5 Representation by Regional Authorities (Council Areas)
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-## It has 4 fields## Reading layer `scotland_ca_2010' from data source `/Users/jeremy/gits/mapping_environmental_action/data/scotland_ca_2010.shp' using driver `ESRI Shapefile'
-## Simple feature collection with 32 features and 4 fields
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-## epsg (SRID): NA
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-## Source: "/Users/jeremy/gits/mapping_environmental_action/data", layer: "scotland_parlcon_2011"
-## with 73 features
-## It has 3 fieldsPerhaps the first important question to ask of these groups is, where are they? I calculated the spread of eco-congregations and transition groups across each of the 32 council areas in Scotland. Every council area in Scotland has at least one eco-congregation or transition group). The most are located in , with 48, whereas the mean among all the 32 council areas is 10.75, with a median of 8, standard deviation of 9.4698162, and interquartile range of 11.5. The following choropleth maps show the relative concentration of eco-congregations (indicated by yellow to red).
(TODO: need to implement) Though there are too few eco-congregations and transition groups for a numerically significant representation in any of the intermediate geographies, mapping the concentration of sites by agricultural parishes allows for a more granular visual and I include this for comparison sake. Note, for the sake of a more accurate visual communication, we have also marked out areas of Scotland that are uninhabited with hash marks on the map of agricultural parishes. (TODO: this will be done in the final draft, once I get my image masking fixed!).12
[][Figure2]
-Given the way population and places of worship are unevenly distributed across Scotland it is important to represent data in terms of relative distribution. For this study, we attempted to “normalise” our data in two different ways, (1) as shown by Figure 2 above, by taking population figures from the 2011 census (see data sheet in Appendix A) and (2) by adjusting relative to the number of places of worship in each council region.13 The latter of these two can yield particularly unexpected results. Thus, of the 4048 “places of worship” in Scotland, the highest concentration is actually the region, with 435, second is 329 (). Rank of Council Areas by population and number of places of worship is also included in Appendix A.
+Given the way population and places of worship are unevenly distributed across Scotland it is important to represent data in terms of relative distribution. For this study, we attempted to “normalise” our data in two different ways, (1) as shown by Figure 2 above, by taking population figures from the 2011 census (see data sheet in Appendix A) and (2) by adjusting relative to the number of places of worship in each council region.[^15914204] The latter of these two can yield particularly unexpected results. Thus, of the 4048 “places of worship” in Scotland, the highest concentration is actually the region, with 435, second is 329 (). Rank of Council Areas by population and number of places of worship is also included in Appendix A.
We can use this data to normalise our figures regarding Eco-Congregation Scotland communities and this draws the presence in Edinburgh of ECS communities into even sharper relief, as Edinburgh, though ranked second in terms of population and fifth in terms of places of worship, ranks first for the presence of all ECS congregations and awarded ECS congregations. However, taking population as the basis for normalisation first, we find that Edinburgh is far from the most prominent outlier. In trying to communicate this difference for a lay-audience, we have chosen to list this difference as a multiplier (i.e. there are 2.x times as many congregations as their share of population and an average figure of congregations might allow for) as this conveys the difference in a straight-forward way. Outliers where the disparity between their relative share of the total ECS footprint and their relative share of population is different by a positive ratio of more than double include the Orkney Islands (3.7 times more eco-congregations than their expected average share based on population), Argyll and Bute (admin_lev1[CODE=S12000023]$ecs_pop_factor 4.2x), Stirling (2.76x), and Perthshire and Kinross (2.18x). Interestingly, there are no outliers whose relative share of the total footprint of ECS is double or more in the negative direction (see Appendix A chart for full numbers).
Turning to the total of 4048 “places of worship” in Scotland, we find a slightly different picture of the relative concentration of Eco-Congregations in Scotland. In this case, the outliers are
Whereas our initial measurements indicated a prominent lead for Edinburgh, by normalising our data in this way we can highlight the stronger-than-expected presence of several others that might otherwise escape notice because they lie in a region with significantly lower population or numerically less places of worship. Taking the PointX data on “places of worship” in Scotland, we find a less dramatic picture, but also a slightly different one. The positive outliers include East Renfrewshire (3.4x) Edinburgh (2.9x), Stirling (2.2), West Lothian (1.9x) and Aberdeen (1.5x). Again, negative outliers are far less dramatic, with only Midlothian possessing a ratio of more than 100% negative difference from the number of “places of worship” at 1.5x fewer.
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We can compare the representation in these various regions against our comparison groups to see how other community-based organisations cluster in Scottish administrative districts. Here there are some significant contrasts. Scottish Community Development trusts are most intensely concentrated in the Highlands and Argyll & Bute. But, this is consistent with all the other categories, Eco-Congregations, Places of Worship, and dtass are all over-represented in this area, varying only by the degree. Edinburgh is different, here we find that Eco-Congregations and Transition projects are over-represented, while dtass are under-represented. Finally, the highlands are another strong contrast, here we find a very strong over-representation by transition towns and dtass while the representation of Eco-Congregations is relatively close to the population share for that area. The two areas of greatest contrast for Eco-Congregations from the other groups are unsurprising, Edinburgh is the location of the ECS offices, while Stirling is the area in which ECS first began (see Appendix B for full data).
[][Figure3b]
[Figure 3c, map normalised by population; choropeth map with 6 gradients. with white represented by =/- 0.5; side-by-side with agricultural parishes map; uninhabited areas greyed out]
[Figure 4, normalised by PointX data; also including agricultural parishes etc. as above]
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