper course streams have more
energy to erode when compared to lower and middle course
streams.
Channel Roughness
Channel roughness channel A) is typical in the upper course streams and

B) in the lower course streams

 Upper course streams encounter more friction due to their rough
channels which are a result of protruding boulders and rocky
outlines. This means such channels will have less energy left over
to erode and transport their load.
 Middle and Lower course streams have more energy to transport
and erode since they have smooth channels resulting in less
friction.
Conclusion
 More erosion takes place in the middle course since the channels
are smooth, the gradient steeper than in the lower course, the
wetted perimeter smaller than in the lower course and the volume
of water is high.
 A lot of vertical erosion takes place in the upper course.
 Most deposition takes place in the lower course of the river since
the gradient is smaller, the wetted perimeter larger, and the
gradient considerably less steep when compared to the other two
courses.
NB It is important to remember that this is a generalised approach since

erosion, deposition and transportation can take place in any part of the
course due to various circumstances regardless of the course of the river.
ZIMSEC Geography Notes: Landforms resulting from river

processes
Topics linked to this page are currently being edited and may change
appearance or be unavailable.
 A river through its processes of erosion, transportation and

deposition forms several landforms.
 These can be broadly divided into those landforms resulting from
erosion and deposition.
Landforms resulting mainly from erosion
1. Narrow valleys
2. Interlocking spurs
3. Waterfalls and rapids
4. Pot holes

5. Gorges
Those resulting from mainly deposition
1. Flood Plains
2. Meanders
3. Ox-bow lakes
4. Braids
5. Levées
6. Deltas
Click on each one to learn more about it and where it is most likely to be
formed in a river s course.
It is important to note that this division into landforms as either resulting

from deposition or erosion is not hard and fast as it would appear. For
example a lot of river features such as floodplains and meanders are
formed by both erosion and deposition acting in tandem.
Also minor river features such as bluffs (sometimes known as river cliffs
or bluff lines), point bars, pools and riffles are included in the
descriptions of river landforms that they are often associated with.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Floodplains and Levees
Floodplain
 These are typically found in the middle and lower course sections
of the river.
 They are gently sloping surfaces of alluvium that result from
lateral erosion and material deposited onto the valley floor.
 A flood plain commonly has the following river features alluvium,
marshes, meanders and ox-bow lakes which are remnants of cut off
meanders.
 When a river is in flood it overflows its banks and covers the
whole plain upon which it deposits some of its load.
 The continual deposition results in the formation of levees.
 These are ridge like features resulting from deposition.
 Flood plains may become so large and wide the the edges of the
meanders may not be able to reach the sides of the valley for
example the Nile River and the (Yellow River) Huang Ho.

 In meanders both lateral and vertical erosion takes place resulting
in the removal of the original floodplain and the formation of a
new one.
 The pieces that survive the erosion form terraces which have
varying heights and often times the heights of terraces might not
match those on the other side.
 This differentiates these terraces from the ones formed by river
rejuvenation.
 The river Benue has a well developed flood plain.
 It is important to note that floodplains are both a depositional and
erosional feature.
Natural terraces resulting from successive erosion of floodplains. Image

credit Kent.edu
Levees and tributaries with deferred junctions
 Flooding causes deposition to take place on a river s banks

because the water is slower there and therefore has less energy to
transport the load.
 As already said above, continued flooding results in the formation
of raised banks.
 These ridges are known as natural levees.
 Most flooding takes place at the edges of the channel since the
water is slower
 The river then flows above the level of the floodplain which causes
tributaries to defer joining with the main stream.
 Tributaries flow parallel to the river, with some flowing into
depressions resulting into swamps, while others eventually join the
main river further downstream forming what are known as
deferred junctions.
 Rivers that flow above the flood plain present great risk of
flooding to nearby settlements for example the (Yellow
River)Huang Ho in China and the Mississippi in the United States.
Swamps/Marshes
 This is stagnant water that is clogged with water loving vegetation.

 They occur in the flood plain due to frequent flooding and where
tributaries fail to enter the main stream (i.e. deferred junctions
where a tributary flows over a depression).
Bluffs
 This is a prominent slope that mark the edge of a floodplain.

 These steep promontory cliffs are sometimes found on the outside
bend of a meander.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Meanders and Ox-bow lakes
Meanders
 Meanders are pronounced bends in a river s course

 They are formed when a river twists and turn in wide bends.
 They are common on the floodplain but can develop in any part of
the river s course.
 Meandering is a common behaviour of fluids that avoid a straight
path to flow in a twisting and turning path.
 It is believed that meandering is a thermodynamics behaviour that
maximizes velocity and reduces friction.
 Other experts have theorized that Meanders start when friction
with the channel bed and banks causes turbulence in the water
flow.
 This results helicoidal flow.
 This is a corkscrew like movement of the water as it spirals

downstream from bank to bank as shown in the diagram above.
 This often occurs during floods and results in the formation of
meanders and their associated features such as pools and riffles.
Helicoidal flow in a meander and the resulting features at each point.

Image credit WordPress.com
Pools and riffles

 Pool-this is a deep section in a meander where a lot of erosion
takes place where the river s energy builds up due to reduced
friction and the water has higher velocity.
 Riffle-this is a shallow section in a river where there is deposition
due to reduced capacity in a river resulting from energy dissipation
(reduction) in a river due to increased friction and a reduction in a
river s velocity.
 The spacing of the pools and riffles are fairly regular in a river
channel about six to five times the width of the channel.
 Helicoidal flow is responsible for the erosion on the outside bends
and then depositing it into the inside bends of meanders.
Point bars and meander cross section
 Water flows fastest on the outer bend (concave bank) of the river
where the channel is deeper and there is less friction.
 It erodes this bank laterally by attrition and hydraulic action.
 There also vertical erosion which deepens the channel, which
reduces friction and increases in energy results in further erosion.
 The lateral erosion results in undercutting of the river bank and the
formation of a steep sided river cliff these cliffs are also known as
bluffs.
 the inner bend water is slow flowing, due to it being a low energy
zone, deposition occurs resulting in a shallower channel.
 This increased friction further reduces the velocity (thus further
reducing energy), encouraging further deposition.
 Over time a small river beach or runoff slope builds up on the
inner bend.
 The greater erosion of the concave bank occurs just downstream of
the axis of the meander bend, because the course of the maximum
velocity zone in the channel does not reflect the meander shape.
 This causes meander to migrate down the valley.
 The lateral erosion of the meanders and their migration widen the
flood plain.
 A point bar is a depositional feature made of alluvium that
accumulates on the inside bend of streams and rivers below the
slip-off slope.
 They are crescent-shaped and located on the inside of a stream
bend of meanders.

 They show the former positions of a meander during its
downstream migration.
 The term is sometimes used synonymously with slip-0ff slopes
although the term slip-off slope is used to refer to the cross section
and the term point bar is used to refer to the aerial view.
Point bars and cut banks
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Waterfalls and Rapids
Waterfalls and Rapids
 Waterfalls commonly occur in the upper course section of the river

although they can occur at any part in a river s course.
 There are various ways in which a waterfall/rapid can be formed.
 A sharp break in the bed of a river produces a waterfall.
 A band of resistant rock with a vertical face overlying less resistant

rock produces a waterfall when it is exposed at the surface by river
erosion can also result in the development of a waterfall.
 A rapid is formed if the rock lies at a steep angle but is not vertical.
A waterfall can also develop when resistant rock overlies a less resistant
is horizontal or dips gently up river.
 A rapid might be formed first in such instances but continued

erosion at the base of the pool will resulting into the rapid
developing into a waterfall.
 A rapid develops when the resistant rock, overlying a less resistant

rock dips gently down river.
 The Victoria Falls are the widest falls in the world.
 They may have developed as a result of the river Zambezi uplift of
an almost horizontal basaltic plateau.
 Where a river flows across a line of weakness it erodes vertically
to form a waterfall.
 The Victoria Falls may also have been formed in this way.

 It has retreated upstream along fault lines and might cease to exist
one day.
 A river might descend the scarp in areas of faulting resulting in a
waterfall at the knickpoint.
 A waterfall may also be formed where a river descends from a
highland area(for example a plateau) into a lowland area.
 A river might erode backwards to undercut and divert the water of
a neighbouring stream and the point of capture is marked by a
waterfall.
 An example is the Pungwe Falls which marks the point where the
Pungwe River captured the waters of the Nyakupinga river which
is a tributary of the river Odzi in the Eastern Highlands.
Plunge pools
 Is deep pool that is formed at the base of waterfalls due the
swirling water eroding the base of the waterfall via hydraulic
action and corrasion aided by bits of the hard rock that falls into
the pool and becomes part of the load and the eddying and
turbulent motion of the water at the base.
 As the undercutting continues the waterfalls migrate upstream.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: River Processes: Stream bank

cultivation
 Stream bank cultivation refers to the practice of growing or

cultivation of crops near a wetland, stream or river.
 Sub-Saharan Africa has faced political, socio-economic problems
in the recent times.
 These problems have been in brought about by erratic rainfall
patterns in the region.
 In Zimbabwe, erratic rainfall patterns, lack of employment and
poverty has led to the cultivation of stream banks.
 An example of areas that experience a lot of streambank
cultivation are the peri-urban areas of Seke-Chitungwiza.
 Crops are grown mostly for domestic consumption although
horticultural activities such as vegetable grown is sometimes
carried out with most of the produce sold at local farmer s
markets.

Results
 Stream bank cultivation results in siltation and the choking of

rivers and dams.
 It also leads to eutrophication as fertilizers containing nitrates are
washed into the rivers.
 It also leads to the disturbance of natural ecosystems.
Gold Panning
Results
 It results in the siltation and choking of rivers and dams.

 It leads to pollution as dangerous chemicals like mercury an
cyanide are released into streams.
 The disturbances of ecosystems.
Urbanization
Results
 Results in increased pollution and disturbances of ecosystems.

 Increased impervious surfaces result in increased overland flow,
shorter lag time between a storm and a surge in discharge and
increased incidences of flooding downstream.
River diversions
 Sometimes river water is diverted through man made canals,

dames and pipelines to supply water for irrigation, industrial and
domestic use.
 The Pungwe Project in Mutare is an example.
 The result is decreased discharge and the formation of more
deposition features.
 This may also lead to the shortage of water downstream.
Interlocking spurs/spurs and steep valleys

 Interlocking spurs are a result of water taking the easiest path
down the slope and tending ot go round resistant rock resulting in a
winding course.
 The bends become more pronounced with time because water
flows faster at the bends and erodes the sides leading to the
projections/spurs to interlock.
 The undercut concave banks stand up as river cliffs while the
opposite convex develop into a slip off slope as there is very little
erosion.
 Interlocking spurs occur mainly in the upper course section of

streams and rivers as rivers have little energy to erode.
Steep sided valleys
 Since water flows in small amounts and in predominantly steep

areas in the upper course section vertical erosion is more dominant
than lateral erosion.
 This also facilitated by the load which the river carries because it
cannot reach the upper levels of the valley walls once they have
been formed so much of corrasion processes are limited to the
lower sections of the river and this tends to deepen the channel.
 The result are V-shaped steep sided valleys.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Braiding and Alluvial Fans
Braiding
 Braiding occurs typically during the dry season when a river s

discharge is greatly reduced.
 The river may be split into several channels which rejoin and split
again.
 These are known as braided river channels.
 Rivers with heavy loads becomes overloaded in the dry season
when the amount of water falls in the dry seasons.
 As the amount of water and thus its capacity to carry the load is
reduced deposition takes place in the form of sand banks and
alluvium islands causing a channel to braid.
 In order to continue flowing the river splits into smaller channels
that continuously split and rejoin.

