Deserts and Arid Landscapes

What is Deserts and Arid Landscapes?

Within Geography, which covers maps, landforms, weather, climate, population and settlements: understand how our planet and people connect, this topic explains Deserts and Arid Landscapes. Geography explains how places, people and natural processes connect, so each topic here combines a clear definition with a visual model.

Check that you can explain Deserts and Arid Landscapes in your own words and give one example from everyday life. If you can do that, you have understood the core idea.

Understanding Deserts and Arid Landscapes helps you explain patterns on maps and in the news, and make reasoned decisions about places and environments.

Deserts and Arid Landscapes in detail

Deserts have very low rainfall, less than 250 mm a year, and may be hot, such as the Sahara, or cold, such as the Gobi. Landscape features are shaped by wind and occasional flash floods. Wind erodes by deflation (removing loose material) and abrasion (sandblasting).

Features include sand dunes (such as barchans), rock pedestals, yardangs, wadis (dry river beds), alluvial fans and inselbergs. Weathering includes thermal expansion from large daily temperature changes. Desertification, the spread of desert, is caused by overgrazing, overfarming and climate change, and it threatens millions of people.

How the interactive helps you understand Deserts and Arid Landscapes

Watch the globe in the interactive. Use any sliders or buttons it offers to change the values and see how the globe responds.

Before you change anything, predict the result. Then change one value at a time and check whether your prediction was right. This is a quick way to build a correct mental model of Deserts and Arid Landscapes.

Real-life uses and examples

• Describe a real place where Deserts and Arid Landscapes can be seen, using a map or photograph.
• Explain how Deserts and Arid Landscapes affects people, jobs and land use in a region.
• Support an answer about Deserts and Arid Landscapes with a named case study and specific evidence.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Writing general statements without a named place or example.
• Mixing up cause, effect and consequence when you explain Deserts and Arid Landscapes.
• Learning the definition without testing it. Use the quiz and the interactive to check that you can apply the idea.