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Stage 4: Data analysis

Stage 4: Data presentation | Calculations | Statistics

Data presentation

There are several ways in which you can display the data. The simplest is to plot a bar chart of functions for each village. If you divide the functions into high-order and low-order functions, you may also wish to draw a divided bar chart.

Alternatively, place an acetate sheet on top of a base map of the study area, then draw pie charts of for each village, where the size of the circle (i.e. its radius) is related to the number of functions, and each circle is divided into the proportion of low-order and high-order functions.

Draw a scattergraph of population size of each settlement (on the x-axis) against number of functions (on the y-axis). Add a best-fit line. Label the names of each settlement. See the example below.

From this you should be able to identify the anomalies: settlements with more services than you might expect from their population size (e.g. Shorewood), and settlements with fewer services than you might expect from their population size (e.g. Shelton).

Data on the size of catchment areas is best displayed on a map. Desire lines, proportional to the size of flow in each direction, can be plotted for each settlement, as below.

Calculations

(a) Functional Index

Calculate the Functional Index for each settlement. There are 3 steps.

Step 1 of 3: calculate location coefficients (LCs)

• Find the total number of each individual function type (e.g. pubs) in the whole study area
• Calculate the location coefficient for each function type.

LC for each function = 1/total number of each function x 100

For example, if there are 20 pubs in the whole study area,
LC for pubs =1/20 x 100 = 5

Step 2 of 3: calculate centrality values (CVs)

For each function type

CV = LC x total number of that function type in settlement

For example, if there are 3 pubs in the village of Hutton Rudby,
CV = 5 x 3 = 15

Step 3 of 3: calculate Functional Index for that settlement

Find the sum of CV values for each function

Extension: display the data on a logarithmic graph

Using log-log graph paper, plot Functional Index (on the y-axis) against settlement population (on the x-axis). The example below shows how this has been done for a large selection of settlements in Shropshire.

(b) Nodality Index

Use the raw number of services and route count figures to construct a Nodality Index. Do this as follows.

Settlement	Number of services	Route count A road = 3 B road = 2 Other road = 1	Nodality Index
Woodton	4	2 x 2 = 4 3 x 1 = 3	4 + 4 + 3 = 11
Oldchurch	6	2 x 3 = 6 4 x 2 = 8 4 x 1 = 4	6 + 6 + 8 + 4 = 24

Statistics

The relationship between Functional Index and settlement population can be investigated statistically by using the Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient test. The relationship between Functional Index and Nodality Index can also be investigated statistically by using the Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient test. Need more information about this test?

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