urban envrionment fieldwork

what was our enquiry question

Has regeneration improved the lives of people in Stratford?

what were our three hypotheses?

• quality of life is higher in the regenerated parts of Stratford

• environmental quality is better in the regenerated parts of Stratford

• shopping facilities are better in the regenerated parts of Stratford

what was our location

• Stratford, in East London

explain two reasons why this was a suitable location for your geographical enquiry

• this location has a traditional housing area and a regenerated one and it also has a traditional shopping street and a new shopping centre

• the four areas we will look at are all walking distance from each other and Stratford can be visited from our school on a day trip by coach with travel times of only 1 hour 30 minutes

explain 2 risks that students may face in this investigation

• risk of getting separated from the group

• risk of theft of personal possessions

what can be done to prevent getting separated from the group?

before the trip a risk assessment identified this risk and students were given an emergency card and phone numbers that they carried with them

what can be done to reduce the risk of theft of personal possessions?

before the trip a risk assessment identified this risk and students had to put all valuable possessions into their bag which could be zipped up

what are the four sampling strategies?

• random

• stratified

• systematic

• convenience

random sampling

samples are chosen from a population either by using a random number table or generator

benefits of random sampling

• each member of the population has an equal, independent and known chance of being selected

• it is easy to implement as it is free from bias

disadvantages of sampling

minority subgroups within the population may not be included in the sample

stratified sampling

the population is divided into subgroups based on specific characteristics, data will be collected from each subgroup

benefits of stratified sampling

• it is easy to compare subgroups as every group who lives in the area can be proportionally represented in the final sample

disadvantages of stratified sampling

information must be gathered before being able to divide the population into subgroups

systematic sampling

use a regular system e.g. every 5th person to walk past to select questionnaire

benefits of systematic sampling

easy to select and free from bias

disadvantages of systematic sampling

the subgroups of the population may not be represented in the sample

convenience sampling

• based on practicality

• people are chosen because they are available, safe looking and speak English

benefits of convenience sampling

cuts down the cost of preparing a sampling frame as it is less time-consuming

disadvantages of convenience sampling

it is biased as it may not represent the population well

what is primary data? what did we collect?

it is information that you collect yourself, we collected:

• questionnaire

• bi-polar graphs

• interviews

• land use map and table

what is secondary data? what secondary data helped our research?

it is information that someone else has provided, we got secondary data from:

• newspaper article

• real estate data

what is quantitative data?

• it is numerical data that can be measured and expressed in terms of numbers

• it can be collected through methods such as surveys, questionnaires, and experiments

• it is often used to describe objective facts or events

what quantitative techniques did we use?

• annotated photos based on our observations

• interviewed people

what is qualitative data?

• it is non-numerical data that is often used to describe subjective experiences, feelings and opinions

• it can be collected through methods such as interviews, focus groups, and observations

what qualitative techniques did we use?

we collected real estate data and used it to make a bipolar graph

what are open questions?

• allows more detail

• invites the person responding to provide information into how they feel or opinions about a subject

what are the pros of open questions?

it allows you to better understand the responder’s true feelings and attitudes about the subject

what are the cons of open questions?

• takes a lot of time as the respondent may want to talk at length

• difficult to put into a graph as the answers do not fall into certain categories

what are closed questions?

• participant can choose from a set of answers ‘yes’ or ‘no’

pros of closed questions

quick to prepare as respondents all say the same thing

can be easily made into a graph as these are only a specific set of answers

cons of closed questions

don’t give respondents the choices to truly give opinions

evaluate the primary data collection methods used in your study

• land map use for shops

• quality of life questionnaire

• environmental quality surveys

• photographs

land map use for shops

a colour coded land use map was drawn for Stratford Broadway

Q of L questionnaire

a word cloud was created for the traditional and regenerated areas

EQS

• a bipolar graph was created comparing both traditional and regenerated areas

• proportional circles overlaying a GIS map area with total EQS score

photos

they were annotated to show the key features of each area

evaluate two secondary data collection methods used in your study

• news articles

• house prices from online sites

house prices from online sites

objective as there are only 4 houses from each location, so it is not representative

