Fieldwork Flashcards
Physical fieldwork title
to investigate the effect of trampling on the abundance and diversity of vegetation at Reigate Heath, Surrey
Human fieldwork title
to investigate the pattern of housing and environmental quality in Reigate, surrey
what is the geographical theory underpinning the physical enquiry
- the more foot travel there is, the more the path dies back and erodes so the less vegetation there is
what were my primary data sources for p
- percentage vegetation cover
- height of tallest species
- no. different species
- depth of footpath erosion
secondary data sources for p
- maps (to identify location)
- google lens (species identification)
- social media (find land use conflicts)
- weather reports
primary data sources for h
- garden size
- no trees
- no windows
- traffic
- cleanliness
- house type
- appearance
- garage size
secondary data sources for h
- questionnaire survey
- noise survey
- zoopla (prices)
- OS maps
-police website for crime survey
what was the geographical theory underpinning the human enquiry
housing quality increases with distance from town centre
-environmental, house prices, services
potential hazards of the p investigation and ways to reduce this risk
- injury from falling over uneven ground or tree stumps -> wear sturdy shoes and no running allowed
- lyme disease from ticks -> education about symptoms and wear long clothing
- risk of illness/hypothermia from adverse weather -> adapt activities to conditions, wear suitable clothing
potential hazards of the h investigation and ways to reduce this risk
- getting hit by cars (cross only at zebra crossings)
- getting abducted by stranger (groups, meeting places and times established)
- risk of injury by adverse weather (wear suitable clothing, adapt activities)
what is the difference between primary and secondary data
primary: data you have collected yourself
secondary: data that has already been collected and been made available
sampling methods and adv vs disadv
- systematic – good spread of location and eliminates bias – may have problems with access
- random – removes bias – may not get a true representation of the sample group as whole sections could be missed completely
- stratified – good representation and sample spread – can bring in bias
description and justification of data collection methods p
- quadrat (systematic) – clear, simple, easy to use, allows investigation over large areas, inexpensive, change over space – can be subjective (%)
- ruler to measure height – simple, easy to interpret, not subjective – could not always put ruler on the ground due to other vegetation, quadrat squashed some plants
- collected data along a transect – – tape was not always held tight, we had to move the tape when walkers came past
description and justification of data collection methods h
- environmental and housing quality surveys (given a score on various features from +2 to -2)
easy to collect and enables qualitative data to be quantified
should try a wider scale to get more accurate ratings, subjective, features such as “old” may be good or bad for different people
explanation of chosen data presentation methods p
- kite diagram – demonstrates change over space, visually clear and comparison can be made – visually subjective as the scale influences visual effect, only works with a specific range of data, time consuming to construct by hand
factors considered when choosing a suitable question for p
- time of year
- accessibility
- measurable
- safety
- equipment requirements
explanation of chosen data presentation methods h
- bar charts – can compare easily, trends can be seen, can be analysed quickly, easy to draw on computer – using too few categories can mask important patterns in the data
- annotated photographs – good visual snapshot – can mask deeper socio-economic characteristics
description, analysis, and explanation of the results if fieldwork data
what conclusion have we drawn from p
percentage vegetation cover and diversity increases as distance from footpath increases. this is due to human usage being more concentrated down the middle (dogs and members of public)
conclusion from h
housing quality increases with distance from centre of town - commuting in
limitations of data collected from p
limitations of data collected from h
suggestions for other data that may be useful
extent to which conclusions were reliable
factors considered when choosing a suitable question for h
- does not require specialist equipment
- local
- accessible (private land)
improvements to p method
- go at more times in the year (heath users more active in summer)
- larger sample size (10 quadrats per transect instead of 5)
- 30m transect (instead of 20)
evaluation h
- splitting reigate into zones provided good spatial coverage and 10 streets sampled
- EQS and HQS are subjective and enlarge scale to 5s
- sample size enlarged as certain streets not represented
- use census data to gain greater insight into socio-economic
- only at one time of year (roadworks affected noise_
what should you include in the evaluation
- problems
- limitations
- improvements
advantages and disadvantages of using mean as an average
- includes all data
- just one extreme value can distort the data
median
- eliminates extreme values at either end
- easy to calculate
- doesn’t really give a full representation
mode
- easy to calculate
- allows for an average to be taken of non-numerical data
- may be more than one mode, no mode
- may not accurately represent the data
range
- easy to calculate
- uses anomalies if present which distorts data
inter-quartile range
- useful for comparing data sets
- less use on its own
reasons for using reigate as location
- walk from school
- lots of pavements to walk around on
- it is a large town with lots of streets to allow us a large sampling group
- has a variety of types of housing with different levels of wealth so we could get sufficient information to draw reliable conclusions
what are desire and flow line maps
Desire and flow line maps show movements from one place to another:
- flow lines show the exact path of movement
- desire lines show a general direction of movement
Movements are shown as lines. Thick lines show high amounts of movement and thin lines show low amounts
