Exploring the use of an environmentally enhanced neighbourhood classification for characterising gentrification in urban landscape: a case study of Salford and Colchester

The characterisation of urban and rural landscapes can take many forms. Neighbourhood classification provides one approach to describing changing social characteristics of urban landscapes, and thus can be used to examine social aspects of gentrification. However, gentrification usually also involves changes to the physical landscape. Current neighbourhood classifications of residential areas, from the academic, governmental and commercial sectors, tend to ignore the physical environment and are based almost exclusively on demographic and socio-economic indicators or variables. This paper seeks to explore the extension of a neighbourhood classification to incorporate environmental and landscape variables, thereby offering the potential of examining gentrification in terms of both physical and social changes. In this initial exploration, the physical aspect of the landscape is characterised in terms of land cover/land use variables. We examine gentrification in respect of two contrasting local authorities, Colchester Borough Council in north-east Essex which has the potential to be benefit from the social and economic development derived from its commutable proximity to London, and Salford to the west of Manchester City, where urban affluence rubs shoulders with more disadvantaged communities. Using the environmentally enhanced neighbourhood classification for different time periods we seek to explore gentrification in the two contrasting study areas.