 Braiding is the process by which a river diverges and converges
into a series of segments separated by channel bars
 A braided river can be both wide and shallow.
 Although it mostly occurs in the floodplain braiding is by no
means limited there.
 Human activities such as streambank cultivation and gold panning
can lead to the choking of the river due to excessive siltation and
thus result in braiding.
 Decreased discharge in Winter months leads to river braiding in
most of Southern Africa s rivers including Zimbabwe.
Alluvial Fans
 These are cone or fan shaped features composed of alluvium that
form as a tributary descends down the bluffs onto the flood plain.
 Deposition occurs at the point where the steep bluff merges with a
flat plain leading to reduced velocity.
 They also occur when a river descends into a flat area from an
escarpment or the edge of a rift valley.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Ox-bow lakes
 An oxbow lake is a U-shaped body of water that forms when a

wide meander from the main stem of a river is cut off, creating a
free-standing body of water.
 This landform is so named for its distinctive curved shape,
resembling the bow pin of an oxbow.
Development of Ox-bow lakes
 Ox-bow lakes form when an acute meander leaves a narrow neck

separating the two ends of a meander.
 Active lateral erosion takes place on the outside bends and break
through this neck especially during floods.
 In flood the cut ends are sealed off by deposition and the meaner
becomes an ox-bow lake.
 The banks are steadily raised by depositions resulting tin the river
lying above the level of the lake.
 The lakes gradually lose water as vegetation and sediment fill them
up.

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Deltas
 A delta is a gently sloping depositional feature that is found at a

river’s mouth where it empties into a sea or ocean that extends to
the surface and is shaped like the Greek letter delta ( ).
 It is important to note that although some deltas are indeed shaped
like the Greek letter delta some deltas as pointed below have other
shapes as well for example the Estuary delta.
 They are low lying swampy plains that gradually become
colonised by various types of plants.
 The growth of a delta interferes with the flow of a river resulting in
the river splitting up into several distributaries not unlike the ones
resulting from braiding.
 A distributary is a channel that splits and rejoins with other
channels of the same river.
 An example is the Niger Delta in West Africa and the Nile Delta in
Egypt.
Formation of deltas
 most of the load carried by rivers is deposited into the oceans, seas
and lakes into which the rivers empty.
 Sometimes the load is carried far away into the mouth of the river
before it sinks to the bottom.
 Deltas are formed when the load instead sinks at the bottom of the
mouth of the river.
 When this happens layers of sediment collect and pile up to form a
gently sloping platform.
 With time the platform extends to the surface to form a delta.
Conditions necessary for the formation of a delta.
1. The river must have a large load.

2. The velocity of the river must be low enough to allow its load to be
deposited in the river s mouth.
3. The river s load must be deposited faster than it can be removed
by the action of tides and currents.
4. The chances for the formation of a delta are greatly enhanced when
clay particles are part of a river s load resulting in them

coagulating and thickening as they mix and react with seawater
and settle at the bed in a process called flocculation.
 The Congo River has a large velocity at the point at which it meets
the sea and thus has no delta as most of its load is carried off into
the sea.
 The River Niger has low velocity at its mouth resulting in the
formation of an extensive delta.
Stages in the formation of a delta.
Stage 1
 Deposition in the river s mouth results in the river forming

several distributaries.
 The delta begins to form when the initial sediment collects at the
bottom near the river s mouth.
 As depositions continues layer upon layer a slow platform results.
 Deposition on the banks of the distributaries forms levees.
 The area between the distributaries may result in the formation of
lagoons.
Stage 2
 The lagoons begin filling with sediment which causes further

division into distributaries and to the formation of smaller
distributaries.
 The delta starts to take a more solid appearance although it may
still be swampy and usually covered with water loving vegetation.
Stage 3
 Further in-filling of the lagoons plus the growth of vegetation

results in the older parts of the delta coming to stand above water
level forming dry land.
 Continued development of a delta can lead to it merging with the
flood plain and forming deltaic plains
Types of deltas
There are four types of deltas viz:

Arcuate, Bird s foot, Estuarine and Cuspate Deltas.
Arcuate
 Is a triangular shaped delta with an arc-shaped shoreline.

 The Niger delta is an example of such a delta.
 They have coarse and fine sediment in the form of a cone.
 It is crossed by many distributaries.
 It is useful for man to settle on as it provides arable and fertile
lands as well as pastures for animals.
 However the waterlogged conditions tend to favour pests and
diseases.
Birds foot
 Is formed where there are weak tidal currents which allow the
distributaries to extend further seawards resulting in a form that
looks much like the shape of a bird s foot.
 An example is the Mississippi River delta.
 It consists of very fine material like silt and several distributaries
bordered by levees jutting out from the shore.
Estuarine
 Is made up of a single channel with braids formed from deposits

made onto the river s channel as it reaches the ocean.
 An example is the Zambezi River delta in Mozambique.
 The delta is formed from material deposited in the submerged
mouth of a river.
 It forms the shape of an Estuary.
Cuspate delta
 Sometimes a cuspate delta may be formed.

 These develop where there is limited distributary development in
coasts that have moderate current.
 An example is the Medjerda River delta in Tunisia.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Drainage Basin

 The term drainage basin refers to an area of land drained by a
river and its tributaries (river system).
 It includes water found in the water table and surface run-off.
 The drainage basin is also known as catchment area among an
assortment of terms.
 There is an imaginary line separating drainage basins called a
watershed.
 Usually, the watershed is a ridge of high land for example
mountains forming a boundary between two adjacent drainage
basins.
 The point where a river begins is called the source. It is usually in
the form of a lake or spring.
 A confluence is the point where two rivers join.
 A tributary is a stream or smaller river that joins a larger river.
 The mouth is the point where a river enters the sea.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: The hydrological cycle.
 Water does not leave or enter the planet earth.

 It is instead continuously transferred between the atmosphere and
the oceans.
 The system of inputs, storages,flows and outputs is known as the
water or hydrological cycle.
Inputs
 Inputs refers to water coming into the system.

 Precipitation refers to all forms of moisture that reach the
Earth s surface e.g. rain, snow, sleet and hail.
Storages
 Interception this is when precipitation lands on buildings,

vegetation and concrete before it reaches the soil.
 Interception storage is only temporary as it is often quickly
evaporated.
 Vegetation storage this is water taken up by vegetation. It is all
the moisture in vegetation at any one time.
 Surface storage the total volume of water held on the Earth s
surface in lakes, ponds and puddles.

 Groundwater storage the storage of water underground in
permeable rock strata.
 Channel storage -the water held in a river or stream channel.
Flows
 Flows and Processes water moving from one place to another.

 Baseflow water that reaches the channel largely through slow
throughflow and from permeable rock below the water table.
 Channel flow the movement of water within the river channel.
This is also called a river s discharge.
 Groundwater flow the deeper movement of water through
underlying permeable rock strata below the water table. Limestone
is highly permeable with lots of joints and can lead to faster
groundwater flow.
 Infiltration the downward movement of water into the soil
surface.
 Interflow water flowing downhill through permeable rock
above the water table.
 Percolation the gravity flow of water within soil.
 Stemflow water running down a plant stem or tree trunk.
 Surface Runoff the movement of water over the surface of the
land, usually when the ground is saturated or frozen or when
precipitation is too intense from infiltration to occur.
 Throughflow the movement of water downslope within the soil
layer. Throughflow is fast through pipes (cracks int he soil or
animal burrows).
Output
 Outputs water leaving the system.

 Evaporation the transformation of water droplets into water
vapour by heating.
 Evapotranspiration the loss of water from a drainage basin into
the atmosphere from the leaves of plants plus loss from
evaporation.
 Transpiration evaporation from plant leaves.
 River discharge the amount of water that passes a given point,
in a given amount of time.

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Surface Water Flow and the
Origin of rivers
Surface water flow and origin of rivers
 Rain falling down on land flows down the slope as sheet flow, rill
flow and gully flow all of which contribute to stream discharge.
 Underground water oozes at certain points called springs and also
contributes stream discharge.
Sheet flow
 It is a type of overland flow or downslope movement of water

which takes the form of a thin, continuous film over relatively
smooth soil or rock surfaces
 is generated when rain falling onto the earth s surface flows over
the whole surface as a thin layer of water.
 It commonly occurs at the head of the watershed where the slope is
gentle and the surface flat e.g. artificial surfaces, rocks etc.
Rill flow
 Rills are shallow channels (no more than a few tens of centimetres
deep) cut into soil by the erosive action of flowing water.
 As the slope steepens,the amount of water increases and sheet flow
encounters surface irregularities sheet flow turns into small
shallow channels or rivulets known as rills.
Gulley flow
 Rills in turn join up with other rills and form gullies.

 A gully is a landform created by running water, eroding sharply
into soil, typically on a hillside.
 Gullies resemble large ditches or small valleys, but are metres to
tens of metres in depth and width.
 The process by which gullies are formed is called gullying.
 A gully may grow in length by means of headward erosion at a
knickpoint.
 Gullies are sometimes known as dongas.
 Gullies empty into streams which are perennial rivers.

The results of water erosion
 Sheet flow results in sheet erosion

 This results in the washing away of fertile top soils and shallow
soils.
 Rock surfaces and plant roots are also exposed by sheet wash.
 Rill flow results in rill erosion.
 Gully flow results in gullies also known as dongas.
 Both Rill and gully erosions results in the formation of dongas and
ravines.
The problems of dongas.
 Can lead to some areas becoming inaccessible as they are difficult

to cross especially when it comes to carts and motor vehicles.
 Disrupts communication lines such as roads.
 Reduces the area available for crops pastures and settlements.
 Can lead to the uprooting of trees.
 Contribute to siltation.
 Humans and animals can fall into these ravines leading to injuries.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Drainage Patterns.
 Drainage pattern is a term that refers to the way in which a river

and its tributaries arrange themselves in the drainage basin.
 The drainage pattern evolves over a long period of time and is
affected by such factors as the underlying rock, the slope of the
land, the existence or nonexistence of faultlines and tectonic
movements.
 The most common drainage patterns are: trellis, dendritic, radial,
centripetal and parallel.
Trellis
 Sometimes known as rectangular drainage pattern.

 It is formed where streams join the main river at right angles.
 The trellis pattern develops in areas of alternate hard and soft
rocks.
 The main river (also known as the consequent stream) follows the
dip of the rocks down the slope after an initial uplift.

