Paper 3: Fieldwork

Question 1

Assess the suitability of the location chosen for your human geography enquiry? (6)

Answer 1

• our aim was to investigate the success of the Cardiff Bay Regen project
• Cardiff Bay area grew rapidly due to coal mining pre WW2, but post WW2 it went through rapid deindustrialisation
• the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation was set up in 1987 to develop the area
• aimed to bring different types of development and wide ranges of job opportunities
• the development formally wound down in 2000 so now is a good time to assess the redevelopment
• we sampled systemically every 100m on a line transect by Cardiff Bay to the end of Butetown
• it allowed a representation of the whole development even with time constraints

Question 2

What was the aim of the human geography fieldwork

Answer 2

Our aim was to investigate the success of the Cardiff Bay regeneration project

Question 3

What was considered when selecting this aim/hypothesis for human fieldwork?

Answer 3

• met the SMART criteria (Specific, manageable, accessible, relevant, timely)
• focused on Cardiff Bay and Butetown to the North and Barrage in the south
• as we had limited time, this area was appropriate as it was manageable in terms of time and also allowed adequate data to be collected
• Cardiff Bay was suitable as was previosuly 1100 heactres of derelict docklands and has now received an estimated 2.4bn in investment
• created 16,750 new jobs, 695,000m2 of non residential developments and 4800 new homes
• As we went on a working day we were sure that the people we encountered would be locals or frequent visitors (important as people’s perceptions were vital)

Question 4

What was the underpinning geographical theory behind the Cardiff Bay regen project?

Answer 4

• we were able to apply our understanding of regeneration of run-down brownfield areas
• we also applied our knowledge of the variety of social, econ, and environmental factors needed to evaluate success
• we also applied understanding of urban models such as the Burgess Models and Hoyt models

Question 5

What were the 3 hypotheses we tested?

Answer 5

1. Hypotheses 1: There will be no noticeable drop in environmental quality along the South-North transect across Cardiff Bay
2. Hypotheses 2: There will be a wide range of new land uses in Cardiff Bay that are appropriate for local residents and visitors in terms of leisure, housing and employment
3. Hypotheses 3: Responses to a questionaire about the impacts of the Cardiff Bay regeneration will be largely positive across a stratified sample of age, gender and place of residence

Question 6

Why was a risk assesment in Cardiff Bay necessary?

Answer 6

• we are not experienced researchers, so we might concentrate too much on data collection and not on developing problems
• especially true in unfamiliar towns, so we conducted a risk assesment

Question 7

What did our risk assesment for Cardiff Bay comprise of?

Answer 7

• we used a scoring system with the likelhood of the risk (out of 5) and its potential impact (out of 5) and used these to numbers mutiplied numbers to give overall risk
• if overall risk was above 10, we did not do the activity, but for our study all risks were at an acceptable level
• e.g falling in sea/lake, likeliness (1), severity (5)
• e.g getting lost, likeliness (4), severity (2) - ensuring we remain in groups of 4 min and have fully charged mobiles with the phone numbers of responsible adults

Question 8

What did we do for land use mapping in Cardiff Bay (sampling, description, justification, limitations)

Answer 8

• it was systematic sampling - the area was divided into 6 sub areas of equal size and each group went to one part
• we observed and recorded the types of buildings, and noted the land use on an OS map (and colour coded each type)
• systematic sampling allowed sampling of the whole area and working in groups reduced bias as we made collective decisions
• limitations were that judgements were subjective, and we only had 8 categories of land use so some areas were unclear

Question 9

What did we do for the environmental quality assesment in Cardiff Bay (sampling, description, justification, limitations)

Answer 9

• EQA - to meqasure quality of area and capacity for people to live a superb environment (quantitative)
• we sampled systematically every 100 m from Tacoma Square, heading north into Butetown along Bute Street
• we stopped after 8 points, due to time constraints, but this still gave us measurements of quality across multiple city zones
• we used Survey123 to submit our gelocated EQA score, so this was as precise as possible, and decided on the score out of 10 in groups using a number of variables, assesed between 1-5
• sampling along the transect allowed us to see differences between area regenerated and areas not
• we also collected photos
• as we only sampled every 100m, we missed some changed to EQ in between

Question 10

What did we do for the questionaire in Cardiff Bay (sampling, description, justification, limitations)

Answer 10

• we took a questionaire to gauge public perceptions of the regen and whether it has been succesful for those who live, work and visit
• we undertook stratified sampling by gender and age all around cardiff bay
• we sampled members of the public and asked for their opinions on the project and where they were from and why they were visiting
• we decided on the questionaire questions as a group before to get the data we needed
• stratified sampling allowed us to ensure data was representative of the wider population rather than being skewed
• we had limited time on a Wednesday afternoon which meant we had a higher % of elderly people answering the questionaire than actual population

