The International Baccalaureate Internal Assessment in geography.
Research question: How does the life quality in Katowice, Poland, change with the increasing
distance from the CBD?
Personal code: gyz166
Session: May 2019
Word count: 2441
I declare that this work is my own work and is the final version. I have acknowledged each use of
the words or ideas of another person, whether written, oral or visual.
,Table of contents
1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………3
2. Methodology……………………………………………………………………………..5
3. Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………..8
4. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………20
5. Evaluation……………………………………………………………………………….20
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………….22
Appendix…………………………………………………………...…………………...24
2
, 1. Introduction:
Fieldwork question :
How does the life quality in Katowice, Poland, change with the increasing distance from the CBD?
Hypotheses:
1. Noise and traffic decrease from the centre outwards.
2. Safety decreases from the centre to the outskirts.
3. Shopping quality increases from the centre to the suburbs.
Geographic context:
The research was conducted in Katowice (Fig.2) the capital city of Silesian voievodeship, Poland
(Fig.1). This is also a highly urbanized (urbanization rate – 79% (Slaskie.pl, 2018)) and densely
populated (392ppl /km2 (Slaskie.pl, 2018)) city, overall population is 297197(Slaskie.pl, 2018).
Together with other major cities e.g. Chorzów and Gliwice it forms greatest urban area in Poland
- Upper Silesian urban area. Katowice is divided into 22 districts which cover area of 164,64
km (Bdl.stat.gov.pl, 2018). Due to its large size people living there can represent variety of
environments making collected data more reliable in terms of compatibility with similar research
in other cities. It is also an important transport hub what contributes to the safety in the city (2nd
hypothesis) according to Dzhambov and Dimitrova (2014).
Relationship to the syllabus: Optional Theme G- Urban environments (International
Baccalaureate®, 2018). This part of the syllabus deals with the development of the urban areas,
social and environmental stresses (e.g. noise pollution and urban deprivation-especially useful in
safety analysis). Important for this investigation are topics about patterns in urban land use
(especially concept of PLVI and the bid rent theory). Also patterns of car traffic were useful in
3
Research question: How does the life quality in Katowice, Poland, change with the increasing
distance from the CBD?
Personal code: gyz166
Session: May 2019
Word count: 2441
I declare that this work is my own work and is the final version. I have acknowledged each use of
the words or ideas of another person, whether written, oral or visual.
,Table of contents
1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………3
2. Methodology……………………………………………………………………………..5
3. Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………..8
4. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………20
5. Evaluation……………………………………………………………………………….20
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………….22
Appendix…………………………………………………………...…………………...24
2
, 1. Introduction:
Fieldwork question :
How does the life quality in Katowice, Poland, change with the increasing distance from the CBD?
Hypotheses:
1. Noise and traffic decrease from the centre outwards.
2. Safety decreases from the centre to the outskirts.
3. Shopping quality increases from the centre to the suburbs.
Geographic context:
The research was conducted in Katowice (Fig.2) the capital city of Silesian voievodeship, Poland
(Fig.1). This is also a highly urbanized (urbanization rate – 79% (Slaskie.pl, 2018)) and densely
populated (392ppl /km2 (Slaskie.pl, 2018)) city, overall population is 297197(Slaskie.pl, 2018).
Together with other major cities e.g. Chorzów and Gliwice it forms greatest urban area in Poland
- Upper Silesian urban area. Katowice is divided into 22 districts which cover area of 164,64
km (Bdl.stat.gov.pl, 2018). Due to its large size people living there can represent variety of
environments making collected data more reliable in terms of compatibility with similar research
in other cities. It is also an important transport hub what contributes to the safety in the city (2nd
hypothesis) according to Dzhambov and Dimitrova (2014).
Relationship to the syllabus: Optional Theme G- Urban environments (International
Baccalaureate®, 2018). This part of the syllabus deals with the development of the urban areas,
social and environmental stresses (e.g. noise pollution and urban deprivation-especially useful in
safety analysis). Important for this investigation are topics about patterns in urban land use
(especially concept of PLVI and the bid rent theory). Also patterns of car traffic were useful in
3
