Aims, Sampling, Equipment & Risk Assessment
Rural Environment Fieldwork Enquiry
- To undertake the rural fieldwork enquiry there are a range of practical skills and methods will be used
- These can apply to any rural fieldwork
- The fieldwork enquiry should be linked to geographical theory
- In the rural fieldwork enquiry, the theories of counter-urbanisation can be linked to rural environment change
Aims and Hypothesis
- The aims and hypothesis come from the questions asked about the change in rural environments such as:
- What impact on the rural environment does the building of a new housing estate/road/industrial estate have?
- How has the land use in [specified location] changed?
- Examples of an aim would be:
- An investigation into the environmental impact of a new road/housing estate/business park in [specified location]
- An investigation into changes in land use in [specified location]
- Examples of hypotheses would be:
- The building of [specified location] housing estate has had a negative impact on the environment
- The changing land use in [specified location] has negatively impacted the local environment
- After the aims and hypothesis have been established the next steps include:
- Selecting the sites - this will involve sampling
- Deciding on the equipment to be used
- Considering any health and safety issues - completing a risk assessment
- Deciding on data collection methods
Worked example
Study Figure 1 which shows a map extract of a farm
Suggest two possible geographical aims for an investigation of this rural area (2)
- Answer:
- Changing land use on the farm (1)
- The impact of changing land use on the environment (1)
Site Selection and Sampling
- It is not practical to take measurements or look at changes in all parts of the rural environment
- To select sites sampling should be used. Sampling will:
- Reduce bias
- Provide an overview of the whole
- There may be situations where access to the sample site may be limited meaning an opportunistic approach may need to be taken. However, this should be as close as possible to the site selected using sampling
- The most commonly used sampling strategies for a rural environment enquiry are:
- Systematic - sampling of sites/people at regular intervals along a transect line
- Random - all sites have an equal chance of being selected. A grid is placed across the rural area to be sampled
- Stratified - sampling sites which represent the whole. If 10% of the population is over 65 then 10% of a questionnaire sample should be over 65
- Site location can be recorded using GPS to give an accurate location using latitude and longitude
Worked example
You have studied rural environments as part of your own geographical enquiry
State one type of sampling you used in your geographical enquiry (1)
- Answer:
- Systematic (1)
- Stratified (1)
- Random (1)
- Opportunistic (1)
Explain one way that this method helped you to collect reliable data or information (2)
- Answer:
- Systematic sampling was used at regular intervals (1) so that we knew that we would get good spatial coverage to minimise bias (1)
- Stratified sampling was used as we had census data about the village population (1) so we could design a fair sampling frame for the questionnaire about the impact on the environment that we were using (1)
- Random sampling was used as all sites have an equal chance of being selected (1) this minimises bias (1)
- Opportunistic sampling was used as some of the sample sites could not be accessed (1) this meant the nearest accessible sites had to be used for data collection (1)
Equipment
- To complete the rural environments enquiry a range of equipment is needed
- The equipment needed may include the following:
- Record sheets
- Interview Sheets
- Pencil for completing recording sheets
- Camera to take photographs of land use
- Digital noise meter
- Environmental Quality Surveys
- Maps
Risk Assessment
- Any fieldwork will involve consideration of health and safety using a risk assessment
- Risks specifically associated with rural environment fieldwork may include:
- Weather conditions
- Uneven ground
- Working in an unfamiliar place
- Traffic
- Livestock
Worked example
Explain one way you managed a risk associated with your primary data collection (2)
- Answer: 1 mark will be awarded for identifying the risk and a second mark for developing the answer to explain how the risk was managed
- In the rural area, there was a lot of farm traffic so risk the was being struck by a vehicle (1) this was managed by only walking on pavements and using designated crossings (1)
- Fieldwork was carried out in summer so there was a slight chance of sunburn and heatstroke (1) Appropriate clothing was worn, suncream applied and water drunk regularly (1)
- The uneven ground in rural areas poses a risk of slipping or falling (1) appropriate footwear was worn with good treads (1)
- Livestock in fields poses a risk to people entering the fields (1) only entered fields where there was no livestock (1)