ArcCollector: Creating a database, features and domains for deployment

Charlie Krueger

GEOG 336

Arc Collector 2: Creating your own database, features, and domains for deployment and use in Arc Collector

Introduction:

For this lab the class was given the task of creating a question that would then be answered by collecting data using Arc Collector. Arc Collector is a program that pairs well with Arc Map Online which is where the data points would be stored before moving them to ArcGIS. Arc Collector allows for a person to plot points on a map in real time and assign data for that point. The data would be analyzed on ArcGIS and then be made into maps showing the answer to the question. The question that was created for this lab was “Do more trucks and SUV have hunting stickers on them then cars?” which would also track other types of stickers such as sports stickers or political one on all different types of vehicles.

Study Area:

The study area for this lab would be the campus of the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. More specifically the study areas would be limited to the parking lots around the campus. This is where the vehicles that would be studied would be located so the parking lots around the dorm buildings and teachings buildings would be the focus areas. Not every parking lot would be covered during the lab but the data that was collected would be sufficient to answer the question.

Map of the study area with the locations of the data entries

Methods:

To prepare for the collection of the data Professor Hupy told the class that ArcMap Online had a very good tutorial that would help the class set up a database to use and a map to share. This took quite a process to create a database that could then have data added to it in live time when the students were collecting data on Arc Collector.  The database had to be created using ArcMap and was placed into a specific folder where it would be stored. This database would be created to each student’s individual needs for what they were looking to answer with the data that was collected. The domains were where the students would customize things that they were looking for in the research. The domains for the question that was being investigated were the sticker domain, vehicle type, estimated age, and upkeep of the vehicle. Each one of these things would help tell me something about the question that was trying to be answered. The next thing that would be created from the database is the feature class that would be the actual points that would be plotted when using Arc Collector. The feature class that was used was the vehicle type class because this seemed to fit the best and had the least amount of options when defining the class.  Once the database was set up it was to be shared to ArcMap online was that it could be used on Arc Collector. The feature class could then be added onto the base map that was online and then the map was saved and was ready to have data added to it. This was then when the students could go out and add research data to the maps that were created.

Results/Discussion:

Table of the Data

             When first analyzing the data it was clear that the campus of UW Eau Claire has much more cars and SUVs than it does trucks. This makes sense for a college campus because cars are usually cheaper to purchase and to fill up with gas. So the data does not have that many trucks, jeeps, or station wagons which were thought to be the vehicles to have the hunting stickers on them. The data that was collected did show that trucks did have more hunting stickers on them then cars and SUV do. So going back to the question of the project it was answered by the data collected even though the data lacked more trucks in the survey. When collecting data, it shows that the upper campus was more of the main focus and this was because the bottom part of campus can always be changing with vehicles coming and going where upper campus has less movement of vehicles because the drivers live in those dorm halls where the vehicle is parked. An issue that did arise during the collection of data was the fact that many vehicles would have more than one sticker on them and then the decision of which category they would be put in came up. The way this was resolved was if a car had more type of one sticker than another type it was placed in the sticker group with the higher court of that sticker. Another thing that was noticed was issues such as a UW Eau Claire sticker that also had mention of a sports team on it. This was difficult because it represented two groups of sticker at the same time while only being one sticker. Overall the data that was collected was very representative of the campus but as always with more data comes a more accurate answer to the question that is being asked.

Interactive Map of the Original Data Collected

Map of the Vehicle Locations of the data

Sticker type and the locations on them in the study area

Conclusion:

               The need for proper project design is very big when looking to answer even simple question such as the one in this lab. There were issues when collecting data that were not thought of before and after the fact it was too late because the database was already created. Yes, the question did get an answer for the collection of the data but could be better when looking at the amount of data that was collected. If one thing that could have been different it would have been the classification of the stickers and to think about the fact that usually people have more than one vehicle sticker. Also if given another project such as this it would be good to make sure that Arc Collector is working properly before heading out to collect data and finding out that the domains are not in it.