Geography Investigation

Objective 1:

This objective is: “ To delimit (i.e. establish the extent of) the CBD using pedestrian and traffic counts.”

 I have made two hypotheses for this objective. The first hypothesis is that the pedestrian counts will decrease with increasing distance from the peak land value intersection (PLVI). The second hypothesis I made is that the traffic counts will decrease with increasing distance from the peak land value intersection (PLVI).

        This paragraph explains the justification for the hypothesis. For the first hypothesis, in the PLVI, there are lots of high-order shops, such as chain stores and offices, which generate a lot of feet, fall during trading/ office hours. For the second hypothesis, there will be higher traffic near the PLVI because of people accessing shops and offices and public transport networks will converge on the PLVI.

        The theory shows that there are lots of high-order shops in the PLVI. My hypothesis is that pedestrian counts will decrease with increasing distance from the peak land value intersection. If there are lots of high-order shops, there will be more people because they would not put a shop there if there were no people. For them ton get the money, they need lots of people but because these high-order shops have a lot of money, there must be a lot of people that are there to shop at those shops. Therefore, the theory also shows that there are higher pedestrians around high-order shops, so my hypothesis should agree strongly to the theory. As for the low-order shops, they will still be looking to get higher in profit, so they will be looking to get closer to the PLVI where more pedestrians would be. As for the traffic count, it depends on the pedestrian count because if there are more pedestrians, then there would be more cars/traffic count. The traffic count hypothesis (the second hypothesis) also agrees with the theory because more cars will be travelling to get to the shops that the pedestrians want to get to. Overall, I think my hypothesis mostly agrees with the fact that there are more pedestrians near high-order shops, which is in the PLVI.         

Objective 2:

        This objective is: “ To investigate whether the land-use patterns throughout Swanage follow the traditional models of urban land-use.”  

        I have made a null hypothesis for this objective. The hypothesis is that there will be no land-use zoning or pattern to the layout of land-uses in Swanage. The town will bear no resemblance to the traditional models of urban morphology.

This paragraph explains the   justification for the hypothesis. For the null hypothesis, the bid rent theory explains why we should find a pattern to the land-use; commercial land-uses should dominate the most accessible part of the town because they out compete other land-uses. Housing density should decrease as you move out from the inner city as land becomes less expensive and more available. There may be sectored development of industry along main transport routes in/out of Swanage. It may follow the seaside town model.

        There are a few different models that are used to find out the structure of an urban area. These models can be known as theories. To come up with these models, there was a theory that was used to make these models. It was the bid-rent theory. The bid-rent theory was used to make these models, which are the burgess models and the hoyt model. So by using these models, we can find if an urban area follows these models. My hypothesis is that there is no relationship between the models and the structure of Swanage. Although the bid-rent theory supports the idea of the two models, I do not think the models will fit with Swanage because I thought it will be different from the fact that this town is a seaside town and might have something different from the other models. In my hypothesis, I also said that it might follow the seaside town model. Swanage is a seaside town, so it would follow a seaside town model. It is more likely to follow this because Swanage is a seaside town and this model mainly applies to seaside towns.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Objective 3:

        This objective is: “ To evaluate the changes in environmental quality throughout Swanage.

        I have made two hypotheses for this objective. The first objective is that the environmental quality will improve with distance from the CBD- the highest environmental quality will be found in outer parts of Swanage. The second hypothesis is that the central area of Swanage will also have high environmental quality because of the fact that the town’s main function is the supply of tourism services.

         This paragraph explains the justification for the hypothesis. For the first hypothesis, in the suburbs where land is less expensive, houses will be larger, more expensive, and there will be more open space. There will be less pedestrians and traffic. For the second hypothesis, tourism oriented businesses will invest in making the CBD attractive to enhance their incomes. Local council will also invest in street furniture, pedestrian and traffic.  

My hypothesis said that the further away from the CBD, the better the environmental quality. The other hypothesis is that the CBD area will have a better environmental quality because it is used for a tourist area. The theory used for this would be the bid-rent theory. People in the CBD have more money than people in the other areas and so that money can be used to make the environment better in the CBD for a tourist attraction. So therefore, from this theory the CBD will have a better environmental quality. The further you go away from the CBD, the better the environmental quality because the further you go, there is more open space and it will be land that has not been used much and makes that land more natural looking and then will have better environmental quality because it is rarely used. Therefore, my hypothesis agrees with the theories.

Objective 4:

        For this objective, we had a choice of what this objective could be. The objective I chose to do is: “ To investigate the changes in housing quality along a transect line.”

        I have made two hypotheses for this objective. The first objective is that housing quality will increase as the distance from the CBD (Central Business District) increases. The second hypothesis is that some houses just beyond the CBD will be of a higher quality than expected.

        This paragraph explains the justification for the hypothesis. For the first hypothesis, as you are more further away from the CBD, the land-prices will decrease and the sizes of the house will increase and they will become newer, and the houses are more likely to be owner occupied and maintained. For the second hypothesis, there will be evidence of enhanced housing because of renovation (gentrification of old properties) and new build houses (high quality). Second homeowners or people who have retired to the area will occupy some of these high quality houses.

        My hypothesis says that housing quality will increase as the distance from the CBD (Central Business District) increases and some houses just beyond the CBD will be of a higher quality than expected. The CBD is mainly used for the shops and commercial businesses, so houses will therefore need to be built outside the CBD, and so the further away you are from the CBD, the better the housing quality.