Physical Firledwork - Slapton Sands (Paper 3)

Question 1

Where is Slapton Sands located?

Answer 1

Start Bay, Devon on the SW coast of UK

Question 2

What are the Physical features of the area?

Answer 2

-Shingle beach
-Meets the English Channel
-It has a fresh water lake behind it called the Slapton Ley National Nature Reserve

Question 3

What are the Human features of the area?

Answer 3

-Torcross is the town at the end of the beach and is protected by a large sea wall which cost £330,000 in 1980
-Population of Slapton is 434

Question 4

What is the Evalutaion/Justification of the area?

Answer 4

-Large enough to see variations
-Not too big so is safe to navigate around
-Lots of coastal processes and protection methods present

Question 5

What are the 3 hypotheses?

Answer 5

-Beach width increases moving north from Torcoss
-Sediment size decrease with distance north from Torcross
-Coastall protection increases with land value

Question 6

Why does beach width increase moving north from Torcross?

Answer 6

The SW prevailing wind causes longshore drift which transports sediment up the beach.

Question 7

Why does sediment size decrease with distance moving north from Torcross?

Answer 7

Due to longshore drift more transportation occurs and so more eroision on the sediment like attrition.

Question 8

What 3 methods of data collection were used?

Answer 8

-Field sketch (qualitative)
-Beach profiling (quantitative)
-Lithology (quantitative)

Question 9

Describe a field sketch.

Answer 9

We used a piece of paper,pencil and pen to draw the view in front of us.
This was used to compare the coastline in different areas using stratified sampling.

Question 10

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of field sketches?

Answer 10

+Easy to complete
+Doesn’t require a lot of equipment
-It can be subjective/bias

Question 11

Describe beach profiling?

Answer 11

One person stood at the bottom of the slope and the other at the top with a ranging pole. The distance between then was measured. The person at the bottom measures the angle between them using a clinometer looking at a specific point on the ranging pole. This was repeated along the whole beach using stratified sampling every 50m.

Question 12

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of beach profiling?

Answer 12

+Allows us to collect numerical data
+Easy to complete
-Needs equipment and groups

Question 13

Describe lithology.

Answer 13

We used a calliper to measure sediment size. Measuring the width of sediment along its longest edge. Random sampling was used.

Question 14

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of lithology?

Answer 14

+Easy to collect numerical data
+Allows us to collect numerical data
-Sediment was selected at random, which may have been bias

Question 15

How was the data presented?

Answer 15

-Lithology using a Compound Bar Chart
-Beach profiles using Excel
-Field sketch

Question 16

Describe a Compound Bar Chart.

Answer 16

The location was plotted on the x-axis, with the size of sediment represented on the y-axis.

Question 17

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of a Compound Bar Chart?

Answer 17

+Useful as more than one data set could be plotted onto the same graph, making it easy to compare sites
-Can be difficult to draw, especially if the scale isn’t appropriate

Question 18

Describe beach profiles using Excel.

Answer 18

Microsoft excel was used to work out the width of the beach.

Question 19

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of beach profiles using Excel?

Answer 19

+Demonstrates the gradient of the beach
+Can extrapolate raw data
-It can be bias/subjective

Question 20

What are the 2 sources of secondary data?

Answer 20

-Data and information from the BGS (British Geological Survey)
-Zoopla

Question 21

Describe the BGS.

Answer 21

We used this information to investigate physical processes in the bay.

Question 22

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of the BGS?

Answer 22

+Enabled us to see if the primary data we collected was in line with more large scale data
+Enables us to question the validity of our data
-May not have been up to date

Question 23

Describe Zoopla

Answer 23

We used this information to research property prices in Torcross and the surrounding area.

Question 24

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Zoopla?

Answer 24

+Enables us to accurately find out the land value

Question 25

What were the 2 ways of data analysis

Answer 25

-GE graph was used with Google Earth
- Graph analysis

Question 26

Describe GE graph.

Answer 26

This enabled us to plot data onto the map of Start Bay.

Question 27

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of GE graph?

Answer 27

+Enabled us to see the spatial variations very visibly between the different areas

Question 28

Describe graph analysis.

Answer 28

Data was analysed by looking at the graphs drawn and looking at the patterns in the data to see whether the hypotheses were correct or not.

Question 29

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of graph analysis?

Answer 29

+Enables us to spot clear trends/patterns
-Relies on accurate data and an accurately drawn graph

Question 30

What is conclusion 1?

Answer 30

That hypothesis 1 is correct as the data on site 1 (closest to Torcross) was 22.9 metres for the beach width and was 30.1 metres for site 6 (furthest away).
This was expected due to the effect of longshore drift.

Question 31

What was conclusion 2?

Answer 31

That hypothesis 2 is correct as the data on site 1 (nearest to Torcross) had a mean sediment size of 5.1cm and site 6 (furthest from Torcross) had a mean of 1.8cm.
This was expected due to attrition on the sediment/

Question 32

Why can the conclusions be trusted?

Answer 32

+Large amount of data was collected - 6 study sites
+Variaty of qualitative and quantitative data which prodived representative results
+Our data was backed up by secondary data
+Steps were taken to minimise bias e.g. working in groups and using sampling methods

Question 33

Why can’t the conclusions be trusted?

Answer 33

-Data was only collected on a week day in January, therefore findings may not be representative and conclusions therefore may not be reliable
-Some groups had more time than others to do a pilot study (practice data collection) with the equipment so may have had more accurate results than others