Skills

1
Geography

• Skills

2
INTRODUCTION

• Outline the aim, one objective and one
  theory/concept that provided the idea for the
  study

3
SECONDARY SOURCES

• Outline one secondary source of information that
  you used and assess the extend to which it was
  fit for purpose
• Discharge and height of river near to locations
  were checked to see if the water level is
  low/safe enough to work in.
• By studying regime the best time to study the
  river could be established.
• Data source National Rivers Archive

4
RISK ASSESSMENT
5
METHOD

• For one item of primary data you collected for
  the study describe the method of data collection.
• Cross-Sectional Area
• The width of the river was measured using a tape
  measure from the point where the river met the
  bank on one side to point on opposite bank.
• A systematic sample was then used to take 5 depth
  readings evenly spaced across the river using a
  metre rule or survey pole if depth greater than a
  metre.
• An average depth was then calculated and
  multiplied by the width to give cross sectional
  area.
• Average Depth x Width Cross Sectional Area

6
METHOD

• Describe a method of presentation that you used
  in your investigation and indicate how the chosen
  method was used.
• One graphical method of presentation used was a
  scatter graph showing HR and distance from source
  of the river. This allowed a correlation to be
  tested.
• By using a trend line on a diagram a positive,
  negative or no relationship could be identified.

7
METHOD

• Stating the results of your investigation,
  explain how they helped to improve your
  understanding of the topic or environment
  investigated.
• The investigation proved the hypothesis to be
  correct with the values for HR increasing with
  distance from source.
• Allowed aspects of Bradshaws model to be better
  understood as they were tested in real world.
• Flow measurements across the river allowed
  thalweg to be plotted and better understanding of
  meander creation and dynamics to be gained.
• A better understanding of human influence on
  hydrological systems was also gained as human
  impact was considered at each site.

8
ICT

• Describe one application of ICT skills in
  carrying out your fieldwork and comment on its
  usefulness.
• Data collected was entered into an Excel
  spreadsheet which allowed it to be easily
  tabulated and cross-sectional area diagrams to be
  automatically generated for comparison.
• Function cells within the table allowed average
  depth to automatically be calculated.
• Chart wizard used to produce scatter graphs which
  allowed possible correlations between data to be
  analysed.

9
EVALUATION

• Were there any weaknesses in your enquiry and in
  what ways could your enquiry be improved.
• Sites where data was collected were restricted by
  access and safety constraint.
• Areas neared the mouth could not be studied due
  to size.
• Improvement would be using more specialised
  equipment and teams able to work in deeper water.
• Data would have been more reliable if repeated on
  a different day.
• Some weaknesses with data accuracy e.g. it was
  hard to get tape to sit exactly on top of water
  meaning reading wasnt 100 accurate.
• Conclusions would be more valid if a larger range
  of data was collected and analysed.

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PILOTING

• Piloting the cross-sectional area
• Initially 20 depth readings were taken and an
  average calculated. This was too time consuming
  so fewer readings were trialled.
• Depths were taken at 10, 5, 2 and 1 interval(s)
  across the channel.
• Whilst 2 and 1 gave an average reading too far
  away from that obtained with 20 the average
  reading with 5 depths was close enough to justify
  using that as the final method.

11
EVALUATION

• Outline the key differences between random,
  systematic and stratified sampling techniques.