In line with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidelines, centres should follow five steps to risk assessment: 1. Identify the hazards 2. Decide who might be harmed and how 3. Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions 4. Record your findings and implement them 5. Review your assessment and update if necessary. Potential Risk Who might be involved Level of risk (10 = take immediate action, 9-7 consider actions, below 6 = monitor) Precautions Injury during transport to field location Self, group, other pupils. 3 Travel by coach to location. Plan parking and road crossing in advance. Injury during data collection. Drowning. Self, group, other vehicle users. 7 Monitor weather conditions. Do not enter the water if considered unsafe. Emergency contact number. One member of group to observe. Injury to person accessing river location (mountain environment). Self, group, other pupils. 3 Use main pathways. Pay attention to surroundings especially when in the process of data collection. Complete pilot investigation – previsit. 2. Selecting, measuring and recording data appropriate to the chosen enquiry Difference between primary and secondary data. Primary Data Secondary Data Definition Data collected that are original and collected for the first time, eg data. Data collected by using already available sources, eg published materials. Examples of this type of data Closed questioning / questionnaires Traffic and pedestrian counts Litter counts Rating / grading scores Depth / width Speed / velocity Census data (last one 2011 – completed every ten years). Photographs from the internet Website content Library books and sources Newspaper archives
4. Describing, analysing and explaining data Data Set Main findings Links to other data Velocity Velocity increases with distance downstream as predicted by the Bradshaw model. TRUE The Bradshaw model predicts that velocity will increase with distance downstream This was seen in the investigation. Average velocity increased from 3 m/s in the upper stage to 6 m/s in the middle stage and 7m/s in the lower stage. This shows that there was a greater increase from the upper to middle course than the middle to lower course. I think this increase is due to the channel getting much wider and deeper the further you go downstream. This makes the channel more efficient at moving water. Can be linked to wider channel downstream and finer sediment (less bedload friction) B Axis Sediment Size B axis reduces with distance downstream as predicted by the Bradshaw model. TRUE The Bradshaw model predicts that B axis sediment size will decrease downstream. B axis was largest in the upper stage with an average size (ten pebbles measured) of 53mm. In the middle stage sediment size was on average 28mm which is significantly smaller than that in the upper stage. In the lower stage of the river sediment was the smallest which was predicted. The average B axis size was 16mm RANGE - gets smaller showing more sorting of sediment downstream. INTERQUARTILE RANGE - shows similar smaller range between lower and upper quartile. The IQR is often seen as a better measure of spread than the range as it is not affected by outliers. Less bedload friction appear to cause velocity to increase as B axis sediment size is reduced. Photograph Survey Do landforms reflect those predicted in the longitudinal model? TRUE The photograph survey was used to see if the rivers natural features matched those seen on the Longitudinal Profile Model. In the upper stage the channel was narrow and there is clearly a V shaped valley created by vertical erosion. This has created interlocking spurs. Photographs also show channel width increasing (as measured) and more efficient channel (velocity increase).