Virtual Fieldwork – Urban Transect Enquiry
GeographyPopulation & SettlementAges 15–16
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Sign in to playA complete human geography enquiry on screen: walk a 3 km transect from the centre of a fictional town to its edge. Choose a hypothesis, a sampling strategy (systematic, random or stratified), the time and length of pedestrian counts and how people are chosen for a questionnaire. At each site carry out an environmental quality survey, a pedestrian count, a land-use survey and a questionnaire. The data table, proportional-symbol map, scatter graph, bar chart, radar chart, Spearman's rank correlation, conclusion and an evaluation of reliability and bias are built automatically.
Lesson: Geographical skills: urban fieldwork, data presentation, Spearman's rank and evaluation
What it shows
Urban fieldwork tests an idea about how a town changes from its centre to its edge. This virtual enquiry follows the full route: a hypothesis, a sampling plan, primary data from four techniques, presentation, statistical analysis and evaluation. The town is fictional, but its pattern follows the concentric zone model and bid-rent theory: shops, offices, tall buildings and crowds near the CBD, housing and green space further out. Local features such as a shopping parade or a park create anomalies, and every technique has its own errors and biases.
How to use
Choose a Hypothesis, the Number of sites, Sampling, Count time, Pedestrian count length, Questionnaires per site and Choosing people. Click a site on the map or use ◀ ▶, then press Environmental quality survey, Pedestrian count, Land-use survey and Questionnaire. Survey all sites fills the rest. Switch the Chart between the scatter, bar, radar and land-use charts, then read the Spearman's rank result and the evaluation.
Parameters you can change
- Hypothesis to test Pedestrian counts decrease with distance from the town centre, Environmental quality improves with distance from the town centre, The more pedestrians, the lower the environmental quality, Buildings get lower with distance from the town centre, The share of shops and offices falls with distance from the town centre, People rate the area more highly further from the town centre
- Number of sites 5–15 sites
- Sampling strategy Systematic (evenly spaced), Random, Stratified (sites in each zone)
- Time of the pedestrian counts 08:00–09:00, 12:00–13:00, 17:00–18:00
- Length of each pedestrian count 1–10 min
- Questionnaires per site 3–20 people
- How people are chosen for the questionnaire Every 5th passer-by (systematic), Anyone willing to stop (opportunity)
- Chart shown Scatter graph for the hypothesis, Bar chart by site, Radar chart of environmental quality, Land use by site (divided bars)
Questions to explore
- Why might a systematic sample miss a busy shopping parade between two sites?
- How does opportunity sampling bias the answers to a questionnaire?
- Why is a one-minute pedestrian count less reliable than a ten-minute count?
