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RGS advice on NEA

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How to work through a project

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How you do ask questions

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A Level textbook pages on NEA - very useful!!

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A Level textbook pages on NEA - very useful!!

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This is the planning form we need to complete at the beginning of your investigation.

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You must use these in your drafts or we will not look at them!

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Short video to show you how to reference as you go in word. Remember every web page/ book / diagram you use should be referenced!

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Copy of spec

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How to present your Independent investigation

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How to present your Independent investigation

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Short video f essential tips

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Use this spreadsheet to calculate a Chi Squared. Just enter the data into the grid.

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What to look out for

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Proposal form with teacher comments - coasts

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Keeping you safe

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Detailed information on ideas for primary fieldwork techniques

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Detailed information on ideas for primary fieldwork techniques

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Use this spreadsheet to enter your data and it will carry out a spearman's rank

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Detailed information on ideas for primary fieldwork techniques

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Detailed information on ideas for primary fieldwork techniques

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The range of ways maps may be used

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Another FSC site looking at field methods

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Another FSC site looking at field methods

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All Geography starts with someone going into the field to find out what's there. This section will help you to gather the primary data (data you collect yourself) and secondary data (data collected by someone else) that will support your analysis and conclusions.

Characteristics of urban places

1. Urban drifting

This is a useful way to explore places. The aim is to take a journey through a place and make a record of what you experience.

Try taking a large scale street map of a city and trace out a circle on it. Your task is to walk as close to the edge of the circle as you can. Or create a random walk. You could roll a dice at each road intersection to decide which way to turn.

Exploring Birmingham city centre by tracing circles. The number, size and location of the circles is up to you.

On your journey though the place, make a record of what you see, hear and smell. Stop regularly to make written notes. You could also take photographs or a video recording of the journey.

2. Placechecks

Placechecks is another way to start exploring a place. You can find out much more at the Placechecks website.

Imagine that you are a local resident. For each location that you visit, ask:

What do you like?

What things need protecting?

What don't you like?

What needs changing now?

What problems are getting worse?

The Placechecks walkabout has a list of 21 questions to ask to help explore what makes places special.

3. Townscape survey

Historic England have developed the Historic Area Assessment.

This helps assess the character and significance of historic areas, such as town centres, older suburbs or villages. Here is an example of a completed Historic Area Assessment recording sheet.

Image by Historic England.

4. Clone Town survey

The New Economics Foundation (NEF) have argued that shopping streets in Britain are steadily becoming more similar. These Clone Towns are dominated by a narrow range of chain stores rather than independent shops.

Use a GOAD map and/or a pilot survey of the town to determine the boundaries of the shopping areas of each town. Include all indoor shopping centres.

Visit all streets in the shopping area and categorise every shop into 1 of 25 categories. You can download the form from the NEF website. Carry out this work methodically, making a careful note of when streets have been surveyed.

Retail value

As well as making an overall survey of the degree of cloning, it is possible to look at individual streets of the town centre in more detail. There are likely to be areas of higher and lower retail quality. One way in which this can be done is to choose a study area, then score each shop within the area as follows

This is based on the assumption that large shops like department stores act as 'anchors', attracting many shoppers, while smaller shops have a lower attractive pull. Add all the scores together to calculate the retail value for the area. Worked example

In this example, High Street has a higher retail value (80) than Market Street (39).

Characteristics of rural places

5. Rural character survey

Natural England have classified England's rural landscape into 159 National Character Areas (NCAs).

For example, NCAs in south-west England include Mendip Hills, Isle of Portland and Dorset Heaths. Many county and district councils have subdivided NCAs into smaller units; for example, Devon County Council.

Choose at least 5 survey sites around the location, possibly randomly. Design a booking sheet which will allow you to collect information on both the natural environment and the cultural landscape. An example of a booking sheet is shown below.

Perceptions of place

6. Questionnaires

East London by Field Studies Council.

Questionnaires are useful for finding out more about people's

characteristics (e.g age, sex, place of residence)

behaviour (e.g. usage of the coast)

attitudes (e.g. do they agree with a scheme for managed retreat?)

An effective questionnaire contains a mixture of closed and open questions:

Closed questions: answers are limited to single words, numbers of listed options

e.g. "Do you feel safe in Church Street at 8pm?

Possible answers YES or NO

Closed questions can also be given as a statement. Responses are limited to positions on a scale. There are two ways of presenting statements:

(i) Semantic differential scale - use pairs of words and a scale from negative to positive.

e.g. What do you think of the village of Horton-in-Ribblesdale?

Ugly -2 -1 0 +1 +2 Beautiful

Boring -2 -1 0 +1 +2 Lots to do

Dead -2 -1 0 +1 +2 Vibrant

(ii) Likert scale - ask participants whether they agree or disagree with a series of statements. Use statements with a balance of positive and negative.

e.g. "I do not feel in danger walking around Stokesley in the evening.

