Background information
Since Westfield shopping centre was built the amount of houses have almost doubled and less derelict houses have been seen. This has put a weight on the amount of environmental quality in the area, people that have moved to the area respect the area as it is a tourist attraction site. The amount of litter bins there are in area has changed, and they have also brought in more recycling systems which allow people to look after the new Westfield shopping centre area. According to the BBC, Shepherds bush has around 11,000 people living in it today. This population has grown since the Westfield has been built and is still increasing now.
Method
When I went to Shepherd’s Bush, we took various data collection methods which show the increase of population and the increase of environmental quality. When the population increases in a city the environmental quality can either increase or decrease according to the environment energy saving techniques the area accumulates. When taking my method of data I counted the number of transport in 12 different areas, when counting the traffic it shows the amount of people using cars rather than public transport such as busses, this proves the environmental quality decreases everyday when carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide travels into the atmosphere. Other methods of collecting my data for the area were an ‘Index of Decay Points’ table. This table shows how satisfying the area is. When analysing the area properly and recording the points in a table, it shows how useful/attractive the area looks. The ‘Index of Decay Points’ table also shows us how much litter was in the area, it shows us how clean the area is and how much the area is respected. There is also a total score given where overall you are rating the tidiness and reliability of the area.
A place check form is also another great way of recording data. The way this table works is the data is collected and filtered into ‘What do we like?’ and ‘What do we not like?’ about the area. This data collection method also shows us what it would be like to live in this area, and how the residences find the areas pollution.
Data Presentation
The data which I had collected from the various different zones were all recorded in a table. In the table below, it shows how many cars, lorries and vans had passed and how many pedestrians and busses had passed. Altogether we counted the amount of traffic for one minute.
Analysis
Looking a hypothesis 1, the Westfield area has changed since Westfield has been built, the area as a whole has improved since Westfield has been built as we can see from the pictures I have included in my report, I know this because during the war the whole Shepherds Bush area was turned into ammunition factories where it was supplied for the army. I found out the history of this area through the BBC website, where I found images which I have included and annotated in the report, and later changed in the business headquarters and finally to a shopping centre and a residential area.
The Westfield area has changed since Westfield has been built, the area as a whole has improved since Westfield has been built, and I know this because during the war the whole Shepherds Bush area was turned into ammunition factories where it was supplied for the army. I found out the history of this area through the BBC website, where I found images which I have included and annotated in the report. I know that the area has changed as some of the buildings from the 1900’s still stand today, I can see the contrast in the newer buildings and the older ones. This shows there has been a huge change in land use in the Shepherds Bush area which attracts people to Shepherds bush.
Looking at my results for hypothesis 2, we can clearly see that pollution has increased in the area since Westfield has been built, this might be because of the amount of people travelling into the area for work. The Westfield shopping centre itself is very clean but the surroundings change in the residential area as from the area of decay table above, it shows that area 8 and 9 has a high litter, and traffic pollution. However since Westfield has been built the environmental quality has improved over time as more people respect the area, I found this out from one of the questions on my questionnaire which the resident told me that the litter pollution is cleaner when approaching Westfield. This means that the further you travel away from the Westfield area the more pollution you will find, here is a birds eye view map of where the area will increase in visual pollution.
We can see that since Westfield has been built, Shepherds Bush has included recycling bins, new council schemes which keep the area clean and in a suitable environment. Other new bins such as gum and but bins keep the visual pollution tidy, and keeps the pavement quality clean, as shown in my area of decay table.
Conclusion
Hypotheses 1: Changes in land use have resulted in an improvement in the environmental quality of the Shepherds Bush area.
I think my hypotheses 1 is true as the environmental quality has changed in the Shepherds Bush area with new buildings such as Westfield, I know this because of my area of decay table which shows me the amount of pollution in the area. As Westfield is number 4,5 and 6 these numbers are very low, this shows Westfield shopping centre is a clean area.
Hypotheses2: The sustainable management of visual pollution varies according to land use.
I think the visual pollution has improved since the Westfield shopping centre has been built as new bins and recycling bins have been put into the Shepherds Bush area to try and keep the area clean.
Evaluation
If I was to do the report again, I would have gone to Westfield on a weekday, and a weekend to show the contrast of people and traffic counts. I will have also gone when to Westfield and collected my result when the weather was better. This could have affected my results as the amount of people that walked during the bad weather could change to the people who walked in the nice weather. I would have also collected more data on the Shepherds Bush market and included scanned maps of the area land use maps, to show the pollution levels and the high, medium or low class shops which were in the area.