VARIABLES

The data was collected from the City of Vancouver’s ‘Data Catalogue’ as well as from 2011 and 2006 Census data for the City of Vancouer. Some data were collected from individual sites and sources are offered for these. The variables used were the following:

  • Neighbourhoods – this came in the form of a shapefile (shp) from the City of Vancouver's Data Catalogue. It was used as a basemap to display relevant information pertaining to the City of Vancouver.
  • Greenways – this came in the form of a shapefile (shp) from the Data Catalogue as well. The distance of each neighbourhood’s part of the greenway was calculated in ArcGIS using the ‘distance’ measuring tool. The individual data was then manually written into the bigger neighborhood file and displayed in IDRISI.
  • Parks – this came in the form of an Excel file from the Data Catalogue. The Excel file contained spatial information as well as the area of the park. Data was manually added to determine which neighbourhood a specific park belonged to. In the case where parks weren’t mentioned in the Excel database, parks were added.
  • Walk score – this came in the form of RAW data from Walk Score for the City of Vancouver. The website, thankfully, gave individual scores for each of Vancouver’s neighbourhoods. These scores were manually written into the ‘neighborhoods’ base map and projected.
  • Population – the total population of a neighborhood was obtained from the 2011 census file downloaded from the Data Catalogue. The population was later used to determine denstity.
  • Area – the total area of each separate neighbourhood was obtained from the City of Vancouver’s former website. This website, although isn’t in use, is still available for the purposes of retaining data on the city. Thankfully, anyone has access to the data file on website as well.
  • Density – this came from the 2011 census file that was downloaded from the ‘Data Catalogue’. First, the population of each neighborhood was calculated. Then, it was divided by the total area (in km2) of each neighbourhood.
  • Transportation land use – the City of Vancouver’s former website contained detailed information on the counts of the cycles at certain key bike route intersections. As well, Better Environmentally Sound Transportation, a local organization advocating for sustainable transportation, contained statistical data on the City of Vancouver’s land use. It also contained information on land use for the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) as well.
  • Housing information – data on the housing condition of Vancouverites from different neighborhoods was obtained from the 2011 census file. Data on the contribution of certain types of housing towards loneliness was obtained from the Vancouver Foundation’s ‘Connections and Engagement survey’ that was conducted in 2012 and released in June of the same year.

These variables were considered because of their ease of access and simplicity in proving the points this argument makes without confusing the reader. More is said on this in the Discussion section of this report.