physical fieldwork

Question 1

what is our physical fieldwork question

Answer 1

how does the cross section of the river tarrell change as we move downstream?

Question 2

what makes our question suitable for a geographical enquiry

Answer 2

• able to collect primary and secondary data > can draw conc.
• small-scale > short river so can measure along
• low/manageable risk > shallow
• clearly a geographical question - ab a place and appears in syllabus > can test Bradshaws theory

Question 3

how was our fieldwork practical in terms of access

Answer 3

• on public land so we can access river
• terrain/landscape is not too challenging to walk
• parts of the river on private land + we have permission to visit so we could access all of the long profile

Question 4

how was our fieldwork practical in terms of safety

Answer 4

relatively shallow so able to take measurements

Question 5

how was our fieldwork practical in terms of manageability (scale)

Answer 5

river is relatively short so can measure long profile and see differences

Question 6

what was good ab the location of the river in terms of geography

Answer 6

able to access river from source to mouth so we could test Bradshaws geographical theories there

Question 7

what was good ab the location of our river in terms of data

Answer 7

• relatively shallow so easy to measure so data is accurate
• all rivers in uk have secondary data

Question 8

who was our theorist

Answer 8

bradshaw

Question 9

what did Bradshaw say

Answer 9

1. width should increase downstream
2. depth should increase downstream

Question 10

what were the risks with our fieldwork

Answer 10

1. drowning in river
2. getting cold from spending day in the field
3. getting hit by a car
4. accidents in river

Question 11

what action did we take to minimise risks

Answer 11

1. areas where the river was too deep we did not take measurements, working in supervised small groups
2. bringing spare clothes and warm layers
3. cross at safe locations
4. bring a first aid kit + mobile phone

Question 12

justify measuring the width as one of our methods

Answer 12

we wanted to see how the cross section of the river tarrell changes downstream because Bradshaw suggests that rivers on average get wider and deeper. so we needed to measure the width of 10 places along the long profile to see if this happened.

Question 13

what was good ab our width method

Answer 13

• easy to use
• portable
• simple (method + equipment)
• cheap
• fast
• can look at past data

Question 14

what was bad ab our width method

Answer 14

• can be inaccurate:
  > current would sometimes pull the tape measure
  > vegetation in the way so sometimes hard to find edges
  > not measuring from undercut (upper course)

Question 15

overall judgement of width methodology

Answer 15

fairly reliable and successful method w/ accurate data

Question 16

justify measuring depth as one of our methods

Answer 16

we wanted to see how the cross section of the river tarrell changes downstream because Bradshaw suggests that rivers on average get wider and deeper. so we needed to measure the depth of 10 places along the long profile to see if this happened.

Question 17

what was good ab our depth method

Answer 17

• easy to use
• portable
• simple (method + equipment)
• cheap
• fast
• can look at past data
• taking a mean of depth
• ruler can float so doesn’t drift away

Question 18

what was bad ab our depth method

Answer 18

• ruler would often bend at high current areas so the data was unreliable
• distance between measurements was larger in middle course so data is less accurate

Question 19

overall judgement on depth methodology

Answer 19

fairly reliable and successful method w/ accurate data

Question 20

justify our use of stratified sampling

Answer 20

we needed to cover the whole long profile so we had to choose sites in the upper, middle and lower course but some of the river was too difficult to access or too dangerous to get into because it was too deep or fast-flowing so we had to choose our sites to an extent.

Question 21

what was good ab our use of stratified sampling

Answer 21

• could choose 10 sites that cover the entirety of the long profile so we could avoid any private land or dangerous parts of the river

Question 22

what was bad ab our use of stratified sampling

Answer 22

• creates a bias as ensuring that it was safe may mean picking shallower sites to take data from which could distort data making our river seem shallower than it is

Question 23

overall judgement of our sue of stratified sampling

Answer 23

fairly reliable + successful method b/c it allowed us to access the river safely + answered the question

Question 24

justify our use of secondary data using google earth

Answer 24

enables us to see the long profile of the river and plan the sites to show how the cross-section changes downstream - according to Bradshaw, river width and depth should increase downstream

