Also in figure 7 the housing design was poor, unimaginative and of high density like that of the Castle area. This therefore again suggests that the quality of life is poor in St. Thomas
Figure 6: A photograph illustrating the typical poor state of the area
Figure 7: A photograph illustrating the high housing density that was poor and unimaginative.
Townhill
The area of Townhill is situated north and is approximately one and a half miles from the CBD of Swansea, which should suggest from the hypothesis that the quality of life should be better than that of the two previous areas of Castle and St. Thomas, since we are moving away from the CBD.
The data collected however does not illustrate this to be the case, the evaluation of quality of life of the areas is nearly identical to the Castle area. For example five of the twelve categories received the lowest mark for quality of life, this is the same as the Castle area. Unsurprisingly, the housing layout and design received a poor and unimaginative mark, since nearly all of the housing built in this area is made up of council houses. This can be seen in figure 9, drab and uninteresting houses do not rank highly in the quality of life evaluation. The same figure also shows the amount of graffiti to the properties typical of the area. While figure 10 illustrates a vandalised car, possibly stolen, does not suggest much for the quality of life in this area. This is further supported by the children’s open space play area being used as a dumping ground in figure 11.
Despite this area having received European Community Initiative, i.e. European Community money to regenerate the area to improve the quality of life, the area is somewhat lacking in this department.
However, the money seems to be well spent on the presentation of pavements and kerbs, which allow low and easy assess to pushchairs and disabled people.
Figure 9: A photograph illustrating the poor quality properties in the area
Figure 10: A photograph of a vandalised vehicle
Figure 11: A photograph of a Children’s play area used as dumping ground
Sketty
The area of Sketty is located west and is some three and half miles from the CBD of Swansea, thus suggesting that the quality of life should be an improvement to the three previous areas of Castle, St. Thomas and Townhill.
The environmental survey and photographic evidence suggests that the quality of life does improve as one moves away from the CBD.
The area was scored nearly full points in the evaluation survey, with only one point lost in terms of road crossing. All other categories have received the highest mark of 2. Therefore, there is a significant difference in the quality of environment and therefore the quality of life than the previous areas. We will consider why there is a significant difference latter.
The housing design was not poor an unimaginative like previous areas, but were varied, interesting and well spaced out, thus making it appealing to the eye and therefore desirable to live in this area (this can be seen figures 13 and 14).
There was plenty of open space and there are numerous parks for leisure activates, for example, Clyne Park and Sketty Park to mention a few. The overall presentation of the area was attractive and desirable, certainly the quality of life was significantly better than the previous areas.
Figure 13: A photograph illustrating the varied and spaced out properties of the area.
Figure 14: A photograph further illustrating the high quality of the environment of the Area and therefore the quality of life.
Morriston
The area of Morriston is located north-east and is approximately six miles from the CBD of Swansea. This would suggest from the hypothesis that the quality of life should be the greatest out of the four previous areas, since it is the furthest away from the CBD.
However, this is not the case one the survey was carried out. The area was very similar to the first two areas we looked at, i.e. Castle and St. Thomas. The area impression was of poor quality of life (as seen in figure 15), the housing layout and design is of poor and unimaginative standard, as seen in figure 16.
While the open space available for leisure activities was very limited and even when there was open space it was very unwell presented and unusable, as seen in figure 17.
Therefore the area has been the exception so far to the hypothesis that quality of life improves as one moves away from the CBD of Swansea.
Figure 16: A photograph illustrating the high density and unattractive housing in the Moriston area.
Figure 17: A photograph illustrating the inaccessible and under maintained open space of the Morriston area
Newton
The area of Newton is located approximately seven miles from the CBD of Swansea. The area’s quality of life should be of a high standard since it is located on the south-west boundaries of Swansea and therefore according to the hypothesis should be correct.
As illustrated in the figure 18 the data collected from the environmental survey, the quality of life is of the highest standard. The area of Newton has received the highest mark of 2 for all the twelve categories in the survey. Thus, supporting the hypothesis that as one moves away from the CBD of Swansea the quality of life improves.
