If bed load size decreases downstream with distance downstream.

Avery Hill GCSE
Unit 2: Water, Landforms And People

Introduction (draft)

The main idea of my investigation is to study if bed load size decreases downstream with distance downstream.

I will be studying 3 areas of the River Usk. The River Usk is 5.5 km long but my investigation will only study 2km of the river. The river begins with many meanders but further downstream it straightens out and then meanders again. On the edge of the river side the land had been eroded (undercutting) and the land was soft clay. The weather on the day of study was sunny with a slight breeze. There was some vision of human activity in the drainage basin; there were quad bike skid marks and farmers. If the river basin is used for investigation as the discharge level can be studied better as we could enlighten whether discharge was more or less nearer tributaries.

Discharge is the amount of water, which is added from tributaries, which makes the water energy faster.

Further downstream more sources (tributaries) will add to the river. The river will get faster and attrition will occur which causes the bed load to become smaller and rounder.

The largest size a river can carry is competence. The largest quantity is capacity.