Answers: Strongly agree / Agree / Don't know / Disagree / Strongly disagree

(iii) Rating - ask participants to rank a small number of categories from most important to least important.

e.g. What was your main reason your chose to live in this neighbourhood? Please rank the following statements from 1 (most important) to 6 (least important)

Answers: proximity to work, proximity to family and friends, proximity to schools, housing costs, pleasant environment, good place to raise children

Open questions: responses may be long and detailed. Often it is a good idea to word the question so that people could respond with positive answers, negative answers or a mixture of the two. Asking participants to focus on a specific area or time frame may be more effective than just asking "Any other comments?" or "What do you think about this town?" at the end of a questionnaire.

e.g. "Do you think this town will get better or worse in the next 20 years? Why?"

7. Interviews

A properly conducted interview is more than just having a chat with someone. It needs to be carefully planned. You should take detailed notes or, even better, with the particpants' permission make an audio or video recording so that you can type up a transcript of the event.

(a) Interview strategies

Interviews can be structured, semi-structured or unstructured. In a structured interview, each participant is asked the same questions in the same order. In an unstructured interview, you set a focus for the interview with perhaps one or two introductory questions to break the ice, but allow the discussion to develop naturally. A semi-structured interview is a combination of the two approaches, with some pre-prepared questions but with time for discussion.

If you are using the structured or semi-structured route, prepare a typed list of questions beforehand. 6-8 questions is a realistic aim for a 30 minute interview. If you are using the unstructured route, prepare a list of general issues that you would like to cover in the interview. This will help you steer the discussion so that it covers all the issues, as otherwise conversations may drift.

(b) Choosing people to interview

Interviews can also be carried out individually or in groups. They can be carried out face-to-face, over the telephone or online (e.g. by Skype). Focus groups are a type of unstructured or semi-structured interview in which a group of people discuss topics defined by a researcher.

It is impractical to select a representative sample of people to interview. Instead use non-probability sampling, in which the sample is selected through the subjective judgment of the reseacher. There are three techniques:

Convenience sampling: select people who are easy to reach, e.g. interview existing contacts, such as friends and neighbours.

Snowball sampling: select at least two people. Ask each person to help you find more interviewees. Continue finding new people until you have achieved your desired sample size.

Quota sampling: deliberately select a proportionate number of people from each part of the population.

(c) Choosing questions to ask

There are two issues to consider here: what types of questions that you want to ask, and the order in which you want to ask them.

Consider the following types of question:

(i) Descriptive: questions which ask for facts about people, places and experiences, e.g. "How long have you lived in this town?"

(ii) Storytelling: questions that ask participants to put events in order, e.g. "Can you tell me how this town has changed since you first moved here?"

(iii) Opinion: questions that ask about perceptions and feelings, e.g. "Is there enough for teenagers to do in this town in the evening?"

(iv) Stuctural: questions that ask people to reflect on why they hold particular opinions, e.g. "How do you think you came to hold that opinion?"

(v) Contrast: questions that ask people to put themselves in someone else's shoes, e.g "Would you think differently about how safe the town centre if you were male/female/elderly/young?"

Often the hardest part of the interview is the start. Careful ordering of questions will help you build up rapport with the participants and maintain momentum over the course of the whole interview. Think of the interview are structured like a pyramid, with the easy-to-answer descriptive questions near the start and the most abstract questions (like structural and contrast questions) near the end. Ensure a polite finish (e.g. "Thanks for your time. You've given me some really useful information from this interview").

Some interviewees will be more chatty than others. Nudge less chatty interviewees with prompt questions (e.g. "What do you mean by that?" when an answer is unclear or incomplete). Eye contact, smiling and nodding will let the interviewee know that you are interested in what they have to say, and will encourage them to say more - don't yawn at them!

8. Mental mapping

The most likely victim of street crime in Britain is a man aged 16-24 (Office for National Statistics). But the fear of crime is different; it is to do with perception. You could investigate this through questionnaires, or by asking people to construct mental maps.

Mental mapping is a technique which allows you to collect a lot of quantitative data on people's perceptions of space. Mental maps are particularly useful to capturing data on whether people perceive places as threatening, unsafe or otherwise undesirable.

Photocopy a base map of different places in an area, such as 10 contrasting wards in a city. Ask each participant to colour in each place on the following scale. Remind participants that they should be thinking about 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

This place is always unsafe - colour in RED

This place is sometimes unsafe - colour in ORANGE

I don't know this place - colour in BLUE

This place is mostly safe - colour in YELLOW

This place is always safe - colour in GREEN

Lived experience of place

9. Observation studies

Observation is about watching what people do in particular places. Observational data is commonly recorded as notes, sketches or audio/video recordings. It is a very useful tool for finding out more about people's lived experience of places.

An observation study is straightforward to carry out in an area which can be seen in full, such as a town square or small park. But this is not the only way. Sensory mapping and pedestrian counts are also forms of observation studies.

Record the number of users in the site over a time period (perhaps 30 minutes or 1 hour). Then you can do either or both of the following:

First classify them by age, sex and activity (e.g. shopper, delivery worker, dog walker). Use symbols and abbreviations to allow you to record observations quickly. This could be as simple as e.g. 65+ F Sh, for a female shopper aged over 65.

Second use a base map, and attempt to trace the movement across the site made by a sample of the site users.

Broadly there are three ways that you can carry out observation studies:

(i) Naturalistic observation: observing people in their natural environment. For example you could sit on a park bench to observe users in a park, or at a coffee shop with outdoor seating to observe users in a town square. Your aim is to be as unobtrusive as possible, so as not to influence people's behaviour.

