Birmingham Fieldwork

Birmingham Fieldwork

1. Stages in Enquiry

   • 1. Planning stage
     • Understanding what kind of data collection must be used.
   • 2. Data Collection
     • Qualitiative
       • Statistical/Measurements
     • Quantitative
       • Observation
   • 3. Data Presentation
     • Maps, Graphs, GIS, Diagrams (Hand/Computer drawn)
   • 4. Analysis of explanation
     • Finding trends and using geographical knowledge to make theories.
   • 5. Conclusions
     • Make summaries of data, refer back to hyposysis
   • 6. Evaluation
     • Reflect on data collected to make a conclusion

2. Burgess city model

   • Centre - CBD
   • Inner city
   • Suburbs
   • Urban rural fringe

3. Steps taken

   • Planning stage
     • Hypothosis - Quality is better in CBD than inner city
     • Working outside, land becomes more residential
     • More people are more likely to visit the CBD than surrounding areas
     • Location - Suitable because it has many motorway links; despite being 100 miles away, it was easy to travel there. It is not too large like London and so is not as time consuming to investigate.
     • Risk assessment
       • Extreme weather/climate, Traffic, Getting lost, uneven surfaces.
   • Data Collection
     • Random
       • +ve unbiased
       • -ve can become biased if attracted to social group
     • Stratified
       • +ve Generates representitive results
       • +ve Comparisons can be made
       • -ve can be diffcult to determine different statums
     • Systematic
       • +ve done in equal intervals
       • +ve straight forward
       • -ve may miss certain groups of people
       • -ve Biased, not all members will be selected
   • Data Presentation
     • Radar Graph
       • +ve Easy to read
       • +ve Multiple can be layered on the same graph
       • +ve Compares several variables
       • -ve Only works for certain things
     • Divided Bar Chart
       • -ve Difficult to read apart from first bar
       • -ve Difficult to compare
       • +ve clearly see the largest bar
       • +ve can include various data on the same graph
     • Pie Chart
       • +ve easy to determine largest slice
       • +ve Good visual representation
       • -ve Actual figures must be given otherwise cannot be read easily
       • -ve lots of small segments makes it hard to read
       • -ve Very hard to construct
     • Wordle
       • +ve Visual
       • +ve Good for easy questions
       • +ve good for qualitative data
       • -ve Cant read exact figures
       • -ve Bad representation of large data
   • Analysis
     • Environmental Quality considerably better in CBD than Sparkbrook
     • Measured on: Litter, Aesthetics, Shop quality, Building quality, Vandalism
     • Questionaire analysis
       • Quality declined coming out of the CBD.
       • 80% believed it was very poor
       • 20% only saw it as poor.
     • Conclusion for environmental quality
       • Traffic was rated worst in CBD. However this could be due to collecting data from main roads. This could have been avoided.
     • Conclusion for Land use
       • Hypothisis was correct. Most land was used for retail in CBD. As we came out it became more residential.
     • Conclusion for Questionaire
       • Only 1 questioned in sparkbrook, lived there. 2 people questioned in CBD: Most common purpose for visit was work.
   • Evaluation
     • Environmental Quality
       • Limitations
         • Mainly stratified, mainly carried out on roads. Other roads could have been worse.
         • Subjective - Based on opinion
         • Some groups may have reversed scoring variables causing unwanted answers.
         • Score of 3 was chosen often, telling us people were unsure of quality.
       • Accuracy
         • Scales were labelled to assure no mistakes were made.
         • Discussion took place before trip to ensure group rank variables were the same.
     • Land use
       • Limitations
         • Confusion of what categories to place buildings in
         • Only carried out on certain roads.
         • Larger amount of data recorded for CBD than sparkbrook, resulting in difficult comparisons.
       • Accuracy
         • Discussion on buildings categories.
     • Traffic
       • Limitations
         • Only carried out on main roads
         • Congestion caused counting mishaps
         • Pedestrians could have been doubled counted when crossing.
       • Accuracy
         • All groups counted for a minute
         • All groups counted on either side of the road
         • Every member counted traffic when results were compared.