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Discuss Why Scale And Resolution Are Important For Your Dissertation Research

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Discuss why scale and resolution are important for your dissertation research

Scale can be a confusing definition in geography with its multiple referents. “Scale is about size, either relative or absolute, and involves a fundamental set of issues in geography. Scale primarily concerns space in geography. However, the domains of temporal and thematic scale are also important to geographers. Temporal scale deals with the size of time units, thematic scale with the grouping of entities or attributes such as people or weather variables. Whether spatial, temporal, or thematic, scale in fact has several meanings in geography.” (Montello, 2001) .The definition of resolution on the other hand is more straight …show more content…

from soil sample to cantena to catchment or watershed. The problem with this is that generalisations made at one level or scale does not always hold at other scales. Sampling can be done at the regional scale with sampling the sediment load at mouth of river to estimate catchment erosion.
Scale and resolution are very important for dissertation research as they help monitor the environment via measuring cross sections with stratigraphic logging, this is not trying to control realist but still interfering. An act of measurement is always considered an act of intervention. There is less control over variables in final based experiments such as erosion plots, but still want to replicate variability present in reality. However there are scaling issues – strict scaling of materials and forces cannot be applied. Experiments (laboratory and numerical) are the most extreme form of intervention:
• Selected variables and relations
• Controlled and maintained
• Magnitude and frequency compared to real world

The implications of reality, are to provide “what if” scenarios where manipulation of reality at sufficient scale is not possible. Channel-Hill slope Integrated Landscape Development (CHILD) model, this Computes time evolution of a topographic surface z(x,y,t) by erosion (fluvial, hill slope) and sediment transport. CHILD computes the evolution of topography and stratigraphy in response to erosion and sediment transport by gravitational, fluvial, and tectonic

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