Internal Assessment IB

Subject: Geography HL
Option G: Urban Environments

Fieldwork Question:
The city function changes on the example of Wola – a district of Warsaw.

Candidate name: Nguyen Long Thanh

Candidate session number: 001531-035
Date of submission:
Word count: 2415 words
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Contents Page:
1. Contents Page ……………………………………………………… 2

2. Introduction ………………………………………………………… 3

2.1 Aim …………………………………………………………… 3

2.2 History of Wola ………………………………………………. 3

2.3 Hypothesis ……………………………………………………. 4

2.4 Maps ………………………………………………………….. 4

3. Methods ……………………………………………………………. 8

4. Analysis ……………………………………………………………. 9

5. Conclusion ……………….……………………………………….... 15

6. Evaluation ………………………………………………………….. 15

7. Appenix …………………………………………………………….. 16

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Introduction (552 words)

A city is a large permanent settlement. Many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or
historical status based on the inhabitants. Generally, cities have systems for sanitation, utilities,
land usage, housing and transportation. A big city or metropolis usually has associated suburbs
and exurbs. Such cities are usually associated with metropolitan areas and urban areas, creating
numerous business commuters traveling to urban centers of employment. Once a city expands
far enough to reach another city, this region can be deemed a conurbation or megalopolis. City
functions changes with time. Development is one of the factors which mostly facilitate
interaction between people and businesses. It depends on location of the city and hence, its
access. Cities are divided into many regions depending on the functions. The main division are
service areas, residential areas and industrial districts. Services areas are generally located in
the center of the city, which makes it easily accessible for foreigners and the local people.
Residential areas are normally situated around the center while the industrial areas are located
on the outskirts . However industrial areas located near city center tent to lose their original
characteristics .

Aim: The aim of this investigation was to assess the present city functions of Wola in
comparison to the past. I have used collected data from which I could analyze and come to a
conclusion whether Wola’s function trend has changed or not.

History of Wola :
Before coming to the analysis of the investigation itself, I will briefly review Wola’s history
and the functions in the past.

The first mansion of Wola appeared in 1575. It was a village located on the outskirts of
Warsaw. Old routes crossed here leading from the Old Town in the direction of Sochaczew,
Poznan, Berlin and Dresden.

Countryside, Wola - originally owned by the prince, then the king - gradually passes into the
hands of nobles and burghers, who built their mansions here. Wola slowly changed, becoming
more and more a village, a hamlet, and in the end, the suburb of Warsaw. Developing
production - produced brick, breweries, distilleries, mills. It was clean. In the nineteenth
century, it became a popular place, almost like Bielany, where there were national celebrations
and trips around the town.

The biggest economic boom in Wola was in the end of the nineteenth century. It is because of
the opening of the first railway line from Warsaw to Vienna. The development of the railways
meant that Wola has become the main freight station of Warsaw: Railway freight station of the
Warsaw-Vilnius and the loading station. At the end of the nineteenth century along the tracks
more than a dozen points of loading and factories started, which had their own railway sidings.

The number of population rose from 9,000 in 1890 to 40,000 in 1915. A part from factory
owners, craftsmen and merchants, most of the population were workers employed in Wola.

During World War II, Wola suffered huge losses: in Warsaw Ghetto Jews were murdered

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during the Warsaw Uprising in Wola district where more than 50,000 people were killed.
Much of the district buildings, and streets located in the ghetto were destroyed.

Hypothesis : Assessing the past history of Wola and its present apparent, we can say that it has
changed its primary industrial function to business services function.

Maps :

Figure 1 : Decay Index of Wola (this map was drawn by me)

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Figure 2 : Intensity Index of Wola ( SERVICES) (this map was drawn by me)

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Figure 3 : Intensity Index of Wola ( RESIDENTIAL) (this map was drawn by me)

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Figure 4 : Wola district division

(Source:http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Go%C5%82%C4%99bie,+Pu%C5%82tusk+
County,+Mazovia,+Poland&msa=0&msid=104722474342979780980.00048fbf19dc6ca1ce240&ll=52.238418,2
0.980797&spn=0.055504,0.154324&t=h&z=13)

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Methods (296 words)

At the beginning of our investigation, we decided to form six groups of three people
and divide the district into six parts which is represented in the Figure 4. Each part was
assigned to one group. The task was to assess and collect data from each area of the district.
Streets were treated as boundaries to mark the areas where the assessment was done and data
collected.

