Urban Fieldwork: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

Two methods that answer different questions

Investigating change in a central or inner urban area involves looking at both what the surroundings are like and what the area is used for. These are related, but they are not the same thing. A shopping street may contain well-maintained buildings yet also have litter and heavy traffic.

For this investigation, fieldwork data collection must include at least one qualitative method to record environmental quality and one quantitative method to measure land use function. Qualitative evidence records descriptions, appearances or opinions. Quantitative evidence records numbers. Both are primary data when you collect them yourself in the field.

Using both helps you connect a pattern in land use with evidence about the environment, rather than relying on a general impression of whether a place is ‘nice’.

Recording environmental quality with photographs and field sketches

An annotated photograph or field sketch can record environmental quality at a sample site. Useful features include pavement condition, building maintenance, litter, graffiti, traffic and green space. The purpose is to preserve specific evidence that you can compare between sites.

Take a photograph from a safe, accessible position, or draw a simple sketch of the main features. Record the site location, date, time and viewing direction so that the evidence can be located and the view repeated. A sketch does not need artistic detail: clear features and informative annotations matter more.

For example, an annotation reading ‘cracked pavement beside the entrance’ records an observable condition. ‘Litter accumulated beside the seating area’ identifies both the feature and its location. ‘Trees and planted beds provide vegetation along the street’ records a positive environmental feature. These are more useful than writing only ‘poor environment’ or ‘good environment’.

Keep observation separate from explanation. Visible litter is evidence of litter at that moment; it does not, by itself, prove that collection services are inadequate. Similarly, a photograph of heavy traffic shows conditions when it was taken, not necessarily conditions throughout the day.

Making qualitative comparisons fairer

Use the same observation headings at each site, and record positive as well as negative features. Comparing pavement condition, buildings, litter and vegetation at every site is more consistent than noticing only whichever feature catches your attention.

Photographs preserve detail, but their framing can exclude important surroundings. Field sketches can highlight relevant features, but the investigator chooses what to include. Both therefore need careful interpretation. Comparable viewing areas and repeated visits can improve the evidence, although changing weather, traffic or cleaning schedules may still affect what is recorded.

Open questionnaire questions offer another qualitative method. Asking ‘What are your views on changes to this street?’ allows people to explain their experiences. Their answers reveal perceptions, which may differ from your observations; they are not automatically proof of the physical condition of the street.

An environmental quality survey can also assign numerical scores to features such as litter or building condition. Those scores are quantitative data, even when choosing the score involves subjective judgement. Descriptive annotations remain valuable because they explain the conditions behind the numbers.

Measuring land use function with a tally

A land-use survey records the purposes of buildings or areas of land. Counting how many surveyed units have each function makes the survey quantitative. The important decision is what counts as one unit: for example, one building or one separately occupied ground-floor premise. Keep that decision consistent throughout the survey.

Use a recording sheet on a clipboard, a pen and a base map, such as an OS map, to locate the surveyed streets and units. Agree categories before collecting data. Broad categories include residential, commercial, industrial, leisure and recreation, transport, municipal uses, open space, and derelict or abandoned land. Municipal uses include buildings providing public services. Commercial uses can be subdivided into retail, offices, and food and drink if that helps answer the enquiry question.

Choose and mark the survey area or route. If groups survey different sections, use the same categories and recording rules so their results can be combined. Plan safe observation positions and avoid obstructing pedestrians.

Follow the selected streets and record each unit once. Use visible evidence, such as shopfronts, signs and entrances, to identify its function. Record its location on the map or sheet and enter a tally in the appropriate category. Keep vacant premises separate from active uses rather than guessing their former function. If a use is unclear, record it as unknown rather than forcing it into a category. Total the tallies at the end.

For a fictional street, a tally might record eight retail premises, three residential units and one café. These counts describe the functions of the surveyed units: retail is the most frequent category. They do not show how much land each category occupies, because premises can differ greatly in size.

Handling mixed uses and survey limitations

An urban building may contain a shop on the ground floor and flats above it. Decide before the survey how to handle such mixed uses. If your survey records ground-floor premises only, classify the shop but make that restriction clear. You cannot then claim that the building has no residential use. A survey of whole buildings could use a separate mixed-use category, provided everyone applies the same rule.

Use identical categories and survey units when comparing areas. Otherwise, an apparent difference might result from recording methods rather than actual land use. Counts can also depend on the size of the area surveyed, so retain the total number of units alongside category totals.

Land-use counts can be presented in bar charts or converted to percentages for comparison. They measure the composition of the surveyed area, not the quality of its environment. Traffic counts may add useful context, but they cannot replace a direct record of land use function.

Bringing the evidence together

The two methods complement each other. A tally establishes which functions are common; photographs, sketches or written descriptions record environmental conditions at those locations. Together, they allow a more specific conclusion, such as describing the environmental quality of streets dominated by retail premises.

A single visit provides evidence about current conditions. Demonstrating change requires comparable evidence from another time, rather than assuming that a newly recorded difference must represent change.