Question 11

What did we do for the photos in Cardiff Bay (sampling, description, justification, limitations)

Answer 11

• we took photos at each transect site and compared them to historical photos
• we decided as a group to decide which side to take the pictures and in some places we took multiple angles to get the complete pictures
• data from our photographs could be used to show changes over time and support our quantitative EQA data

Question 12

What did we use the secondary data for in the Cardiff Bay regen project

Answer 12

• using secondary data allowed us to make comparisons to our own data
• the data may be out of date

Question 13

How did we use arcGIS to plot geolocated EQA data and identify spatial trends?

Answer 13

• we were able to export the Survey123 EQA data into an Excel file to analyse
• first we averaged the EQA score from each location per group (which reduced the bias from one group)
• we imported the EQA data as a CSV file into arcGIS
• we overlayed the EQA score data onto a map of the area
• presenting the data made it quick and easy to see trends and make links between variables
• e.g the further away from Cardiff bay you go, the worse the EQ gets, but after 500m it starts to improve again
• best area was the direct bay area, and worst was in between butetown and the bay
• having sample sizes of 100m meant that trends were easy to identify
• having photo data provided context and explanation for trends

Question 14

How did we use bar charts to show trends between perceptions of the regen and demographics in Cardiff Bay?

Answer 14

• during the questionaire we asked the ages and genders of the respondents and we asked their opinions of the success of the regen between -5 and 5
• we put this data into excel and constructed a bar chart with age ranges and average scores given
• we did not god a really good representation as we ended up with significantly more older people as the time we sampled
• most the younger the person the less responsive they were to the development which was suprising as it was mixed use
• 18-29 had an average score of 1, 30-39 had an average of 3.5, 40-59 had a score of 3.75 and 60+ had a score of 4.25

Question 15

How did we use chloropleth maps to show land use in Cardiff Bay?

Answer 15

• we used colour coding on the chloropleth map to show the different land uses of Cardiff Bay
• we simply coloured in the buildings as we went along
• the chloropleth map was extremely visually effective and allows us to display locational and land uses data in large amounts extremely simply
• as here were some unclear land uses and overlapping categories, this should only be used for braoder conclusions and not smaller scale analysis
• this was better than a table or chart as it shows the spatial distribution of the land use and the sizes of each land
• can be shown from the map hat the commercial areas are fairly evenly distributed throughout

Question 16

What we conclude about the first hypothesis for Cardiff Bay?

Answer 16

• based on EQA data we can reject this and there was a clear environmental quality drop along the transect, particularly around sample site 4 and 5 (400-500m from the bay)
• The score was 47 at the bay, and dropped down to 20 at site 5
• the trend is supported by photos which show clean, well maintanined and busy areas in the South, with partially derelcit, less mantained and area with lots of graffiti
• This shows the regeneration was only party successful is creating a superb environment

Question 17

What we conclude about the second hypothesis for Cardiff Bay?

Answer 17

• we can reject this hypothesis as a significantly higher proportion of land use is for visitors and tourism, not local residents, menaing that the regen has only been partly succesful
• there is a clear mix of land use, but most commercial properties, especially around Mermaid Quay were for shops, restaurants and hotels (so jobs being created are lower paid and lower skilled, so employment opp is limited)

Question 18

What can we conclude about the third hypothesis for Cardiff Bay?

Answer 18

• overall the responses to our questionaire showed that people mostly have a positive view about the regen, with all age groups having a net positive value
• there is however a significant variation depending on the age of the participant, as those 60+ found the regen 4x better than those between 18-29

Question 19

What could be done to futher confirm or deny our hypotheses?

Answer 19

• it would be useful to collect more qualititative data to explain the trends we found, such as why do younger people generally feel the regen is not as good
• if we sampled over a longe rperiod of time, we could get a greater variety of respondents so we have a broader spectrum of views

Question 20

How can we evaluate our data collection methods?

Answer 20

• our ability to answer our hypothesis was increased by the blend of primary and secondary data collection used
• combining data allowed valuable insights to be created, and generally we had enough data to answer the hypothesis
• however we had some subjective elements in our data which may have increased bias and some technology inconsistencies (such as Surevy123 incorrectly recording location)

Question 21

What were some accuracy issues in our results?

Answer 21

• we could have imporved our accuracy by sampling a larger population and doing the EQA along muktiple parallel transects
• this would increase confidence in our conclusions and enable us to see if our EQA trends are for the whole area or not
• we could have sampled at different times and for longer, increased the sample area, improved the quality of questions, compare against more secondary data