We used both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. For quantitative
methods, we carried out observations and measurements. For qualitative methods, we took
photos and draw maps.

Generally, we conducted the investigation using three main issues:

- Decay Index (DI)
- Intensity Index (II)
- Photos
The DI was established with the help of provided table (see appendix 1 For each street, we
carried out observations and ticked notes in order to determine the DI. The aim of this index
was to show to what extend the considered area was destroyed or decayed. The greater the
index, the more decayed is the area.

The II was drawn by assessing the function of the buildings. Then we divided the buildings
into three groups: residential function, service function and industrial function. The index was
determined by counting the number of each functional buildings. Residential buildings
included living blocks and houses, service buildings involved any kinds of shops,
supermarkets, schools, restaurants and any other kind of services like post office, and industrial
buildings included unfinished constructions, offices, etc. The aim of this index was to conclude
whether Wola district has changed its functions over time.

The photos include the ones taken by our group as well as photos downloaded from some
useful websites.

The investigation was conducted on a common sunny day, so the weather did not have much
influence on our results.

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Analysis (1098 words)

First of all, I will go into details with the first map (Decay Index). After calculating the
numbers, we colored the map with different levels of color, in order to show the level of
decaying of each small area. We can notice that some small areas are not colored and are
marked with KRESKA, this means that we did
not investigate the decay index of these areas
because they are being under reconstruction or
some other rebuilding processes. For the colored
areas, the lighter the color (areas with 1 < DI <
5), the cleaner it is. In these areas, there is a
small number of conditions that indicate the
decay, such as: no smashed windows, very few
abandoned cars, some alcohol bottles, few
destroyed pavement, no overgrowing plants, etc.
Whereas, in the areas colored with darker blue,
the level of decay increases. For example, the
areas with DI ranging from 16 to 20, or above
21, are the most destroyed areas. For example,
there are a lot of abandoned houses, we can see
the graffiti almost on every wall, there is peeling
off paint, smashed doors, litter, etc. This means
that the areas with greater DI, like the area along
the whole street Aleja Prymusa Tysiąclecia, and
also the area of streets Okopowa, Leszna and
Towarowa, are the more destroyed ones, which indicates big changes to these small areas over
time, and that the less part of the population is paying attention to this decay.

Let’s look at these photos, which were taken by our group:

Illustration 1: Litter on the Okopowa street.

Illustration 2: Peeling off paint on old buildings on Wolska

street.

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Illustration 3: Graffiti on the Giełdowa street.

Moving on to the second map, we can analyze the distribution of service buildings within the
investigated area. As shown on the map, the darker the pink color, the more intensively the
service buildings are located. Unsurprisingly, the
most service-intensive areas are located around the
same places as the most decayed areas, that is along
the street Aleja Prymusa Tysiąclecia, the streets
Okopowa, Leszna, Towarowa and a very small part
on Aleja Jana Pawła II, where the two exclusive
hotels Hilton and Westin, the Intercontinetal
Warsaw, and the biggest shopping mall of Warsaw –
Złote Tarasy are placed. It can be evaluated that the
reason why these areas are more quickly destroyed
than the others is because of this great intensity of
services, which brings more human interactions,
more business and economic activities happening,
more social entertainment and attractions, like the
shopping mall, where millions of people visit
everyday. It can be noticed that there are many new
and very clean service buildings while there are very
few old service buildings. For example, as we look at
the photo below (taken by our group), we can see a
very new and modern building of the BPH Bank. It is
surrounded by fresh green plants, and a car parking which is kept very clean, without any
overgrowing plants. Although the DI of this area is quite high (15-16), but considering only the
bank, we can notice extremely few junks, trashes, overgrowing plants, even no graffiti on
walls, etc., which indicates big changes towards cleaner environment along with great changes
to modern services.

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Illustration 4

Illustration 5

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And the biggest proportion of buildings in Wola is represented by residential buildings, which
comprises most of this area. We can see that the
darkest green (which stands for 81-100% of
residential buildings) comprises about a half of the
map. There are some areas colored with the light
green, which means that there are few residential
buildings (1-20%). This does not make any great
influence because, still, most of the area consist of
40% or more of residential functions. However,
what we can easily recognize from this map is that
the residential is least intensive in the same places
where the service and decay index is most
intensive. The most probable reason for this is that
high intensity index for services brings high level
of noise and decay, which makes citizens unwilling
to resident in those regions. The upper part of the
map where the intensity index of service is highest
generally seems to have very low decay index. This
indicates that people tend to choose peaceful and
clean places to live rather than convenient with full
range of services. Also, this shows how the
residential function has changed from the past, as significantly less people were living in the
area with much lower intensity index. We took some photos of residential buildings, those
recently built as well as those remained from the past:

Illustration 6: New residential block on Siedmiogrocka street.

