AQA Geography Human fieldwork

What is the human fieldwork enquiry question?

To what extent has the Olympic park regeneration project in London improved urban sustainability at a local level?

What are the two aims of the human fieldwork

- To collect primary data to answer my enquiry and test my 2 hypothesises
- To apply my fieldwork investigation skills in a real life setting

What are my 2 human fieldwork hypothesises?

- The environmental surroundings have become more sustainable since the Olympic park regeneration project

- There are many efficient sustainable transport services in and around the Olympic park

What is the geographical model the human fieldwork is based on? (8 thinks)

Urban sustainability (transport, services, environmental, culture, housing, economy, equity and governance)

What is the location of the human fieldwork?

Stratford ,London

What are 3 risk of human fieldwork and their mitigation?

- Traffic: avoid crossing the road

- Stranger danger: avoid unnecessary contact/ starting confrontation

- Becoming lost: travel in groups, school emergency phone number, stay in sight of teachers

What kind of sampling was used in the human fieldwork and why?

Opportunistic systematic point sampling
- Creates a sample that encompasses a wide majority of the study area

- Opportunistic makes it easier and quicker to collect data

What are the downsides of the sampling method used in the human fieldwork?

Systematic point sampling
- Biased as not all data collection points have an equal chance of being chosen

- Opportunistic as only asked people willing to take part, so bias

Describe how you collect data on the environmental quality and and why you did it this way?

- Used an environmental quality survey, rated 11 aspects of the environment ourselves on a scale from -3 (low quality) to +3 (high quality) including Litter, pollution, pedestrian safety and public transport links

- means that you can add numbers to form overall environmental quality where the lower the number the poorer the environmental quality, created quantitative comparable results between the sites,

Describe how you collect data on quality of transportation and why you did it this way?

- Perception analysis of transport services, asking 1 stranger per site 5 questions with predetermined answers (strongly agree (+2), slightly agree (+1), no opinion (0), slightly disagree (-1), strongly disagree(-2)).

- Creates quantifiable results as each response has a corresponding numerical valuable that can be totalled to give a final score on public transport (higher the better the person views public transport)

Describe how you collected the photographs of the Olympic Park and why you did it this way?

- Using our mobile devices
- Easily accessible

Describe how you collected the field sketches of the Olympic park and why you did it this way?

- Sketching what we saw in front of us and adding appropriate annotations
- Detailed approach to absorbing the environment

What was site 1?

Old Stratford

What was the environmental quality of Site 1?

6

What was the perception anaylsis of Site 1?

5

What was site 2?

Aquatic centre

What was the environmental quality of Site 2?

26

What was the perception analysis of site 2?

5

What was site 3?

Olympic stadium

What was the environmental quality of Site 3?

29

What was the perception analysis score of site 3?

9

What was site 4?

Hackney Wick and Energy power plant

What was the environmental quality of site 4?

9

What was the perception analysis of site 4?

6

What was site 5?

East village

What was the environmental quality of site 5?

25

What was the perception analysis of site 5?

6

What was site 6?

Velodrome

What was the environmental quality of site 6?

31

What was the perception analysis of site 6?

9

What was the average environmental quality of the Olympic park regeneration?

21/33

64%

What was the average perception analysis of transport services of the Olympic park regeneration?

6.7/10

77%

What are some advantages of presenting data in a bar chart?

- Clear visual range of readings, easy to spot anomalies

What are some disadvantages of presenting data in a bar chart?

- Misleading if axis are manipulated incorrectly
- Can't put many values on bar chart

What data did i allegedly present in a bar chart and why?

Environmental quality and transport services analysis
- Each bar chart only had 6 values to be recorded
- Shows clear range of recorded values

Explain the results from data set 1 (Environmental quality)

- Environmental quality has a large range depending on where you are for example Old Stratford is 1 and Velodrome is 33

- Goes against pledge of being ‘most sustainable olympic park games ever’ as it was not evenly regenerated

- Focus was not on the pervious residents and housing but creating new and expensive building resulting in gentrification and neglect of unimportant areas like site 1: Old Stratford and site 2: Hackney Wick and Energy power plant

Explain the results of data set 2 (perception analysis)

- Majority of people questioned viewed the transport services positively despite the fact we interviewed people of all ages, visitors and residents

- This is because the transport is very well integrated with 9 rail links, 15 local bus services, 195 trains an hour which eases car congestion, reducing CO2 emissions and making transport efficient

Explain the results of data set 3 (field sketch)

- Design of all areas were thought out even in small areas, for example there is a carefully planned pedestrian area with off limit areas to protect residents

- Lot’s of greenery increasing environmental quality

- Both accessible and sustainable

- However site 1 and 4 did not follow this and appear overgrown filled with graffiti and litter

Did the results align with hypothesis 1 and what was it

Hypothesis 1: the environmental surroundings have become more sustainable since the Olympic park regeneration project
- Statistical survey aligns proves relationship between the two variables however some areas have not seen improvement (Old stratford and Hackney wick and energy power plant)

Did the results align with hypothesis 2.

Hypothesis 2: there are many efficient sustainable transport services in and around the Olympic park
- Response from the public proved relationship between these two variables

Where there anomalies

- Tried to make data robust but there are some anomalies in the data set (Site 1 and Site 4)

- These are the lower results in the environmental quality survey which may have been caused by my own bias and misunderstanding on the environment

Answer to enquiry question

- To what extent has the Olympic park regeneration project in London improved urban sustainability at a local level

- Proven to a great but not complete extent as environmental quality higher in previously deprived communities like East village however areas like Old Stratford do not appear sustainably developed

- Sustainable transport to a complete extent, overall positive from all public response

Evaluation

- Problem with data is Transport perception analysis is slightly biased as only interviewed people who were conveniently close to us meaning all of the public did not have an equal chance of being chosen

What were the 3 limitations

- Aren’t any repetitions of reading on the same site

- Environmental analysis is subjective

- Readings all carried out on same day during most peoples work shift so there was limited people to interview

How could i improve

- Interview more people for transport perception analysis

- Repeat whole case study on different times of day

- We collect other data that shows effects of urban sustainability: atmospheric pollution levels, percentage of green space and percentage of rubbish recycled

Overall conclusion

- My conclusion are reliable as when compared with primary data collected by other groups and previous secondary data, there is a strong correlation