Costs and benefits of managing flood risk
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can assess the costs and benefits associated with hard and soft engineering strategies aimed at reducing river flooding.
Key learning points
- There are costs and benefits of management strategies to reduce river flooding.
- Hard engineering strategies include flood walls, embankments and flood barriers.
- Soft engineering strategies include flood plain retention and river restoration.
Keywords
Sustainable - meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
Hard engineering - use of artificial structures and technologies to control natural processes, such as flooding or river erosion
Soft engineering - uses natural processes and landscape features to reduce the risk of flooding and erosion
Common misconception
Hard engineering is always better than soft engineering.
While hard engineering can be effective, it is not always the best choice due to cost and environmental impact. Soft engineering can be more sustainable and less intrusive.
Teacher tip
Use case studies to show real-world examples of cost-benefit analysis in action.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is the hydrological cycle?
Q2.Which landform is most likely to be found in the upper course of a river?
Q3.Which process involves the river wearing away its bed and banks?
Q4.What is deposition?
Q5.Which landform is formed by both erosion and deposition?
Q6.In which course of the river would you typically find levees?
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.What is meant by "hard engineering"?
Q2.Which of the following is a soft engineering strategy?
Q3.Which of these is a potential disadvantage of hard engineering?
Q4.Why is it important to evaluate both costs and benefits of flood management strategies?
To help you plan your 10 geography lesson on: Costs and benefits of managing flood risk, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 10 geography lesson on: Costs and benefits of managing flood risk, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 geography lessons from the River landscapes unit, dive into the full secondary geography curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.