Compare two seaside towns that I visited in March 2003. The two towns, Frinton-on-Sea and Walton-on the-Naze can be located side by side on the east coast of Britain.

. Shops

2. Offices, Banks, etc.

3. Hotels, Guest Houses, B&Bs

4. Houses

5. Open Space

6. Public Buildings

7. Industry

8. Entertainment

9. Cafes, Restaurants, Public Houses

I numbered the key and filled out most buildings on the maps as I walked passed them. When I got back to school, I transferred the information onto smaller maps and coloured them in. The purpose of generating a land use map was so that I could compare the purposes of both towns. It also allowed me to find out about the general structure of the two towns.

Settlement Survey

For the settlement survey, I had to fill in a tally table which contained a large range of different shop categories. I had to walk along the main streets of the two towns and had to put a mark in the table as I walked past that particular type of shop. The chart was very detailed and included shops as big as large supermarkets and shops as small as take-aways. There were some types of shops that were extremely popular and some that didn't even exist.

The purpose was this survey was to see how the shops in the two towns were similar and how they were different from one another. The settlement survey also allowed me to see whether if one of the towns was more commercial than the other. I have put the results of the survey into a column graph.

Environmental Quality Assessment

To find the EQA for the two towns I had to fill out two sheets for each town. The sheets were based on the criteria for both the sea front and the town centre. The criteria I assessed were the following:

. Buildings

2. Roads

3. General

4. Location

5. Vegetation (only for the sea front)

To calculate the EQA, I had to put ticks into different columns depending on the quality. The scores went from 2 to -2. For each criterion, there was a further set of criteria. The score for each column was then used to calculate the final EQA. I carried out the Environmental Quality Survey because it shows my opinion on the sea fronts and town centres of both towns. To help me analyse the information that I have collected, I have put it in the form of a line graph.

Pedestrian Survey

A pedestrian count shows the number of people walking past a given point in fifteen minutes. The people are put into columns according to the different age groups. The different groups are Under 25, 25 to 60, and over60.

I carried out my

Frinton survey

at the end of

Connaught

Avenue.

The results were put into a tally chart and to make it a fair test both pedestrian counts were taken for exactly fifteen minutes. The two points I was given for the pedestrian count were around the area of the main streets of both towns. The purpose of the pedestrian survey was so that I could compare the popularity and population of both towns. It allowed me to see whether the results were similar or different for both towns.

I am going to display this information in a pie chart which will make it easier for me to analyse.

Field Sketch and Photographs

A field sketch is a rough outline of the area where I conducted my survey. I have included a field sketch in my investigation because it is a good way of showing how the sea front of Frinton is set out. I have also included several pictures of the two towns. I have included photographs because they show the geographical pattern of the towns and they also show the impact of human activity on the environment. I have photographed some pictures myself and others have been taken from internet websites. This page shows a photograph that I took on the seafront of Frinton. It shows the same view as my field sketch. This is the spot where I filled out my Environmental Quality Assessment table for Frinton seafront.

This section shows all the results that I have gotten from my surveys. It shows this information in the form of graphs and charts to enable me to analyse the data and interpret the information easily.

Pedestrian Survey

I have presented the results of my pedestrian surveys in the form of two pie charts. The first pie chart shows the results of my Walton survey and the second shows the results of Frinton.

Under 25

8

25 to 60

0

Over 60

0

This pedestrian survey for Walton shows that nearly half of the people were under 25s and the rest were divided exactly half way between over 60s and 25 to 60s. This is very different from the results of Frinton.

Under 25

2

25 to 60

78

Over 60

52

This pie chart shows that the majority of the population of Frinton are aged from 25 to 60. In both pie charts the values vary a lot and are not similar. There are huge differences in all three groups.

This information proves one of my predictions, that there are more people aged over 60 in Frinton than in Walton. The pie charts show that only 26% of the population are over 60 in Walton whereas 37% of the population are over 60 in Frinton. This means the there is a difference of 11% in the over 60 population of the two towns.

Settlement Survey

I have transferred the results of my settlement survey into a bar graph. This makes it easier to compare the two towns.

The bar graph above shows that there are more tourist related shops in Walton than in Frinton. It shows that the amount of restaurants and entertainment shops is much higher in Walton. The graph also shows that Frinton has more shops that are normally found in residential areas, such as religious buildings and other public services. The graph shows that there are only two healthcare shops in Walton whereas in Frinton, there are six. This proves two of my predictions, that Walton is a seaside resort whereas Frinton is more of a residential area and that there are more tourist related facilities in Walton than in Frinton.

Environmental Quality Assessment

I have combined the table and graph for the EQA together which makes it easier to compare the results.

SEA FRONT- EQA

A

B

C

D

E

High Quality

2

0

-1

-2

Low Quality

good design

poor design

BUILDINGS

good condition

poor condition

expensive

cheap

attractive

ugly

little traffic

lots of traffic

easy to park

difficult to park

ROADS

quiet

noisy

safe for people

dangerous

no pollution

lots of pollution

in good repair

in bad repair

large gardens

small gardens

VEGITATION

plenty of trees/shrubs

few trees/shrubs

parks/open space

no open space

attractive area

ugly area

GENERAL

no vandalism

lots of vandalism

no litter

lots of litter

near to shops

far from shops

LOCATION

on a bus route

no bus route

near a railway station

no railway station

near entertainments

no entertainments

Key:

Walton

Frinton

The diagram above shows that Walton has better conditioned and more expensive buildings than Frinton. It shows that road links are perhaps more maintained in Frinton. It also shows that both towns are generally in good condition as they both have no litter and no vandalism. This disproves my theory that there is more litter and pollution in Walton than in Frinton. It also shows that Walton is in a better location. It shows that Walton sea front is closer to shops, bus routes and entertainment when compared to Frinton. This proves my prediction that there are more tourist related facilities in Walton than in Frinton. The table also shows that Frinton's sea front is more open whereas Walton's sea front is more packed and congested. This, once again proves another one of my predictions that Walton has a busier sea front than Frinton. However, the final EQA for both Walton and Frinton's sea front turned out to be 12.

