Physical Fieldwork

• physical title: changes in river characteristics from the long profile of the river may beck
• why is the physical title suitable?

  clearly linked to physical geography, cross-sectional area increases downstream due to erosion
• physical hypothesis: we expect that the cross profile will increase as we move downstream, the river channel will get wider and deeper
• cross-sectional diagram for each of the 4 locations that shows width and depth - easy to compare and see how the channel changes from source to mouth
• velocity increases from source to mouth: velocity is affected by how much water is in contact with the bed and banks, the small channel in the upper course of the river means there is more friction which means the velocity slows
• bedload size decreases and becomes more rounded from source to mouth: this is due to erosion which results from the stones colliding with each other and against the river channel - removing the rough texture and reducing the size of the particles
• river channel width bar charts are easy to compare however they don't show the river's depth
• a better way to show river channel depth and width is a cross-sectional diagram for each location (easy to compare)
• the stones were measured with a ruler, and assessed on how rounded they were using classes
• bedload size should be plotted on a scattergraph to see if there is any correlation - should be a positive correlation (as the size of the bedrock increases, so does the angularity)
• measuring channel width: tape measure from one side to the other
• measuring channel depth: divided width into 10, take 10 good measurements with a ruler and hold to the bottom
• measuring stream velocity: ball, timer and meter ruler (how long it takes for the ball to flow from one end to the other)
• measuring bedload: use a ruler and estimate roundness
• limitations of measuring channel width: only take one measurement per site
• limitations of measuring channel depth: human error (could've been measured wrong)
• limitations of measuring stream velocity: people stood upstream, human error, reaction times
• limitations of measuring bedload: only measured 10 stones per location
• how to improve measurements of channel width/depth: use a class average= more reliable data
• how to improve data collected by measuring stream velocity: use a flow meter, class average
• how to improve measuring bedload data: measure more stones at each site and take an average
• why the river study location was suitable:

  • was accessible - could travel in school hours
  • safe to get to the river
  • safe to collect data from 4 different locations
• justify one primary data collection method for the river study:

  • river width - shows it gets wider downstream
  • river depth - shows it gets deeper downstream
  • speed of water - shows it gets faster downstream
  • pebbles were measured to show they get smaller and rounder downstream