Urban Fieldwork Flashcards
Where was our study area?
Newcastle in the North East of England
How did we collect a decibel reading?
Someone in our group downloaded the app Decibel 10th onto their smartphone which takes an electric decibel reading
Why did we collect a decibel reading?
Gives us an insight to noise pollution which contributes to an areas environmental quality
What were we investigating?
How and why quality of life varies in urban areas
What were our two sub questions?
What are people’s views on quality of life? How does environmental quality vary?
How did we carry out an environmental quality survey?
We scored each criteria which was categorised as traffic, quality of open spaces or general quality, from -2 (bad) to 2 (great) and gave the place a score out of 24. The lower the score, the worse the environmental quality
Why did we collect the environmental quality survey?
Each of the categories contributed to the sub question of how environmental quality varies and the overall total score made it easy to compare the places
How did we collect the questionnaire?
We approached members of the public to ask questions specific to whether they were a tourist, resident of wider Newcastle or resident of the local area. If they were a resident of the local area, we asked them how satisfied they were with the provision education, employment, housing, policing and healthcare in their area but if they were a tourist we asked them to compare these things to the services in their own area (better, worse or the same)
Why did we collect the questionnaire?
Took into account lots of factors which contribute to quality of life and we could get other other opinions from people who lived their themselves and people who were visiting. This links directly to the sub question: what are people’s views on quality of life
How did we complete the place check?
We had four categories to answer one question from in each: a special place, a safe place, an accessible place and a planet-friendly place
Why did we complete the place check?
Allowed us to give our opinion on quality of life which contributes to the sub question: what are people’s views on quality of life
Which primary method was the most accurate and why?
Questionnaire because we could see different points of view : those from tourists giving a surface impression and those from residents who know the area very well, were accustomed to it and experienced the services it had to offer for themselves
How did we present the decibel readings?
GIS map
What did the GIS map for decibel readings show?
Kingston park had the lowest noise pollution which suggests that the further you move out of the inner city, the more noise pollution decreases. Byker’s noise pollution was greatest which suggests the inner city has the highest noise pollution
Give 3 advantages of the GIS map for decibel readings?
Presents two layers of information (location and amount of noise pollution), speeds up data presentation, proportional symbols make it easy to compare the sites
Give a disadvantage of the GIS map for decibel readings?
You cannot tell actual decibel reading, only the amount of noise pollution in relation to other places
How did we present the Environmental Quality Survey?
Radar chart. The greater the surface area of the triangle, the better environmental quality
What does the EQS tell us?
Kingston park has the best environmental quality, Byker has the worst environmental quality. As you move out of the inner city, environmental quality improves
Give 2 advantages of the radar chart for the EQS
Areas are easy to compare because the bigger the surface area of the triangle the better the environmental quality, 3 sets of data combined on one triangle (traffic, general quality, quality of open spaces) which speeds up data presentation
Give a disadvantage of the radar chart for EQS?
The score only goes from -2 to 2 therefore isn’t in depth
How did we present the questionnaire?
A bar chart showing the percentage of residents who were satisfied with the provision of services in their area
What does the bar chart for the questionnaire show us?
Byker has the lowest percentage of residents satisfied with the provision of each service other than affordable housing however very few people have quality housing which provides an explanation for why it is cheap. Jesmond and Kingston park have very high percentages so they are the least deprived and they are located further away from the inner city
What percentage of residents in Jesmond are satisfied with the provision of quality housing?
98%
What percentage of residents in Kingston Park are satisfied with the provision of healthcare?
83%
What percentage of Bykers residents are satisfied with the provision of quality housing?
18%
Give 3 advantages of the bar chart for the questionnaire
Combines a lot of information onto one graph, places are easy to compare because the bars are next to each other, data comes from residents who experience the services it has to offer every day
Give 3 disadvantages of the bar chart for the questionnaire
Too much information on the graph which you have to take into account in order to determine which area is the most or least deprived, we did not ask a large amount of people, we did this during the day in term time so people would be at work (retired and unemployed people would have different opinions on services such as employment to those who are in work)
How did we present words residents used to describe their area?
