Physical Fieldwork

Question 1

Physical fieldwork aim

Answer 1

To investigate the changes downstream in the river at carding mill valley

Question 2

Why carding mill valley?

Answer 2

-displays great changes downstream over a 3km distance (several tributaries, river gets wider)
-readily accessed (footpath following course of river)
-safe (not too deep)
-around 1 hour away

Question 3

Hypothesis

Answer 3

Width, depth, CSA, discharge and channelisation increases as distance downstream increases

Question 4

Risk assessment

Answer 4

Slipping (wear walking boots, stay on paths)
Weather (wear sun cream and hat or coat)
Wildlife (leave alone)
Medical (bring first aid kit)

Question 5

Data collection - Velocity

Answer 5

-chose 10 sites using a stratified method (after a tributary)
-measure 10m distance here
-place dog biscuit into the river at the start of the tape measure and time how long it took for the biscuit to travel that distance
-speed = distance / time
-repeated this at each site to improve accuracy
-was a simple, quick and cheap method but wasn’t always reliable as sometimes the dog biscuit got stuck
-to improve reliability I could have used a flow meter but this would be expensive and require the river to be above a certain depth

Question 6

Data representation - Velocity, distance scatter graph

Answer 6

-graph with y-axis as velocity, x-axis as distance downstream
-easily see that velocity decreases downstream, addressing hypothesis
-issue was that line of best wasn’t perfect due to anomalies
-could have used a line graph but if there was many anomalies this would be more inaccurate as it would imply the velocity as measured at every single point

Question 7

Extending the investigation

Answer 7

-go back under different weather conditions/ different times of year to find an average
-different method (shape of rocks on river bed)
-apply same methods to another river and compare