annotated newspaper article

• we sorted out positive and negative statements about regeneration

• this was very effective but we only did it for one article

• this allows us to do detailed textual analysis

data presentation skills we used

• bar charts

• word cloud

• bipolar graphs

• proportional circles

• photographs

strengths of proportional symbol map

• shows a range of data

• Illustrates the differences between many places

• Easy to read

• data is specific to particular locations

limitations of proportional symbol map

• Not easy to calculate the actual value

• Time-consuming to construct

• Positioning on a map may be difficult, particularly with larger symbols

strengths for photographs

• An accurate record of the time

• Can represent things more clearly than numerical data

• Can be used to show data-collection techniques

• Can be used next to historical photographs to show changes over time

• Helps recall key features

limitations of photographs

• Not all photographs are relevant

• Can be subjective and biased as the student selects what is photographed

• Photographs sometimes contain too much information

• They are two dimensional so judging depth is difficult

strengths of bar charts

• Summarises a large set of data

• Easy to interpret and construct

• Shows trends clearly

limitations of bar charts

• Requires additional information

• Does not show causes, effects or patterns

• Can only be used with discrete data

strengths of word clouds

• Displayed in a very clear and engaging way by enlarging words that are spoken most frequently - also making it very easy to see which words were said most frequently

• Easy, quick and free to create with an online generator

limitations of word clouds

• Word clouds fail to capture the finer points of language like synonyms or various grammatical forms of a word. This might create a false impression of what people are saying

• Can create misconceptions as just because something is written in a larger font doesn't make it more important. For example, words like 'the' or 'and' maybe big because they are used often, but this does not add much value to understanding what the text is really about.

• Word clouds lack context/ elaboration of why people hold those attitudes or the tone in which they said the words which could have further revealed their opinions/beliefs

explain how your study uses GIS

• before we go, we used GIS and google maps to see if the areas were walking distance

• on the trip we use google maps to help us find the four locations

• GIS was used to get a base map for the shopping survey at Stratford Broadway

• GIS was used to plot EQS scores onto

explain how ICT helped your study

• ICT was used to create a word cloud for the QoL survey. We typed the set of words in and a visual way of showing the most common words came up

• ICT was used to find the mean, medium, mode and range of the data for different surveys

• we typed the results in and Excel gave us the results and drew graphs

what is hypothesis 1?

quality of life is higher in the regenerated parts of Stratford

evidence to support hypothesis 1

• 32% more people in East Village thought the environment was clean, compared to the Carpenter's Estate

• Crime is 25% lower in East Village based on our crime survey radar graph. The scores were on average 25% lower in East Vil than Carp

• In our word clouds for the quality of life survey, the main words for East Vil were 'Clean' and 'Safe', whereas for Carp and the High Street they were 'Run-down' congested'

reliability of methods for hypothesis 1

• to collect these data, we completed as a group and averaged our results to get more reliable average

• 3 separate sets of data combined suggest that EV has a better quality of life than Carp.

• however, quality of life survey that we did, we only asked 6 people during school time, so many teenagers won’t be present, therefore the data is not representative enough

accuracy of results for hypothesis 1

there are a few anomalies state that Carp. Estate is better in some aspects, so it is not too accurate-

• Word cloud says Carp Est more 'Vibrant' and 'diverse'

• In contrast, housing all looks the same in East Vil and some people may think this is less vibrant. This suggests less diversity of people/ethnicity

• East Vil 'unaffordable' in word cloud

• Our bar charts said that local shops were better in Carp Est also

what is hypothesis 2?

environmental quality is better in the regenerated parts of Stratford

evidence to support hypothesis 2

• In the Environmental Quality bi-polar survey, for East Vil, the Env Quality on average scored a 3 (the max score), but for Carp Est it was only 1

• In our annotated photos, it was clear that there was much more rubbish, graffiti, and a lack in green space in Carp Est, while in East Vil it was much greener and modern

• Our word cloud from the questionnaire stated that the Carp Estate and High Street had 'dirty shops', but East Vil was 'Clean' and 'Green'

reliability of methods for hypothesis 2

• to collect these data, we completed as a group and averaged our results to get more reliable average

• however we only took 2 photos at each location as we were running out of time, so it is not very representative

accuracy of results for hypothesis 2

anomalies for hypothesis 2:

- In East Village, all buildings look the same and there is less green space in some places

what is hypothesis 3?

shopping facilities are better in the regenerated parts of Stratford

evidence to support hypothesis 3

• In our land use survey, the number of shops in Westfield was much higher (244) in Westfield, but only 34 in Stratford High Street

• There was a greater variety of clothing shops and higher quality shops in Westfield, than in the traditional high street.

  - The shops along the high street also get worse as we move away from the regenerated area.

reliability of methods for hypothesis 3

• we only had time to collect primary land use data for a section of the high street on the day, therefore it is not too reliable

• we were able to supplement this by using Google street view and completing more of the land use survey using this secondary data.

• this meant we had a lot of data and covered the whole area of the high street. This was enough to conclude there were more derelict, or budget shops further from the redeveloped area

• however the photos on google street view are from 5 years ago, so they are out of date and the shops could’ve changed, so it is not reliable