 The tributaries (also known as the subsequent streams) which
develop along the soft rock join the main stream at right angles.
 These tributaries are at times joined by their own tributaries at
more or less right angles.
 Streams that flow against the dip of the rock strata are called
obsequent streams.
 In Zimbabwe Trellis drainage is found in the Chimanimani
mounts.
 Trellis drainage also occurs along fault lines and rectangular joints.
 In eroded fold mount areas.
 Due to headward erosion by streams.
Dendritic
 The word dendritic comes from the Greek dendron meaning tree.
 In dendritic drainage patterns the streams join one another in a
shape that looks like the branches of a tree.
 These streams eventually end up as one big river (the trunk).
 The tributaries join each other at acute angles.
 It is commonly found in areas with a uniform rock structure
resulting in uniform erosion.
 It is also found in areas which have gentle slopes.
Radial
 Is formed where streams drain from a central highland in all

directions.
 It is also known as centrifugal and divergent drainage.
 It is common in areas with conical hills and/or domes for example
volcanic cones and other conical landforms.
 Streams radiating from these areas can later end up forming other
patterns as the flow downstream and meet up with other tributaries.
 In Zimbabwe these type of drainage pattern is found in areas that
have granite domes still covered by soil.
Centripetal or convergent drainage
Convergent Drainage

 Is found in areas where rivers drain towards a central inland lake,
swamp or depression.
 It is in essence an inland drainage system e.g. as in the case of the
Dead Sea.
 It is common in inland depressions such as faulted intermontane
(between mountains) basins, calderas as well as in arid and semi-
arid areas.
Parallel.
 Rivers and tributaries flow downhill together in a more or less

parallel pattern.
 It is the simplest and most basic drainage pattern.
 It occurs on newly uplifted land or land that is gently sloping
allowing rivers and tributaries to flow in parallel channels.
 Examples include the Zambezi and its tributaries.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: River Regime
 A river regime is the term used to describe the annual variations

in a specified river s discharge.
 A river s discharge is the volume of water flowing through a river
channel.
 This is the total volume of water flowing through a channel at any
given point and is measured in cubic metres per second.
 Sometimes these measure/unit is known as cumecs.
 A river s regime is shown on a graph called a hydrograph.
 A hydrograph shows the discharge of a river as well as total
rainfall in the river s basin/catchment area over a period of time,
before, during and after the storm.
 It allows for a relationship between the rainfall falling in a river s
catchment area and the river s discharge.
 Such information can be used to, for example, predict the risk of
flooding in a given area after a storm event.
Hydrograph
 As already said a river s regime is shown on a storm hydrograph.

 During a storm most of the rain falls onto the land rather than
directly into the river.
 The water then will make its way into the river and you can use a
hydrograph to see how quickly this occurs.
 By looking at the peak rainfall and comparing it with the peak
discharge you can work out the lag-time (the time between the two
peaks).
 Different catchment areas will have different flood hydrographs.
 A river s regime is shown on an annual hydrograph with all the
months listed.
Characteristics of a hydrograph
 Peak discharge-shows the maximum amount of flow in the river.

 Peak rainfall-the maximum amount of rainfall and when it fell.
 Lag time-the difference between the peak rainfall and the peak
discharge i.e the time it takes for the rain to reach the river.
 A rising limp which shows a rise in discharge.
 A falling limp which shows a fall in discharge.
Factors affecting a river s regime.
 Seasons- there will be a rise in discharge during summer/rain

months and a fall in discharge in the dry months when there is little
rainfall. There will be a lag time as water moves through the
ground and from storages into the stream.
 Climate-rivers that pass through Mediterranean climates tend to
have more than one peak period as they have another surge in
discharge during the winter months when these regions receive
their rains. The same is also true of rivers that pass through areas
that experience snow for example the Nile s famed floods are due
to snow melting in the Kilimanjaro mountains resulting in peak
discharge even in the hot dry months as water moves from snow
storage e.g. glaciers into the streams.
 Geology for example rivers that flow through porous and pervious
rocks tend to have smaller peaks/small changes in discharge as
opposed to rivers in granite (non-porous and impervious) rocks.
 Human activities for example urbanisation results in more
impervious surfaces and very high peaks, short lag time and higher
peaks (differences between the lowest and highest discharge.)

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: River Rejuvination
 Rejuvenation-occurs when there is a negative change in a river s

base level (i.e. when the river s base level falls) which increases
its potential energy and thus enables it to revive its erosive energy
in the processes.
 A river s base level is the lowest point to which a river can erode.
 A negative change in a river s base level may be brought about by
vertical uplift (for example isostatic uplift) or by a fall in the level
of the sea for example due to tides.
 This change renews a river s ability to erode due to an increased
gradient.
 A rejuvenated river erodes vertically into the floodplain to produce
new features that are different from those typically found in the
flood plain.
Landforms resulting from rejuvenation
 Rejuvenation produces several features including: incised

meanders, terraces and waterfalls/knickpoints.
River terraces and incised meanders
 River terraces are remnants of former floodplains

 Which following vertical erosion brought about by rejuvenation
have been left high and dry above the current and present-day
flood plain.
 If a river quickly erodes and cuts quickly into the floodplain a pair
of terraces of equal height may be seen flanking the flood plain
creating a valley into a valley feature known as paired terraces.
 Sometimes the river does quickly cut into the flood plain, allowing
it to meander, resulting in one terrace being removed as the
meander migrates downstream.
 This results in the formation of unpaired terraces.
 If uplift continues for sometime, incised meanders may form.
 These are meanders that have been cut deeply into the valley floor.
 Incised meanders are also known as entrenched meanders.
Knickpoint, rapids and waterfalls.

 Sometimes the point where the uplift occurs can be visible
especially when the uplift or fall in base level is rapid.
 The point where the river crosses from the old plain into the new
plain is known as knickpoint.
 A river may have to descent this knickpoint as either a rapid or
waterfall.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: River capture
 This is a process where one River captures the headwaters on a

nearby stream.
 This can occur due to several reasons viz:
 Tectonic earth movements, where the slope of the land changes,
and the stream is tipped out of its former course.
 Natural damming, such as by a landslide or ice sheet.
 Erosion, either:
 Headward erosion of one stream valley upwards into another,
 Lateral erosion of a meander through the higher ground dividing
the adjacent streams.
 In an area of karst topography, where streams may sink, or flow
underground (a sinking or losing stream) and then reappear in a
nearby stream valley.
The process.
 The diagram above shows how river capture can occur.

 There are two consequent rivers: Stream A and B and Stream B
has a tributary (subsequent A)
 Stream B has higher discharge and thus higher erosional activity
than stream A.
 Stream B might also have a lower base level and thus increasing its
ability to erode.
 Subsequent A migrates upstream (headward erosion) until it
reaches Stream A s channel.
 Through a process known as watershed migration Subsequent A
enlarges its own drainage basin at the expense of Stream A.
 In time because Subsequent A and Stream B have a lower base
level the headwaters of Stream A will be captured and diverted
into Subsequent A.

 The point at which the headwaters of the minor river change
direction is known as the elbow of capture.
 Below this point a wind gap marks the former course of the
now beheaded stream or misfit stream.
 A misfit stream is a river whose headwaters were captured
resulting in the stream flowing in a valley that is too large to be
accounted for by the low discharge.
 A knickpoint and waterfall might form at the elbow of capture
especially if the base level of the capturing river is far lower than
that of the beheaded stream.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes:Characteristics and Location of

Hot deser
NB:It is important to note that the Ordinary Level syllabus confines our
study to hot deserts that are otherwise known as tropical deserts. Other
deserts such as the cold deserts of Siberia are beyond the scope of the
syllabus and thus we will limit our notes to hot deserts.
Characteristics of hot deserts
 A desert is an area that receives little precipitation and is

characterised by aridity or semi-aridity.
 Most hot deserts rarely ever receive more than 250mm of rainfall
per annum.
 Such deserts are referred to as arid deserts for example some parts
of the Sahara are referred to as being hyper-arid i.e. they receive
less than 50 mm of rainfall per annum.
 Some hot deserts are referred to as being semi-arid which means
they receive at least 500 mm of rainfall per annum.
 The Kalahari Desert is an example of a semi-arid hot desert.
 However this rainfall may fall in one big storm followed by
extended dry periods.
 Deserts are mostly dry throughout the year except during freak
storms that fall in some deserts e.g. the Namid Desert.
 It is the shortage of moisture or the deficit in the water balance of
desert areas that gives them most of their characteristics.
 They have sandy soils.
 They have experience heavy winds for example Harmattans and
dust storms.

 They have scant vegetation cover most of which is adaptive for
example cacti (plural of cactus) or is confined to or near oases.
 The shortage of wind means there is little cover to protect the soil
from the effects of wind and thus wind erosion tends to be
prevalent.
 They have very large diurnal temperature ranges i.e. they are very
hot during the day with some parts of the Sahara just approaching
50°C and very cold at night with temperatures often falling below
freezing point.
 Sometimes the temperature range is as high as 20°C or more.
 Due to lack of shade and minimal cloud cover deserts have high
evapotranspiration rates.
 As has been already said above: precipitation in the form of rain is
infrequent and unreliable in deserts.
 These sporadic rains tend to come result in flash floods and can be
associated with short periods of vegetative growth.
 The flash floods may also create steep walled scarps and gulleys.
 Landforms tend to have angular features because the lack of rain
results in minimal chemical weathering.
 Examples of tropical deserts are the Sahara desert which covers
about a quarter of Africa s surface, the Namib Desert in Namibia,
the Kalahari Desert, the Gobi desert in China and the Mojave
Desert in Nevada, USA.
Types of Deserts
 Despite the belief of many people deserts are not composed of

homogeneous sand dune covered boundless plains.
 They do have diverse landscapes.
 Deserts/landscapes are described according to the characteristics of
their landscape.
 There are three common types of hot deserts:
1. Stony or reg deserts.

2. Rocky or Hamada deserts
3. Sandy or erg deserts.
1 Reg deserts

 The landscape of reg deserts consists of mostly pebbles, stones and
grave which cannot be blown away by the wind.
 These landscapes are also known as desert pavements.
 The surfaces of such desert landscapes are covered with closely
packed, interlocking angular or rounded rock fragments of pebble
and cobble size.
 Some Western parts of the Sahara Desert have such landscapes.
 The terms Reg (in the western Sahara), or Serir (in the eastern
Sahara) or Gibber Plain (Australia), or Saï (Tarim Desert, central
Asia), apply to a sandy plain or broad depression largely covered
by lag gravels or angular boulders, from which the finer soil and
sediment has been stripped by eolian ablation.
2 Hamada Desert
 This is a type of desert landscape consisting of high, largely

barren, hard, rocky plateaus, with very little sand because this has
been removed by deflation.
 The difference between Hamada and Reg is that Reg occurs as
stony plains or depressions covered with gravels or boulders, rather
than as highland plateaus( Hamada).
 Hamada or hammada therefore is a desert high plain or plateau
where deflation has removed the fine grained surface materials and
left behind a surface of sand-scoured bedrock with or without a
veneer of pebbles or boulders.
 The word hamada is Arabic for rock plain.
3 Erg or Sandy deserts
 An erg is a broad, flat area of desert covered with wind-swept sand

with little or no vegetative cover.
 The word erg is Arabic for dune fields meaning a landscape
covered by sand dunes.
 They are a result of wind deposited sand piling up into sand dunes.
 The landscape is hardly fixed nor is it stationary as the sand dunes
and ridges are constantly moving as a result of wind action.
 The Sahara Desert is the largest Erg desert in the world.
 Erg deserts are sometimes known as Sand seas.
 This owing to their undulating plains of sand the surface of which
is blown into ripples and sand dunes.