(ii) Participant observation: observing behaviour as a participant in a group. For example you could carry out a paper delivery round and watch people's use of space at the same time. If you have a part-time job in a shop or café you could use this as an opportunity to observe people's behaviour around you. If you belong to a sports club or gym, you could use the opportunity to construct an observation study around that (e.g. do people who take part in a running club have a different lived experience of a local place compared to people who do not?)

(iii) Controlled observation: observing behaviour under certain conditions and/or at certain times. You could, for example, decide only to observe certain types of behaviour in a park (such as dog walking) and ignore other behaviours. Or you could observe at specific times of day (e.g. Saturday morning 9-12). All controls on the observation need to be justified.

Pedestrian surveys are a type of observation study.

Think about which day of the week to count pedestrians. Pedestrian numbers are likely to be higher on a Saturday or Sunday then during the week, during school holidays, during dry weather and if there is a popular event happening in the city centre

Time of day is also important. Pedestrian numbers are likely to be higher during "rush hours" (like 8am-9am) or shift changes and during office lunchtime. Around 11am and 2.30pm are often good times to choose.

You need at least 20-25 survey points. Choose survey points across the city centre. If you are working in groups, each group can walk different routes across the city centre.

This is up to you, but make sure that you survey in the same way each time. Think about

How long to count pedestrians for - 2 minutes is enough. If your survey points are close together (perhaps every 100 metres), you might be able to do 3 or 4 pedestrian counts in 10 minutes.

Whether to count people on one side of the road or both sides of the road - if you are working in groups, different members of the group could count different sides of the road, with someone else holding a stopwatch.

11. Sensory mapping

Sensory mapping is a type of observation study. It a great way to get a handle people's lived experience of places. What do they see? What do they hear? What do they smell? What do they feel about particular places?

Here are two ideas that you could consider:

(a) Mapping smell and smellscapes - Smelly Maps is a project to classify the smell of different urban areas, both good and bad. The Aroma Wheel below ( link to pdf) was developed for cities in the USA, but could be simplified and adapted to both urban and rural areas.

(b) Mapping sound and soundscapes

Sound levels (i.e. loudness) can be measured using a decibel meter. Smartphone noise meter apps are also available.

At the same tide as loudness is measured, you can also record the sources of noise if you can identify them (e.g. traffic - engine noise, gear changes, rolling contact with road surfaces; natural sounds like birdsong and wind) and the frequency of each sound. One way to standardise this method is to spend 2 minutes standing still at each site and noting the loudness, direction, distance and source of each noise that you hear.

Secondary data sources

1. Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD)
Neighbourhood Statistics 2015 English IMD Explorer
2. Natural landscape

3. Cultural landscape

Settlement patterns and field shapes can be seen on a 1:25000 OS map

Victoria County History victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk

Genuki: a gateway to access historic information for most small settlements in England www.genuki.org.uk

4. Historic townscapes

Archives of the Extensive Urban Surveys project http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/EUS/

England-wide programme of surveys into the archeology, historic buildings and townscapes of towns and cities. Can be searched by county. Some counties have not yet been completed.

5. Historic landscapes

Archives of the Historic Landscape Characterisation project
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/EUS/
England-wide programme of surveys into the landscapes of historic places, both rural and urban. Can be searched by county or smaller area. For example, the Black Country Historic Landscape Characterisation includes text, maps and GIS for the historic urban and industrial landscapes of Woleverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell and Dudley. Some counties have not yet been completed.

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All Geography starts with someone going into the field to find out what's there. This section will help you to gather the primary data (data you collect yourself) and secondary data (data collected by someone else) that will support your analysis and conclusions. This is a useful way to explore places.

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Use this spreadsheet to enter your data and it will carry out the T test for you. Click on the second tab to find out how to write up the results

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Specialist concepts underpinning A Level Geography Part 1

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Specialist concepts underpinning A Level Geography Part 1

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These two articles go through the key ideas that underpin your A Level course - it is worth thinking about how you can use some of these in your data analysis.

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Fieldwork techniques for coastal management

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Fieldwork techniques for coastal management

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Also click on 'introduction' - very helpful!

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All Geography starts with someone going into the field to find out what's there. This section will help you to gather the primary data (data you collect yourself) and secondary data (data collected by someone else) that will support your analysis and conclusions.

Beach morphology

1. Beach profiles

Beach profiles use distance and angle measurements to help you investigate the shape of the beach.

Follow a straight transect line from the edge of the sea to the end of the active beach. Split the line into segments where the slope angle changes. Each reading is taken from from break of slope to break of slope.

Person A stands at a safe distance from the edge of the sea holding a ranging pole

Person B stands holding a second ranging pole further up the beach where there is a break of slope

The distance between the two ranging poles is measured using a tape measure

The angle between matching markers on each ranging pole is measured using a clinometer

Repeat this process at each break of slope until the top of the beach is reached

Measuring beach gradient by Field Studies Council / CC BY.

Beach profiles can also be used to calculate cross-sectional area and the amount of beach material present.

2. Coarse sediment analysis

Random, systematic and/or stratified sampling is used to take a sample of beach sediments (such as sand, gravel and pebbles). The measurement technique used depends on the size of the sediments.

