Human geography field work: social and environmental quality in Coventry.

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Human geography field work: social and environmental quality in Coventry.

By Katie Clarke

Introduction

This report will analyse the human field work completed within the Coventry area. It will look at the aims and methodology of the work as well as criticising it and identifying any special variations within Coventry. Field exercises are important and this report will outline some of the skills that have been used in this field exercise.

Aims of the field work

The aims of the field work were to identify the variations in environmental quality in Coventry. This exercise has outlined the importance of environmental quality as a factor within urban environments. It was an important exercise as it helped students to use field skills that are still developing. The final aim of this field exercise was to.

Methodology of the field work

The methodology used in the field was adapted from Nottinghamshire county council scheme for assessing environmental quality. This involved dividing the city into 8 areas and then assessing each area for various factors. These factors included,

Landscape / visual quality

Townscape / visual quality

Appearance of gardens

Intrusion of non conforming uses

Traffic

Noise

Air pollution

Access to primary school

Access to other facilities

Access to park or other open space

Access to public transportation

Garaging / parking provision

Garden provision

Provision of neighbourhood amenities

Land use

These factors helped to identify the environmental quality of Coventry. Figures 1, 2 and 3 show the results of the analysis. Each result was ranked between 0 and 5. Areas marked 0 in any criteria were the places with the best amenities. For example, parks and open spaces would be ranked 0 if there was an open space within the same survey square. We then changed these ranks into colours. The key for colours can be seen with the figures on page 5. Land use was classed by colour. For each area outlined, the predominant land use was ranked for example; if the area was mostly residential it would be coloured black.

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Spatial variations of environmental quality

The three figures on page 5 show the special variations of land uses, appearance, amenity, access and provision. This section of the report will look at what these figures show about Coventry City.

Figure 1 shows access and provision. There are very little areas ranked below 7 in this figure, unlike figure 3. Apparently, the area with the best access and provision in Coventry is Corley. This is the only area found to be yellow, or ranked below 7. The majority of the city has a rank of either 17- ...

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