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Key Methods in Geography
LibraryPirate
Key Methods in Geography
Second Edition
Edited by
Nicholas Clifford,
Shaun French and Gill Valentine
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First published 2010
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review,
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Chapter 20 © Paul Aplin 2010
Chapter 21 © Richard Field 2010
Chapter 22 © Chris Perkins 2010
Chapter 23 © Danny Dorling 2010
Chapter 24 © Adrian Chappell 2010
Chapter 25 © Michael Batty 2010
Chapter 26 © John H. McKendrick 2010
Chapter 27 © Meghan Cope 2010
Chapter 28 © Bettina van Hoven 2010
Chapter 29 © Iain S. Black 2010
Chapter 30 © Marcus Doel 2010
Chapter 31 © Michael Bradford 2010
Chapter 32 © Robin A. Kearns 2010
Editorial arrangement and Introduction © Nick Clifford, Shaun French and Gill Valentine 2010
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Notes on Contributors ix
List of Figures xvi
List of Tables xix
Acknowledgements xxi
GETTING STARTED IN GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH 1
1 Getting Started in Geographical Research:
how this book can help 3
Nick Clifford, Shaun French and Gill Valentine
2 How to Conduct a Literature Search 16
Mick Healey and Ruth L. Healey
3 Ethical Practice in Geographical Research 35
Iain Hay
4 Health and Safety in the Field 49
Joanna Bullard
GENERATING AND WORKING WITH DATA IN

16 Making Observations and Measurements in the Field 220
Alice Turkington
17 Sampling in Geography 230
Stephen Rice
18 Analysing a Natural System 253
Ellen Wohl
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Contents
19 Numerical Modelling in Physical Geography: Understanding
Explanation and Prediction in Physical Geography 274
Stuart N. Lane
20 Using Remotely Sensed Imagery 299
Paul Aplin
REPRESENTING AND INTERPRETING GEOGRAPHICAL DATA 315

21 Data Handling and Representation 317
Richard Field
22 Mapping and Graphicacy 350
Chris Perkins
23 Using Statistics to Describe and Explore Data 374
Danny Dorling
24 An Introduction to Geostatistics 386
Adrian Chappell
25 Using Geographical Information Systems 408
Michael Batty
26 Statistical Analysis Using PASW (formerly SPSS) 423
John H. McKendrick
27 Coding Transcripts and Diaries 440
Meghan Cope

Michael Batty is Bartlett Professor of Planning and Director of the Centre for
Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), University College London. His research is in
the development of computer-based technologies, specifically graphics-based and
mathematical models for cities, and he has worked recently on applications of
fractal geometry and cellular automata to urban structure. He was awarded the
CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2004 and is a Fellow of the Royal
Society (FRS). He was formerly Director of the SUNY Buffalo site of NCGIA
(1990–1995). His most recent books are Cities and Complexity (MIT Press,
2005) and Virtual Geographic Environments (edited with Hui Lin, Science Press,
2009). He is also the editor of the journal, Environment and Planning B.
Iain S. Black is Fellow in Geography at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He
has written widely on the historical geography of money and banking in Britain
between 1750 and 1950, with particular reference to the social, economic and
architectural transformation of the City of London. Recently, these interests have
been extended to work on the role of imperial and colonial banking groups in the
diffusion of British banking culture overseas between 1850 and 1950, together
with studies of the impact of empire on the landscape and built environment of
London in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Michael Bradford is Professor of Geography at the University of Manchester. He
was Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning from 2001 to 2004 and Head
of the School of Geography from 1996 to 2000.
Notes on Contributors
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Key Methods in Geography
Myrna M. Breitbart is Professor of Geography and Urban Studies and Director of
the Community Engagement and Collaborative Learning Network at Hampshire
College where she has taught since 1977. Her teaching and research interests as
well as publications focus on the broad themes of participatory planning and
social action (with a special interest in young people), community economic