N.B. As has already been said most deserts have all of the landscapes
above within their boundaries. For example while the Sahara desert is
for the most part an Erg desert some parts of it have both Hamada and
Reg landscapes.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Location of Hot Deserts.
 The largest arid and semi-arid deserts occur between latitudes 15°
and 30° North and South of the equator.
 Most of these deserts are located on the western sides of the
continental masses on which they lie.
 They occur within the Trade wind belt where the winds are off-
shore.
 Off-shore winds are those winds that blow from the shore towards
the ocean.
 These winds (Trade winds) tend to be dry after loosing their
moisture as they journey across the eastern side of contents.
 Although west coasts have on-shore winds (winds from the ocean
towards the land) blowing towards them, they rarely bring rain.
 This is because the onshore winds meet with cold currents that
blow parallel to coast lines (e.g. the Cold Benguela current in the
case of the Kalahari and the Cold Angola current in the case of the
Namib desert) this causes the moisture within the on-shore winds
to condense and form mist, fog and light rain before the winds
reach the coast.
 Most of the winds that blow across deserts are land winds which
are dry/contain little moisture and therefore do not result in any
form of precipitation.
 Some deserts as the Arizona desert are far from oceans, moisture
from oceans is exhausted in the form of rainfall in other areas
before it reaches these deserts since they are further in the interior.
 Some deserts such as the Gobi Desert, are located in rain shadow
areas because they are in depressions or basins.
 Since they are on the leeward side of mountains where warm dry
air is sinking they tend to receive little to no rainfall.
 In addition to this the relative humidity of the air mass falls
resulting in high evapotranspiration rates thus exacerbating the
aridity of deserts while increasing their temperature.

 The Kalahari and Sahara deserts are also located on the rain
shadow side of major mountains.
 In Zimbabwe areas like Save valley and major parts of
Matabeleland are hot and receive very little rainfall, droughts are
frequent and may eventually become deserts.
 Some deserts are located in the sub-tropical high pressure zone 30°
North and South of the equator which means winds tend to blow
from these areas and dry warm air is sinking creating permanent
High pressure belts.
 In some areas as the Patagonian Desert cool off-shore currents
prevent local on-shore winds from bringing in rain.
 Most Hot Deserts are increasing in area in a process called
desertification.
 Human action sometimes contribute to desertification so in some
ways deserts are a man made feature.
 Climate change has also resulted in changes in local rainfall
patterns with increased incidence of droughts in places like
Somalia where rainfall might not fall for years on end.
 This topic will be looked at separately later.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Wind Action in Deserts
 Wind is a process where the wind detaches soil particles from the
land surface and transports them by its force.
 It occurs when forces exerted by wind overcome the gravitational
and cohesive forces of soil particles on the surface of the ground.
Important notice
 A common misconception is that wind erosion is the most

dominant form of erosion in deserts.
 That is not true as water action and other forms of denudation are
just as important.
 Although wind action is not the most important agent of change in
deserts, its effect are far more important here than in other areas.
 You should also note that chemical weathering also occurs in
deserts.
 The importance of wind action therefore varies from desert
landscape to desert landscape and cannot thus be generalised.

Wind Action
 Wind action in deserts are also known as aeolian processes.

 These processes include erosion, transportation and deposition.
Erosion
 Wind erosion involves three main processes: deflation, abrasion

and attrition.
1. Deflation
 This is the progressive removal of fine material by wind leaving

reg landscapes behind.
 By blowing away sand and other rock waste, the wind lowers the
desert surface producing depressions known as closed depressions
or deflation hollows.
 Because the finer material is composed of smaller particles, it is
lifted off and carried away by the force of the wind.
 The deflation process provides the supply of sand used to build up
sand dunes in other parts of the desert.
2. Abrasion
 is the sandblasting action produced by materials during saltation as

they are transported by wind.
 This process smooths,pits, polishes and wears away rocks that are
close to the ground.
 Since sand particles cannot be lifted up very high off the ground
the zone of maximum erosion tends to be within about 1 meter
from the desert surface.
 This sometimes results in undercutting of effects on rocks.
 Large rocks are polished on their windward sides and rocks that
are not uniform like granite are turned into spongy, pitted, rough
surfaces due to some minerals being softer than others.
 Pebbles and small rocks are shaped into ventifacts with polished
windward sides. see diagram above.
3 Attrition

 Is the process by which large rock particles roll and rub against
each other and wear away.
 This happens during the wind transportation processes.
 This process produces sand particles that are rounded into particles
about the size of millet seeds.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Wind Action in Deserts: Wind

Transport
 Wind is able to transport (move) sand and dust particles depending

on its speed and flow.
 The effectiveness of wind erosion and transport depend on a
number of factors:
 Aeolian movement is greatest where the winds are strong (20km/hr
or more), turbulent, come from a constant direction and blows
steadily for a length of time.
 The effectiveness and nature of wind transport also depends on the
nature of the regolith ( weathered material).
 It is also more effective in areas where there is less vegetation
cover which tend to act as wind breaks by absorbing some of the
wind s energy.
 It also depends on the material being transported for example if the
material is dry and unconsolidated it can better be transported.
 Optimum wind erosion and transportation occurs in semi-arid parts
of deserts.
Wind transport
 Wind moves material by three processes:

 Suspension, saltation and surface creep.
 It is important to note that each of these methods of transportation
do not happen in isolation but, often all three take place
simultaneous at any given time.
Suspension
 Happens when materials are very fine i.e. less than 0.15 mm in
diameter.
 This means that they can be easily picked up by the wind,

 They are then raised to considerable height and carried, in the air,
for great distances.
 Sand particles have been on occasion carried from the Sahara
desert and deposited in Britain a great distance away.
 Suspension creates dust storms that often reduce visibility in
deserts to less than a kilometer.
Saltation
 When wind speeds exceed the threshhold velocity (that is the speed
required to move grain particles),
 fine and coarse-grained sand particles are lifted and rise almost
vertically for several centimeters before falling again to the
ground.
 When they return to the ground they follow a flat trajectory that
sees them fall a short distance from where they were picked up but
not in the same place.
 The particles are moved by the wind in a leap-frogging and
bouncing manner.
 Even in the most severe storms the particles are rarely lifted to
more than 2 meters in height thus differentiating this method of
wind transportation from suspension.
Surface creep
 As particles are transported by saltation and suspension they may

dislodge and push forward larger particles (i.e. those that are more
than 0.25 mm in diameter).
 These are too heavy to be lifted from the ground by the wind s
energy.
 However due to continued bombardment by the smaller particles
being transport by the other modes of transport they roll and
gradually move over the surface of the desert.
Deposition
 Due to the occurrence of obstacles and impediments suchs as

vegetation, rocks, dead animal carcases and settlements
 Materials transported by wind are eventually deposited.
 Deposition can also occur due to a reduction in wind energy.

 Wind deposition forms landforms such as barchan and seif dunes.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Deflation Hollows
 Are also known as closed hollows or blowouts.

 These are enclosed depressions caused by wind erosion.
 In deserts the wind erodes loose material from flat areas which
have, uncemented sediments such as those occurring in tropical
deserts.
 Deflation hollows develop in areas where the transported materials
is deposited.
 As already mentioned deposition occurs when the wind meets with
an impediment.
 Deflation hollows are usually formed on surfaces patches where
the protective vegetative cover has been lost for example due to
human activities or periods of extended droughts.
 Since that portion becomes unprotected the the wind deflates and
scours continuously at relatively unconsolidated material,
 The material is deposited on the edges of the hollow that are still
protected by vegetation such as marram grass.
 The removal of the fine particles the lowering of the landform
leads to the formation of a depression.
 An example is the Qattara Depression
 Sometimes water that falls in these depression hollows during

freak storms collects to form pools in the midst of deserts
providing an essential source of water for local ecosystems,
animals and humans and their activities.
 If an area is eroded down to the water table, further deflation is
prevented unless the water table is also lowered by evaporation.
 Some oases in the Sahara were formed in this manner and may be
below sea level.
 Dunes are made from sand that is deposited at the leeward side of
the wind.
 Some deflation hollows may be formed in part due to the presence
of faults within the rocks which are exploited and widened by
weathering and the regolith removed by wind erosion.

 Note note all oasis are formed by deflation some are naturally
occurring springs and some result as a result of freak storms and
the underlying geological rocks limiting the amount of infiltration.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Sand Dunes
 As soon as wind velocity drops wind deposition occurs.

 The heaviest material is deposited first while the finer material and
dust is carried further before being dropped.
 As a result loess (which consists of fine particles) is sometimes
deposited thousands of kilometers from deserts.
 Large mounds of sand result from sand depositions within the
desert.
 These result in the formation of erg landscapes such as those found
in the Sahara.
 Three major types of features result from wind deposition and form
part of the erg landscape:
 sand ripples, barchan dunes and seif dunes.
Sand ripples
 These are small wave-like features which develop on sand which

move easily.
 They range from a few centimeters to about a meter in height
 They are often temporary and suffer destruction when the wind
changes direction.
Sand Dunes
 These are hills of sand which are found in a variety of shape,size

and direction.
 Dunes develop when sand grains moved by saltation and surface
creep are deposited (remember suspension material forms loess
which is deposited outside deserts).
 Some dunes, but not all, form around obstacles such as trees,
bushes, rocks, a small hill or even a dead animal.
 Most dunes form on areas that are flat and sandy rather than those
areas that are rocky and uneven.
 Dunes vary in size from a few meters to over a 100 meters in
height.

 Although they take many shapes, there are two common types of
dunes:
 Barchan and Seif dunes.
Barchan Dunes
 A barchan dune is a small crescent shaped dune.

 It has a height can range from a few meters to about 30 meters in
height and it can be 400 meters wide..
 They lie at right angles to the prevailing wind.
 It has its horns pointing downwind.
 They usually form around an obstacle such as a rock, piece of
vegetation or even a dead animal.
 As the mound, which is wind ward grows due to continued sand
depositions,
 Its leading edges are slowly carried forward in a downwind
direction.
 The windward slope of the dune is gentle.
 The downwind side is steep and slightly curved.
 This is caused by eddies that are set up by the prevailing wind.
 A barchan dune moves as grains of sand are moved up the
windward slope to fall onto the leeward side.
 They can occur both singly or in groups.
Sief Dunes
 Are also known as transverse dunes, linear dunes or draa.

