Define your research question Page

The most important part of planning a survey is to decide what information you want to get from the results. The way to do this is to write down questions that you would like to answer by the end of the survey. These questions are called ‘research questions’ and they help you to plan your survey with your end goal in mind.

Some examples of research questions that can be answered with beach macrolitter surveys:

• What are the most common pieces of litter found (e.g., sweets wrappers or plastic bottles)?
• Which beaches are the dirtiest?
• Why are certain beaches dirtier than others?
• How many pieces of litter are found on beaches?
• How much does the litter found on beaches weigh?
• Which types of litter are found on beaches?
• Where did the beach litter come from (i.e., what are the sources of litter)?
• How did the litter get to the beach (i.e., what are the pathways of litter)?
• Is most beach litter being washed up from the ocean, or littered by beachgoers?
• Does the amount of beach litter change over time?
• Does the type of beach litter change over time?
• How old is most beach litter?
• Is beach litter coming from nearby towns/cities, or is it likely being dumped by ships or transported long distances via ocean currents?
• Which branded products are most found on beaches?

Writing down your research questions will help you decide how to do your surveys. In this course, we provide litter monitoring protocols for two types of litter surveys :

Standing-stock surveys 

These surveys are done at one specific point in time (e.g., a single day).

Accumulation surveys

These surveys that are regularly (e.g., daily or weekly) repeated to measure the build-up/accumulation of litter over a period.

The protocols provided for both standing stock and accumulation surveys are based on the best available research and is designed to help you collect the most important data needed to manage litter. The basic approach of how you collect and process the litter each day is the same for the two protocols. If certain steps of the survey method do not help you answer your research question, then you can skip those steps. For example, it is recommended to weigh litter, but if you are not interested in litter weight or you do not have the time or equipment needed to weight the litter, then you may wish to skip this step.

The project leader should decide which steps may be skipped and which should be followed.