for land surface formation.
Nick Clifford is Professor of River Science at Nottingham University and Visit-
ing Professor in the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy at
University College Dublin. He received his BA and PhD from the University of
Cambridge. His principal research interests are in fluvial geomorphology, and the
history of ideas and methods in Geography. He is currently Director of the River
Science Research Network, which is dedicated to improving the scientific basis
for river management and rehabilitation. He is a member of the editorial board of
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Notes on Contributors
Catena and River Research and Applications, and is Managing Editor of Progress
in Physical Geography. He has produced diverse publications, such as Turbulence:
Perspectives on Flow and Sediment Transport (with J. French and J. Hardisty;
John Wiley, 1993), and Incredible Earth (DK Books, 1996). He teaches courses
in river form and processes, river restoration, and the history and philosophy of
Geography.
Meghan Cope is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography at
the University of Vermont. Her interests lie in the areas of critical youth geogra-
phies, urban race–class–gender intersections and qualitative research. She recently
completed a four-year participatory research project on children’s conceptualiza-
tions of urban space in inner-city Buffalo and she is now exploring teens’ inde-
pendent mobility and access to public space in Vermont and other locations.
Marcus A. Doel is Research Professor of Human Geography, and is the Head
of the School of the Environment and Society at Swansea University. He studied
Geography, Economics and Accountancy as an undergraduate at the University
of Bristol, and pursued his PhD in continental philosophy and human geography
there. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Environment and Planning
D: Society and Space and the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies, and is
a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geogra-

Shaun French is Lecturer in Economic Geography at the University of Nottingham.
He gained his PhD from the University of Bristol and was subsequently seconded to
the Bank of England to work on a study of access to finance for small and medium-
sized enterprises in deprived areas. He has research interests in the geographies of
financial risk technologies, financial subjects and processes of financial exclusion.
Recent projects include an investigation of new modalities of life assurance (with
James Kneale) and an analysis of the geography of the buy-to-let sector in the UK
(with Andrew Leyshon).
Iain Hay is Australian Learning and Teaching Council Discipline Scholar for Arts,
Social Sciences and Humanities as well as Professor of Geography at Flinders
University, South Australia. He was awarded a LittD in 2009 by the University
of Canterbury, New Zealand, for his research work over the past two decades on
geographies of oppression and domination. One of his recent books is Research
Ethics for Social Scientists: Between ethical conduct and regulatory compliance
(Sage, 2006), with Mark Israel.
Mick Healey is Professor of Geography and Director of the Centre for Active
Learning at the University of Gloucestershire. For many years he researched and
taught economic geography. His current interests are in research and develop-
ment in higher education, particularly the links between research and teaching.
He is the Senior Geography Adviser for the National Subject Centre for Geogra-
phy, Earth and Environmental Sciences. In 2000 he was awarded one of the first
National Teaching Fellowships in England and Northern Ireland and in 2007 he
was made a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Ruth L. Healey recently completed her PhD in Human Geography at the Univer-
sity of Sheffield. She is now a Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of
Chester. Ruth is a social geographer, with particular interests in the settlement
experiences of migrants and refugees in the UK. She is a member of the editorial
board of the Journal of Geography in Higher Education.
Robin A. Kearns completed his PhD at McMaster University, Canada, in 1987
and is Professor of Geography in the School of Environment at the University of