 They are ridge-shaped with steep sides and lie parallel to the
prevailing wind.
 They are also formed and appear parallel to each other.
 A seif dune has a sharp crest which may be a 100 meters in height
and they can stretch for up to 150 kilometers in length.
 They are separated by flat corridors which are between 25 and 400
meters wide.
 These corridors are swept clear of sand by the prevailing wind.
 Eddies blow up against the sides of dunes and drop deposit sand
that is added to the dunes.
 They usually develop from small sand ridges.
 They slowly move forward in the direction of the prevailing wind
as they move forward.

 They feature in parts of the Namib Desert and the Sahara Deserts
as well as other deserts.
Yardangs, Zeugens and Rock Pedestals

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Hot Deserts: Yardangs
Zeugens
 Pictured in the diagram above.

 Zeugens are the ridges in ridge and furrow landscapes found in
deserts.
 These ridge and furrow landscapes sculpted found in hot deserts
are a result of wind erosion.
 Wind abrasion turns a desert surface which has a layer of resistant
rock underlain by a layer of weak rock into ridges and furrows.
 The wind usually takes advantage of joints and cracks created by
dew and frost as part of weathering processes.
 Zeugens may be as high as 30 meters in height.
 With time the furrows are widened and the zeugens lowered and
consequently they are undercut and worn away as the wind erosion
and other denudation processes continue to act on them.
Yardang
 Yardangs are ridges made of resistant rock which are developed

and lie parallel to the direction of the prevailing wind.
 When bands of resistant and weak rocks lie parallel to the
prevailing wind,
 Wind abrasion produces another form of ridge and furrow
landscape since the weak bands are readily eroded to leave the
more resistant bands of hard rocks to stand as yardangs.
 These yardang ridges vary in height from 5 to 15 meters and can
be as long as a kilometer.
 These landforms are usually undercut on their windward sides.
 Yardangs can be found in Algeria and Egypt.
Rock Pedestal.

 These are mushroom/tower-like shaped features formed as a result
of wind abrasion.
 Since the sand blasting of wind in deserts is mostly confined to a
meter and below from the ground,
 Rocks are undercut.
 These rocks are usually made up layers with differing hardness
resulting in the softer parts being worn away at a more rapid rate
resulting in the formation of pedestals.
 Continued erosion leads to the eventual collapse of the pedestal.
 An example is Mukarob ( The finger of God. ) which was
located in the Namib Desert before its eventual collapse in 1988.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Hot Deserts: Inselbergs
 These are round topped mounds of rock found in deserts as a result

of persistant wind erosion over long periods of time.
 In some deserts such as the Namib desert, wind erosion has
removed all the original surface leaving isolated pieces of rock that
stand up as round-topped masses.
 Some of these inselbergs may be a result combined wind and water
erosion for example remains of plateau edges may be cut back by
weathering after they are exposed by sheet wash.
 Talus (scree/loose rocks resulting from weathering and mass-
wasting) accumulated at the base of the slope as shown on the right
hand of the photograph)
The diagrams below show the formation of an inselberg and kopje in

desert conditions.
Inselberg
 In most deserts no rain does not fall for several years.

 When it does it comes in the form of unexpected and infrequent
downpours.
 Therefore despite the low rainfall totals (about 250mm per annum),
water is still a dominant agent of erosion and deposition.
 This is especially true in semi-arid deserts like the Kalahari where
rain falls more frequently.

 Dew also forms in deserts where temperatures, due to relatively
little cover resulting in temperatures falling below dew point, is
also found in deserts where it plays an important role in chemical
weathering.
 The infrequent but violent thunderstorms result in rushing torrents
in steep slopes and to sheet floods on gentle slopes.
 The run-off is more pronounced due to the relative lack of
vegetation in desert landscapes.
 The run-off on steep slopes is usually in the form of rills/shallow
grooves which link up to form gullies.
 These lead in turn to wadis/chebkas
 During these storms water may flow in these wadis as flash floods
and as they progress and carry more and more materials they may
turn into mud flows.
 The mud is later deposited and forms features known as alluvial
fans.
Past pluvial periods
 Even though some places in deserts do not receive rain at all for
years on end,
 There is evidence for example, paleolithic marks on some desert
rocks,
 This evidence proves that deserts had more pluvial (humid)
conditions that current arid conditions in the past.
 Some wadis, dry river channels and gullies may have been formed
during these pluvial periods.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Wadis and Bahadas
Wadis/Canyons
 As already pointed out freak storms occur in deserts characterised

by excessive precipitation over short periods of time.
 Due to infiltration excess flow and even saturation excess flow
there is significant run off in the form of sheet floods,
 This flow occurs in the form of rills which later join to form gullies
which in turn form into wadis,
 These are deep canyons resulting from sustained erosion, the have
steep banks and flat floors.

 At times the floor may have material deposited by stream floods.
 Wadis may also be formed by stream floods which erode valley
sides although some wadis can be dry and only have water during
and in the immediate aftermath of these storms.
 An example is the Grand Canyon in the United States.
Alluvial fans/Bahadas/Bajadas
 During the sudden rain storms

 Flash floods rush down the wadis,
 They carry large amounts of materials including a lot of silt (all
this material is referred alluvium) forming a mud flow
 As the water dissipates after the end of the storm and when its
looses its energy upon reaching less steep slopes the alluvium is
deposited to form fan shaped features at the base of the piedmont
zone.
Desert piedmont zone
 Is made up of water landforms formed by erosion, transportation

and deposition.
 The landforms found on the piedmont zone include: mountain
front, bahada, peri pediment, playa and rock pediment.
Features of a piedmont zone.
Mountain Front
 It is formed as a result of erosion along a steep slope and

sometimes as a result of headward erosion.
 It may also be a made up of large rock boulders resulting from
weathering.
Bahada
 A depositional feature see above.
Knickpoint
 A sharp change in profile that marks the transition from the

mountain front into a pediment.

Rock pediment
 It is the gentle slope that starts at the knickpoint at the foot of the
mountain.
 This may be made out of bare rock or it can be covered in alluvium
deposited during floods.
Peripediment
 It is made up of deposited material washed across the pediment.

 The peri pediment is a depositional feature that is formed in the
same way as bajadas but it is larger.
Playa
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Mesa and Butte
 Mesas and buttes are flat topped uplands with steep sides and often
capped by hard resistant rocks.
 Mesas and buttes are desert features created primarily by river
erosion in deserts but carved away further by desert weathering
processes as well as wind (aeolian) processes.
 They are formed from what are originally plateaus that are cut into
two by rivers.
 These features can be quickly formed because desert rivers have a
lot of erosive power owing to the lack of vegetation, the sudden
and heavy storms that result in violent downpours and ferocious
runoff and the abrasive material that is readily available in deserts.
 Messas have a broader top compared to buttes.
 They are usually dissected by wadis.
 Weathering processes pile up scree/talus at their bases.
 Buttes can be formed by mesas that have been carved by erosion.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Playas
 These are sometimes known as inland drainage basins.

 Due to the fact that there are no permanent drainage patterns in
deserts any rain that falls either evaporates or infiltrates into the
soil or runs off and drains into basins.
 Basins are depressions.

 When rain falls temporary rivers that flow in canyons/bahadas are
formed and these may eventually drain in a basin/depression.
 These rives form lakes in these depressions.
 When these lakes dry up due to evaporation they are turned into
salt flats.
 These temporary lakes and salt flats are known as playas or
sebkhas.
 Examples of these can be found in the Sahara desert.
 When alluvium is deposited at the edge and overlies the edge of
the pediment around the playa it is known as a peri-pediment.
 Most deserts are characterised by inland drainage basins as few
rivers e.g. the Nile have enough water supply to flow and persist
through the deserts.
 Most form inland drainage basins/lakes/playas.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Human Activities in Deserts
 In spite of their hostile enviroments brought about by aridity

leading to shortage of water, pasture, wood fuel and other wood
resources, remoteness, infertile and salty soils, disruptive dust
storms and temperature extremes most people still choose to settle
there and engage in various economic and agricultural activities.
 These activities include nomadic pastoralism and other forms of
agriculture, oil drilling and other forms of mineral exploitation.
Human activities
 Human settlements at aquifers and oasis.

 An aquifer is a place where the water table is higher and intersects
with the surface thus allowing people to utilise the water in the
form of irrigation, domestic and industrial use.
 Most desert settlement are usually near water sources.
 Activities usually involve the growing of palm trees or pastoralism
for example the people of Sahel and the Beja people of the Sahara
desert.
 There are also some perennial rivers that transverse deserts and
people tend to settle along their banks as the rivers acts as a
lifeline.
 An example is the Nile River around which civilisations have
existed for millennia with activities such as irrigation using the

shaduf and archimedes screw have been practiced for centuries and
continue even today.
 Cotton is grown in the semi-arid and inhospitable Awash valley in
Ethiopia something made possible by irrigation schemes.
 Dams can also be constructed to ease water shortages, provide
Hydro-electic power and control flooding an example is the Aswan
Dam in Egypt.
 Various roads and railway lines have been constructed across
deserts allowing for the fast transportation of goods across deserts
without relying on camels. A highway links Ethiopian regions with
Egypt and is used to transport cotton from the Ethiopian fields to
Egyptian markets.
 The development of satellite technologies such allows people in
remote parts of the deserts e.g. Oil fieds to use these devices to
communicate with other parts of the world thus reducing the
remoteness of the region and improving the flow of information.
 A good portion of the world s oil fields are also found in desert
regions and countries like Saudi Arabia, Libya and the United
Arab Emirates can make a living and have even thrived as a result
of the Oil boom leading some to refer to Oil as the black gold.
 Large amounts of income derived from minerals are used to
develop these nations infrastructure.
 Settlements have also formed around large oil fields with some
even evolving into permanent towns and cities.
 Other minerals such as opals can also be found in deserts and can
lead to settlements for example Coober Pedy in Australia.
 Towns and cities that originate from the influx of people as a result
of mineral discovery are known as Boom towns.
 Settlements often include specialised houses such as those made
from mud which makes cooler and more hospitable than the
traditional designs found in other parts of the world.
 Deserts also offer clear skies that can be ideal for filming, military
exercises and weapons testing, solar power generation and wind
power generation.
 Motor sporting activities are also held in deserts.
 Places like the Valley of Kings are popular tourist sports.
 Archeological sites also abound in deserts.

