1 Overview and getting help

Air quality is measured at numerous sites across the UK, using both automated and manual equipment. In the London Brough of Camden, there are two automated stations: Camden Kerbside (latitude/longitude: 51.544210, -0.175269) and London Bloomsbury (51.522290, -0.125889) that form part of the Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN). Air-quality data are available from the UK Defra air information resource.

The aim of this practical is to undertake statistical analysis of Camden air quality data that you will download from the Defra air information resource. Data analysis will be undertaken using R, which was introduced to you in GEOG0013 in term 1 by Dr Anwar Musah and which you should also have used again in GEOG0014 in a previous practical. Watch the introductory video below before the practical class. If you need a reminder about getting started with R, see Dr Musah’s video ‘Introduction to Statistics’ Part 1 Getting started with R studio’ You may also find it helpful to refer more generally to GEOG0013 tutorials from term 1.

The exercises only require you to use base R and you do not need to install any packages, although you are welcome to use packages such as ggplot2 for graphing if you have relevant expertise.

There are plenty of opportunities to get help with this exercise if you are stuck First, check the introductory video again to see if this covers your query. Second, you can ask one of the staff or PGTAs during the practical class or the follow-up seminar. Finally, if you have watched the video and attended both of the face-to-face sessions but are still having problems, you can come along to my office hours, but please do not email code that does not work to me, other staff or to the PGTAs expecting us to fix it for you.

Video: Introduction to the Air Quality practical (Length: 15 minutes)