The housing design and layout is very attractive, individual and very spacious, this is illustrated in figure 19, a photograph of a large detached house set in its own grounds. This type of house is typical of the area, therefore suggesting that the quality of life is of a very high standard.
There was no signs of vandalism, the hardly any on road parking (all resident vehicles were parked either on their own drives or in the garages) and there was plenty of open space and gardens were well presented. The ample provisions of open space further contributes to the quality of life as there is a place for leisure activities and provides an attractive impression of the area (this can be seen in the figure 20).
Figure 19: A photograph of a typical large detached house in the Newton area.
Figure 20: A photograph example of the open and well-presented space.
Summary of the primary data collected
So how does all the individual information contribute to the overall picture of whether the quality of life increases as one moves away from the CBD of Swansea hypothesis? Figure 20 helps to answer this question, the quality of life in the figure is obtained from the total of the twelve categories and this is in turn place on the same graph as the distance of each area.
According to our hypothesis the quality of life should increase as one moves away from the CBD, i.e. the bars for the quality of life should run tangent with the distance of the areas. However it can be seen in the above figure that this is not the case in Swansea.
As is can be seen that St. Thomas has the lowest quality of life and therefore this area should be located nearest to the CBD, this is clearly not the case. While Morriston is the second furthest area from the CBD and therefore is should have the second highest total in the quality of life in Swansea, yet again this is not the case, as Sketty has the second highest quality of life total when it should have the third highest.
Also four out of the five areas have a negative total of the quality of life, all range from –20 to –14 mark, i.e. Castle, St. Thomas, Townhill and Morriston. While the other two areas, Sketty and Newton have marks of 23 and 24 respectively. It therefore can be seen that the quality of life in Swansea has a very large disparity, there is not the gradual increase in the quality of life as one moves away from the CBD of Swansea as suggested in the hypothesis.
The results however have shown something quite interesting, the quality of life seems to have an east and west divide. Since, the four areas of Castle, St, Thomas, Townhill and Morriston seem to be located east which all have a negative quality of life total, while Sketty and Newton which have positive quality of life totals are located west of the CBD of Swansea.
B: Secondary Data
But to draw a conclusive conclusion on whether the hypothesis is incorrect, one must also look at further evidence to support this case. This is done by the analysis of secondary data obtained from the City and County of Swansea – Socio-economic profiles and key indicators census 1999.
The analysis of the data should further support that the quality of life does not increase as one moves away from the CBD of Swansea, as the primary data has illustrated.
There are four indicators, which were looked at to determine whether the quality of life increases are one moves away from the CBD of Swansea;
- Total population of unemployment in Swansea (Map 1),
- Total households with no car in Swansea (Map 2),
- Owner occupied households in Swansea (Map 3) and
- Population with university degree in Swansea (Map 4).
Total population of unemployment in Swansea
This indicator was chosen as one of the main features in which one assess the quality of life. This is important as when one is unemployed, one has no money and therefore, cannot afford a good quality of life and thus will be at the bottom of the quality of life ladder.
The analysis of the unemployment should therefore mean that the higher the unemployment the lower the quality of life, therefore according to the hypothesis the highest unemployment should be located nearest to the CBD of Swansea and decrease as one moves further away from the CBD of Swansea (figure 22).
Quality of life increases
CBD of Swansea ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯→ Boundary of Swansea
Unemployment decreases
Figure 22: Unemployment crease as one moves away from the CBD of Swansea
The results can be seen in Map1, there does not seem to be an overall pattern that represents the hypothesis. The highest unemployment is located in the two areas of Townhill with 28.3% unemployment and Penderry with 25.3% unemployment. Therefore the quality of life should be low in these particular areas. As seen in the analysis of the primary data that this is the case with Townhill, which had a one of the highest quality of life marks. This proves that the higher the unemployment the lower the quality of life.
However these two areas are not in the immediate vicinity of the CBD, but are north of the CBD. The reasons maybe that these two areas are predominately council estate which therefore suggest that the quality of life should be low.
