Method.
Because we had such a short time to collect our results in we were split into groups and designated different streets to collect data on. For our methods of data collection we used land use ratio, building height, traffic restrictions and pedestrian counts on main streets in Newcastle upon Tyne.
For our land use ratio method of collection we firstly had to work out land uses of the individual buildings in Newcastle. We did this by using goad maps of Newcastle and we used a key of S for shops and O for offices. We had to decide what exactly was a shop or an office. We only used the ground floor land use and we came to a decision that if something that want obviously a shop such as a coffee shop then if it sold something it was a shop e.g.; a travel agents. We decided that pubs and derelict buildings would be under that category of other and anything else e.g.; bank would be classed as a office. We then took this key and walked around Newcastle plotting our results on a goad map.
For our building height method of collection we simply took a goad map and at each building on the street in Newcastle we counted the number of floors from the outside of the building and wrote them down on the map. For our traffic restrictions we also used a goad map and we simply walked down each street in Newcastle and looked about for any traffic restrictions including double and single yellow lines, pedestrianised areas, one way streets, bus only lanes, no entry and no parking signs.
For our pedestrian counts we simply took a point on every street and for 5 minutes counted the number of people walking past us. We only did this for the people closest to us as anything else would lead to confusion. We then wrote the number down on the map.
We used this methods of data collection because these were the most accurate, the fastest and the easiest methods to use. As we only had roughly three hours to complete the method of collection in we needed the quickest way to do this. We also had to take into account some of the physical boundaries of Newcastle to decide on where to collect out data. We could not make our data collection any further North than the Town moor as this is a section of greenbelt land stops us collection any data from here. We could only go as far East as the A167M Central Motorway as this prevents us from taking any collections from there. We could not go any further South because of the River Tyne, which prevents us getting any data further. We could not go any further West than St James Boulevard, which prevents us getting any data further.
Results.
As we were in groups we only had a map of the streets our group was doing. When we got back to class we had to put all our results together on one single map. We did this still using Goad maps.
For our land values map we colored in the individual building using a color key as follows. Green was representing a other category building e.g.; derelict land, Red representing a shop e.g.; a coffee shop and blue representing a office e.g.; lawyers. We then looked at the map and from where the colors were situated we were able to work out a CBD. Where the ratio of shops to offices where 3:1 we took that as the CBD. We were able to draw our first CBD outline from this map. We excluded areas such as from out CBD because there were more offices than shops here.
For our building height we
For our traffic restriction map we simply drew on any traffic restriction we had recorded such as double yellow lines we marked on the street two yellow lines running the same length as they did. We marked on all traffic restrictions with their correct sign on a goad map. We were then able to work out a CBD from this by the key and seeing where the traffic restrictions became less frequent. Where there were a high number of traffic restrictions we classed this as the CBD.
For our pedestrian count we simply wrote the number of people on a goad map where we stopped to do our pedestrian count. We could then see where the numbers of people decreased this is where we drew our CBD boundary.
Analysis.
For us to have one final CBD boundary we first needed to make a CBD outline from our data collection seperatly. We did this an the CBD outlines were not the same for each. This is because different things were affectng this as they were seperate methods of collection. We first did our CBD's seperatly. This excluded nearly all the same streets such as Strawberry Place, Forth Street, Durant Road and Sandyford Road. This was because from this point on many of the factors were decreasing such as building height and the number of pedestrians in the area.
Conclusion.
We have been able to delimit the CBD sucsessfully. Because we worked as a group and as seperate groups we had to come to decisions about certian factors and i think that out ideas were not all the same. For example when we disscused the isssue of land use in class we desided on that shops would include anything that sold somthing so a travel agents could also come into this catagory because they sold holidays. But when we got back into the classroom someone had said that travel agents was an office so some people may have coloured in the wrong thing. This also happened with pubs because some people were putting them under the catagory of shop insted of Other. This was only confusion in the land use and no other catagory.
Limitations.
Some of the problems with the way we collected the data are that we only looked at the land use of the bottom floor while some buildings had a shop or other building on top of it.When we did our land uses we all had different ideas of what was a shop and a office. To improve this we could have wrote it down exactly to aviod confucion. Also when we did our pedestrian counts it was hard to keep an accurate count on a busy street and confusion occured because people were walking past you in different directions. With our building height counts you cannot always tell how many floors the acctuall building had as we were just counting the windows on the building and some floors ay not have had windows where we were counting. The way were presented the data was also a problem. For example on out pedesrian counts it was hard to tell the nubers on the map because we had wroye them quite small and there was no colour on the map to immidiatly see where the higher or lower numbers were. Other methods we could have used to extend and collect our data could be land values for the CBD but we could not do this as the land values are hard to obtain. We also could have used traffic counts but as we did not have ver much time we exclued this as this would have been time consuming and hard.
