Aims and Intentions of the study
Aims and intentions of the study the most common land-use in Guildford is, we can do a land-use map (i.e.
going into Guildford and recording a land-use classification on a goad map) this will also show any grouping of a particular activity.The building height will also be recorded; us vertical zonings are good indications of the CBD. This is because there is a lot of competition over very little small land-use area in the CBD, which makes it expensive.The reason why competition is greatest in the CBD is because of its accessibility, as most roads and transport tend to focus in the CBD, bringing in people from the entire outer zone.To find out where the centre of the CBD is, we can also use our land-use map. The centre of the CBD is expect to be mostly commercial (i.
e. shops and offices) because the bid rent will be highest due to competition and therefore only the very competitive bidders who can afford the high rents can locate there.We can also do a pedestrian count; this will give us an idea of where the busiest part of Guildford is. If we find out what some of the rateable values of Guildford’s shops are, we would be able to see weather the land is expensive where pedestrian flow is highest. But it is not accurate to compare the rateable values with our other data because shops vary in sizes.
We can’t expect to find shops with the highest rateable values in without a group without one or two shops that have relatively low rateable values compared to the others. This is because the rateable values depend not only on the location but also the size of the shop itself (i.e. we would expect to pay more for a bigger shop.)To over come this problem, we can divide the rateable value of the shop by its total area, this would tell us how much each square foot of the shop is worth, the higher it is, the better it’s located because the shops tend to be smaller to wards the CBD.But this is another problem, we can’t really go into the shops and start measuring the total area for each one of them, therefore we could use the “Front footage of shops.
” We can divide the rateable values of shops by its Front footage, this would tell us roughly how much each feet of the front footage is worth. The higher it is, the nearer it is to the CBD because the front footage of shops in the CBD is bond to be small. A high rateable value divide by a low front footage will give a high “Land value.”So far, I have mentioned four data collections that we need to do which will help us answer our aims.1. Land-use map2.
Building Heights3. Pedestrian count4. Land valuesThese will also eventually help us to decide where the centre of CBD is in Guildford.Predictions1. The most common land use in Guildford will be commercial (i.
e. shops, offices)2. Land values will be greatest where pedestrian flows are greatest.3. Buildings are highest where pedestrian flows are highest.To do this, we can use our land-map to help us decide where the edge of the CBDis.
We may consider locations where commercial and residential are next to each other to be the edge of the CBD, as land-values fall as we move away from the CBD where the land is cheaper and therefore suitable for residential. It is unlikely that someone would want to live right in the centre of Guildford where the bid rent is highest; shops locate there only because of it accessibility and its therefore unnecessary for some one to pay a huge amount of money for location like this. (A quiet, pleasant environment is usually the ideal residential area for most people.)We may also consider a location where there is a sudden fall in pedestrian flow to be the edge of CBD. Accessibility will affect this, because transport links tend to focus in the centre of CBD, this is why most of the shops and offices are prepared to pay a huge amount of money. (They need the high pedestrian flow to keep up their business.
)A sudden fall in land-value will also indicate where the edge of CBD is. Land-value is low where there is less competition and therefore less valuable because it is not easily accessible. If a location is not easily accessible, then the pedestrian flow must also below.We will also expect the building heights to decrease as we move away from the CBD because land is less expensive and competition is not as great due to its accessibility.Predictions1. Land-use map – where commercial activities are next to residential or even manufacturing industry (i.
e. non-commercial)2. Pedestrian flow – where there is a sudden decrease in pedestrian flow that reflects accessibility and therefore distance from the centre of CBD.3. Land-values – indicates a locations accessibility, land is less valuable where there is less competition.
4. Building heights – building heights should decrease as we move away from the CBD where there is less demand/competition.Background to the Study AreaThe location of Guildford is in southeast of England, situated half way between London and the south coast, where Portsmouth Harbour is. It was a Saxon town in the 6th century and by the 12th century; it had already become a market town with a Norman castle, serving the local area.Hypothesis StatementsGuildford’s physical features have played a big part in this. If we look at a map of Guildford carefully, we’d notice that river wey runs straight through it and that there are hills nearby.