The lowest level of unemployment should be located on the boundaries of Swansea, this is true to some extent, such as areas as Pennard with 6.5%. But other areas which are located on the boundaries of Swansea, such as Penyrheol, Pontarddulais and Clydach have an average percentage of 9.0%, 10.1% and 9.9% respectively.
While areas such as Llangyfelach, which is middle distance between the CBD and the boundaries of Swansea is in the lowest unemployment percentage bracket with 4.6% (this is the second lowest unemployment percentage in the data table, see appendix). This therefore further disproves the hypothesis that quality of life increase as one moves away from the CBD, according to the analysis of the total unemployment population in Swansea.
Map 1
Total households with no car in Swansea
It is important in terms of quality of life to own a car. Why is this then? The hypothesis assumes that the quality of life increases as one moves away from the CBD of Swansea, therefore the further the way one is from the CBD, one must have transport to travel to the CBD for the access to shops, leisure facilities etc., to improve the quality of life. There is public transport but the ownership of a car indicates a luxury and thus, the quality of life increase.
Quality of life increases
CBD of Swansea ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯→ Boundary of Swansea
Total households with no car decreases
Figure 23: The quality of life increases as the total households with no car decreases.
Therefore the according to the hypothesis that quality of life increases as one moves away from the CBD of Swansea, then the percentage of household with no car should decrease, as seen in figure 23.
Yet again the pattern illustrated in map 2 does not conform to the hypothesis, otherwise the highest percentage of households with no car would be located in the immediate vicinity of the CBD and the lowest percentage of households with no car would be located on the boundaries of Swansea. For example, Townhill and Penderry, with 65.2% and 56.1% respectively are the two areas not in the immediate vicinity of the CBD, which have the highest percentage of households with no car.
While Castle has a 55.6% and Uplands 38.9% which is in the immediate vicinity, which should have the highest percentage of households with no car ) like that of Townhill and Penderry) has an average percentage of households with no car.
In terms of the boundaries of Swansea, there is only one area, which reflects the hypothesis – Pennard with 12.5% of households with no car. Other boundary areas does not reflect the hypothesis. For example, Loughor Lower, Penyrheol and Clydach have an average percentage of 36.5%, 28.3% and 32.01% respectively. This indicator therefore does not support the hypothesis that quality of life increases as one moves away from the CBD of Swansea.
Map2
Owner occupied households in SwanseaThe data of owner occupied households was chosen to illustrated whether the quality of life increase as one moves away from the CBD of Swansea. Owner occupied means the occupied of the property owns the property itself.
The reason for choosing this indicator was to illustrate that the higher the percentage of owner occupied households in one area the higher the quality of life should be, i.e. in figure 24.
Quality of life increases
CBD of Swansea ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯→ Boundary of Swansea
Owner occupied households increase
Figure 24: Illustrates owner occupied households and therefore the quality of life increases as one moves away from the CBD
The reasons for this is that in order to own ones home, you must be able to afford to buy the property and to do this you must have a reasonable quality of life, i.e. a good job and therefore a good income.
The data is represented in Map 3, yet again there seems to be no pattern that illustrated the hypothesis. The general picture gained from the map is that the highest percentage of owner occupied property is located west of Swansea (the yellow areas). For example in the area of Newton, which was studies earlier it has the 89.7% owner occupied households.
But the two areas, which have the lowest owner occupied household percentage are Townhill and Penderry, with 25.6% and 23.6% respectively. Surprisingly, this further supports the point made in the previous indicator of unemployment percentage in Swansea, again these two areas are not in the immediate vicinity of the CBD.
Map 3 show that there is to some extent a west and east divide in the percentage of owner occupied households. This was concluded in the primary data analysis. Since a large amount of the highest band of owner occupied households, the yellow areas are located west of Swansea. While the light green areas, which represents a lower percentage of owner occupied households is predominately located in east of Swansea.
But it must be noted there seems to be little disparity in the percentage of owner occupied household, since only five out of 35 areas (i.e. only 14%) had a lower than 60% of owner occupied households. Therefore it can be said that 86% of the areas i.e. the overall the majority of Swansea’s household own their house in which they live in.
