llandudno

• title of human geographical enquiry

  to investigate if economic change in the uk has had an impact on the urban area of llandudno
• hypothesis of human geographical enquiry

  llandudno's post-industrial economy (tourism) has created more opportunities than challenges
• explain how the focus of your human enquiry is linked to geographical theory

  Llandudno "queen of the welsh resorts" is a seaside resort on the north wales coast. a purpose-built resort for tourism. llandudno's develpment began in the 1850s as a mid-victorian era holiday destination. it is a honeypot site with a local population of 21,000. estimated £90 million annually.
• location

  • survey locations: different types of service and tourism based areas so there are a range of survey points available with enough variation for comparative conclusions to be reached based on characteristics of each location and their distancr from key tourism honeypot locations
  • safety: key tourism location that can be surveyed safely as pavements are wide and there are multiple crossing points, compact and easy to navigate
  • accessibility: all survey locations were in walking distance and on ground level, less than 2 hours travel time from liverpool
• justify the inclusion of primary data used in your human enquiry - how is the data linked to the aims? why is it appropriate?

  • land use survey (RICEPOTS): investigated the key land uses in llandudno and the proportion of buildings used for tourism based activities
  • questionnaire: investigate if in the opinion of visitors, economic change in the uk has had an impact on the urban area of llandudno.
  • environmental quality survey: to assess the changing quality of the environment with increasing distance from honeypot site
• justify the use of one sampling strategy used in your human enquiry

  environmental quality survey:

  • streets are surveyed are in fixed locations equidistant (50 yards) apart running perpendicular away from the promenade, stratified sampling. 4/6 streets were perpendicular and were sampled to produce an unbiased representative sample. sample taken every 50 steps to reduce bias.
• justify the use of one primary date collection method

  • bipolar survey tables: recorded impressions of different environmental characteristics using a sliding scale of quality (0-5) to represent less good to good based on descriptive statements. repeated every 50 paces systematically working away from the promenade. if tourism is creating environmental challenges we would expect the environmental quality survey scores to be lower
• what secondary data for llandudno do we have?

  • historical photographs of llandudno - allows changing land-use patterns to be investigated
  • historical data from previous school fieldwork visits allows changes over time to be investigated
  • historical visitor data from conwy county council allowing changes over time to be investigated
• risk assessment

  • weather: forecast was consulted in advance and students were advised if sun cream or wet weather clothing was required
  • strangers: students always worked in groups, all survey points were in very public places, students wore full school uniform
  • getting lost: all students were given a map, groups had to regularly meet at a designated place and time allowing headcounts, first aid kits and a school mobile number
  • road safety: always worked in groups, advised to use designated crossing points
• data processing and presentation

  • for each survey points along the transect we used an overlay of tracing paper over a land-use map. each street will have a proportional bar for each of the five sampled locations on one transect
  • height of each bar will be proportional to the total environmental quality score e.g. higher bar means better the environmental quality
• assess how effective your presentation techniques were in representing the data collected in this enquiry?

  • produced quantitative data to give a clear visual representation of environmental quality.
  • patterns of could be easily identified and linked to distance from the prom
  • very large/small values could be difficult to plot and interpret
  • annotations with geographical information about land-use and traffic flows could be added to further understanding
  • data was lacking for the complete length of each street
  • alternative method: use series of line graphs with multiple lines
• describe what your results show (overall trend)

  • as distance from honeypot site increased, environmental quality score decreased
  • where land-use is tourist related, environmental quality scores were higher
• analyse what your results show

  • mean environmental quality score for site 1 (closest to promenade) for each transect was 59/80
  • mean environmental quality score for site 5 (furthest from promenade) for each transect was 34/80
  • range overall is 32
• explain what your results show

  • the honeypot site (promenade) is well maintained with litter bins, benches and regular street cleaning to attract tourists
  • areas further away from honeypot site had fast food outlets which meant there was a lot of litter as a result
• are there any links between datasets?

  • links between environmental quality scores and land-use
  • areas around hotels scored high (eqs) and areas further away from honeypot site had less of a tourist land use and had a lower eqs
• are there any anomalies in your results?

  • site 2 on transect 3 scored badly as it was located outside a costa coffee
  • people had spilt their drinks and littered their disposable cups
  • this was an anomaly as it was relatively close to the honeypot site
• what can you conclude from your results?

  • the main businesses in llandudno are in the service sector with a tourism focus
  • land use changes with distance from the main tourism honeypot sites.
  • environmental quality has been changed to such an extent that it is different closer to the main service sector land use concentrations
  • visitors feel that the post industrial economy has a positive impact economically and socially on llandudno
• to what extent were results of this enquiry helpful in reaching a reliable conclusion? pt 1

  • traffic counts gave quantitative data, more accurate analysis and more objective based conclusions
  • systematic sampling - avoids bias, good coverage of the area, reflects continuous changes in variables
  • large sample sizes used for the land-use survey (>150 buildings) and traffic counts (42 sites) allowed significant amounts of data with a good coverage
• to what extent were results of this enquiry helpful in reaching a reliable conclusion? pt 2

  • eqs accurately reflected any environmental changes as we worked away
  • interviewed 10 people which gave quantitative data and qualitative data allowing us to investigate economic change on urban areas, opportunity sampling was used
  • traffic count gave us distinctive patterns, allowed us to identify key honeypot sites and assess any links to tourism-based land-uses, links made to quality of the environment
• issues relating to the reliability of the methods, accuracy of results and validity of conclusions pt 1

  • data collected on weekday, results could vary significantly at different periods of the day/week/year
  • could not guarantee that the sampling was exactly 50 paces apart
  • bipolar environmental surveys are based on perception so they are subjective and can be biased, can cause under/overstating- cannot accurately reflect and reach conclusions, invalid
  • only surveyed ground floor uses - over/under represent land uses
• issues relating to the reliability of the methods, accuracy of results and validity of conclusions pt 2

  • traffic counts started at different times making it possible for vehicles to be counted multiple times
  • data collected only on weekday, fewer working aged people/ families with children to respond to questionnaire. older people more numerous and so their opinions are over represented
• how could your enquiry be improved?

  • collect data from a comparable settlement e.g. formby - determines whether results are representative and conclusions will be more valid
  • collect data on multiple days of the week/times of the year to allow different seasons/visitors and calculate averages so results are more representative
  • ensure traffic counts start at the same time
  • noise meter or noise app to reduce margin error as traffic noise pollution would be collected in decibels - accurate and valid
  • interview larger sample of people - reduces anomalies all are interviewed, representative