Using calipers to measure the a, b and c axes of a pebble. Using calipers to measure the a, b and c axes of a pebble by Field Studies Council / CC BY.

Measuring size

The a-axis is the longest axis

The b-axis is the widest axis at right angles to the a-axis.

The c-axis is the shortest axis

The size and shape of coarse sediments can be measured on the beach. You do not have to take any sediments from the beach to the lab.

Use rules or calipers to measure the a, b and c axes of each pebble.

Use a stone card to measure the minimum radius of curvature.

Measuring shape

The simplest way to record pebble shape is to classify the stone as very angular, angular, sub-angular, sub-rounded, rounded or very rounded using a Power's Scale of Roundness. This is judged by eye.

Using a protractor or concentric circle card, measure the minimum radius of curvature. This is the sharpest corner on the a-axis.

Alternatively use the pebble size measurements (a, b and c axes) to calculate Zingg's shape classification, Krumbein's Index of Sphericity or Cailleux's Flatness Index (see Data Analysis). Use the a-axis and minimum radius of curavture to calculate Cailleux's Roundness Index.

3. Fine sediment analysis

Samples of fine sediments (clay,silt and sand) will need to be taken from the beach to the lab. Each sample should be placed in a sealed plastic bag and accurately labelled.

Use a set of graduated sieves can be used to sort sediment samples into different size categories (in millimetres or as phi sizes).

The sieves are arranged in decreasing mesh diameter with the largest at the top. The sediment sample is placed in the top sieve then the sieves are shaken to sort the sediment into the various sieves. The mass of sediment in each sieve is measured using scales and the percentage of the total sample can be calculated.

4. Longshore drift: direction and strength

Select 30-50 pebbles of different shapes and sizes from the beach. Use waterproof paint to mark each pebble. Spread the pebbles out in the swash zone, and place a marker further up the beach to show the start point for the pebbles. After 20 minutes find as many pebbles as you can, and measure how far each has moved from the start point.

After 20 minutes, you may find that some of the pebbles will have disappeared from the beach or moved in a different direction to the others. This does not mean that your results are 'wrong'. Record what happened to each pebble (including 'disappeared').

Repeat the experiment at least 3 times, or until you judge that the running mean for distance travelled by a pebble indicates that you have taken an adequate sample.

Beach material is higher on one side of the groyne. Groyne at Worthing Beach by Andrew Skudder / CC BY.

Physical impact of coastal management

5. Groyne measurements

Curved sea wall and rip-rap. Beesands by Slapton Ley / CC BY.

Use a tape measure to find the height of beach material on either side of a groyne. Measure in at least three heights along the beach profile for each groyne. You can compare a series of groynes along a length of beach.

6. Rip-rap volume and weight measurements

Rip-rap or rock armour is often used as a technique of coastal defence. You can collect field data on the effectiveness of the rip-rap simply by measuring the length, width and height of each boulder. Measure the angle of rest of the boulder - is the widest facing facing straight into the waves, or does it lie at an angle?

Use secondary data to find the rock type used and its density. This information can then be used to calculate Hudson's equation (see Data Analysis).

Here are some densities of rocks often used for rip-rap.

Human impact of coastal management

7. Bi-polar analysis

characteristics (e.g age, sex, place of residence)

behaviour (e.g. usage of the coast)

attitudes (e.g. do they agree with a scheme for managed retreat?)

Questionnaires can be a useful technique where there are many passers-by. Dawlish by Iantherev / CC BY.

Construct your own environmental quality assessment. Choose a series of opposing positive and negative statements. For each location that you visit, decide which score to give for each factor. A pilot survey will show whether the criteria you have chosen are appropriate. Here is an example

7. Questionnaires

Questionnaires are useful for finding out more about people's

An effective questionnaire contains a mixture of closed and open questions:

Closed questions: answers are limited to single words, numbers of listed options

e.g. "Have you heard of the new protection scheme planned for Borth Beach?

Possible answers YES or NO

Closed questions can also be given as a statement. Responses are limited to positions on a scale. There are two ways of presenting statements:

(i) Semantic differential scale - use pairs of words and a scale from negative to positive.

e.g. What do you think of the beach protection at Beesands?

Ugly -2 -1 0 +1 +2 Beautiful

Dangerous for the public -2 -1 0 +1 +2 Safe for the public

A long-term solution -2 -1 0 +1 +2 A temporary fix

(ii) Likert scale - ask participants whether they agree or disagree with a series of statements. Use statements with a balance of positive and negative.

e.g. "The coastal defences at Sandsend will protect the town for the next 30 years

Answers: Strongly agree / Agree / Don't know / Disagree / Strongly disagree

(iii) Rating - ask participants to rank a small number of categories from most important to least important.

e.g. What do you think are the most important reasons for protecting the coast at Tywyn? Please rank the following statements from 1 (most important) to 6 (least important)

Answers: protect houses, protect main road, reduce flood risk, protect the beach, protect natural habitats, protect farmland

Open questions: responses may be long and detailed. Often it is a good idea to word the question so that people could respond with positive answers, negative answers or a mixture of the two. Asking participants to focus on a specific area or time frame may be more effective than just asking "Any other comments?" or "What do you think about the coast?" at the end of a questionnaire.

e.g. "Do you think the proposed scheme will protect Borth for the next 40 years?"