Map three
Population with university degrees in Swansea
This indicator was chosen to further analysis whether the hypothesis that as one moves away from the CBD of Swansea, quality of life increase. The reason for choosing this indicator is that it is important that to have a good quality of life one must be employed i.e. working. Since if you are not working, then you have no income and can not afford a better quality of life. But not only must one be employed, the employment must come with job satisfaction and the income is of a good standard.
Quality of life increases
CBD of Swansea ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯→ Boundary of Swansea
Population with university degree increases
Figure 25: Illustrates the total working population increases and therefore the quality of life increase as one moves away from the CBD
The indicator of the population with university degrees provides a good indication of this, since armed with a university degree one is more likely to achieve a better quality of life. Since the higher the population with university degrees the higher the quality of life, and to apply this to the hypothesis, as one moves away from the CBD of Swansea the higher the population with university degrees.
The data is presented in Map 4, the result has been that the hypothesis is no true. Since, there seems to be no pattern conforming to the hypothesis. Large amount of the areas which had a below percentage of 4.9% of the population with university degree, thus a low quality of life was not located in the immediate vicinity of the CBD of Swansea but were located on the east boundary, in areas such as St. Thomas, Bonymaen, Llansamlet and Clydach. It then sweeps through the centre in areas such as Townhill, Cwnbwrla and Cockett to the north-west boundary of Swansea in areas such as Loughor Upper, Penyrheol and Pontarddulais (the dark blue shaded areas).
The areas which had an average percentage of 10-14.9% of the population with a university degree were located predominately in the south west of Swansea, in areas such as Pennard and Newton.
The highest percentage of 15% and above of the population with university degrees were also located in the south west of Swansea, such as Bishopston, Oystermouth and Sketty.
The results of this indicator of the population degree has not support the hypothesis, yet again it has illustrated the highest quality of life is not found on the boundaries of Swansea but in the south west of Swansea. Further suggesting that in Swansea the quality of life does not improve as one moves away from the CBD of Swansea but if one moves to the west of Swansea.
Map 4
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from both the primary and secondary data that the hypothesis that quality of life increases as one moves away from the CBD of Swansea increases, as illustrated in figure 1 is not the case in Swansea.
This can be the result of many reasons, firstly the Burgess model in which the hypothesis was based upon like all models there are limitations. The main criticisms of the Burgess model is that is over simplified and the model is specific to one place and one period of time, i.e. Chicago, USA in the 1920s. It does not take into consideration of some factors which did not exist when the model was first out forward.
These factors can be car growth, the swallowing up of small villages by urban growth, the redevelopment of inner city areas and the relocation of shopping, industry and office accommodation.
All these above factors would no doubt influence the urban structure and therefore in turn the quality of life structure in Swansea.
It can be clearly seen from the analysis of the data that the quality of life in Swansea varies throughout. There also seems to be an east and west divide in terms of quality of life. For example, one of the areas which was looked at in detail was St. Thomas which had a poor quality of life is located in the east, while in the west, the area also looked at in detail was Newton which had a high quality of life.
This maybe as a result of the location of the main lines of communication, where this is present the quality of life is poor. Hence that St. Thomas has a poor quality of life since it is immediately in the vicinity of the main entrance and exist of Swansea, the A483. Another example of this is the area of Gorseinon, which is located next to the other end of the A483, which has a poor quality of life. However Newton is in no close proximity of any main line communications as represents a very high level of quality of life. Having said this it might be appropriate to suggest that Swansea urban structure is quite similar to the Hoyt Model, which does incorporate the feature of main line communications, see appendix.
REFERENCES
Bilham-Boult A and Hancock J Revise GCSE Geography
Bowen, A & Pallister 2002 Tackling Geography Coursework, London, Colourcraft Ltd.
Waugn D & Bushell T 2002 New Geography for GCSE, Cheltenham, Nelson Ltd.
Waugn D Geography: An Intergrated Approach, Nelson 2000
Wilson D A Guide to 1999 Electoral Divisions: Socio-Economic Profiles and key Indicators
APPENDIX