 Using money from Oil recreational facilities, modern roads,
railway lines, cities and other infrastructure has been built in the
midst of deserts for example Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
 The Bedouin nomads also engage in cross desert trading activities
with various tribal groups.
 Desalination plants have also been set up to purify water from the
sea and make fit for industrial and domestic use.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Desertification
The meaning of desertification
 Desertification literary means the making of deserts and several

definitions have been offered for the term all expressing this idea.
 Desertification refers to the spread of desert conditions for
example resulting in aridity or semi-arid conditions and scant
vegetation cover in the encroached area.
 Desertification is therefore the spread of deserts as well as a
reduction in the biological productivity of a given piece of land.
 It is also attributed to a process by which previously productive
land turns into a desert like land and its agricultural productiveness
drops by ten percent or more due to natural and human factors.
 A more comprehensive definition might define desertification as
an enviromental degradation process brought about by both natural
causes (e.g. chronic droughts) and excessive human activities (such
as climate change and deforestation) resulting in the fall in
productivity of a given piece of land and the spread of desert like
conditions to the affected piece of land.
Natural factors that lead to desertification
 Climate change for example a reduction in the amount of rainfall

received at a given area or increases in evapotranspiration rates can
lead to desertification.
 The El Nino effect resulting in droughts.
 Acid rain leads to the reduction of land productivity.
 A land s distance from the sea.
 Continental drift for example most of the Sahara desert enjoyed
pluvial periods during the so called Quaternary era when the
African plate was further south that it currently is and the Sahara

region occupied the latitudes currently occupied by the present day
Savannah regions.
Human factors
 Deforestation as people cut down trees for use as firewood,

thatching, making furniture and other industrial and domestic uses.
 The clearing of land for agricultural use.
 Overgrazing for example in the Sahel region.
 Overpopulation as more population increases are not matched with
increases in resources.
 Expansion of human settlements such as towns and land is cleared
for industrial and residential use.
 Mining activities for example open cast mining and oil mining
which leads to oil spills and destruction of vegetation.
 Salinisation which makes soils less fertile and makes vegetation
growth impossible.
NB Human factors and Natural (Physical factors) often combine to

produce desserts during the desertification process.
Effects of desertification
 A reduction in vegetative cover due to deforestation and drought.

 Barren sandy soils and sometimes soil hardening.
 Increased surface runoff due to reduced vegetative cover resulting
in the formation of gullies and dongas.
 Reduced soil fertility.
 Reduced productive capacity of agricultural land.
 Reduced land carrying capacity.
 Death of livestock as a result of water and pasture shortage.
 Water and pasture shortages.
 Famine and starvation.
 Reduction in annual rainfall and persistent droughts.
Example of desertification (Sahel Region)
 The Sahel is the semi-arid transition region between the Sahara

desert to the north and wetter regions of equatorial Africa to the
south.

 It extends from the Atlantic in the west to the Indian ocean in the
east.
 Its annual rainfall varies widely from year to year, and the land
consists of stabilized ancient sand seas is one of the poorest and
most environmentally degraded areas of the world.
 It forms a boundary between the Sahara and the more wetter parts
of Africa.
 The Sahara desert is slowly encroaching on Sahel land due to
overpopulation and overgrazing, persistent droughts, erratic
rainfall and climate change.
 The area has been plagued by persistent droughts.
 The drought was partly caused by natural causes in the form of
climate change.
 The harmattan winds that affect the area are dry because they come
from the Atlas mountains.
 Human activities have also contributed to the desertification in the
area.
 The people of the region practice Nomadic pastoralism, moving
from place to place looking for fresh pastures.
 This movement has caused deforestation and overgrazing as more
and more animals grazed repeadley on the same piece of land.
 This resulted in the degradation of the land whose productivity
decreased.
 This meant that less productive land would be available while the
number of animals keept and keeps increasing worsening the
situation.
Effects of desertification in the Sahel
 Drying up of wells and springs

 Destruction of pastures.
 Loss of life due to droughts and famine. A quarter of the people in
the region died in the droughts of the 1970s.
 A massive influx of refugees into the adjacent countries of Mali
and Niger resulting in semi-permanent camps which usually have
unsanitary living conditions.
 Loss of livelihood as animals died.
Reaction

 UNESCO held a meeting in Nairobi Kenya to alert the world about
the disaster.
 They also provided food and water to the affected people.
 Other international relief agencies such as UNICEF and the Red
Cross were involved.
 Concerted efforts have also been made to educate the people of
Sahel on the effects
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Methods of preventing

desertification.
The following methods can be used to prevent and slow down the rate of
desertification:
 Afforestation that is planting trees where none previously existed.

 Fallowing-allowing fields to fallow instead of growing crops on
them continuously.
 Legislation-passing laws that favour conservative farming methods
and practices and penalises those who do not follow the practices.
 Educating people about the impact of poor farming methods and
schooling them on the best farming methods available to them.
 Planting trees lines for example gum trees to act as wind breaks
and lessen the impact of wind erosion.
 Dam construction-for use in irrigation schemes and to provide
alternative hydro-electric energy instead of relying on firewood.
 Practice irrigation for example using oases and rivers such as the
Nile River.
 Limit settlements near water sources such as oases.
 Construct contours to conserve land and lessen the effects of
erosion.
 Terracing to lessen the impact of erosion.
 Paddocking to implement controlled grazing and prevent
overgrazing.
 Practice crop rotation.
 Create sand embankments.
 Fencing to protect forests.
 Grow drought resistant crops such as sorghum or practice activities
such as extensive cattle ranching that put less pressure on pastures.
 Use alternative sources of fuel instead of firewood for example LP
Gas.

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Introduction to Weather and
Climate
Weather-the state of the atmosphere at a particular place and time as

regards heat, cloudiness, dryness, sunshine, wind, rain, etc. The weather
is all around us, all the time. It is an important part of our lives and one
that we cannot control.
Climate- meanwhile is defined as the weather conditions prevailing in

an area in general or over a long period. It is the long term weather
pattern of a given area. It is especially important in activities such as
agriculture. It is measured by assessing the patterns of variation in
temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, precipitation,
atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a given
region over long periods of time.
Differences between weather and climate
Climate Weather
Describes the atmospheric conditions at a
Describes the average
specific place at a specific point in time.
conditions expected at a
Weather generally refers to day-to-day
specific place at a given
temperature and precipitation activity (e.g rain
time.
or snow)
Measured over a long Measured for short term e.g on a day to day
period typically 30 years. basis
The study of the climate
The study of weather is called meteorology.
is called climatology.
Elements of weather and their instruments and units of

measurement
Zimbabweans typically use the metric system of measurement for

example meters for distance and kilograms for weight. Weather is made
up of several elements such as temperature which are measured using
various specilized instruments and expressed in their units. While the
metric units is common in most areas of our lives, weather elements are
sometimes measured in imperial units for example wind speed is
measured in knots. In other instances different countries use different
units. For example the United States uses Degrees Fahrenheit to measure

temperature. In the real world you should study the unit used to express
weather carefully before making comparisons for example a temperature
of 45 °F (around 7 °C )could be described as cool which is not what you
would think if you just thought of it as 45 °C hot which is a
temperature associated with hot deserts.
The following elements are some of the most commonly used to express
weather.
 Temperature- Six s thermometer otherwise known as the

maximum and minimum thermometer. It is expressed in Degrees
Celsius.
 Humidity-Hydrometer/psychrometer/satellites-Humidity is
measured as a percentage. See Humidity for more details.
 Pressure-is measured using a Barometer and expressed in
millibars.
 Wind direction-Wind Vane- it is expressed using the cardinal
points of a campus e.g SE.
 Wind speed-Cup anemometer and expressed in knots.
 Sunshine-sunshine recorder and it is express in hours and minutes.
 Cloud cover-observed using the eyes and is measured in Oktas.
Weather report
 a systematic statement of the existing and usually the predicted

meteorological conditions over a particular area.
 The information is obtained from a weather station e.g Kutsaga.
Weather forecast
 Is a prediction of weather phenomena, trend and events.

 Weather forecasts are made by collecting as much data as possible
about the current state of the atmosphere (particularly the
temperature, humidity and wind) and using understanding of
atmospheric processes (through meteorology) to determine how
the atmosphere evolves in the future.
 the chaotic nature of the atmosphere and incomplete understanding
of the processes mean that forecasts become less accurate as the
range of the forecast increases.

 Information gained from the observations is used in conjunction
with complicated models and computer simulations are used to
predict future weather.
Importance of weather to people
 People can be made aware of looming weather hazards such as

thunderstorms and cyclones and take precautionary measures such
as evacuating the areas that will be affected.
 So that people can know which type of clothes to wear for example
whether to carry a rain coat or umbrella or not.
 Farmers can make more informed planning decisions e.g. when to
spray, plant or harvest.
 Pilots know which routes to take when flying and how to land and
take off.
 When making sporting calenders for example games like cricket
are hugely affected by weather so we can choose to play indoor
sports instead.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Weather Station
-A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments

and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide
information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate.
 Most instruments used in measuring weather elements are found in

a weather station.
 This is a place where weather events are recorded for example
Kutsaga research station near Harare International Airport.
 It is situated in an open space away from buildings and trees.
 Trees can affect weather phenomena for example by acting as
wind-breaks thus affecting the winspeed and direction readings.
 Building act as thermal sinks i.e they store heat energy thus
distorting heat readings.
Instruments and items found in a weather station
1. Stevenson screen.
2. Six s thermometer.
3. Hygrometer.
4. Barometer.

5. Sunshine recorder.
6. Anemometer.
7. Rain gauge.
8. Evaporation dish.
For a long time technicians had to go to the weather station at a fixed

time every day and record various measurements shown by the
instruments, reset the instruments and feed the data into computers
manually. This is becoming less common as Automated Weather
stations become more and more popular. These save on the human
energy required to man them, can provide up to date data via the internet
and can be deployed in harsh remote areas such as the Arctics and Polar
regions.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Stevenson Screen
A Stevenson screen is a prominent feature on most weather stations.
 It is used to house weather instruments, for example the six s

thermometer and hydrometer.
 It is painted white in order to reflect excessive heat.
 It is 1.2 meters above the ground to avoid ground weather
conditions from affecting the readings yielded by the housed
instruments.
 It has louvered sides to allow for free circulation of air.
 It has a double roof to reduce excessive heat from solar irradiation.
 It is made of wood to reduce excessive heat.
 It has metal legs to avoid attacks by termites. Sometimes the legs
are made of treated wood for the same reason.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Temperature
 The daily maximum and minimum temperatures are measured

using Six s thermometer (pictured above).
 It was invented by James Six a British scientist hence the name
Six s thermometer.
 It is also known as the Maximum and Minimum thermometer.
 It is housed in a Stevenson s screen.
 Diurnal range is the difference between the maximum and
minimum temperatures.

How it works
 When temperature rises it pushes the alcohol in the left hand limp
down and forces mercury in the right hand limp up.
 The alcohol heats up and part of it is vaporized to occupy the
conical bulb.
 The reading is taken on the right hand limp which is in the left
hand limp contracts and some of the alcohol in the conical bulb
liquefies so that the mercury flows in the opposite direction.
 The minimum temperature is read just above the metal index on
the right hand limp.
Common problems encountered when using the instrument
 Failing to identify mercury or alcohol.