Question 25

justify using maps in our enquiry

Answer 25

1. familiarise myself w/ area of fieldwork before going on field trip 2. choose suitable sites for data collection based on accessibility 3. add to your primary data

Question 26

justify using photos in our enquiry

Answer 26

1. helps familiarise myself w/ area of fieldwork before going on field trip 2. can show important features 3. more accurate than a sketch 4. may be use to make measurements

Question 27

what was good ab using bar chart to represent data

Answer 27

same as justify - easy to read the results and see trend

Question 28

what was bad ab using bar chart to represent data

Answer 28

- doesn't show the cross section of the river - can be misinterpreted as it seems the sites are equally spaced out - answers half the question

Question 29

overall judgement of bar charts to represent data

Answer 29

fairly reliable

Question 30

what was good ab using located cross section to represent data

Answer 30

answers question fully and clearly

Question 31

what was bad ab using located cross section to represent data

Answer 31

can be hard to observe trend and interpret

Question 32

overall judgement of located cross section to represent data

Answer 32

superior presentation technique

Question 33

what did the data show

Answer 33

1. width increases downstream 2. depth slightly increases downstream

Question 34

how did the data help us answer our question

Answer 34

- our question was how does the cross section of the river tarrell change as we move downstream? - Bradshaw said that the width and depth of the river should increase downstream so we expect the cross section to increase downstream - our width showed that the river got wider downstream - this suggests that Bradshaws model fits the river tarrell - our depth showed that the river got slightly deeper downstream - this suggests that Bradshaws model generally fits the river tarrell - overall the cross section of the river increases as we go downstream,

Question 35

evaluate our width results

Answer 35

GOOD: - easy to collect - cheap equipment - past data to compare it too - 10 sites BAD: - downstream river wider and current faster so tape measure would drag - hard to identify where edge of river was when there was an undercut

Question 36

evaluate our depth results

Answer 36

GOOD: - repeated measurements 5 times and took a mean - past data to compare it too (acc.) - easy to collect so can be done in a day BAD: - distance between 5 depth points increased as you go downstream so acc. decreases - for safety picked shallower sites downstream so river seems shallower in lower course - anyone standing upstream disrupted the depth

Question 37

what was the problem with the width method

Answer 37

as the river gets wider the tape measure gets caught in the current

Question 38

what is one improvement we could make to the width method

Answer 38

in lower course sites have someone hold the tape measure in the middles the tape remains taut

Question 39

what effect would improving the width method have on our results

Answer 39

makes our results more accurate, narrower downstream than we originally thought

Question 40

what effect would improving the width method have on our conclusions

Answer 40

makes the conclusion that the width increases more reliable - although narrower downstream, results would still significantly show the river gets wider

Question 41

what was the problem with the depth method

Answer 41

further downstream gaps between the depth measurements were much larger as we still only measured 5 points across the river

Question 42

what is one improvement we could make to the depth method

Answer 42

as the river gets wider measure the depth at more than 5 times to reduce anomalies

Question 43

what effect would improving the depth method have on our results

Answer 43

gives a more acc. cross section and will remove anomalies and give a more acc. depth b/c you've taken more measurements

Question 44

what would improving the depth method have on our conclusions

Answer 44

makes conc. that the depth got deeper more reliable and will allow us to have a detailed cross-section

Question 45

what are general improvements we could make to the methods

Answer 45

1. more sites - longer stretch of river 2. do it on a diff. day 3. compare data w/ previous data collected

Question 46

justify our investigation of human interaction

Answer 46

we measured the width + depth of the river under a bridge to see what impact humans might have on these features

Question 47

what were the results of our investigation of human interaction

Answer 47

river got narrower but deeper

Question 48

what was good ab our investigation of human interaction

Answer 48

results were fairly acc.

Question 49

what was bad ab our investigation of human interaction

Answer 49

river was fast flowing here + deep so it was difficult to hold the measuring stick still or read the measurement accurately

Question 50

overall judgement of our investigation of human interaction

Answer 50

we were fairly sure that the river got narrower but deeper when humans built bridges