First Drafted 2006-02-20, Last Changed 2006-02-20, Version 0.2.2.

ONS/ENCAMS Pilot Study Notes

Andy Turner

Hugh Thornton from ENCAMS joined the ASAP Research Cluster meeting 2006-02-08 to ask for Expressions of Interest on an ONS/ENCAMS Pilot Study.

Gordon Mitchell and Andy Turner expressed interest and met to discuss details. These notes document this meeting and provide a platform for further collaboration.

Documentation

Hugh produced the following briefing document:

• BRIEFING NOTE

Additionally, for background Hugh provided the following document on a broader study:

• Local Environmental Quality Survey of England (LEQSE) 2004/2005

Background

The LEQSE has been done yearly since 2001. ONS and ENCAMS are seeking advice not on the National LEQ Survey itself, but in relation to the Pilot Study described in the BRIEFING NOTE

There has been criticism of the sampling schemes employed. ONS and ENCAMS are seeking expert statistical advice in a Pilot Study. The idea is to compare the variability and uncertainties associated with random, systematic and existing LEQSE sampling methodologies, and to assess the implications of weighting the survey results by land use.

Details

Upto £10K is available to fund this work.

The work must be backed up by a recognised expert in sampling methodology.

What is being done:

• 54 Local Authorities are being surveyed for litter/environmental dammage. For each LA 5 wards are surveyed by means of transects. In each ward level survey, a transect of each land use is surveyed (generally 4 land uses). Each transect is 50 meter in length and the width depends on private property boundaries.
• ONS Want to incorporate metrics into neighbourhood statistics.
• Pilot Study datasets are being complied and should be ready to play with by April. All transects in an area are surveyed. Independently a set of transects are chosen as representative by ENCAMS officials. Retrospectively the question is asked: How representative were the chosen transects given the complete survey.

What ENCAMS want:

• A spatial statistician to examine the data and indicate how well the sampling method works in practice (compared say to a random sample, stratified random sample based on land use and proportional weightings).
• Someone lined up by 2006-03-03 to take on the work during the period 2006-04-01 to 2006-06-01.
• A study of sampling methods.

Actions

• Andy to email Hugh and Gordon and point them to this note. Done.
• If no expertise is forthcoming from University of Leeds. Andy and Gordon to provide details of experts in UK academia that may be interested/able to help.