Geography GCSE coursework, land use analyses. Finding the CBD in Perth.

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A study to try to relate Perth’s CBD to a typical textbook CBD

Aims

  1. To study the CBD of Perth to see if it conforms to the characteristics of a typical CBD described in a textbook
  2. To delimit the CBD
  3. To collect some additional data on one aspect of the CBD and produce a personal extension of the coursework

Introduction

I would expect to find a textbook CBD in the middle of a city where it is most accessible for the population. The CBD is usually the oldest part of the city and has tall buildings to accommodate the needs for retail services in such a busy centre.

On the ground floor of a CBD I would expect there to be mainly retail shops with a few offices dotted along the streets just off the High Street. I would expect to find very little residential buildings and any that were to be terraced as there would not be enough room, on the highly sought after land, on the high street for a garden. This high demand for land would also mean that it would be too expensive to run any sort of industry and so they must find cheaper land outside the CBD. As the land in the CBD is valued so highly the buildings should tend to be much taller to increase their floor space which is so valuable. On these extra floors the land should be used for shops and offices with the rare flat amongst them. I would expect more offices than shops as customers don’t really want to climb a flight of stairs to shop, especially the old and not so mobile, so offices would take the land. It would only really be big chain stores that use two storeys as they can afford escalators and lifts to transport the customers.

The High Street should show the signs of being public friendly with hanging baskets and benches for you to have a rest and would most probably be pedestrianised with bins regularly dotted along the street in an attempt to keep it tidy.

The CBD should be very accessible with many major roads leading into it and their would be parking restrictions so as they might keep the traffic flowing through the CBD. The parking meters in the CBD would be very expensive so they encourage people to avoid taking their cars into the CBD. There might also be multi-story parking on the outside of the CBD or a park and ride system put in place.

I expect that Perth’s High Street will sell mainly high order goods as the city has a huge sphere of influence, it is the gateway to the Highlands, and many people will sshop in Perth as it is convenient.

As the CBD is generally the oldest part of the city it might have a few churches or a town hall that are very old buildings. There also would be very little in the way of industry in Perth’s CBD as the demand for land is too high and there is not enough space to expand or for lorries to access.

Perth’s site and situation:

Perth is located on the bank of the river Tay and was originally a crossing point for travellers to cross the river. Perth is on some quite flat ground, that is good for farming, but has the Grampians to the North and (please fill in =] )

Method:

In order to achieve the aims of the coursework my class carried out some data collection in Perth on May 9th 2008.

The class was divided into groups of 2 or 3 pupils. Each group was given a transect route which started in the outskirts of Perth, went through the area we believed to be the CBD and finished in the outskirts on the far side of the city. This enabled us to look at the different areas of the city and how they varied in building height, building use and the type of parking on the road throughout the city. The transect gave what we thought to be a fair view on how the city was spaced out.

As we went along our transect we collected data on the use of the land at each given area, the land-use data. We collected the data to find out what each zone of the city is used for and ultimately delimit the CBD. Before we collected the data I expected that the area where we dropped off, in the Outer Suburbs, would mainly be residential with a bit of open space and very few shops. As we progressed I expected the major use would remain residential, however, with less open space and the housing to be more terraced with a few convenience shops on some of the street corners. I expected as we started to leave the Inner Suburbs and into the Transitional zone we would see the land being used for industry where there might be wholesalers or small manufacturers and a few shops and housing. Then as we arrived in the CBD there would be a sudden change with most of the building being used as shops with a couple of offices and maybe the occasional apartment on top of a shop.

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One of the types of information we collected was the uses of the land in each place such as residential or retail purposes. We expected this to give us a good idea of the location of the CBD and see if it conforms to the typical CBD as described in a textbook. I expected to find the vast majority of suburban area to be residential and much of the CBD to be shops and offices.

We also collected data on the height of the buildings we passed as we thought that the height of the buildings would change as we ...

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