How does the Efficiency and Cross-Sectional Area of a River Change Down Stream?

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How does the Efficiency and Cross-Sectional Area of a River Change Down Stream?

For my investigation I will be looking at the cross-sectional area of a river and how this affects efficiency in the river of Little Beck as the stream moves downstream from the source to nearer the mouth. To do this I will be taking measurements of the cross sectional area and the efficiency at 12 different sites along the river (See fig. 2 for map of river and 12 sites).

The source of May Beck is approximately at a height of 280m on Fylingdales Moor in the North Yorkshire Moor National Park. The river flows south to join the Parsley beck, and the combined flow of these two rivers, now called the Little Beck, becomes tributary of the much larger river, River Esk, which reaches the sea at Whitby.

During my investigation, I will be comparing my results to that of the Bradshaw Model. The Bradshaw Model is a model of an ideal stream (see fig. 1). By using this I can compare my results with the model to see how ideal Little Beck is. According to the Bradshaw model, at the source of the stream the cross-sectional area and efficiency are low at the source but as you move down stream they increase.

Three key questions I have constructed to help me with my investigation are:

  1. How does efficiency change as you go down stream compared to the predictions of the Bradshaw Model?
  2. How does cross-sectional area vary from sites 1 to 12 compared to the predictions of the Bradshaw Model?
  3. Is there a pattern in the data of the efficiency and cross sectional-area?

Methodology Table

This methodology table shows all the types of data I collected, why and how they were collected. In order to investigate into cross-sectional area and efficiency I will not need all this data, so I have highlighted the methods in green which I will need to use to carry out my investigation.

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Data Representation

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