A study of the downstream changes in the Curly Burn River

The first 200 words of this essay...

A study of the downstream changes in the Curly Burn River

Aims: The aim for this field work is to investigate the downstream changes in the Curly Burn River in Limavady. Several hypotheses I decided to investigate included the increase of both channel width and depth with increasing distance downstream, the increase in velocity and discharge with increasing distance downstream, the decrease in slope downstream and the decrease in the calibre of bedload particles with increasing distance downstream.

Planning: The Curly Burn River was chosen for us to investigate due to the various aspects it had relevant to our AS study of fluvial environments. The primary data I collected in the field included measurements such as the width and depth of the river as well as the float velocity, discharge, slope and bedload shape and calibre. For a secondary data source I used an ordnance survey map of the Limavady catchment area (1:50,000) to measure the distance between sites on the river as well as locate any nearby features that may be useful. I also used Power's roundness index to identify the shape of bedload particles. The sampling method I used was a combination of pragmatic systematic sampling