Geography Fieldwork

Human: How has the development of the Dubai Marina created opportunities for recreation and entertainment? (Hypothesis)

The closer we are to Dubai Marina mall the more opportunity there will be for recreation and entertainment (effectively making the mall a hub for social and economic activity). The EQS scores should also decrease as you go further from the mall.

Physical: Why was the location of your fieldwork suitable

* public property
* lack of tourists, quiet-easy to collect data
* low energy waves
* direct evidence of long shore drift
* present groyne
* transect of 700m as beach is long and wide

Human: Why was the location of your fieldwork suitable

* easily accessible
* busy urban area with lots of oppurunity for recreation and entertainment
* a variety of people (tourists and residents)
* pedestrian area
* medical centre near by (safe and secure)

Physical: Risk assessment

* sunburn and sunstroke: students were obligated to wear spf50 sunscreen and carry a hat
* dehydration: students were required to carry a water bottle which could be filled up by dispensers near the site
* drowning: students were not permitted to go into the water more than knee deep

Human: Risk assessment

* dehydration: required to carry a 500ml bottle
* getting lost/encountering strangers: required to travel in groups of 4
* sunstroke or sunburn: required to wear a hat and apply sunscreen (SPF 50)
* foot injury: obligated to wear suitable walking or running shoes

teachers were also first-aid trained

Human: What were your primary methods of data collection

1. Environmental Quality Survey
2. Land Use survey
3. Footfall survey
4. Questionairres

Physical: What were your primary methods of data collections

1. Wind direction
2. Wave Frequency
3. Long Shore Drift
4. Sediment drop
5. Beach Profile

Human: Why were your data collection methods good?

1. EQS: a prepared survey made it efficient to complete, replicable, diverse environmental parameters, presents overall trend.
2. Land Use Survey: objective, more accessible due to digitalized maps of the mall, has a basic pattern
3. Footfall Survey: quantifiable
4. Questionnaires: efficient, opportunistic sampling unlike other methods, interactive with crowds

Human: Why were your data collection methods bad?

1. EQS: subjective (based on personal opinion), rigid categories, the scale was sometimes hard to apply
2. Land Use Survey: time-consuming, not reflective of activity, some shops were hard to decide, not enough detail
3. Footfall survey: relative to time (did not account for peak mall time), significant variations in results between groups, human error counting people, hard to distinguish which results are anomalous
4. Questionnaires: biased, possible stranger danger, and language barriers made this more complicated.

Physical: Why were your data collection methods good?

1. Wind direction: easy to measure, minimal equipment required
2. Wave Frequency: easily conducted and not difficult to replicate, minimal equipment
3. Long Shore Drift: easily to replicate, easy to compare, adaptable to location
4. Sediment Drop: the key to proving the hypothesis, minimal equipment, generating averages
5. Beach Profile: specific equipment to accurate results generates effective data.

Physical: Why were your data collection methods bad?

1. Wind direction: changes frequently, measurements were not exact, hard to determine prevailing wind
2. Wave Frequency: risk of human errror, does not indicate intensity
3. Long Shore Drift: oranges were washed out to sea or destroyed, some oranges has increased water content
4. Sediment Drop: only one groin, human error, beach nourishment can manipulate results
5. Beach Profile: poles swept out to sea, clinometers were manual and old (some numbers were faded) making the values not exact.

Human: How could you have improved your methods of collecting data?

1. EQS: attempt to compare data with other groups and create am average, had more categories, increased scale (1-10 rather than (1-5)
2. Land Use Survey: double check with online resources and other groups, go back to the mall when new stores are opened
3. FootFall Survey: cross check with other groups, has multiple people counting or one counting and one checking time to prevent human error
4. Questionnares: give the person being interviewed the sheet

Physical: How could you have improved your methods of collecting data?

* Use newer clinometers as they were old and the numbers had faded.


* Have one person timing and one person counting the waves
* Use more oranges

Human: What were your methods of data presentation

1. EQS: Bar graph
2. Footfall survey: bar graph

Physical: What were your methods of data presentation

1. LSD satellite image arrows
2. sediment drop line graph

Human: Why was presenting your data in this way appropriate?

EQS: This was appropriate since it showed the overall trend of the EQS results visually, the overall appearance of the graph reflected significant changes between the sites and created a bell curve shape.

* the data for our EQS could be overlaid on google earth’s transect to show location.

Footfall survey: A bar graph which showed the number of people walking towards and away from the mall, this was good to compare between sites as well as the subcategory of away and towards.

Human: How could presenting your data have been improved?

EQS: Our EQS presentation could have been improved by creating a composite bar graph which broke down the individual categories. This would help compare individual categories as well as the relationship between subcategories for each site.

Physical: Why was presenting your data in this way appropriate?

The sediment drop was a visual representation as we could plot data from either side of the groyne on the same graph and see the difference in height, this made it easy to interpret the data.

The LSD arrows were easily comparable including direction and magnitude.

Physical: How could presenting your data have been improved?

The line graph could have been superimposed on a satellite image to provide a more visual understanding of the long shore drift and how it is affected by groynes. The arrows drawn on this image could also be proportionate to the sediment drop.

Physical Conclusion:

1. oranges revealed that long shore drift was not consistent on this stretch of beach as the oranges move in both directions.
2. Sediment drop indicated the long term movement of sediment was northeast to southwest

Human Conclusion:

1. closer to marina=higher EQS
2. more people walking towards marina mall according to footfall

Human layout:

* 11 sites over 1 km
* marina mall in the middle (site 6)
* 6KM away from school

Physical layout:

* seven sites along the beach
* every 100m
* 15 minutes away from school