Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
climatic conditions. These layers include well-sorted fl uvial
gravels deposited by highly seasonal river fl ows of the Torrente
d'es Cans and poorly sorted colluvial sediments deposited by slope
processes such as debris fl ows. These materials appear to have
been eroded when, paradoxically, conditions were somewhat drier
than today but slopes within the catchment were more susceptible
to erosion due to an incomplete vegetation cover. Also present in
the section are buried soils (palaeosols), which signify relatively
stable phases with soil development under a complete vegetation
cover, which interrupted the episodes of more active landscape
development. Most of the sequence in fact refl ects changing
Mediterranean climates through a typical interglacial-glacial
cycle. The exception is the absence, at the top of the section,
of the most recent sediments from the Holocene when, due to
human activities on the slopes, the vegetation was degraded, soil
erosion occurred, and the torrente or stream incised into the fan
surface.
Fieldwork, then, has for a long time been an intimate part of
hypothesis-testing, modelling, and theory development, and
that quality endures. However, as some of the research problems
have changed, many of the measurement techniques have
improved and research designs have become more sophisticated.
Measurement has evolved into environmental monitoring;
observation and description now encompasses reconstruction,
manipulation, and experiment; and manual fi eldwork merges
imperceptibly with information technology and remote sensing by
satellites.
The fi eldwork tradition was also strong in human geography.
Perhaps the strongest single theme was the occupancy of the
land, which led to the recording of land-use. The Land Utilization
Survey of the United Kingdom organized by Dudley Stamp in the
1930s was one of the largest fi eldwork surveys ever undertaken.
'Armies' of volunteers, mostly students, were allocated tracts
of the countryside and walked around classifying land-use