Clare Madge is Senior Lecturer in Geography at the University of Leicester. She
is a feminist geographer with interests in critical development geographies and
cyberspace. Her current research interests span critical development geographies,
cybergeographies and feminist geographies. She serves on the editorial advisory
board of ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies.
John H. McKendrick is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography and Director of the
Scottish Poverty Information Unit at the School of Law and Social Sciences (Glasgow
Caledonian University). His research interests span studies of the provision of environ-
ments for children, children’s use of space, children’s play and children and poverty.
He has recently completed research for the Scottish Executive (‘Life in Low Income
Households with Children’) and for sportscotland, Play Scotland and Grounds for
Learning (‘School Grounds in Scotland: a National Survey’). He edited Children’s
Playgrounds in the Built Environment (Alexandrine Press, 1999) and First Steps, a
collection of 21 ‘retrospective’ autobiographical short notes written by geographers on
one of their favourite readings from the geographies of children and youths (2004).
Sara L. McLafferty is Professor of Geography at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign. Her research explores the use of spatial analysis methods and GIS in
analysing health and social issues in cities and women’s access to social services
and employment opportunities.
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Key Methods in Geography
Miles Ogborn is Professor of Geography at Queen Mary, University of London.
He has undertaken archival research on social policy in nineteenth-century Britain,
the changing geographies of eighteenth-century London and the global networks
of the English East India Company in the seventeenth-century. He has written
and edited numerous books, including Cultural Geography in Practice (Arnold,
2003), Georgian Geographies: Essays on Space, Place and Landscape in the
Eighteenth Century (Manchester University Press, 2004), Indian Ink: Script and
Print in the Making of the English East India Company (University of Chicago

taught courses in research and field methods in geography, climatic change and
physical systems of the environment.
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Notes on Contributors
Alice Turkington is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of
Kentucky. She is a geomorphologist interested in rock weathering processes in
natural and urban landscapes and the relationship between weathering and land-
scape evolution. She has conducted fieldwork in the USA, Europe, Scandinavia,
Australia and New Zealand.
Gill Valentine is Professor of Human Geography and Director of the Leeds Social
Science Institute (LSSI) at the University of Leeds. She has an international reputa-
tion for theoretically informed empirical work that is methodologically innovative
and has popular and policy impacts. Her research interests include social iden-
tities, citizenship and belonging, children and parenting, consumption cultures
(especially in relation to food and drink) and research methods. Gill has been
awarded numerous research grants and contracts from UK Research Councils,
charities, government departments and non-governmental organizations.
Bettina van Hoven is a Researcher and Lecturer at the Department of Cultural
Geography, University of Groningen, Netherlands. Her research interests are
geographies of inclusion and exclusion.
Paul White is Professor of European Urban Geography in the Department of
Geography at the University of Sheffield where he is also Pro-Vice Chancellor. His
main research interests are in the settlement of international migrant groups in
European cities. He has published 10 books, the most recent being Global Japan:
The Experience of Japan’s New Immigrant and Overseas Communities (with
R. Goodman, C. Peach and A. Takenaka; RoutledgeCurzon, 2003).
Ellen Wohl is Professor in the School of Geosciences at Colorado State University,
and obtained her PhD from the University of Arizona. She is a fluvial geomorphol-
ogist, whose current interests lie in the hydraulics, sediment transport and controls

18.6 Schematic diagram of the time and space scales across which
various components of river channels adjust 266
18.7 Process-response models for hillslopes of the Charwell River basin,
New Zealand for a change from semi-arid to wetter conditions 267
19.1 Globally averaged temperature change over the
last million years 276
19.2 Three examples of simple systems that are relevant to
glacial cycles 277
19.3 The relationship between chlorophyll-a loading (a measure of the
level of eutrophication) and total phosphate concentration for
periods of macrophyte absence in Barton Broad, Norfolk 280
List of Figures
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List of Figures
19.4 A general approach to model development and the conceptual
model applied to Barton Broad, Norfolk, England 283
19.5 The default predicted, optimized using 1983–1986 data, and
predicted using 1987–1993 data and chlorophyll-a concentrations
for Barton Broad 287
19.6 Model predictions of flow over a rough gravel-bed surface 290
20.1 Remotely sensed image of Kruger National Park, South Africa,
acquired by the ‘QuickBird’ satellite sensor 300
20.2 Reflected sunlight is the most common source of electromagnetic
radiation received by remote sensors to generate images of the
Earth’s surface, although some radiation is absorbed or scattered
at the surface and in the atmosphere 301
20.3 Multispectral image of Skukuza, Kruger National Park,
South Africa 304
20.4 The effect of varying spatial resolution on an image of the

