"What are the characteristics of Garstang's functional zones?"

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GCSE Geography Coursework Investigation:

“What are the characteristics of Garstang’s functional zones?”

Ntami Egbe

Rossall School

46211

Estimated word count: 3,000 words


Contents Page

Page 4: Introduction

Page 5: Questions to be answered

Page 6: Question 1:- What are the distinctive characteristics of Garstang’s functional zones?

Page 9: Question 2:- What are the main land uses of Garstang’s CBD Core?

Page 11: Question 3:- What are the main land uses of Garstang’s CBD Frame?

Page 13: Question 4:- In what ways do the land uses of Garstang’s CBD Core and CBD Frame differ, and how can these differences be explained?

Page 15: Question 5:- Does Garstang’s pattern of functional zones relate to any of the traditional urban land use models?

Page 17: Question 6:- What is the pattern of EQA scores across the town, and how does the pattern relate to the different functional zones found?

Page 19: Question 7:- What is the town’s pattern of Pedestrian Flow Measurements and of Traffic Flow Measurements, and how can the two patterns be related?

Page 21: Question 8:- What are the main characteristics of the Green Lane West Industrial Estate, and why is it located where it is?

Page 23: Question 9:- What are the factors that have defined the outer boundaries of Garstang’s growth as a settlement? 

Page 24: Question 10:- How has the town been protected from flooding by the river Wyre?

Page 26: Limitations

Page 26: Improvements

Page 26: Overall Summary

Page 27: Bibliography

Page 28: Figure List


Introduction

In the project I have been assigned I will be studying the town of Garstang, and trying to discover “what are the characteristics of Garstang’s functional zones.” Garstang is situated between Lancaster and Preston and is thought to have originated as a settlement about 1,400 years ago. We can see the location on the map in more detail in Figure 1. At the time of the last population census (1991), the town’s population was 3,944. However, there have been several new property developments built since then, so the figure will no doubt be a little bit higher. In the project I will try to clearly define the functional zones of Garstang, and try to relate in a clear geographical manner.


Questions to be answered

  1. What are the distinctive characteristics of the different functional zones found in the town of Garstang?

  1. What are the main land uses of Garstang’s CBD Core?

  1. What are the main land uses of Garstang’s CBD Frame?

  1. In what ways do the land uses of Garstang’s CBD Core and CBD Frame differ, and how can these differences be explained?

  1. Does Garstang’s pattern of functional zones relate to any of the traditional urban land use models?

  1. What is the pattern of EQA scores across the town, and how does the pattern relate to the different functional zones found?

  1. What is the town’s pattern of Pedestrian Flow Measurements and of Traffic Flow Measurements, and how can the two patterns be related?

  1. What are the main characteristics of the Green Lane West Industrial Estate, and why is it located where it is?

  1. What are the factors that have defined the outer boundaries of Garstang’s growth as a settlement?

  1. How has the town been protected from flooding by the river Wyre?

Q1)  What are the distinctive characteristics of the different functional zones found in the town of Garstang?

Data collection:

The main way we collected our data to discover the characteristics was by giving each site (Figure 2) an Environmental Quality Assessment(EQA) score, and creating an EQA table (Figure 3). We also went round the CBD Frame (Figure 4) and CBD Core (Figure 5) and named all the different services provided in the Core and Frame. The Traffic Flow Measurements (TFM) and the Pedestrian Flow Measurements (PFM), were also used to try and understand why these characteristics occurred. We chose to use these types of data collection, because they were the most effective in the short amount of time we had at our disposal.

Data Analysis:

We Looked at the EQA scores and applied the data we had found to create a diagram to show our findings. With the TFM we looked at cars in particular and we discovered some interesting information, which has been utilised to create a diagram that shows this accurately. We used the Pedestrian Flow Measurements and looked at a class mean. With the identification of the shops and services in the CBD Core and Frame, we could clearly assess what the most common use of the two zones.

Data Presentation:

With the data we had collected we were able to present the data in various ways. The EQA scores helped us to create a Housing Status Diagram (Figure 6), which shows us what the housing pattern across the town of Garstang.. The Traffic Flow Measurements enabled us to create a Traffic Flow Routing Map-Cars Only (Figure 7). This shows the where most cars traffic is in the town of Garstang, and this could help to explain why the functional zones are present. The Pedestrian Flow Measurements helped us create a Pedestrian Flow Isopleth Map (Figure 8). It shows the highest and lowest pedestrians recordings in the town of Garstang, this obviously means we can clearly see where most people are in the town. The identification of the services in the CBD Core and Frame helped us to create a tally chart of the services provided in Garstang’s CBD Core (Figure 9) and CBD Frame (Figure 10).

Conclusion:

The industrial zone in the town has a use of storage and is found here due to the cheap land  and readily available space. It is also found here because of the goods it has on the premises, bulky noisy goods would not be appreciated in the CBD or in residential areas so they the industrial zone is placed here. Its main characteristics are low threshold goods, which are not important for day-to-day living. The CBD frame is mainly used for public amenities. These are services that the public use that aren’t very expensive such as: car parks, libraries, phone boxes and doctors surgeries etc. They are situated in the Frame due to the high land values in the Core. The Core is mainly used for goods with high thresholds. They need a large sphere of influence because the land values are high in the Core, so the more customers a shop or service can attract ( look at Figure 7) the less it has to worry about whether or not it can afford to pay the rent on the land (look at Figure 8). The main use of Garstang’s functional zones is for residential purposes. Garstang’s housing status can be split into five categories: upper class housing, upper middle class housing, lower middle class housing and lower class housing. These status boundaries have been drawn up thanks to the EQA table we have compiled ( look at Figure 3). It shows how the different scores relate to the sites we have looked at ( look at Figure 2) and we have scored them on certain criteria, such as: typical type of property, state of repair of buildings, typical condition of cars, presence of litter, care of roads and pavements etc. We can see from Figure 6 that the main type of housing found in Garstang is upper class housing which tells us that Garstang is very affluent. The rest of Garstang is used for recreational spaces farmland open spaces green belt land and flood plains.

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Q2)  What are the main land uses in Garstang’s CBD Core?

Data Collection:

The main way we collected the data to answer this question, was to go round the CBD Core and name all the shops and services in the in the Core (Figure 5). We also took photographs of the Core to help us to explain what shops and service we had found.

Data Analysis:

With the CBD Core identification sheet (Figure 5) we were able to divide the shops and services in the CBD core, and segregate the services and shops ...

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