 Failure to identify the maximum and minimum thermometer.
 Reading errors for example taking the measurement of the
maximum thermometer above the metal index and that of the
minimum thermometer below the index.
Digital thermometers are becoming more and more common. They are
not necessarily more accurate than the traditional mercury and alcohol
thermometers but they are easier to read.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Humidity
-a quantity representing the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere.
 It is measured using a hydrometer.

 The wet and dry bulb thermometer is also known as a
psychrometer.
 Weather satellites can also measure the amount of humidity in the
atmosphere.
 A hygrometer measures the humidity in the atmosphere using two
thermometers: dry and wet bulb thermometers.
 The wet bulb thermometer is wrapped in thin muslin and dipped in
a container of water to keep the muslin cloth wet.
 If the air is dry water evaporates from the muslin and cools such
that the mercury contracts.
 The dry bulb is not affected hence the two show different readings.

 The wet bulb shows a low reading whilst the dry bulb shows a
higher reading.
 Depression/Difference=the reading of the dry bulb less the reading
of the wet bulb thermometer.
 The humidity is then found by reading humidity tables. For
example if there is no difference between the two readings the
humidity is 100%
 Electronic hygrometers are also used. These are easier to read.
 Relative humidity is measured in percentage terms.
Types of humidity
There are several ways to measure and express humidity:
1. Absolute Humidity-the total mass of water vapor present in a given

volume of air.
2. Relative Humidity-the amount of water vapor in a given volume of
air at a given temperature.
3. Specific Humidity-the ration of the mass of water vapor to the
mass of the parcel of air.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Pressure.
-is the pressure exerted by the weight of air in the atmosphere of Earth.
It is measured in millibars. It is measured using an instrument known as
a barometer. There are two different types of barometers: the mercury
and aneroid barometers.
Mercury barometer
 It is very large, the glass tube is typically almost 1m in height.

 It gives very accurate readings.
 It has a bulb that is dipped in a container of mercury.
 When the atmospheric pressure rises, it exerts force its force on the
mercury which becomes compressed.
 The mercury is pushed up the bulb to a height of 760 mm.
 When pressure decreases the mercury contracts and moves down
the thermometer.
Advantages

 It gives accurate readings.
 It is simple to construct and maintain.
Disadvantages
 It is very large and cumbersome.

 Mercury must be at least a meter long.
 They break easily.
 They cannot produce a continuous reading, so readings have to be
taken regularly.
 Mercury is a dangerous poison.
Aneroid Barometer
 These are portable and can be safely used at homes and schools as
they do not contain mercury.
 They are made up of an air-tight metal box.
 If pressure increases the box is squashed inwards.
 Conversely if pressure decreases the box expands outwards.
 A complex series of springs is attached to the box.
 The other end of the spring is connected to a point which has a
calibrated dial on the other end to record the various pressure
readings.
 The spring amplifies the expansions and contractions of the box in
accordance to atmospheric pressure.
Advantages
 It is portable.
 It can be safely used in the home or at school since it does not rely
on mercury which is poisonous.
 It is easier to read since it comes with a calibrated dial.
 Can make continuous readings.
 Can be attached to a computer to make automated continuous
readings.
Disadvantages
 It is less accurate.

 Requires great skill and expertise to make.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Wind direction and speed.
Wind is the movement of air across the earth s surface due to

differences in pressure between two regions. Air moves from high
pressure regions to low pressure regions. The differences in pressure can
be caused by differential heating of the earth s surface or by earth and
sea breezes.
Two aspects of wind are measured at weather stations:
1. Wind direction- this is done using a wind wane-the red-tailed

instrument in the picture and the information is plotted given in
terms of the cardinal points of a compass.
2. Wind speed- this is done using an cup anemometer and the speed is
given in knots or as is increasingly becoming the case in km/hr.
Points of a compass
 The four points N,S,E and W are referred to as the cardinal points.
 The additional four points SW,SE,NE and NW are referred to as
the inter-cardinal or ordinal points.
 The additional points e.g. SSW are called the secondary-inter-
cardinal points.
 Wind direction is typically given in using either the cardinal points
or sometimes in terms of the ordinal points.
Knots
 A note is a speed equal to 1.852 Km/hr.

 It used to be the most popular unit to measure air speed and
ZIMSEC examinations and textbooks still use it.
 It has largely been superseded in most reports by the more familiar
metric unit km/hr.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Clouds
Refers to the fraction of the sky obscured by clouds when observed from
a particular location. Okta is the usual unit of measurement of the cloud
cover. Sky conditions are estimated in terms of how many eighths of the

sky are covered in cloud, ranging from 0 oktas (completely clear sky)
through to 8 oktas (completely overcast).
Cloud cover symbols and measurements.
The diagram above shows how cloud cover can be estimated. An eye
observer makes the necessary estimates at a given point of measurement.
3D cameras and computing software can also be used to make more
accurate estimates of cloud cover nowadays.
Classification of clouds.
Clouds are classified according to height and form of appearance. There

are high level, middle level and low level clouds. Various adjectives are
used to denote height and form (shape).
High Level clouds
 Cirro is latin for high/crest.

 The adjectives are used to describe high level clouds.
 It is used for clouds found between 6 000m to 12 000m.
 Examples include cirrus, cirrostatus and cirro-cumulous clouds.
Middle Level Clouds.
 Alto means middle.

 These range between 2 100m and 6 000m.
 Examples include alto-cumulus, altostratus and strato-cumulous.
Low level clouds
 Nimbus means water bearing.

 These are below 2 100m.
 Examples include cumulonimbus, cumulous, nimbostratus and
stratus clouds.
NB. Some clouds transverse all heights. These are refered to as clouds of
great-vertical extent for example cumulonimbus clouds.
Adjectives used to describe form.
 Cumulus means heaped.

 Stratus means layered.
 Cirrus means curly.
Common types of clouds.
Common/important cloud types.
Cirrus.
Cirrus clouds.
 Wispy white clouds with a feathery and patchy cover.

 Have a silky sheen appearance.
 Are composed of ice crystals.
 They hardly block sunlight.
 They give the sun a red or yellow color during sunset and sunrise.
Cumulonimbus
Cumulonimbus clouds
 They are usually anvil shaped at the top.

 Extend of great vertical distance.
 They are black or white, heaped.
 Are associated with torrential rainfall and thunderstorms.
Nimbostratus clouds
Nimbostratus clouds
 They are dark grey.

 Dense, shapeless.
 Are associated with rain.
Altocumulus
Altocumulus clouds.
 White or grey and patched.

 Are made up of laminae (plates)
 When the sun passes over them they form a corona.

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Sunshine
 It has a glass sphere surrounded by a metal frame.

 On the frame is attached a sensitive card.
 The sphere focuses the sun s rays onto the card.
 As the sun moves across the sky it burns a trace on the card.
 At the end of the day the card is taken out and the length is
measured in hours and minutes.
 There are digital versions that continually record the amount of
sunlight.
 Sunshine is important for various activities for example solar
drying of crops or solar energy generation.
Air masses
Air Masses
 An air mass is a large body of air, whose properties

temperature, humidity (air moisture) and lapse rate are largely
uniform (the same) over an area several hundred kilometers across.
 The regions where air masses form are referred to as air mass
source regions.
 An air mass acquires its distinctive characteristics in a source
region where there is a large and fairly uniform surface, either
water or land, over which air remains fairly stagnant for a period of
at least a few days.
 If air remains over a source region long enough, it will acquire the
properties of the surface below it.
 Examples of ideal source regions for air masses include Siberia,
Oceans like the Indian Ocean and large deserts like Sahara.
 The air stagnates to form a high pressure system (region).
 Air masses are classified according to their temperature and
moisture characteristics.
 The properties of an air mass that it acquires from the source
region depend on a number of factors for example the time of the
year (summer, winter, autumn), the nature of the underlying
surface (ocean, land or desert), and the length of time the air mass
remains over its source region.
 Air masses are grouped into four categories based on their source
region.

 Air masses that originate in the cold, polar regions are designated
with a capital P for polar.
 Air masses that originate in the warm, tropical regions are
designated with a capital T for tropical.
 Air masses that originate over land will be dry and are designated
with a lowercase c for continental.
 Air masses that originate over water will be moist and are
designated with a lowercase m for maritime
 These letters are combined to indicate the type of air mass for
example Tropical Maritime, Tropical Continental etc.
 In moving away from their source regions, air masses will be
modified by the surface over which they pass and thus their later
properties will depend not only on their source region but also on
the nature of the surface they pass over and their age since being
formed.
 The southern pole is completely surrounded by the Antarctic and
therefore the two (pole and Antarctic) are treated as one origin.
 Two major air masses reach Zimbabwe i.e polar maritime and
tropical maritime.
 The tropical continental air mass is resident to Zimbabwe.
Types of air masses
Africa is affected almost exclusively by tropical and equatorial air

masses,with tropical continental(cT) air masses dominant in
the northern third of the continent and in other smaller patches,
tropical maritime(mT) and equatorial (E) air masses most
influential in coastal and equatorial Africa
1) Tropical continental
 Originate over North Africa and the Sahara desert.

 Characteristically hot and very dry.
 Very unstable, yet clear conditions predominate due to a lack of
water vapor.
2. Tropical Maritime
 Form over low latitude oceans and as such are very warm, humid,
and unstable.

 The tropical maritime air mass that reaches Zimbabwe is the NE
trades originating from the northern hemisphere subtropical
anticyclone usually centered over central Indian ocean (over the
equator).
3. Polar maritime
 The SE trades originating from the southern hemisphere

subtropical anticyclonic cells and whose fetch begins from
Antarctic, constitute the polar maritime air mass.
 The South Easterly trade winds are a winter feature in Zimbabwe.
 They are cooler and moister than the resident tropical continental
air during winter.
 When they prevail over the country during the summer season,
they still remain cooler but are drier than the local air.
Air masses affecting Zimbabwe
1. South East Trade Winds
 are cool moist prevailing winds which blow through out the year.
 They are usually associated with continuous light showers and
drizzle especially on windward slopes.
 They often give rise to guti conditions immediately after the rainy
season.
 When they blow strongly from the south east they often give clear
weather in summer and cloudy weather in winter.
2. Zaire Air ( North West Monsoons)
 These only blow in summer.

 They are actually the re-curved South East trades which upon
approaching Angola get drawn into Zimbabwe via DRC by the
intense low pressure of the ITCZ.
 They bring a lot rain to Zimbabwe and Central Africa as they
collect moisture from bot the Atlantic Ocean and the Congo rain
forest.
3. North East Monsoons

 Only blow in the summer and cause rain to fall in the Northern
parts of Zimbabwe especially in late December to early January.
 They are not as moist as the North West Monsoons.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Pressure
Pressure
 Air has weight and therefore exerts pressure, called atmospheric

pressure onto the earth s surface.
 The pressure is not the same for all regions nor is it the same for
any one region all the time that is pressure is higher for one part of
the year than other times of the year.
 Atmospheric pressure is affected by: altitude, temperature and the
earth s rotation.
Altitude
 Altitude refers to height above sea level.

