Fieldwork Flashcards
describe the location study area at a local and national scale
Lake District, Cumbria located in the north west of England
state the PHYSICAL geography title question and hypothesis
how does the depth and river load change across the bend of a river?
HYPOTHESES:
- river deeper on outside bend than inside
- river road larger on inside bend than outside
state the HUMAN geography title question and hypothesis
what are the impacts of tourism on keswick?
HYPOTHESES:
- tourists are important to the economy of keswick
- tourists damage the natural environment in keswick
state the risks of the human field work and the action taken
- checked weather forecast to see if we dressed appropriately
- everyone had a copy of a local map to prevent ppl getting lost
- since keswick is a town centre we crossed roads at pedestrian crossings to ensure no one was hurt
- stayed in groups of 4 & only approached members of public in pairs to reduce dangerous encounters
- able to contact teachers via school mobile in case of dange
describe the methodology for testing the river depth (PHYSICAL data collection method).
identify any problems you enountrered
- while tape measure is held across river by 2 ppl, another person uses meter ruler to meaure depth across river
- meaurement is read out & recorded by someone on the river bank
PROBLEMS: - pushing the meter ruler down too hard may make channel seem deeper than it actually is
- human error = misreading of measurement
describe the methodology for the questionairre (HUMAN data collection method).
what was your aim
- we approached members of the public on the high street in groups of 2
- we asked questions ie why they were there, how long theyre staying
aim: to find out what the impacts of tourism was on the economy of keswick
describe the methodology for the environmental quality survey (HUMAN data collection method)
what was your aim?
for a given location, we scored the area on diffeent aspects of the environmental quality (littler, vandalism, noise, open space, building repair, air quality)
we gave it a score from 0-4 (0 being best E. quality and 4 being the worst)
aim: judge the impact of tourism on the environment around keswick town centre
what type of sampling was used for the questionairre
random sampling
we asked ppl who passed us at a given point
what type of sampling was used for the environmental quality survey
systematic sampling
the survey carried out at spaced out points across town centre. each survey 200m apart
describe the methodology for testing the bed locad (PHYSICAL data collection method).
identify any problems encountered
- every 50cm across river channel a rock from river bed was picked up & passed to person on the river bank
- they meausred longest length of rock using a calliper & wrote measurement down to nearest 0.5cm
PROBLEMS: - most ppl always picked up the biggest rock which could skew the results
- only 1 rock picked from each location
what type of sampling was used for the depth and bedload
systematic sampling
measurements for both depth and bedload were taken and recorded every 50cm across river channel
state the risks of the physical field work and the action taken
- checked weather forecast before to see if river would be too high
- the site chosen specifically based on safety in an area where depth & velocity of river isnt too dangerous
- appropriate, protective clothing provided & worn (waders)
- data collected in large groups & were teachers present at all times
how were your results for the quiestionairre presented and why
in pie charts bc was easy to compare results & look for trends
how were your results for the environmental quality survey presented and why
in radar graphs then overlaid onto a map of keswick town centre to see how e.quality differed at each location
could see the score for each aspect of e.quality at each location allowing anomalies & trends to be identified
what does the results from the questionairre show?
- 47% ppl’s main purpose of visit was tourism & 46% will spend over £100 showing tourists spend money when in keswick, likely in shops/cafes in town centre
- 38% ppl said visit will be more than 4 days meaning its likely they’ll need accommodation so money will be spent in local economy (hotels)
- 14% ppl’s purpose of visit was for social reasons/shopping meaning money is spent in local economy/town centre facilities
what does the results from the environmental quality survey show?
- ev. score was 6.5 out of 20 so e.quality was good
- best quality was at points 1, 7, 23 (3/20) meaning they were well managed by local council (litter bins)
- worst was at point 19 (10/20) which was close to a takeaway food retailer & central location with high footfall (406 ppl)
did your findings support your hypotheses for the human fieldwork? state them and support with evidence
tourists are important to economy
- YES as 46% spend over £100 which create jobs for ppl
- 47% surveyed were tourists
tourists damage natural environment
- NO as environmental quality scores were good but large amounts of litter found near areas with high footfall and food retailers (places tourists may visit)
did your findings support your hypotheses for the physical fieldwork? state them and support with evidence
river deeper on outside bend
- YES as inside bend was 15cm deep whereas outside bend 69cm deep at its deepest
load is larger on inside bend
- YES as river sediment mostly largest on iside bend (16.5cm) compared to outside bend (4cm)
evaluate the reliability of your results for the river depth
(PHYSICAL )
what should you do to improve next time
- not all data was colledcted at same time of the day
- groups went over 2 days so river level couldve varied a lot in this time
- next time all groups should collect data at the same time
evaluate the reliability of your results for the bedload
(PHYSICAL )
what should you do to improve next time
- a lot of data collects as each group measured sizes of 10 rocks.
next time to improve accuracy of results, each group should measure 3 rocks at each location (30 rocks in total) - tendency for groups to pick up largest rocks at each location making data unreliable at sediment may appear larger than in reality
however, this was done at each location so pattern of location being on inside bend would still be true
evaluate the reliability of your results for the questionairre
(HUMAN )
what should you do to improve next time
- results were reaible as it was a big sample size (180 ppl completed questionairre)
- we asked more female and older ppl as we felt more comfortable approaching them
- next time we should carry out a systematic sampling method ensuring we get a less biased sample
evaluate the reliability of your results for the environmental quality survey
(HUMAN )
what should you do to improve next time
- having a key which describe each score on the scale ensured our results werent subjective meaning our results were more accurate when collected
evaluate the reliability of your results for OVERALL
HUMAN fieldwork
what should you do to improve next time
- could visit keswick at different times of the year ensuring the season didn’t affect the results
- we would expect tourism to be higher in summer so results may show positive impact of tourism on economy in summer months
