Virtual Field Trip to Oxford

Resource 3: Virtual field trip to Oxford

In this lesson you are going to take a virtual field trip to the area between Botley Road and New Hinksey in Oxford to see an example of a flood risk area.

Some land uses are more badly affected by flooding than others. For example, it would be inconvenient if your school playing field was flooded it might be too wet to play on for a few days but no one would be hurt and no long-term damage would be done. However, it could be a disaster if a hospital was flooded. Patients would have to be moved and the lives of elderly or very sick people could be put at risk. It could take months and huge amounts of money to repair the damage to the building and equipment. For this reason, planners use flood plain zoning to prevent the construction of buildings on flood plains.

The aim of your virtual fieldwork In your virtual field trip to Oxford you must identify the most common land uses that occur on the floodplain between Botley Road and New Hinksey. You could use enquiry questions to focus your investigation. For example:

• What kinds of land uses are at risk of flooding in Oxford? • Which land uses will be protected by the new flood alleviation scheme?

Alternatively, you could set yourself a hypothesis that can be tested. For example:

• The Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme is designed to protect the most valuable land uses.

The method You are going to use photographic evidence to answer your enquiry questions or test your hypothesis.

Either Use the Geograph website to view photos of Britain taken by members of the public. Search for photos of the Oxford site using the interactive map. Then view at least 10 photos in each of these OS map grid squares to give an overview of the grid square:

SP4906 SP4905 SP5004 SP5005 SP5104

Or Use Google Street View to explore the area of Oxford that is at risk of flooding. To make sure you explore the correct places, you should use the following place names in the Google Map search box. Go to each location and spin the camera around through 360 ͦ so you can see what kinds of land uses are nearby and travel along the road for at least 100 m so you get an impression of the area.

Place names for your Google search Ferry Hinksey Road, Oxford Osney Mead, Oxford Botley Road, Oxford Botley Road Retail Park Hinksey Park, Lake Street

Data collection Make several copies of Figure 1 – one copy for each location of your virtual visit. At each location record the land uses you can see. Make one tally mark for each land use. After you have visited each site, count up the number of tally marks for each land use. The land use with the most tally marks is your mode. Multiply the value of the mode by the land use score to give a Land Use Index for that location. The higher the index, the more expensive and damaging a flood would be.

Land use type Tally Score Large shops, high tech industry, large offices, warehouses, hospitals, schools 10 Major infrastructure, e.g. railways, dual carriageways, electricity sub-stations or 8 medium-sized businesses and independent shops Smaller offices, independent shops, petrol stations 7 High-value housing, old people's homes, blocks of flats 6 Lower-value housing, corner shops, garages 5 Car parks, playing fields, derelict land, allotments 2 Fields 1 Figure 1 Land Use Index

Representing the data Use Figure 2 to create a map of your Land Use Index data. There are two techniques that would be appropriate:

• Use a located bar chart if the range of Land Use Index scores is quite small. Draw each bar so that its base is located in the middle of the location it represents. • Use a proportional symbol such as a square or circle if the range of Land Use Index scores is large. Draw each symbol so that its centre is located in the middle of the location it represents.

Analysing the data What patterns can you see? The Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme is designed to reduce the flood risk in three separate locations. You can see these areas in the short Environment Agency video that introduces the scheme.

Evaluating your enquiry How successful do you think your investigation was? Try to identify strengths and weaknesses. To focus your evaluation, you could discuss the following issues with other students:

• How up-to-date are the photos on Geograph? • Some squares on Geograph have over 100 photos. How did you go about choosing 10? Can you think of a way that might give a fairer representation? It is difficult to see all places on Google Street View. Which places aren't photographed? How might this affect your results?