Physical

• Risks

  • Trips, slips and falls
  • River risk - such as drowning, hypothermia
  • Urban risk - stranger danger
• Aim: To investigate how the river characteristics change with distance downstream on Debden Brook, Epping Forest
• Suitability of Debden Brook

  • Fairly shallow (low risk of drowning)
  • 3 clear course (upper, middle, lower)
  • All courses were fairly close by each other = less time spent between
  • Epping Forest is about 1.5 hours away by coach - therefore all data was taken in 1 day
  • River is on public land
• What did we do to reduce risk?

  • Wore suitable clothing - such as wellies, jumpers ...
  • Did not stay in the river too long - prevents hypothermia
  • Did not consume any river water - prevents Weil's disease
  • Washed hands after being in river
  • Covered cuts and wounds
  • Did not go after heavy rainfall (Deeper river)
• Data set collected

  • 3 different velocities at 3 different courses

  Why?

  • Velocity is a key river characteristic

  Limitations?

  • Amateur equipment (A cork, Meter stick, Stop watch)
  • Many people in 1 river, may have affected velocity at certain parts
• Data presentation method

  • Scatter graph with a line of best fit
  • Distance downstream on x axis
  • Velocity on y axis

  Why?

  • Anomalies are clear

  Limitations?

  • Results may not be very clear
• Strengths of fieldwork

  • Equipment fit for purpose
  • Results were repeatable
  • Results were reproducible
  • We measured 4 different characteristics
• Weaknesses of fieldwork

  • Amateur equipment
  • May have been affected by other people
  • Field sketches and data logging may have been rushed
  • River was not long enough for distinct change
• Improvements for our fieldwork

  • Take more repeats
  • Use better equipment
  • Use a longer river
• Results

  • As the depth of the river increased, the velocity increased
  • Depth 9cm (Lower course), Velocity 0.5m/s
  • Depth 1cm (Upper course), Velocity 0.1m/s
  • This matches our hypothesis, as there is less friction between the water and the surface, due to its greater volume
• Methods:

  Width

  • Trundle wheel measured at water surface
  • 1 measurement

  Depth

  • Meter stick measured from bed to river surface
  • 3 measurements, at 25cm, 50cm and 75cm (if River was 1m wide)

  Velocity

  • How quick a cork travelled 1m
  • 3 measurements
• Types of Data

  Primary - Collected ourselves

  • Depth, Width, Velocity
  • Field sketch

  Secondary - Provided by others

  • Debden Brook is 4km long
  • There are many bird species, including Kingfishers and Little Egrets

  Quantitative - Numerical

  • Depth, Width, Velocity
  • Debden Brook is 4km long

  Qualitative - Descriptive

  • Field sketch
  • There are many bird species, including Kingfishers and Little Egrets