8. Cost-benefit analysis

Cost benefit analysis assessments of coastal defences take into account the cost of a defence and the value of the land (and properties) that it protects.

Cost Benefit = Value of land protected /Cost of defence over x years

Shoreline Management Plans and Environment Agency documentation can provide you with values for the cost of the different types of sea defence in your study area. Different sea defences require different levels of maintenance than others (e.g. rip rap groyne is cheaper to maintain than a wooden groyne) and so this should also be factored in. The cost of maintenance over a set time year period should be found in the same documentation and used for your calculation.

Land use type can be recorded as a tally as shown above, values for different types of land use can also be found in secondary sources.

For a more representative cost benefit analysis, consideration of different house and business prices depending on the location along the coastline should be taken into account. Distance away from the sea defence and height above it should also be taken in to account when surveying land use. High resolution maps are available that show individual buildings and height above sea level.
Determining likelihood of flooding
Risk and vulnerability

9. Risk mapping

using supporting pictures to clearly see the height that storm surges reach on a defence

using people as guidance for heights

lowering a tape measure from the top of the defence (be aware of the risks involved in fieldwork where there are exposed drops of any height and take suitable precautions as required.)

Evaluating the impact (and severity) of flooding behind coastal defences
Flood risk at a coastal location can be quantified by taking into account the likelihood of flooding occuring and the severity of a breach or overtopping of sea defences.

Flood risk = likelihood x severity

High-status retail (e.g. department stores), high tech industry, offices

5

High value housing, low order retail, possibly small scale industry/cafes/pubs

4

Low value housing, small businesses (small convenience stores, independent garages, storage facilities)

3

Open space (car parks, derelict land, parks, allotments)

2

In its simplest form likelihood can be scored depending on the estimated height of the sea defence above a high tide or storm tide. The table below shows how the height of the defence can be categorised.

There are a range of ways to increase the accuracy of this piece of data collection:

Severity of coastal flooding can be determined by considering the properties that would be affected by flooding, especially their economic value or worth if damaged.

Choose a small number of categories for the types of land use. Sample a representative number of locations behind the coastal defences. At each location, tally the number of different types of land use found. Use your tally chart to find the most common land use at each location. (i.e. the mode). This modal land use and its associated score can then be used in the flood risk calculation.

To show the spatial change of land use along your stretch of coastline, the buildings can be marked on a map using colours or symbols for different types of land use.

Secondary data sources

1. Wave and wind data

This can be found at

2. Shoreline management plans

Shoreline management plans are an essential source to find our more about about erosion and other coastal processes in your chosen length of coastline.

Projections of coastal flooding as a result of sea level rise can be modelled using Flooding Firetree.

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Method for Coastal Management - Field Studies Council

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All Geography starts with someone going into the field to find out what's there. This section will help you to gather the primary data (data you collect yourself) and secondary data (data collected by someone else) that will support your analysis and conclusions.

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NEA Exemplar Crime Work Examiner Commentary

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Find an idea you like

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Good site looking at a range of urban methods

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Good site looking at a range of urban methods

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All Geography starts with someone going into the field to find out what's there. This section will help you to gather the primary data (data you collect yourself) and secondary data (data collected by someone else) that will support your analysis and conclusions.

Economic inequalities

1. Shopping basket survey

A shopping basket survey compares the prices of a small number of groceries in several shops.

These surveys are useful when comparing the price of products available in shops in particular areas. They are also useful when comparing different rural settlements, contrasting outlying villages with a nearby town, or investigating the phenomenon of "food deserts" in some inner cities.

You could combine the shopping basket survey data with questionnaire data (e.g. access to a car, shop use such as use of online shopping, eating habits such as fruit and vegatable intake) plus secondary data like deprivation and travel distances derived from a map.

2. Clone Town survey

The New Economics Foundation (NEF) have argued that shopping streets in Britain are steadily becoming more similar. These Clone Towns are dominated by a narrow range of chain stores rather than independent shops.

Park Street. Walsall by Harry Pope / CC BY.

Use a GOAD map and/or a pilot survey of the town to determine the boundaries of the shopping areas of each town. Include all indoor shopping centres.

Visit all streets in the shopping area and categorise every shop into 1 of 25 categories. You can download the form from the NEF website. Carry out this work methodically, making a careful note of when streets have been surveyed.

3. Retail value

As well as making an overall survey of the degree of cloning, it is possible to look at individual streets of the town centre in more detail. There are likely to be areas of higher and lower retail quality. One way in which this can be done is to choose a study area, then score each shop within the area as follows

This is based on the assumption that large shops like department stores act as 'anchors', attracting many shoppers, while smaller shops have a lower attractive pull.

Add all the scores together to calculate the retail value for the area.

Worked example

In this example, High Street has a higher retail value (80) than Market Street (39).

4. Questionnaires

Questionnaires are useful for finding out more about people's

characteristics (e.g age, sex, place of residence)

behaviour (e.g. usage of the coast)

attitudes (e.g. do they agree with a scheme for managed retreat?)

