GCSE AQA Geography Fieldwork- Chelmsford

Has regeneration had a positive impact within central Chelmsford?

The attempt to reverse the decline in urban areas by improving the built environment, attracting people back to the area and boosting the local economy.

Parts of Central Chelmsford have recently undergone regeneration, but this has not happened everywhere. Therefore we can compare the regenerated area with the existing area, in order to investigate its impact.

Retails, accommodation, leisure, restaurants and bars, and the public realm.

Accessibility, low risk and proximity of regenerated and not regenerated areas.

It is only 15 minutes away by coach.

Road Traffic Collisions, Anti-social behaviour and Adverse Weather.

All students should use formal pedestrian crossings and observe the highway code.

Students should work in groups no smaller than 4, students must have the mobile contact details of members of staff, and students should be briefed on how to respond to any anti-social behaviour experienced.

Warm clothing and layers with waterproof. Appropriate footwear.

Environmental Quality Survey (EQA), Pedestrian Count and Questionnaires.

Systematic Sampling

Every 40 paces (of the same person) we used a bi-polar scoring system (from -2 to +2) using pre-defined categories, collecting at 10 points for each transect and calculating an average.

To remove bias, to ensure data collection is manageable in the time available and to ensure there is sufficient data to represent the whole area.

To show the variations to be seen, especially between the 2 transects.

In order to see if regeneration has had a positive impact, by comparing the area that has been regenerated with the area that has not.

Bond Street and Southern Section of High Street.

Duke Street and northern section of High Street.

Stratified Sampling

Complete 3 pedestrian counts at pre-decided locations on each transect based on existing knowledge of the area. Count the number of people passing you in one minute.

To improve the reliability of results as anomalies are clear to see.

To give enough time to see a representative amount of people, whilst still being efficient.

To observe if there are areas within a transect that have a higher number of people.

It would suggest that the area is popular, attracting more people to the area, which is a key feature of successful regeneration schemes.

Each person completes 1 questionnaire in each location. People were asked every 20th person, and were asked 3 closed questions. We then collated the results from the year group.

AS questionnaires can be time consuming, so this ensured the data was representative whilst taking minimal time.

As we had limited time available, and needed to collect data that was easy to collect, present and analyse.

As a key part of regeneration is meeting the needs to the people who use the place, so the space must be used for work, leisure, shopping or entertainment. Asking for people’s views allows us to access this.

Comparative Divergent Bar

We created an axis going from -2 to +2 and plotted each of the 5 categories for both transects. We then coloured the two transects in a different colour, providing a key.

As we wanted to be able to compare data for the regenerated v.s existing area, but also each of the individual categories.

As we wanted to show which part of the environment were judged to be most positive.

Located Proportional Symbols

For our 6 locations (3 on each transect) use a scale to create bars, and a key to show which transect they are from. Then locate the bar on the map at the location that the data was collected from.

In order to visually show how the number of pedestrians varied in different areas of Chelmsford, and to compare the two transects to assess the success of regeneration.

The average for the EQA was higher along Bond Street with 1.5 compared to Duke Street with -1.25.

Traffic

That it has a nicer environment across all categories of the survey, being cleaner, with less noise and pollution and less vandalism

Due to pedestrianisation AND privatization, meaning that there are cleaners, CCTV and Security, to ensure a nice environment.

There were more pedestrians along Bond Street Southern section of the high street, with 130 compared to Duke Street and Northern section, with 73.

The entrance to Bond Street.

Opposite the Golden Fleece Pub on Duke Street.

A nicer environment, shown by the EQA and a greater concentration of shops and services.

94% said that Bond Street has a positive impact on Chelmsford, and 72% said that Bond Street was most attractive, compared to only 1% saying Duke Street.

That generally, people believe that it has had a positive impact on Chelmsford.

The EQA is subjective, meaning that each person will have a different view on the quality of the Environment. Also, we only measured EQS scores every 40 paces, meaning that our data may not be representative.

Our results from the EQA agree that the environment of the Southern Transect is nicer than the Northern Transect. This is further supported by annotated photos, questionnaire responses and pedestrian count data.

Take EQS scores at more regular intervals, and get a range of people to complete these tests and take averages, to reduce subjectivity.

We conducted the pedestrian counts at different times of day, the northern transect is close to many transportation services which increases pedestrian count, and when busy, it is difficult to count, leading to human error.

All pedestrian counts were higher in the southern section, increasing validity of results. All other results also supported the Pedestrian Count.

Conduct the pedestrian counts at the same time of day, and revisit and recount at the same area at several times of the week.

We had to ask people opportunistically as people would say no, increasing bias. Also, there were a large number of elderly people, decreasing our sample’s representativeness.

As our conclusions agreed that Bond Street has been successful, which is supported by other data. Also, we collated our answers, increasing sample size.

Ask questionnaires at several times of day, week and year, and ensure that our sampling technique removed bias.

• The income of shops before and after regeneration

• the property price for city centre apartments before and after regeneration

• The number of people travelling to Chelmsford before and after regeneration.