Geography Fieldwork Excursion

By student Year 11 Mayu Toyama

On Thursday 11 of May, Ms. Snoxall's Geography class went on a fieldwork excursion to identify some of the sustainable factors that are found in Darwin City. 

Prior to this excursion our class had been discussing the different environmental, social and profit factors that makes a city sustainable, for cities around the world. For this specific report our class had to identify those same factors within Darwin city and investigate different plans and solutions that Darwin city has implemented to be sustainable.

In this excursion we collected traffic data to ascertain how Darwin is a sustainable city. Within the course of four hours, we have learned the different ways Darwin has embedded sustainable solutions to prevent overheating within the city as the location we live in are prone to the high heat. From cooling the building to cooling the roads and cooling the hottest part of Darwin City, Ms. Snoxall thoroughly informed the class of some of the measures that have been implemented to help prevent areas from overheating. Including providing greenery on sides of buildings, and growing shades to cool the hottest spot in Darwin to painting the roads white as to cool the intersection.

We also learnt about planting throughout the city and about some of the other ways we can cool buildings. The class learned the importance of abundant parking space, reliable public transport and the importance of safe pedestrian crossing as most locals of the Darwin city would walk to work, as facilities ranging from the medical centres to cafés are just a walking distance. We have learned that using public transport is a great way to prevent traffic congestion and the spread of pollutions.

We surveyed 38 passers-by on their opinion on how well Darwin is as a city, with factors ranging from accommodation to entertainment, most says that they love the environment albeit would appreciate to see more entertainment facilities. We really enjoyed this practical application of the information we learnt in class and had fun along the way!