An effective questionnaire contains a mixture of closed and open questions:

Closed questions: answers are limited to single words, numbers of listed options

e.g. "Do you feel safe in Church Street at 8pm?

Possible answers YES or NO

Closed questions can also be given as a statement. Responses are limited to positions on a scale. There are two ways of presenting statements:

(i) Semantic differential scale - use pairs of words and a scale from negative to positive.

e.g. What do you think of the village of Horton-in-Ribblesdale?

Ugly -2 -1 0 +1 +2 Beautiful

Boring -2 -1 0 +1 +2 Lots to do

Dead -2 -1 0 +1 +2 Vibrant

(ii) Likert scale - ask participants whether they agree or disagree with a series of statements. Use statements with a balance of positive and negative.

e.g. "I do not feel in danger walking around Stokesley in the evening.

Answers: Strongly agree / Agree / Don't know / Disagree / Strongly disagree

(iii) Rating - ask participants to rank a small number of categories from most important to least important.

e.g. What was your main reason you chose to live in this neighbourhood? Please rank the following statements from 1 (most important) to 6 (least important)

Answers: proximity to work, proximity to family and friends, proximity to schools, housing costs, pleasant environment, good place to raise children

Open questions: responses may be long and detailed. Often it is a good idea to word the question so that people could respond with positive answers, negative answers or a mixture of the two. Asking participants to focus on a specific area or time frame may be more effective than just asking "Any other comments?" or "What do you think about this town?" at the end of a questionnaire.

e.g. "Do you think this town will get better or worse in the next 20 years? Why?"

Pedestrian surveys are a type of observation study.

Heavy pedestrian footfall. Piccadilly Circus by Manhattan Research / CC BY.

Think about the which day of the week to count pedestrians. Pedestrian numbers are likely to be higher on a Saturday or Sunday then during the week, during school holidays, during dry weather and if there is a popular event happening in the city centre

Time of day is also important. Pedestrian numbers are likely to be higher during "rush hours" (like 8am-9am) or shift changes and during office lunchtime. Around 11am and 2.30pm are often good times to choose.

You need at least 20-25 survey points. Choose survey points across the city centre. If you are working in groups, each group can walk different routes across the city centre.

This is up to you, but make sure that you survey in the same way each time. Think about

How long to count pedestrians for - 2 minutes is enough. If your survey points are close together (perhaps every 100 metres), you might be able to do 3 or 4 pedestrian counts in 10 minutes.

Whether to count people on one side of the road or both sides of the road - if you are working in groups, different members of the group could count different sides of the road, with someone else holding a stopwatch.

Social inequalities

6. Accessibility survey

Construct a survey to help you collect data on how easy it is for people with limited mobility (such as wheelchair users, elderly people and visually impaired people) to move around the built environment.

Uneven pavement, parked car, puddle. Crown Street, Ipswich by Peter Miller / CC BY.

The example below was designed to be used for 10 sites at regular intervals along a single street. At each sample site, record the condition of the pavement on one side of the street and the condition of the five nearest doorways.

7. Crime surveys

There are several aspects of crime that you can investigate in the field.

(a) Index of burglaribility

Construct a survey to help you collect data on how susceptible a house of business premises is to be burglary. Here is an example that you may wish to adapt to your study area.

(b) Vandalism survey

Construct a survey to help you collect data on vandalism. Consider

Graffiti

Scratched, burnt and smashed glass (e.g. bus shelters)

Litter and fly-tipping

Damage to street furniture (like seats)

Damage to trees and plants

Distribution could be measured on the ACFOR scale: abundant, common, frequent, occasional, rare. Here is an example of a graffiti scale you could adapt.

(c) Mental mapping: fear of crime

The most likely victim of street crime in Britain is a man aged 16-24 (Office for National Statistics). But the fear of crime is different; it is to do with perception. You could investigate this through questionnaires, or by asking people to construct mental maps.

Mental mapping is a technique which allows you to collect a lot of quantitative data on people's perceptions of space. Mental maps are particularly useful to capturing data on whether people perceive places as threatening, unsafe or otherwise undesirable.

Photocopy a base map of different places in an area, such as 10 contrasting wards in a city. Ask each participant to colour in each place on the following scale. Remind participants that they should be thinking about 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

This place is always unsafe - colour in RED

This place is sometimes unsafe - colour in ORANGE

I don't know this place - colour in BLUE

This place is mostly safe - colour in YELLOW

This place is always safe - colour in GREEN

Results can be summarised by scoring red as -2, orange as -1, blue as 0, yellow as 1 and green as 2. Find the mean score for all participants and present the aggregated results as a chloropleth map. You could also put together separate maps showing the results for contrasting groups, such as male and female.

8. Bus Index

A lack of transport can be a major problem for people who do not have access to a car. You can measure this problem by calculating the Bus Coverage Index for each village.

Bus Coverage Index = (journey time from village A to town B in minutes) ÷ (number of buses between village A and town B in both directions per weekday)

The lower the Bus Coverage Index, the greater the accessibility.

Worked example

Hanwood and Snailbeach are both villages near Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury contains a sixth-form college. How easy is it to get from Hanwood or Snailbeach to the college in Shrewsbury?