Wordless (the bigger words have been used more frequently)
What do the wordles tell us?
Byker has the lowest quality of life because all the words are negative and this is coming from the residents who know the area best so it is likely to be true
Give 2 advantages of the wordles
Best way to present it as the data was qualitative not quantitive so we could not use a bar chart etc, words were used by residents who know the area best so it is likely what they say is true
How could you improve the wordles?
Include positive and negative categories for the words or colour code them so that on looking at the data, you can see which area has the most negative words and is therefore the most deprived
What does the Index of Multiple Deprivation rank show?
Byker is the most deprived out of our four destinations (2nd in Newcastle) and Jesmond is the least (26th in Newcastle)
Give 2 disadvantages of the index of multiple deprivation rank
8 years out of date (recorded in 2010), doesn’t support our previous information about Kingston Park as it suggests it is the 2nd most deprived out of our locations (6th in Newcastle)
Give an advantage of the index of multiple deprivation rank
Ranks the places in relation to other places in Newcastle which links to the investigation of how quality of life varies in urban areas
What does the IMD score show?
Byker is the most deprived area (score is 55.8) and the map shows that it is inner city which suggests the further into the city you get, the worse quality of life is
Give 3 disadvantages of the IMD score presentation
8 years out of date (recorded in 2010), doesn’t support our previous information about Kingston Park as it suggests it is the 2nd most deprived out of our locations (6th in Newcastle), on a large scale so you can’t see individual neighbourhoods
Give 2 disadvantages of the IMD score presentation
This is GIS because there are layers of information (the deprivation of each area and its location) so we can observe the relationship between the two, speeds up data presentation, colours are distinctively different
How was the IMD score presented?
GIS map which shows the location of the area and colour codes them according to their IMD score
What does the census data tell us?
Byker is the most deprived area because it has the highest amount of people in bad health which suggests its healthcare is inaccessible or there isn’t many doctors, Jesmond must be the least deprived as it has the highest percentage of its population in very good health and therefore its healthcare must be developed
Give 2 advantages of the census data
Significant amount of people took part because it is obligatory, takes into account facts not opinions so is not biased
Give 2 disadvantages of census data
Taken every 10 years but during this time the quality and services of a place can change, takes into account a lot of information so we need to assess what is relevant to our investigation
What percentage of Bykers population have no qualifications and what does this suggest? Link to housing and economic activity
37.7% which means all these people will find it difficult to get a job (explains why 39% of Bykers population is economically inactive) and therefore earn money to buy a good quality house (explains why only 26.8% of Bykers households are not deprived in any dimension)
What percentage of Jesmond residents have no qualifications and what does this suggest? Link to housing and economic activity
3.2% which means very few of Jesmonds residents will struggle to find a job and the rest of its population can earn money to contribute to the areas wealth and they can buy quality housing (explains why only 0.2% of its households are deprived in 4 dimensions)
Where is Jesmond?
Suburbs
Where is Kingston park?
Rural urban fringe
Where is Byker?
Inner city
Where is Northumberland street?
CBD
How did we choose our sites?
Used the Burgess land use model to choose sites from 4 different land use zones (CBD, inner city, inner suburbs, rural urban fringe). The burgess land use model suggests wealth and quality of life increase further out of the city so this model was useful in testing our hypothesis
Define burglability
How secure an area is
Give 3 advantages of GIS maps
Speed up data presentation, great to show spatial changes, different options and tools help with data analysis
Give an advantage of radar graphs
Can display data on several different variables so is a good way to compare characteristics of an area
Give an advantage of isopleth maps
Ideal for showing gradual change over an area
Give 2 advantages of proportional symbols
Very accessible, easy to understand
Give an advantage of kite diagrams
Show changes over distance (e.g transect data)
Give an advantage of dot maps
Clear indication of differences in density for a geographic distribution
Give an advantage of flow maps
Show direction and volume of movement