TOWN CENTRE- EQA

A

B

C

D

E

High Quality

2

0

-1

-2

Low Quality

good design

poor design

BUILDINGS

good condition

poor condition

expensive

cheap

attractive

ugly

little traffic

lots of traffic

easy to park

difficult to park

ROADS

quiet

noisy

no pollution

lots of pollution

in good repair

in bad repair

high quality

low quality

SHOPS

unusual shops

usual shops

attractive displays

unattractive displays

attractive area

ugly area

no vandalism

lots of vandalism

no litter

lots of litter

GENERAL

few signs/notices

lots of signs/notices

few fast food shops

fast food shops

shops for locals

shops for tourists

few pubs/clubs

lots of pubs/clubs

Key:

Walton

Frinton

This table shows that both Walton and Frinton have well maintained buildings. However, this is not the same with shops. It shows that Walton has more unusual and better quality shops than Frinton. The diagram also shows that Walton is more congested which proves one of my predictions but, it also shows that Frinton is more polluted which disproves my prediction that Walton would be more polluted. The diagram shows that Walton has more fast food joints and shops for tourists than Frinton. This also proves my prediction that Walton is more suited for tourists. The table shows that Walton's town centre has more litter and vandalism than Frinton's. This also proves my prediction. The final EQA for Frinton was 19 and for Walton it was 0.

Land Use Maps

The next two pages show the land use maps for Walton and Frinton. The land use maps show us the general layout structure of the two towns. Here are the descriptions of the two maps.

In the Frinton map, you can see that most guesthouses, hotels and B&Bs are located along the seafront. In Walton, they are placed together close to the seafront. This is similar to what is shown in the seaside resort model (Page 3). In both maps, most shops are placed along the main streets. This is also regular in most seaside resorts. Although the seaside resort model shows that restaurants and cafes are usually placed along the seafront, the two maps that I have done show no such signs. In both, Walton and Frinton, a large majority of the restaurants are either placed along the main street or another inner street.

The public buildings in both towns are scattered around and show no patterns. The map for Walton shows that entertainment facilities are placed on the seafront. This matches the seaside resort model exactly and proves my prediction that Walton is more of a seaside resort whereas Frinton is a residential area. The map for Walton shows no industries however on the map of Frinton, a couple of industries are shown which are both located on the main street. On both maps, most of the left over area is covered with houses but, there is a large open area in Walton where the local market is set up. The structure of both towns is fairly similar to that of a standard seaside resort town.

Field Sketch

Here is a field sketch of the sea front at Frinton. It shows the general structure and layout of the area. The sketch shows the natural sites and other man made attractions that have been added to make the area more appealing for visitors and residents.

The sketch shows the cliffs and pier in the background and other man made bits like the benches and shelters in the foreground. On the left it also shows some of the roads and buildings.

Photographs

The next page shows photographs of Walton and Frinton that I have downloaded from the internet.

The two photographs are of the seafront at Walton-on-the-Naze. The first one shows the Walton pier and the second photograph shows some another shot of the seafront, this time showing some of the building structures as well.

Photograph 1

Photograph 2

After completing my investigation I conclude that the hypothesis I made earlier have been proven both correct and incorrect. My first prediction that Walton is a seaside resort whereas Frinton is more of a residential area was proven correct on three occasions. Three of my methods- settlement survey, town centre EQA and land use map all show that Walton's features are more suited for tourists than Frinton. My second prediction that there are more tourist related facilities in Walton than in Frinton was also proven right. Both, the settlement survey and the seafront EQA show that Walton has a wider range of facilities than Walton and is therefore more suited.

My third prediction that there are more elderly people in Frinton was also proven correct by the results of the pedestrian survey. They showed that there was a larger amount of elderly population present in Frinton than in Walton. My fourth prediction was my only prediction that was not confirmed. The seafront EQA showed that there is more litter and pollution in Frinton whereas I predicted that Walton would be more polluted. Perhaps this was because I didn't take into account the EQA results for the town centres. My last prediction that Walton has a busier seafront when compared to Frinton was also proven accurate. The seafront EQA showed that Walton's seafront was more packed and congested than Frinton's. This proves that I managed to accomplish the original purpose of the enquiry.

The methods I used to carry out my investigation were reasonably reliable. Therefore the results I got were also dependable. However, I believe that I could have improved my method to carry out my Environmental Quality Assessment.

My results for the town centre EQA shows that my opinion for the two towns was very different from one another. But, for the seafront EQA the results show that I don't really have an opinion on either of the two towns. This has affected my conclusion as it helps to disprove one of my predictions. Perhaps the reason for this is that I didn't try hard enough to differentiate between the two seafronts at the time of the trip. If I had tried to be more self-convincing about how I did the marking, I would have acquired better and more reliable results. I could improve my methods by being more accurate about my opinions and the results that I got.