Hanwood It takes 19 minutes to travel from Hanwood to Shrewsbury and there are 12 buses each way every day. Bus Coverage Index = 19 ÷ 12 = 1.58 Snailbeach It takes 38 minutes to travel from Snailbeach to Shrewsbury and there are 8 buses each way every day. Bus Coverage Index = 38 ÷ 8 = 4.75

This works best where there is only one large town nearby with shops and services. You can use bus timetables in each village to find out the journey time to the nearest town and how many buses there are each day. Alternatively use Traveline

Environmental inequalities

9. Environmental quality assessment

What are the streets like in each area? Construct a survey to measure environmental quality in each area contrasting area. Here is an example that you could adapt to your city.

A written description and/or photographs may help you be consistent in giving scores. One way you could do for scoring 'litter' this is shown below

0 = no litter visible

+ = no more than 10 small items visible, all recent

++ = large amount of recent litter items

+++ = accumulation of large items, some items have clearly be in situ for months

10. Building decay survey

You can also measure the condition of housing. Make sure that you sample houses fairly. You might, for example, choose to sample two streets picked at random, and then sample house numbers 5, 15 and 25 on each street.

Secondary data sources

1. Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD)

The Index of Multiple Deprivation can be used as secondary data to help you investigate quality of life in urban and rural areas. Thm map od IMD in Taunton shows that some parts of Taunton are within the 10% most deprived parts of England. Other parts of Taunton are within the 10% least deprived parts of England.

IMD 2015, Taunton by Open Database Licence.

England has been divided into 32,844 small areas called Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs). THE IMD is calculated by combining scores for 7 different "domains":

The scoring is weighted so that income and employment contribute more to the overall score than the other "domains". Each LSOA is given a rank for deprivation.

IMD has been calculated in 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2015, so you could use historic IMD data to track changes in inequality over time.

2. Accessibility by road

From an Ordnance Survey map, make a raw count of the number of A roads, number of B roads and number of other roads linking the village to other places. If, for example, an A road passes through the village, count it as two roads - since it links two sets of places.

Draw a circle with a 0.5km radius around the centre of each village. As each road bisects circle allocate points as follows: A-roads 10 points, B-roads 5 points and other roads 1 point. Sum the points for each village.

A second consideration is the time that it takes to travel along different types of road. It is fair to assume that a journey along a dual carriageway will be faster than a journey of the same length along a winding single-track country lane. There are several route planners available (e.g. AA Route Planner) which will calculate the journey time for you.

3. Crime data

Deprivation data:

4. Health data

Interactive map by Public Health England

5. House prices

6. Education data

7. Jobs data

8. Broadband availability

9. Environment data
What's in your backyard? (Environment Agency)

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All Geography starts with someone going into the field to find out what's there. This section will help you to gather the primary data (data you collect yourself) and secondary data (data collected by someone else) that will support your analysis and conclusions.

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The difference between correlation and causation

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The difference between correlation and causation

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Helping to make sense of yopur results

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Specialist concepts underpinning A Level Geography Part 2

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Specialist concepts underpinning A Level Geography Part 2

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These two articles go through the key ideas that underpin your A Level course - it is worth thinking about how you can use some of these in your data analysis.

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A guide how to use and find key data

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We hold a range of different types of census data, such as:

We also hold data related to the census, such as Experian data and deprivation data.

All of the aggregate data and most of the flow and boundary data are available to anyone under the Open Government Licence. Census microdata has different access conditions depending on the dataset.

We do not hold the census longitudinal data. However, these can be found at:

England and Wales (ONS LS): CeLSIUS

Scotland (SLS): SLS-DSU

Northern Ireland (NILS): NILS-RSU

information on all three census longitudinal studies at CALLS Hub

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We hold a range of different types of census data, such as: We also hold data related to the census, such as Experian data and deprivation data. All of the aggregate data and most of the flow and boundary data are available to anyone under the Open Government Licence.

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Different graphs for different data

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From Mrs Goddard - Ox and Witney human links

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A practical guide

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to what extent has the olympic park regeneration been successful

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to what extent has the olympic park regeneration been successful

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What the examiners think of student suggestions

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Guide from RGS

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How to plot field data e.g. footfall on Arcgis

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How to plot field data e.g. footfall on Arcgis

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Advice on how to tabulate results - you will have to rotate pdf

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Be careful to read the areas for Westward Ho! only. This covers the whole of North Devon and Somerset!

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Some really good stuff about shopping

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How to write a geographical questionnaire

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How to write a geographical questionnaire

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How to write a geographical questionnaire

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Guide to how to conduct this work

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Human geography, including the changing socio-economic and demographic characteristics of local places, plus the cultural meanings and representations attached to different places

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Human geography, including the changing socio-economic and demographic characteristics of local places, plus the cultural meanings and representations attached to different places

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Video with some ideas of what to collect and how to do it

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How to show sphere of influence on ArcGis 

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How to show sphere of influence on ArcGis 

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Quick video to show you how to calculate sphere of influence using ArcGIS online

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How to show spehere of influence on arcgis online

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How to classify data for presentation - pdf to rotate

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Example 1

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Oxford City Council planning application website for Westgate

