Urban Fieldwork - Plymouth (Paper 3)

Question 1

Where is Plymouth located?

Answer 1

Devon on the SW coast of the UK. (We studied the CBD, Mount Wise - inner city and Hartley - suburbs selected using stratified sampling)

Question 2

What are the Physical features of the area?

Answer 2

-Located on the mounth of River Plym and Tamar
-It’s on the south coast so growth of the city is only in a northwards direction

Question 3

What are the Human features of the area?

Answer 3

-Population of 264,700
-Population density = 3300 people per square kilometre

Question 4

What is the Evaluation/Justification of the area?

Answer 4

-Large enough to see variations
-Small enough to collect data in one day
-Easy to navigate

Question 5

What are the 2 hypothesis?

Answer 5

-The quality of environment improves as you move away from the CBD
-Land use will change as you move away from the CBD

Question 6

Why does the quality of environment improve as you move away from the CBD?

Answer 6

-There is more green space in the suburbs than the CBD and Inner city area
-Wealthier people will keep their houses maintained in the suburbs

Question 7

Why does land use change as you move away from the CBD?

Answer 7

-In line with the Burgess model the CBD is expected to be used for economics activity
-The Inner city for residential of terraced kind and high rise flats due to expensive land
-The Suburbs for residential of detached and semi detached houses due to cheaper land

Question 8

What are the 2 methods of data collection?

Answer 8

-Land use survey (quantitative)
-Epitome words (qualitative)

Question 9

Describe a land use survey.

Answer 9

Each building was categorised into one of the 8 categories. This was carried out along 7 streets using systematic sampling in Hartley, Mount Wise and the CBD.

Question 10

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of land use surveys?

Answer 10

+Helps answer hypothesis 2
+Large amount of data collected across the three areas allowing comparison
-Categorisation not always simplistic, sometimes too broad
-Not all streets were included

Question 11

Describe Epitome words.

Answer 11

Used to find the public opinion of the areas that they live in.

Question 12

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of epitome words?

Answer 12

+Helped answer hypotheis 1
+Could clearly see words that were more common
-Bias due to people being asked as you may go up to elderly as they are less intimidating
-Data is based by willingness to approach people

Question 13

How was data presented?

Answer 13

-Word Cloud
-GIS

Question 14

Describe a Word Cloud.

Answer 14

The responses were recorded into a Google Form which was used to create the word cloud. Repeated words were represented larger.

Question 15

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of a Word Cloud?

Answer 15

+Allowed for displaying of qualitative data
+Clearly able to see more common responses which is useful for analysis
-Not all the groups used the form properly so responses may be missing
-Cannot extrapolate raw data (e.g. how many people said the same word)

Question 16

Describe GIS.

Answer 16

ArcGIS was used to plot the zones where data was collected, creating a choropleth map of Plymouth.

Question 17

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of GIS?

Answer 17

+Can clearly see the zones where data was collected in each area
-Cannot extrapolate raw data
-Tricky to use so not everyone completed it

Question 18

What are the 2 sources of secondary data?

Answer 18

-Census Data
-UK Crime Statistics

Question 19

Describe Census Data .

Answer 19

From the office of national statistics using the data shine website.

Question 20

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Census Data?

Answer 20

+Used to validate own data collected from hypothesis 2
-Not up to date
-Not exactly the areas studied had data e.g. Devonport was used for Mount Wise

Question 21

Describe UK Crime Statistics.

Answer 21

Data based off crime statistics

Question 22

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of UK Crime Statistics?

Answer 22

+Used to answer hypothesis 1 by giving data on crime rates, showing the quality of the environment
-Not exact area so can’t make a direct comparison

Question 23

What is conclusion 1?

Answer 23

Hypothesis 1 is correct as the data tells us the quality of the environment was highest in the suburbs of Hartley and lowest in the CBD. This is probably due to the amount of people using these areas

Question 24

What is conclusion 2?

Answer 24

Hypothesis 2 is correct because the land-use becomes more residential as you move away from the CBD. This is because land in the CBD is very expensive and so is used for high denisty buildings .

Question 25

Why can the conclusions be trusted?

Answer 25

+Large amount of data collected in 7 areas across 3 locations
+Variety of methods, both qualitative and quantitative which improves reliability of data
+Efforts made to ensure accuracy in data collection meaning the impact of subjectivity and bias is limited

Question 26

Why can’t the conclusions be trusted?

Answer 26

-Data only collected on one day at one time which influences results such as the number of people available to ask about the epitome words
-Data collection from only one time of year so not fully reliable