Methodology for our research into the environmental quality of the 2 residential areas.

• Building and Environmental quality survey – This is a table which is used to assess the quality of the surrounding area using 13 categories for example 'No traffic noise' or 'Safe for people'. These categories are rated on a scale of high(5) to very poor(-5) also included was Generally fine(+3) , Average (0) and Generally Poor (-3). If an area was covered in vandalism and graffiti, for the 'No graffiti'  category we would cross the very poor box. To decide what score we would give each category we surveyed the area for as long as it took us to appropriately and in our own opinion fairly mark each category.

• Traffic Count- This is done by counting the vehicles that pass for 10 minutes and writing the results in a tally chart which included the categories pedestrian, car, bus, coach, lorry, van, tractors etc and other. This test tells us about the pollution of the area and also gives us a rough idea of the income that some of  the residents might be earning.

• Pedestrian Count – For this test we count the pedestrians passing for 10 minutes on one count for example 3 pedestrians passed by, a low count is 1 and a high count is 5 this test can tell us what residents do not own vehicles to drive. This gives us a better idea of the income the residents are receiving  because if there is a high count like the high count of 5 this shows that that perhaps the area the count is being conducted in is poorer than another placec so more people dont own cars and are walking or on the other hand the area is more dense in housing so more people are about walking than in a perhaps wealthier area where the houses are bigger and there is more land between each residence.

• Photographs – We took photographs of the area so that we can use them for future reference and comparison

• Sound scape – Using a sound scape that has 4 categories (Loud, High Pitch, Dull and Quiet) we listened for any noise we could here, from planes to a quiet breeze anything we heard went somewhere on the sound scape where we thought best. The duller the sound the closer to dull the word was placed for example a plane making a very loud noise I placed close to loud. This test was done for 5 minutes so that we had a fair but set amount of time to listen for any sound to write down. This test was carried out so that we could compare the sounds heard in a poorer area than that in a more wealthy one, for example a wealthier area wont be near to an airport and therefore wont be close to the sound of low flying aircraft. For example in a wealthier area it is expected that more natural sounds would be heard such as birds or the wind blowing through high grown trees and in poorer areas it would be expected that more urban sounds are heard such as passing planes and cars.

• We also wrote down registration plates to determine how old some of the vehicles residents owned were, then we could calculate an average age for the cars in the area where the cars were counted so that the average cost of the car could be found out and so then the wealth of the residents could also be found. Also conducting this side test we could find out if the residents had the income to afford a private registration plate.

We used this form of data collection because it is the quickest method we could think of whilst on the field to get some quality data that could easily be turned into comparable graphs.