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13/02557/OUT | Demolition of southern part of Westgate Centre, 1-14 Abbey Place and multi-storey car park, retention of library, refurbishment of remainder of the existing Westgate Centre and construction of a retail-led mixed use development together providing A1 (retail), A2 (finance and professional services) and/or A3 (restaurants and cafes) and/or A4 (public house, etc.) and/or A5 (hot food takeaways) uses, C3 (residential) use and D2 (assembly and leisure) uses, public toilets, associated car and cycle parking, shopmobility facility, servicing and access arrangements together with alterations to the public highway (Amended plans and further information) | Westgate Centre And Adjacent Land Encompassing The Existing Westgate Centre And Land Bounded By Thames St, Castle Mill Stream, Abbey Place, Norfolk St, Castle St, Bonn Square, St Ebbes St, Turn Again Lane And Old Greyfriars St. OX1 1NX

You can select up to 25 documents to download in one archive file at a time.

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13/02557/OUT | Demolition of southern part of Westgate Centre, 1-14 Abbey Place and multi-storey car park, retention of library, refurbishment of remainder of the existing Westgate Centre and construction of a retail-led mixed use development together providing A1 (retail), A2 (finance and professional services) and/or A3 (restaurants and cafes) and/or A4 (public house, etc.) and/or A5 (hot food takeaways) uses, C3 (residential) use and D2 (assembly and leisure) uses, public toilets, associated car and cycle parking, shopmobility facility, servicing and access arrangements together with alterations to the public highway (Amended plans and further information) | Westgate Centre And Adjacent Land Encompassing The Existing Westgate Centre And Land Bounded By Thames St, Castle Mill Stream, Abbey Place, Norfolk St, Castle St, Bonn Square, St Ebbes St, Turn Again Lane And Old Greyfriars St. OX1 1NX

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13/02557/OUT | Demolition of southern part of Westgate Centre, 1-14 Abbey Place and multi-storey car park, retention of library, refurbishment of remainder of the existing Westgate Centre and construction of a retail-led mixed use development together providing A1 (retail), A2 (finance and professional services) and/or A3 (restaurants and cafes) and/or A4 (public house, etc.)

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A fieldwork technique

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Names of techniques that might be used

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How to use sound in fieldwork

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This site lets you see how popular a search on google has been. Try using words like oxford Westgate or oxford. Beware of a terrorist incident in Westgate Kenya though!

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How to use them to display data - rotate pdf

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Useful for impact of COVID on businesses and lived experience.

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Latest data and analysis on coronavirus (COVID-19) in the UK and its effect on the economy and society.

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North Devon Council, PO Box 379, Barnstaple, Devon, EX32 2GR, UK, Tel 01271 327711 Fax 01271 388451 Email: customerservices@northdevon.gov.uk

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Interactive map for contextual information

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As part of our ongoing programme of application upgrades and redevelopment, the Geology of Britain map viewer was retired on 1 August 2022.
If you are looking for an interactive geological map of Great Britain then you may be interested in one of our newer online map viewers listed below:

BGS Geology Viewer is a lightweight viewer designed to provide geology enthusiasts and the general public with bedrock and superficial geology maps of Great Britain

BGS GeoIndex, which is recommended for professional users and provides access to a wide range of data, including both borehole scans, fault information and interactive 3D models

For more information about the retirement of the Geology of Britain viewer please see our FAQ section below

Geology of Britain update FAQs

The Geology of Britain map viewer was retired on 1 August 2022 and is no longer available. This includes both the classic 2D Geology of Britain and the 3D version.

Why was the Geology of Britain map viewer retired?

Is there an alternative to the Geology of Britain viewer?

Where can I download the 3D cross sections?

Where can I view earthquakes data?

Where can I view borehole data?

If you have any comments or questions about this change that is not covered by this page, please contact the BGS Enquiries team.

What was the Geology of Britain viewer?

The Geology of Britain viewer was a simple tool, aimed at the general public, which allowed users to explore the geology of Great Britain.

Terms of use

These data are delivered under the terms of the Open Government Licence, subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced BGS materials: "Contains British Geological Survey materials © UKRI [year]". Contact us if you create something new and innovative that could benefit others.

We encourage users to use OpenGeoscience material with their own data.

The BGS provides no warranty as to the quality, accuracy or completeness of this free map data or the medium on which it is supplied. This includes any warranty as to the continued provision of material or that the material taken from this site is compatible with your computer system and/or any other data with which the material is to be used.

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Geology of Britain viewer - British Geological Survey

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The Geology of Britain viewer has been designed to help the general public explore the local geology around where they live.

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How marks are allocated

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From planning site above

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How to use pictures in fieldwork

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Guide to fieldwork

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Geographical enquiry. This section guides you through the geographical enquiry process from planning to evaluation.

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How can your phone help?

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Advice and guidance

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making sure you do them properly

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https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011census

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Example 2

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Thanks to Steven for this - might be of help.

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Suggestions to help you find a suitable title

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Ways to map the landuse in your study area

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Add postcodes to get a crime map

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how to make them more interestin

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2015 English Indices of Deprivation: map explorer

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Explore the 2015 Indices of Deprivation in an interactive map. You can choose the overall Index of Multiple Deprivation, or one of the individual domains. You can search the map by place name or postcode.