This meant fuels were available in the pass (Timber from woodlands) for building. People were also able to hunt animals for food or grow crops on nearby fertile land. People can drink or fish from the river wey, therefore people started to locate near the river, especially when a canal and a railway was built by 1845. Later when railway was more developed, Guilford became a commuter town for London and also a lot of surrounding towns.Guildford proximity influence many large industrial firms to locate there, many of these located the river wey because it provide waterpower (generated electricity) for the factories. It also made transportation of goods easier and much cheaper.
Today Guildford has grown to become one of the busiest towns in the U.K; it’s proximity to Heathrow airport also makes it more accessible to the wider world.Guildford is mainly a middle class town, there isn’t a high degree of unemployment and the crime rates are low. There are only one main council housing area (Park Barn) and therefore reflects the average income in the area (i.e.
every one can afford a proper accommodation -majority)Shopping centre (i.e. the friary), modern Hospital (i.e. Royal Surrey) and many other shops and services have increase in Guildford, due to more demand by the increasing population around Guildford.
Science parks, business parks and University Towns have grown around Guildford, mainly on Greenfield sites. The majority have been attracted by the relatively low cost of land, pleasant working environment and also the low density of buildings. Guildford’s pleasant environment and its wide range of shops and services continue to attract both residents and tourists.Structure of the TextEach of the following chapters has been designed to fulfil different functions. Chapter two explains the methodology of the study, and shows the way in which each type of data was collected during fieldwork. Furthermore, this section explains which hypothesis the data refers to, and how it will finally be presented.
Chapter three is devoted to this presentation, containing tables, maps, graphs and diagrams based on the data. Chapter four analyses this data, commenting on each graph and map in terms of the original hypothesis outlined above in the introduction. The study is evaluated in Chapter Five, and each reference used is given in full in the bibliography.Data CollectionMethodLand-use surveyTo classify the land-use I Guildford, our class was divided into three groups, each covering 1/6 of the town centre. (Because we just have three groups, so we just use the first three part of the town centre)We did this by going round with our goad maps and putting each building into the most appropriate category. We put them onto the goad maps as letters.
Department Store (D)Chain Store (Ch)Convenience (Cn)Public building (P)Estate Agent (E)Financial (F)Other Services (S)Residential (R)Vacant (V)Independent Retail (I)We want to classify the land-use in Guildford because we want to identify any grouping of particular activity in areas. This would give us some ideas about the characteristics of Guildford’s town centre.This also helps us to find out whether the CBD can be delimited (i.e. can we draw a line to the edge of the CBD, where its ends) when (R) – residential starts to come in amongst the shops (commercial) we would see roughly the boundary between residential and commercial and hopefully might see a boundary around the CBD.
Front Footage/Rateable ValueThe other things we did were the pedestrian count and the front footage of the shops. Both of these were also done in groups. Each group was responsible for measuring the front footage of two shops. This was simply done by pacing out the width of the shop front; each pace is estimated to be 3 feet, this tells us roughly the total width of the shop front. The rateable value of each shop was given to us (as secondary data) we divide this by the front footage. This tell us the rate index (i.
e. how much in pound per metre of the front footage is)This is a useful piece of data because it will allow us to compare the different shops as. We cannot compare the rateable values unless some account is taken of the size of the premises. (This is because the rateable value is mainly determined by the size of the premises and how close it is to the CBD) This data will indicate where the centre of the CBD is as land value falls as we move further way form the CBD. We should also find that the rate index should fall as we move out of CBD because land value drops towards the edge of the CBD where there’s little competition.
The pedestrian counts were done right outside the shops that we measured the front footage of and because each group was responsible for two shops. To do this, we arranged it so that one person counted the number of people moving from left to right and another person counting the people moving from right to left.We needed to do this because we wanted to find out where the busiest part of the town is. From my knowledge, I know that the pedestrian flow will be greatest in the centre of the CBD because land value is the highest here (competition is greatest); this mean only the big shop (usually chain store) selling comparison goods could afford the high rents. These usually attract a lot of people. Most roads and railways also tend to focus in the CBD, bringing people into the town centre from all of the outer zones.
Building HeightI also recorded building heights, especially the multi-storey buildings; this is a useful piece of information because it indicates where the centre of the CBD is as a vertical zoning is a response to the high land values of the area, this will also help us decide where the boundary between the commercial and residential will lie if there should be one.Data presentationThe spearman’s Rank Correlation coefficient gives strength of the relationship. To calculate the value of the spearman’s Rank correlation coefficient. My table tells you how to work out the Rs.
