Human fieldwork

• Location: The Moor is a shopping area in Sheffield City Centre in South Yorkshire, UK.
• Theory: Urban Regeneration is the improvement of old parts of the city or town by either installing modern facilities in old buildings (known as renewal) or opting for redevelopment (e.g. demolishing existing buildings and starting afresh).
• Suitability of area/topic to complete fieldwork

  • Close to school so can go there and back in one day
• Suitability of area/topic to complete fieldwork

  • Safe – Area is pedestrianised /enclosed so reduces risk of cars and can easily collect data
• Suitability of area/topic to complete fieldwork

  • Easy to make comparison - has gone through recent redevelopments and can compare with an area that hasn’t been regenerated - The Moor has been regenerated and the Fargate hasn’t – therefore we can easily compare the two areas and conclude whether the Moor is more popular or not.
• Suitability of area/topic to complete fieldwork

  • Links to urban challenges topic – We look at urban regeneration is on the exam specification when we studied London.
• What would successful regeneration of The Moor, Sheffield city centre look like?

  • Popular with shoppers and lots of people using the area
  • Modern / pleasant place
  • Variety of shops / cafes / things to do
• Methods

  Pedestrian count - stratified sampling

  • Tells us how popular with shoppers and people using the area – if lots of people are using The Moor then regeneration has been successful.
• Methods

  Bipolar survey - stratified sampling

  • Tells us the quality of the environment – if The Moor has a high quality environment then regeneration has been successful. 
• Methods

  Land use survey - stratified sampling

  • Tells us if there is a range of different shops / cafes / things to do – if there is a range of things to do then regeneration has been successful.
• Risk assessment

  traffic

  • Cross the road at pedestrian crossing, following the Green Cross Code
• Risk assessment

  weather

  • Check weather forecast and dress appropriately.
• Risk assessment

  stranger danger

  • Meeting point and stay in groups of no less than two.
• Data presentation

  Bar chart

  • Easy to read 
  • Can clearly compare different areas 
• Data presentation

  Radar graph on a map

  • On a base map so can see patterns
  • Can compare locations / different categories 
  • Lots of categories (10!) so can become confusing to read 
  • Axes are small due to size of number of categories so can make analysis more difficult 
• Evaluation

  Pedestrian count

  • Easy to complete and numerical data collected
  •   Human error
  •  Data may be different if completed on a different day / time

  Improvement: 

  Complete again at a different time of day/day of week/season.
• Evaluation

  Bipolar survey 

  • Clear numerical data that is easy to present/analyses
  •   Not representative - didn’t cover whole area
  • Subjective based on opinions

  Improvement:

  Multiple people complete survey and create an average to reduce bias.
• Conclusion:

  Regeneration of The Moor in Sheffield has been successful as it is popular with people (298 people in pedestrian count), and a range of different types of shops/businesses (shown in land use). However, environmental quality was also high in Barkers Pool ( +ve environmental quality score). Although, environmental quality is subjective.
• Title of human geography fieldwork enquiry: Regeneration of The Moor in Sheffield has been successful.