 Air pressure is higher at sea level than it is at the top of a
mountain.
 This is because at sea level air has to support greater weight of air
than air at the top of the mountain.
 The molecules of air at sea level push outwards with a force equal
to that exerted by the air above it whereas air at the top of a
mountain pushes outwards with much less force because the
weight of the air bove it is less.
 This explains why air pressure increases when air descends.
 When air descends its volume decreases but the number of
molecules remain the same in number resulting in more molecules
occupying a smaller volume.
 Conversely when air rises its volume increases and its outward
force is spread over a larger area thus its pressure decreases.
Temperature
 The temperature of air rises when its pressure rises.

 The temperature of air falls when its pressure falls.
 The pressure of air falls when its temperature rises.
 The pressure of air rises when its temperature falls.

 If only temperature affected pressure there would be a belt of low
pressure around the earth at the equator, two belts of high pressure
one over both the North and South Poles.
 Because all because altitude and the earth s rotation also affect
pressure the resulting pattern is not as simple as this.
The influence of the earth s rotation on pressure.
 The rotation of the earth causes the air at the poles to be

thrown away towards the equator.
 In theory this would result in air piling at the equator creating a
region of High pressure at the equator.
 The reality is much more complicated as other factors like
temperature also affect pressure.
Pressure belts
 Low temperatures at the poles cause the air to contract and high
pressure develops as a result.
 High temperatures along the equator cause the air to expand and
low pressure, called the doldrum low pressure (the
ITCZ),develops.
 Air blowing away from the poles crosses parallels and creates low
pressure belts along 60°N and 60°S.
 As air moves in from the poles more air moves in from higher
levels to take its place.
 Some of this comes from the rising low pressure air along 60°S
and 60°N.
 Air rising at the equator spreads out and moves towards the poles.
 As it does so it crosses parallels that are getting shorter and has to
occupy less space resulting in an increase in pressure as it
contracts.
 This happens near 30°N and 30°S and the air begins to sink where
it builds up sub-tropical high pressure belts called horse latitudes.
 Some of the High pressure air in latitudes 30°N and 30°S moves
over the surface towards the equator and some of it towards the
poles.
 The air that moves towards the equator replaces the air that rises
there.

 The air moving towards the poles reaches latitudes 60°N and 60°S
where it replaces the air that rises there.
 Winds blow over the surface blow from high pressure to low
pressure areas.
 At high levels blow from low pressure systems to high pressure
systems.
 In each hemisphere there are three pressure systems: Polar High
Pressure, Temperate Low pressure and Sub-Tropical High pressure
and in the midst of both poles is the Equatorial Low pressure.
 This is all assuming the earth s surface was flat and uniform
i.e. if the earth was an isotropic plane.
 See the diagram below for a simplified view of the earth s major
pressure belts.
Actual pressure systems
 The earth s surfaces is not uniform: there are water and land
masses of different shapes and sizes.
 The earth s is also tilted at an of 66.5 degrees and the earth and
land masses are heated and cool at different rates.
Pressure belts and winds
 The earth s (planetary) wind systems are caused and controlled by

the major pressure belts outlined above.
 The pressure patterns and winds are shown in the two diagrams
below.
 These patterns in pressure and winds change seasonally according
to changes in temperature.
 Due to the rotation of the earth winds are deflected to the right in
the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere.
 Planetary winds are sometimes known as prevailing winds because
they blow more frequently than most winds.
 Winds are named after the direction which they blow.
 There are 3 major wind systems in each hemisphere:
 In the Northern Hemisphere:
1. North East Polar winds: blow from the polar high pressure towards
the temperature low pressure in latitude 60°N (temperate low).

2. South West Winds: blow from the sub-tropical high pressure
regions in latitude 30°N towards the temperate low pressure zone.
3. North East Trade Winds: blow from the sub-tropical high pressure
towards the doldrums along the equator.
 In the Southern Hemisphere:
1. South East Polar winds: blow from the polar high pressure towards
the low temperate pressure regions in latitude 60°S.
2. North East Winds: blow from the sub-tropical high pressure in
latitude 30°S towards the temperate low pressure.
3. South East Trade Winds: blow from the sub-tropical high pressure
regions towards the doldrums.
Pressure belts in diagrams
Pressure belts and associated wind patterns if without s the earth s

rotational deflection.
The earth s pressure belts and associated wind patterns when the
earth s rotational deflection is taken into account.
Conditions-November to March
 High temperatures occur over central and southern Africa.

 This results in low pressure developing over this part of the
continent.
 At the same time temperatures are lower over the South Atlantic
and Indian Oceans and pressure over these oceans is relatively
high.
 North Africa is much cooler than the rest of Africa and high
pressure therefore develops.
 Winds blow out from the tropical continental high pressure arr
mass over northern Africa.
 Some of these winds blow towards the low pressure area to the
south.
 The winds blow from the north east over West Africa.
 Because they originate from the desert the winds are dry and dusty.
 They are called harmattan winds.

 They are prevented from going further south by winds blowing
form the South Atlantic Ocean.
 The North-East Trade Winds affect the east cost of Africa , while
the South-East trade winds operate along the South-East coast.
 Both winds make for the low pressure over Central Africa.
 During this period, south-west winds blow across the south-west
tip of the continent.
Conditions from May to September.
 High temperatures over northern Africa give rise to the

development of a low pressure system.
 High pressure lies over southern Africa and over the Indian Ocean
to the east.
 Winds blow from the tropical maritime air mass over the South
Atlantic Ocean, towards the continental low pressure air mass over
the Sahara.
 These winds start as South-East trade winds but as they move
north of the equator they are drawn across the coast of West Africa
towards the Sahara low pressure.
 They now blow from the south west and become the south west
monsoonal winds.
 They are warm and moist.
 During this period areas South of the Sahara are warm and dry.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Rainfall.
 Rainfall is just one form of precipitation.

 Precipitation occurs when warm moist air rises or is forced to rise.
 Water vapor in the air parcel cools and condenses to form clouds.
 This is because temperature falls with increase in altitude.
 When condensation occurs it produces minute droplets of less than
0.05mm in diameter.
 When these droplets join together and grow to fall of their own
weight it is called rain.
 There are other forms of precipitation besides rain such as sleet,
hail, dew, hoar frost, fog and rime and snow.
Types of rain

 There are various types of rain depeding on how the air rises/ is
forced to rise these are:
Frontal/Cyclonic
Occurs along fronts when air e.g S.Western Cape in South Africa.
Relief/Orographic
Occurs when warm air is forced to rise by mountains.
Convectional
Occurs when the air adjacent to an excessively heated ground rises.
Convergence
Occurs along the ITCZ.
Other types of precipitation

1. Sleet
 A mixture of snow and rain.

 Usually formed by snow melting as it falls.
2. Hail
 A solid form of precipitation.

 It consists of balls of irregular lumps of ice falling from the sky
each of which is called a hailstone.
 When large chunks of ice falling from the sky it is referred to as a
hailstorm.

3. Dew
 Dew is the small droplets of water that appear on objects such as

leaves or grass in the morning or evening due to processes of
condensation.
 Dew forms when the temperature of a surface cools down to a
temperature that is cooler than the dew point of the air next to it.
 The temperature at which droplets form is called the dew point.
4. Hoar Frost
 Frost is the coating or deposit of ice that may form in humid air in
cold conditions, usually overnight.
 Is common in places like Nyanga, Marondera and some parts of
Harare in winter.
5. Fog/Mist
 It is a visible mass consisting of cloud water droplets or ice crystals

suspended in the air at or near the Earth s surface.
 Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud, and is heavily
influenced by nearby bodies of water, topography, wind
conditions, and even human activities.
 Fog reduces visibility to less than 1 km while in a mist visibility is
reduced to between 1 and 2 km.
6. Rime
 is a white ice that forms when the water droplets in fog freeze to
the outer surfaces of objects.
 Often seen on trees.
7. Snow
 is precipitation in the form of flakes of ice particles that fall from

the clouds.
 Snow does not occur in Zimbabwe although it is common in
countries like the UK during winter.
8. Drizzle
 Very fine rain.

 Usually falls from layers of cloud that have very limited vertical
development e.g stratus clouds.
ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Relief rainfall
 Results when near saturated, warm maritime air is forced to rise by

a coastal mountain barrier.
 Mountains reduce the water holding capacity of the rising air by
enforced cooling.
 In Zimbabwe it mostly occurs in the Eastern Highlands in areas
like Chimanimani, Honde Valley and Nyanga.
 Warm South East Trades pick up moist from the Indian Ocean.
 They encounter a barrier mountain that is parallel to the coastline
for example Mt Inyangani and the Chimanimani Mountains.
 The SE Trades are forced to rise by the mountain, cool and
condense and rain occurs on the South Eastern slopes or the
windward slopes of the mountain.
 On the leeward side of the mountain it is dry.
 The descending SE trades are dry and warm resulting in little to no
rainfall.
 The leeward side is sometimes known as a rain shadow area.
Examples include Save valley and Marange area.
 Relief rainfall occurs in all altitudes
 Most of the rain occurs on the East side of the slope.

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TRUST ACADEMY STUDY PACK

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ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Population and Settlement:

 Include historical considerations including the desire to build

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Hwange is mostly a coal town.

 A lot of settlements are located near natural resources that are

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 Most barriers that prevented settlements from being built in certain

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Classification of

 Settlements are generally classified as either rural or urban.

 An urban settlement is one which mainly carries out secondary and

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 Historic settlements were rural, as the populations were mainly

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Rural settlement

 Consists of a line of huts or houses following a road, river, or

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 This pattern usually develops at road junctions or nodal points.

 Is a common pattern on desert nomadic camps, around dwalas,

Settlements in rural areas can be nucleated/gathered around market

Such settlements tend to be arranged in much the same manner as

Dispersed and Haphazard Settlements patterns

 Settlements can also be dispersed especially in areas with fewer

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Quality of life in

 More recently in Chiadzwa families had to be resettled as their

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ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Urban

The structure of Urban settlements

 This is the shape or form of urban areas in relation to land-use

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Factors that affect land use in urban areas

 The pattern of urban growth and land use depends on a number of

Types of Land uses in urban areas

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Historical developments of urban settlements

 Most modern towns in Africa and Europe are influenced by

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 This is known alternatively as the concentric model, the ring model

 It is the nucleus of the city

 It surrounds the CBD

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Zone of workingmen s houses/Low class residential areas

 This is known as to the zone of workingmen s houses or low-

Zone of middle income/medium density housing

 This is characterized by large houses,

 Is located some distance away from the city center.

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ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Hoyt s Sector

 It was published as an alternative to Burgess and Park s

 In making the model Hoyt made some assumptions

 According to Hoyt areas alongside main roads/communication

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ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Settlements: Harris and

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 An urban settlement in Zimbabwe is one whose population is more

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Factors affecting transport choice.

 The choice of transport that will be used between two points

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ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Types of Transport

 This refers to those forms of transport that have been brought

ZIMSEC O Level Geography Notes: Transport: Human