Urban Environments

Investigating change in urban land use

Aim

-          Investigating change in urban land use in distance from the central business district

Hypothesis

-          Different type of land use will cluster together

Equipment

-          Pens

-          Recording sheet with key

-          Street map of the area

Method

-          Choose a path through an urban area that represents variation

-          Devise a key to categorise the buildings you come across

-          Record every single building along the route either side on the road (if the road is to long use systematic sampling – record after a set distance)

-          Field sketches and photographic evidence should be taken

Presentation Technique

-          Colour coded transect with a key

-          Table showing the common land use

Risk assessment

-          Slips, trips and bumps

-          Stranger danger

-          Mugging

-          Traffic and crossing roads

-          Getting lost

Evaluation

-          Measures of environmental quality are subjective

-          You cannot portray the size or shape of buildings

-          Only ground floor land use

-          Categorizing can become an issue

Secondary Sources

-          Census data

-          Newspaper articles

-          House prices

-          GIS

-          Old maps

Investigating change in environmental equality survey

Aim

-          Investigate the environmental quality as it deteriorate with distance from the city centre

Hypothesis

-          Environmental quality will deteriorate with distance from the city centre

Equipment

-          Bi-polar survey (table – categories)

-          Map of area to determine your sites

Method

-          Choose 4 – 6 sites which represent a variety of land use within an area

-          Once you are at each site asses each characteristic from you bi-polar survey (litter, graffiti, noise pollution…)

-          Back up you decision with photos and sketches

Presentation Technique

-          Locational proportional map bar chart (linked specially)

Risk assessment

-          Slips, trips and bumps

-          Stranger danger

-          Mugging

-          Traffic and crossing roads

-          Getting lost

Evaluation

-          Very simple and quick to make

-          You can compare a range of factors

-          A Bi-polar survey is very subjective to opinion

-          Land further out from the city centre will be cheaper which means its environmental quality will deteriorate

Secondary Sources

-          Census data

-          Newspaper articles

-          House prices

-          GIS

-          Old maps