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Key Methods in Geography
24.2 Experimental variograms of electrical conductivity measured
using electro-magnetic (EM) induction in a 25 km
2
area of
Diamantina Lakes National Park, western Queensland, Australia 391
24.3 Theoretical models used for fitting to experimental variograms 393
24.4 Experimental variograms of elevation above an arbitrary datum
in a 1 km
2
river channel in UK 395
24.5 The location of nine samples of aeolian transport from Australia
and the unsampled target location for estimation 398
24.6 A Universal Trans-Mercator projection 401
25.1 Digital data types: raster and vector map representations 410
25.2 A digital map base and three map layers of attributes in the
desktop GIS MapInfo 411
25.3 Computing a map of population density for London boroughs
within the GIS MapInfo 413
25.4 Projecting the population of London boroughs for 100 years
from 1981 414
25.5 Map algebra: adding and weighting sustainability surfaces
based on economic employment, property values and leisure
potential in an area of West London 415
25.6 Representing attribute data in 3-D: population density in small
census areas in the London Borough of Hackney 416
25.7 A portion of virtual London created in ArcGIS and
displayed in Google Earth 417
25.8 Combining map layers to form indices of urban sustainability

and their key characteristics 208
15.2 Climate resolution for sediment archives in three environments 216
17.1 Basic sampling methods 242
19.1 Model uncertainties 291
19.2 An example contingency table for flood-risk assessment 293
19.3 What models can and cannot do 295
21.1 An example of a dataframe 321
21.2 An example of a simple summary table 328
21.3 An example of a summary table reporting the results of
statistical analyses 329
24.1 Parameters of models (omni-directional and anisotropic)
fitted to the elevation relative to an arbitrary datum in a river
channel in UK 396
24.2 Procedure for computing an experimental variogram, fitting
a model and interpreting the parameters of that model 396
24.3 Values of the aeolian transport data at each of the selected
sample locations 398
24.4 Procedure for ordinary kriging to provide the appropriate
parameters for computer code such as GSLIB (OKB2DM) 400
28.1 Overview of CAQDAS 456
28.2 Advantages and concerns about CAQDAS 462
List of Tables
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We owe a continuing debt of thanks to Robert Rojek at Sage for commissioning
this revision and for his editorial advice and support, and to all our contributors
for their enthusiasm for the project. The quality of the final product is due to the
efforts of the copyeditor Neil Dowden and the Sage Senior Production Editor,
Katherine Haw.

values and emotions such as interviewing, participant observation and visual imagery)
or a combination of the two. These methods can be used in both extensive research
designs (where the emphasis is on pattern and regularity in large ‘representative’ data
sets, which is assumed to represent the outcome of some underlying (causal) regularity
or process) and intensive research designs (where the emphasis is on describing
a single case study, or small number of case studies, with the maximum amount of
detail). Yet, despite this diversity, all geographers, whatever their philosophical or
methodological approach, must make common decisions and go through common
processes when they are embarking on their research. This means doing preparatory
work (a literature review, thinking about health and safety and research ethics); thinking
through the practicalities of data collection (whether to do original fieldwork or rely on
secondary sources; whether to use quantitative or qualitative methods or a combination
of both); planning how to manage and analyse the data generated from these
techniques; and thinking about how to present/write up the findings of the research.
This chapter aims to guide you through these choices if you are doing research for a
project or dissertation. In doing so, it explains the structure and content of this book and
points you in the direction of which chapters to turn to for advice on different forms of
research techniques and analysis.
The main topics of the chapter are:
• Introduction: the nature of geographical research
• Quantitative and qualitative approaches to geography
• Designing a geographical research project
• The philosophy of research and importance of research design
• Conclusion: how this book can help you get started
i n t r o d u c t i o n : t h e n a t u r e o f g e o g r a p h i c a l r e s e a r c h
This book aims to help you prepare for, design and carry out geographical
research, and to analyse and present your findings. Geographers have given
attention to an enormous range of subject matter. Most aspects of the world,
Getting Started in Geographical
Research: how this book