What you'll learn

• How to turn a river or coastal fieldwork task into a focused enquiry question.
• The key primary data methods for either river discharge or beach morphology and sediment.
• How qualitative evidence records river or coastal landforms.
• How secondary data, such as flood-risk or geology maps, supports your investigation.

1. What is a physical fieldwork investigation?

In GCSE Geography, fieldwork means collecting evidence outside the classroom and outside the school or college grounds. For this part of the course, you study one physical environment: either a river landscape or a coastal landscape.

The exam will treat fieldwork in a UK context, even though fieldwork does not technically have to take place in the UK. Typical UK examples include a small river such as the River Tillingbourne in Surrey, or a coast such as Swanage Bay in Dorset.

2. The enquiry process: from question to evidence

Enquiry questions

An enquiry question is the main question your investigation tries to answer. A strong enquiry question is:

• linked to a real place
• measurable using fieldwork
• focused on change, pattern or relationship
• connected to geographical processes

For a river investigation, the task is usually about change in a river channel. For a coastal investigation, the task is usually about coastal processes shown through landscape evidence.

Examples of better enquiry questions

A weak question might be: “What is the river like?”

That is too vague. It does not say what will be measured or what change is being investigated.

A stronger river question could be: “How does river discharge change downstream along the River Tillingbourne, Surrey?”

A stronger coastal question could be: “How does beach morphology and sediment size vary along Swanage Bay, Dorset?”

3. Types of data you need

Primary and secondary data

Quantitative and qualitative data

You need both. Quantitative data helps you measure patterns. Qualitative data helps you recognise landforms and explain the processes that created them.

4. If your chosen environment is rivers

River task: investigating change in a river channel

A river investigation normally studies how the channel changes from one site to another. For example, you might compare three sites from upstream to downstream.

Key river terms

Quantitative method: measuring discharge

To calculate discharge, you need two things:

• cross-sectional area of the river channel
• mean velocity of the water

The basic formula is:

$$Q=A\times \underset{ˉ}{v}$$

where $Q$ is discharge, $A$ is cross-sectional area, and $\underset{ˉ}{v}$ is mean velocity.

At a fieldwork site, you might:

1. Stretch a tape measure across the river to measure width.
2. Measure depth at regular intervals using a metre ruler.
3. Use a flow meter, or a float over a measured distance, to estimate velocity.
4. Calculate cross-sectional area and multiply by mean velocity.

Qualitative method: recording river landforms

For the river option, you also need a qualitative method to record the landforms that make up the river landscape.

Examples include:

• annotated field sketches of meanders, riffles, pools, river cliffs or slip-off slopes
• labelled photographs showing erosion or deposition
• descriptive notes about bank material, channel shape or floodplain features

A good field sketch does not need to be artistic. It should be accurate, labelled and linked to processes such as erosion, transportation and deposition.

Human interaction in river catchments

You also need to understand how river processes affect people living in the catchment area. This might include:

• flood risk to homes, roads and businesses
• erosion of river banks near farmland or footpaths
• water use for farming, industry or households
• flood management such as levees, embankments, floodplain zoning or river restoration

A river like the River Severn, England and Wales, is often used to understand flood risk because towns such as Shrewsbury and Worcester have experienced repeated flooding. Exact impacts vary by flood event, so use figures only from your chosen case study or data source.

River secondary data

For the river option, you must use:

• a flood risk map, such as an Environment Agency flood-risk map
• one other secondary source

The other source could be an OS map, rainfall data, a hydrograph, historical flood photographs, land-use data or a geology map.

Flood-risk maps help you link your field evidence to people. For example, if your field site has a wide floodplain and the flood-risk map shows nearby houses in a higher-risk zone, that supports a discussion of human vulnerability.

5. If your chosen environment is coasts

Coastal task: investigating processes through landscape evidence

A coastal investigation looks for evidence of processes such as erosion, transportation and deposition. You may investigate how the beach changes alongshore, or how sediment characteristics vary across the beach.

Key coastal terms

Quantitative method: beach morphology and sediment

For the coast option, your quantitative fieldwork must measure both:

• beach morphology, such as beach profile or slope
• sediment characteristics, such as pebble size, shape or roundness

To measure beach profile, you might use ranging poles, a tape measure and a clinometer from the swash zone up to the backshore. To measure sediment, you might sample pebbles at regular points and record their long-axis size using callipers.

Qualitative method: recording coastal landforms

You also need a qualitative method to record the landforms that make up the coastal landscape.

Examples include:

• annotated field sketches of cliffs, wave-cut platforms, bays, headlands, spits or dunes
• labelled photographs of erosion features such as caves, arches or stacks
• descriptive notes about coastal defences, beach material or evidence of longshore drift

For example, at Swanage Bay in Dorset, softer clay and sands are associated with the bay, while more resistant limestone forms nearby headlands such as Peveril Point and Ballard Point. That pattern helps link coastal landforms to geology and erosion.

Human interaction in coastal environments

You also need to understand how coastal processes affect people living in the coastal environment. This might include:

• cliff collapse threatening homes, roads or footpaths
• erosion affecting tourism businesses
• deposition creating beaches that support recreation
• coastal management such as groynes, sea walls, rock armour or beach nourishment

At the Holderness Coast in East Yorkshire, rapid erosion affects villages, farmland and infrastructure. Exact erosion rates vary by location and year, so use the figures supplied in your course materials or data source.

Coastal secondary data

For the coast option, you must use:

• a geology map, such as the BGS Geology of Britain viewer
• one other secondary source

The other source could be an OS map, aerial photographs, historical maps, wave data, tide tables, coastal management plans or newspaper reports.

A geology map is useful because rock type affects erosion. Soft, unconsolidated material usually erodes more quickly than resistant rock, helping explain landforms such as bays and headlands.

6. Sampling: choosing where and when to measure

You rarely measure every part of a river or beach. Instead, you use sampling, which means selecting part of the environment to represent the whole.

Common approaches include:

• systematic sampling: measuring at regular intervals, such as every 10 m along a beach
• stratified sampling: making sure different zones are represented, such as upper, middle and lower beach
• random sampling: using chance to choose points, reducing personal bias

7. Reliability, accuracy and limitations

Good geographers do not just collect data — they judge how trustworthy it is.

Accuracy means how close a measurement is to the true value. For example, a flow meter may give a more accurate velocity reading than a floating orange in windy conditions.

Reliability means whether repeated measurements give similar results. Taking several velocity readings and calculating a mean can improve reliability.

Limitations are weaknesses in your method or data. These might include shallow water affecting flow-meter use, slippery river beds limiting access, tides changing beach conditions, or a small sample size.

8. Linking evidence to conclusions

Your conclusion should answer the enquiry question using evidence. A strong conclusion does three things:

1. states the overall pattern
2. uses data from your fieldwork
3. explains the pattern using geographical processes and secondary data

For example, a river conclusion might say that discharge increased downstream, supported by width, depth and velocity measurements, because tributaries and runoff added water to the channel. A coastal conclusion might say that sediment became smaller and more rounded along the beach, suggesting transportation by longshore drift, supported by the direction of prevailing waves or beach management evidence.