human fieldwork - llandudno

what is the investigation question

TO INVESTIGATE DIFFERENCES IN QUALITY OF LIFE IN LLANDUDNO BETWEEN THE TOWN CENTRE +INNER CITY COMPARED TO THE SUBURBS 

what challenges do urban areas face

• Poverty in areas that have experienced deindustrialisation.  

• Seasonal unemployment in coastal towns like Llandudno.  

• Seasonal reduction in employment if people become part time eg summer there may be more jobs but in winter some jobs may disappear or make less money.  

• High crime rate in some towns/cities.  

• Urbanisation  = impermeable surfaces  = surface water = flooding  

• Overpopulation if cities grow = less space = demand for housing = house price increase (also since covid more pressure in smaller towns) or in retirement towns with second homes.  

• Traffic, often from tourism = air pollution + congestion (see London) on local scale BUT also on global scale releases more greenhouses gases.  

• Education – growing urban areas may not be enough school places or access to opportunities. 

llandudno context

• IT IS A COASTAL TOWN - 20,000 PEOPLE.  

• ORIGINALLY A FISHING VILLAGE THEN WITH THE RAILWAY BECAME A TOURIST TOWN.  

• 84% are employed (in line with UK average)  

• Lots of people work in hospitality and retail. 

What is your hypothesis and explain

Our hypothesis is that

the quality of life will be better in the SUBURBAN AREAS (Tudno 3) than in the TOWN CENTRE plus INNER CITY (Tudno 1).  

We thought this because the air quality will be better as there will be less traffic, there will be less noise pollution, lower crime rates, houses will be bigger with more green space.   

Name and explain hazards for the risk assessment

• Someone might get annoyed = shout at you = be polite + respectful  

• Traffic/cars = injury = take care when crossing roads, listen to teachers, take care.  

• Getting lost = being left behind in Llandudno = stay in a 3, plus have staff phone numbers.  

• Weather = may be too cold/wet = hypothermia/sun burn= dress appropriately, bring layers + sun cream 

explain what an environmental quality assessment is - EQA

• used to collect data about the environmental quality of different sites.  

• They use the judgement of the person conducting the survey to assess environmental quality against a range of indicators 

• Using a sliding scale (1 -5) or bipolar scale (-3 to 3) 

• Usually, the lower the score the more negative the assessment of the environmental quality 

• They are subjective because they are based on the opinion of the person completing them 

• They produce quantitative data 

explain what a questionnaire is

• Produce qualitative data 

• Asking questions: closed, statement or open  

• Produce an answer – using a sliding scale 

• Based on person’s opinion and judgement 

DATA FOR EQA

indicator	tudno 1 - mean	tudno 3 - mean
green	3	6.75
litter	6.5	4.75
noise	4.5	6.5
traffic	7.25	8.5
building	5.5	6
crime	6.75	8.75
total - out of 60	33.5	41.25

1 = poor, 10 = best

DATA FOR QUESTIONNAIRE

	INNER CITY – TUDNO 1	SUBURBS – TUDNO 3
I really don't like it	7	8
I don’t like it	20	20
It’s ok	27	16
I like it	29	48
I really like it	7	8

SUMMARY - Only 36% of the people in the inner city liked or really liked living in the inner city but a huge 56% liked or really liked living in the suburbs 

converted to percentages - as there were more respondents in inner than suburbs - to compare data

what sampling strategy was used for questionnaire

• Stratified sampling to ensure respondents were asked in both locations 

• opportunity sampling - where a researcher selects participants based on their availability. One example would be standing on the street asking passersby to join the research. 

• Disadvantage of opportunity sampling: It may not be representative of the target population, potentially producing a sampling bias 

what sampling was used for EQA

• Stratified sampling - this is where areas are pre-selected based on desired criteria to ensure that there is an even number of samples from both areas.   

• sample represents the whole population   

ADVANTAGES OF USING A BAR CHART TO SHOW DATA FROM QUESTIONNAIRE

Shows the different categories clearly and easily

allows us to compare the two study areas.  

It is easy to get precise figures from the bar chart

DISADVANTAGE OF USING BAR CHART + HOW TO IMPROVE

Does not give locational context

so you could put the bars on a map of Tudno 1 and Tudno 2. 

Advantages of EQA

• very visual comparison of OVERALL environmental quality of each survey point

• excellent locational context - as the proportional circles are on maps

Disadvantages of EQA

• key is unclear - size of circle is perceptive

• does not show how much each individual aspect made up overall score - building quality or noise

• difficult to get exact figures from proportional circles

• some circles are overlapping each other → hard to read

FINAL DESCRIPTION AND CONCLUSION

• My hypothesis was that people would have a better quality of life in the suburbs than in the inner city.  

• Only 36% of the people in the inner city liked or really liked living in the inner city but a huge 56% liked or really liked living in the suburbs.  

• The EQA results do support this hypothesis. The average score for Tudno 1 (Inner city) was 34 and the average score for Tudno 3 was 41.  EQA DATA

• Larger circles indicating higher values tended to be found along the main roads near the shopping hubs which have benefitted from regeneration and investment and lower in more residential side streets. - GEOGRAPHICAL QUALITY OF LIFE EXPLANATION

EXPLAIN CONCLUSION

Quality of life was proven to be better in suburbs because: 

• Housing affordability: bigger houses, and newer buildings as the city centre is cramped with shops etc 

• Environmental quality: more green spaces, parks, less litter as less tourists  

• Traffic: less noise and air pollution due to less traffic in suburban areas 

• Less crime rate 

Evaluation - PROS OF EQA

stratified sampling was good → as random sampling could have resulted in all or msot sample points in suburbs → not have given a good comparison

did take average to reduce anomalies

Evaluation - CONS OF EQA

• based on looking around 4 streets - small sample size

• subjective - based on opinions

• our group was all female and teenagers - could affect answers: personal bias

Evaluation - cons of questionnaires

• type of answers was vague, and the question was open

• sample size was small and may not be representative of whole population - we did it on a school day while many people were at work so most of the sample was elderly.

• affects the reliability - repeated sample another day, may get different results

• we may have felt more comfortable approaching some people than others meaning our sample may not be representative.  

• Ideally we would like to have a stratified sample that matched the demographic profile of Llandudno but a high rejection rate makes this very difficult. 

Burgess model

Blue area = CBD (central business zone) = lots of traffic, people

zone of transition

residential area - progresses from lower, middle and upper class = quieter, more green spaces

is based on the middle of the town or city being most expensive land then decreases as you move outwards

where there's better quality housing BUT less access to city/ more transport time = residential areas