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Illustration 7: Common residential block on

Okopowa street.

Illustration 8: An old residential block on Wolska

street (the peeling off paint is clearly noticeable).

Finally, we also investigated the industrial functioning of Wola and we recognized that
industrial functions of the area has gradually decreased as many industrial buildings have been
left, are going to be reconstructed or have already been destroyed. Let us look at the beneath
photos:

Illustration 9: Industrial building destroyed for

renewing purpose.

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Illustration 10: An old industrial building waiting

for reconstruction (we can notice smashed windows, but it was not included in the decay index
because of the reconstruction purposes).

Generally looking at the industrial functioning of the Wola district, it can be recognized
that industry is not an advantage of the area. A lot of industrial factories have encountered
bankrupts or some other kinds of losses, therefore, they could not sustain industries in this area.
However, service is a very strong advantage of the area due to the fact that Wola is located
around the centre of the city, so the service interactions, business procedures and entertainment
facilities develop extensively. Citizens move around here to find apartments because there are
peaceful locations for living and meanwhile every kind of service or entertainment centre is
very close, such as cinemas, banks, shopping mall, hotels, casinos, café, etc.

Looking at this photo (taken by our group), this is an

abandoned industrial building, having most of the
windows smashed and surrounded by many graffiti’s,
which somewhat indicates lack of care paid to the
building. This partly shows the decreasing industrial
functions of Wola district occuring together with the
extreme growth of service and residential functions.
Considering the long run, it might be not true because
many reconstructions are being in process in Wola, and
Illustration 11 they might be planned to be industrial factories. So
maybe, industrial functions are going to develop in the
near future. But considering present period of time and
comparing to the past, we can see the loss of industrial functions in the Wola district.

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Conclusion (198 words)

Throughout my investigation, there is a clear conclusion drawn that industrial functions
of Wola have been significantly decreasing over the last period of time, but it may or may not
be rebuilt in the future. The service and residential functions of Wola have been instantly
increasing and are still moving towards greater level of modernity, social convenience and
economic benefits (socio-economic patterns). There is also a strong correlation between the
decay index and the intensity index of residential and service functions. Where the decay index
is higher, the intensity index of service is higher and of residential functions tends to be lower.
There are various aspects of urban areas recognized after this investigation, such as plenty of
kinds of functional buildings like very new and modern ones (BPH Bank) as well as very old
and destroyed ones (abandoned industrial factory), there are extremely clean and organized
areas (large area of the fresh and taken care green) which are very near the untidy and decayed
areas (junks and graffiti almost everywhere considering small pieces of area). This
investigation provided an fairly in-depth view of how the city function have been changing
over time and the reasons for those changes.

Evaluation (271 words)

The three main methods used in this investigation were all very useful (decay index,
intensity index and photos). The indexes helped to provide a concrete and reliable analysis of
the specific aspects in the considered areas. Although there were some errors due to human
bias and personal attitudes, the results of the investigation still supported the initial research
hypothesis. A wide range of photos helped to be more diverse in analysis and to provide clear
and true illustrative evidence for the arguments. Moreover, observations were carried out
absolutely in a natural way, without any deception or misleading measurements. There was a
possibility that we might have omitted some buildings which might affect the investigation’s
results. Overall, the investigation method was good and provided clear and acceptable
conclusion. However, there are still several recommendations for better achievement of the
study in the future. Firstly, for more accurate and careful approach, the class should be divided
into more groups in order to conduct better observations with smaller considered areas, so that
the investigation might bring some extended results that in this investigation were not present.
Secondly, if more qualitative indexes were taken into consideration, there might be a more
diverse analysis of the fieldwork issue. Thirdly, it would be better to achieve exact results if we
have conducted some surveys or interview with the local residents in order to gain more
knowledge about the area as we are not the local residents of Wola, so it will be useful for
further analysis. Finally, more detailed knowledge about the abandoned industrial buildings
would provide a more in-depth understanding of the industrial functions of Wola.

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Appendix

Appendix 1: The Decay Index Parameters.

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