Arc Collector

Introduction
The purpose of this lab is to use smart phones to collect geospatial data and create climate maps with the newly collected data. Smart phones have far more computing power than most GPS units and therefore it is much for convenient and cost effective to use a smart phone in the field. This lab also introduced domains and their importance for data collection.

Methods
To begin the lab the class was divided into groups and two and asked to collect weather data for the various sections on campus (fig. 1). Each was given a kestrel 3000 to record atmospheric conditions and a compass to record wind direction. The readings were imputed into the Arc Collector where the locations of each of the recordings geolocated using the smart phone's GPS. Domains were created for the different fields to insure that the data was properly imputed into the data set and to minimize normalization issues in the future.

Figure 1. Displays the different sections of campus the various groups were assigned to.

Figure 2. Kestrel 3000 used to collect surface temperature (Fahrenheit), dew point and wind speed 

Each of the groups collected between 20-30 data points in their respective zones giving the data set 154 climatic readings across the campus. Once all the readings were collected they were placed into an ArcGIS Online file (fig. 3). A new personalized map was created using this data so that it could be brought into a geodatabase so that the layers could be brought into ArcMap to create microclimate maps for the campus.

Figure 3. Displays each of groups data points collected in each of their respective zones. 

Results

Below are the four maps created from the data collected using Arc Collector. Looking at the wind speed and wind direction map below a couple patterns are evident. First, the main direction for the wind that day was from the southwest. Areas closure to the river and especially over the walking bridge had the highest wind speeds. Areas in the main campus had lower winds than surrounding areas that had more exposure to the wind. 

Figure 4. Map displaying both the wind direction as well as the wind speed for the campus

Looking at temperature maps below, areas along the river had the lowest surface temperatures and temperature taken at 2 meters. The lower surface temperature along the river is likely a result of the temperature being taken on grass. Areas of blacktop and concrete also had higher surface temperatures. The dew point map (fig. 7) followed trends that would be expected looking at the temperature at 2 meters maps (fig. 6) with areas that had high temperatures also having relatively high dew points and vice versa. 

Figure 5.  Map displaying surface temperature for the campus using graduated symbols.

Figure 6. Map displaying temperature at 2 meters for the campus using graduated symbols.

Figure 7. Map displaying surface dew point for the campus using graduated symbols.

Conclusions

Arc Collector is a very user friendly app that is extremely useful for geospatial analysists. It allows for the user to his/her smart phone to collect data in the field and develop web based applications for that data. Having the ability to have pre-created datasets with domains prior to going into field allows for the user to avoid input errors that may lead to normalization errors when processing the data.