ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY SURVEY
An environmental quality survey uses an observer’s judgments to assess environmental quality against a range of indicators.
A range of score is used a simple one is called sliding scale (example 0 to 5 ) where 5 represents the highest quality and 0 the worst
Alternatively you can use a Bi-polar scale (like -5 to +5) This scale use negative and positive figure either side of 0.
Cont.
The 0 represents an average situation and the negative figures show the extent of undesirable aspects and the positive figures the extent of good aspects.
Cont.
The students selected three different types of housing areas based on the land use model.
These housing areas are labeled A, B and C in Fig. below
The students investigated the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1: The environment of housing areas improves as distance from the town centre increases.
hypothesis
The students decided that Hypothesis 1: The environment of housing areas improves as distance from the town centre increases was true. Use data from Table 4 to support their conclusion.
Answer for hypothesis
Area C/furthest from town centre has positive/highest score or total ,area A is nearest to town centre has negative lowest score or total. total or score increases as move away from town centre
A= –7, B = 0, C= +13,
Describe how the students used the recording sheet
- Circle location.
- Made a decision about the score for each category/what they thought was the score.
- Put a tick in the appropriate column/filled in the chart/sheet.
Stages involved in planning for the survey
- Choose appropriate number of survey site.
- Decide where the survey sites should be located.
- Select which characteristic of the environment to measure as indicators of environment quality.
- Decide on range of score to use.
- Prepare an environmental quality reference sheet to use as guide to what each score for each characteristics represents.
- Decide the time of the survey and how many students will go to each site.
Advantages of doing a pilot(trial) survey
- Opportunity to test features/grading to see if they are suitable how features are graded
- Gives a known standard/control to compare against
- Check on methodology consistency/check for any errors/mistakes/improve survey
- Practice survey/get used to sheet
- Improves ability to work as a team
