Carding mill valley

• Title of fieldwork enquiry

  How do the characteristics of the river at Carding Mill valley change as we move downstream
• What I investigated

  Changes in the velocity, bedload characteristics, and size of the channel in the river at Carding Mill valley
• Theory suggests that velocity decreases along the river's course. This is because as we move downstream the river is wider and flatter, so the water has more space to fill and less of an incline to run down.
• Theory suggests that average particle size decreases along the rivers course. This is because as the particles are eroded as they move down the river, and further down the particles have had more time to erode. Downstream velocity is greater which means there is more energy and more erosion, so smaller particles. Large boulders cannot be moved from the upper course.
• Theory suggests that channel size increases along the river's course. This is because there is more lateral erosion lower in the river because the river is slower and flatter.
• Why is it an appropriate location?

  • Site is easy to access
  • Footpath all the way up the river
  • The river isn't too deep or fast
  • The river is easy to access
  • The area is safe
  • There is lots of data to measure at different points
• Risk assessment:

  Trips/slips/falls: High risk, wear suitable footwear, be careful on slippy ground

  Hypothermia or sunburn: Low risk, wear warm clothes or sun cream

  Contaminated river water: Medium risk, Don't drink river water, wash hands before eating after touching river water
• Primary data


  Information that is collected first-hand, e.g. tallies, measurements and photographs
• Secondarydata


  Information that someone else has previously collected and made available, e.g. off the internet, from a book, reports, census data
• Random sampling


  Where samples are chosen at random, this makes the data collected unbiased, e.g. picking pebbles at a beach
• Systematic sampling

  Where you take samples at regular intervals, meaning data is reliable and unbiased, e.g. measuring river width every 10m