Jonathan Radcliffe, Research Associate offers a perspective from the world of research.

My name’s Jonathan Radcliffe and I’m a GIS data associate at Cardiff University. I work in the Wales rural observatory. I’m also studying a part-time PhD. I’ve used the spatial data available from Digimap in a number of research projects conducted by the Wales rural observatory. My talk is going to be about one of our most recent research projects where Digimap served as a visual gateway, enabling us to view valuable information and help plan each stage of the research. I’ll start by giving a brief overview of the Wales rural observatory in order so you can establish the type of research Digimap is helping. The Wales rural observatory has been undertaking independent research and analysis on social and economic conditions in rural Wales, and has been doing this since September 2003. We are funded by the Welsh Assembly government to support evidence based rural policy making in Wales. The observatory is a collaboration between Cardiff University and Aberystwyth. Our most recent project involved investigating deep rural localities, and this stemmed from in 2008, the one Wales policy document identifying a need to address particular issues affecting deep rural areas in Wales – and we were given this task. Our project aimed to explore peoples’ experiences of living in deep rural communities and to ensure that the issues surrounding the delivery of services to these communities were met. To do this, existing data needed to be brought together within our GIS as well as additional data gathered from household surveys.

The first stage of the project involved determining where in Wales these deep rural locations actually were. This was the first stage where Digimap data became valuable. Digimap provided an interface to access Ordnance Survey boundary line data – the middle one there. The spatial data is available in a number of formats for integration within a GIS and we use the shapefile option to download parish boundaries for our GIS – they are called communities in Wales by the way. Once in the GIS we were able to join these boundaries to statistical information held in excel files. We were then able to map this statistical information to explore possibilities and present results. The map acted as a discussion point between the Welsh assembly, local authorities and us – to determine the best locations for field studies in deep rural areas. We finally agreed upon four localities deemed to be in deep rural areas. These were: Aberdaron in Gwynedd – that’s the top left, Llanfihangel North Powys, Llangammarch and Clydau, Pembrokeshire. These communities were deemed to be significantly far from large population centres, contained few key services, and had between 180-500 households. Each of these 4 case studies were visited by a team of researchers to conduct face to face interviews.

After agreeing where these deep rural areas were – the next stage, which was a bit more difficult, was to plan how to conduct the field research. Again, Digimap came to the rescue, but now the task was matching these statistical geographies to locations in the real world. The Digimap data download facility enabled us to get OS 1:50,000 Colour Raster tiles and these acted as a sort of background for planning. This allowed statistical borders of communities to be linked to positions relating to roads and groups of houses. Digimap also provided postcode areas, and this too is linked into the GIS. The maps were divided into 3 sections dependent on postcodes. They were based around focal points that we found from the original map. A research team of 4 to 5 students were allocated to reach section to ensure every household was visited.

So the next stage, after that bit of planning, was to provide each researcher in the field with a map allocated to their area. This enabled them to find their way around the community, and locate where the households were in that community. Digimap 1:10,000 Colour Rasters were used for this purpose. They contained relatively large, well relatively in depth detail and they spanned quite a large area. The field researchers found these maps invaluable and some went as far as to say that the project wouldn’t have been possible without them. To ensure each household was correctly logged by the teams, a list of households within each postcode was provided by using ADDRESS-POINT data, and this was linked in then with the Digimap data. ADDRESS-POINT provides a full postal address of the household and can be linked to positions on the background map. A unique number was given to each house and its position on the map emphasised with a red circle – as can be seen there. Researchers completed the postcodes when all houses had been ticked off the list and then they were allocated to new postcodes in the area.

So, what was the result of all this work? Well it was a successful project. Despite some occasional adverse weather conditions and some researchers reporting to have been chased by vicious looking sheepdogs, the project remained well organized throughout. This allowed us to survey each locality in its entirely within 2 to 3 days. This was relatively fast considering the number of households that we had to survey. This reduced the cost because there were 4 to 5 students in each team, and all these students had to be housed while the research was being undertaken, so it was a good way to reduce these ongoing costs. We also obtained a response rate of over 50% from this survey, which is relatively high for this sort of research. And more importantly, we came back with full teams.

So, to sum everything up, Digimap enabled the visualisation of spatial data to communicate and plan the research, to keep track of the teams whilst in the field, and to act as a navigation tool for the researchers. Each stage required a different scale and a different sort of approach, and these requirements were met each time by Digimap services. Combining all this together helped us construct powerful visual tools for research purposes. And for anyone interesting in discovering the results for our project, it’s available on our website here. Many thanks to Digimap and thanks for listening.