📍 Transport Accessibility and Air Quality Analysis – Dartford, Kent

Overview

This project explores public transport accessibility and proximity to major road networks in Dartford, Kent, using openly available UK datasets and geospatial analysis techniques. The aim is to demonstrate how transport and environmental data can be prepared, analysed, and visualised to support discussions around sustainable transport, accessibility, and local planning.

The project is developed incrementally, following best practices in GIS, data processing, and reproducible analysis.

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Project Objectives

• Prepare and clean official UK transport and geographic datasets
• Analyse the spatial distribution of bus stops within Dartford
• Establish a reproducible workflow for transport accessibility analysis
• Lay the groundwork for future analysis of environmental exposure and inequality

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Data Sources

All datasets used in this project are publicly available UK sources:

• Dartford Local Authority Boundary
  Source: ONS Open Geography Portal

• Bus Stop Locations (NaPTAN)
  Source: UK Department for Transport – National Public Transport Access Nodes

Additional datasets (e.g. road networks, deprivation indices) may be incorporated in later stages.

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Repository Structure

dartford-transport-airquality/
│
├── notebooks/
│   └── 01_project_setup_and_data_exploration.ipynb
│
├── data/
│   ├── raw/
│   │   └── dartford_boundary/
│   │       └── dartford_boundary.geojson
│   └── processed/
│       └── bus_stops_dartford_clean.geojson
│
└── README.md

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Current Progress

✔ Loaded and validated the Dartford local authority boundary
✔ Assigned missing CRS metadata (EPSG:4326)
✔ Loaded and filtered NaPTAN bus stop data
✔ Spatially clipped bus stops to Dartford
✔ Reduced dataset to essential attributes
✔ Produced exploratory visualisations
✔ Saved processed datasets for reuse

All analysis steps and outputs are documented in the Jupyter notebook.

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Tools & Technologies

• Python (Pandas, GeoPandas, Shapely, Matplotlib)
• Jupyter Notebooks
• OpenStreetMap & UK Government open data
• GitHub for version control and documentation

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Next Steps

Planned next stages of the project include:

• Transport accessibility analysis using distance-based buffers
• Integration of road network data as a proxy for air quality exposure
• Aggregation of results at neighbourhood (LSOA) level
• Clear visual outputs to support planning and policy discussions

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Notes

This project is intended as a demonstration of applied geospatial and transport analysis using UK public-sector data. It does not make health impact claims and should be interpreted as exploratory and illustrative.

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Author

Dankwaa Akua Yeboah
Graduate Transport & Geospatial Analyst
GitHub: https://github.com/AkuaDankwaa