Lab 8: Personal ArcCollector Project

Butts Around Campus

                

    Introduction:
           For this lab the class was instructed to think of their own research question and gather point data to answer those questions. As in the previous labs this lab included creating a normalized geodatabase. This time it was to be normalized and specified to the question at hand. The question this study is based on revolves around cigarette smoking and the campus's tobacco policy. The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire is not a tobacco free campus and it is common to see several students smoking within campus grounds on a daily basis. In 2010 Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich received two separate proposals regarding smoking restrictions. One from the University Senate, comprised of faculty and staff calling for a tobacco free campus and the other by the Student senate objecting the tobacco ban but recommending that smoking be shifted away from areas heavily traveled by non-smokers, building entrances and air intakes. The chancellor's committee was charged with creating a policy that, as proposed by the Student Senate, would establish fewer smoking areas on campus. (Campus Smoking Policy 2016) Below is a map of these designated smoking areas provided on the policy’s page on the UWEC website. (See figure 1.) This policy was put into effect on may 1st of 2012.

Figure 1. Map of designated smoking areas on UWEC campus found on the school's website.

This study aims to look at students smoking patterns on campus, how they relate to the identified areas and seeing how proximity to building doors and high traffic or lower traffic areas play a role in wear students smoke. This study was completed using the ArcCollector phone application by Esri, cigarette butts found around the UWEC campus, Esri online and ArcMap.

Figure 2. Normalizing the geodatabase in ArcCatalog  

Methodology: 

        The first step in beginning this study once the research question was set was to create a normalized geodatabase in ArcCatalog. (See figure 2.)  The field sections included in this database were number of cigarette butts, proximity to the closet door, brands, whether the area was high traffic or not and if there was anyone presently smoking. (See figure 3.)Once the geodatabase was created it was shared to ArcGIS Online where it could be downloaded onto the ArcCollector phone application. From 2 to 5pm 38 data points around lower campus were collected on April 1^st of 2016. Data collection began on the west side of the Philips Science Hall and wrapped clockwise around lower campus ending behind the Davies Center. 

Figure 3. Fields within the geodatabase  

  Not every cigarette butt was documented, only significant piles and groupings of the butts were collected.  The ArcCollector app once again proved to be a simple and useful tool in the data recording process. Figures 4. and 5. show screenshots of the app and how the data is inputted. After finishing the data collection which updates automatically after each point is recorded, the data had to be imported into ArcMap from ArcGIS Online and then transformed into an attractive informational map of the collected data.(See figure 6.)

                 

 

        Figure 4. Screenshot of ArcCollector app and recorded data points, Figure 5. Screenshot of data entry screen

Results:

Figure 6. Map of the number of Cigarette butts around the UWEC campus.

       It seems that the points with the highest number of cigarette butts were located in more secluded areas of campus and near the designated smoking areas. It was speculation that the higher number of butt points would be closer to the doors but surprisingly these points weren't. The points with the highest number of cigarette butts were 50 to about 150 feet from the closet building doors. Which is good following closer to the hopes of the tobacco policy established in 2012. They were actually several people smoking while the data was being recorded as well and some in or near the designated smoking areas.(See figure 7.)

Figure 7. A map showing points proximity to the closet door in feet and number of people smoking.

 Marlboro seemed to be the most popular brand followed by Camel. 4 cigars and one rolled cigarette were found. Rarely any cigarettes butts were found in grassed areas like in the center of campus.(See figure 8.)

Figure 8. A map showing the number 1 brand of cigarette butts at each data point.

Conclusions:
      Overall this was an informational study  showing the main smoking spots on campus were in more secluded areas, under the L.E. Phillips Library, on the side of Davies, and behind the buildings of Hibbard and east side door of Phillips Science Hall.  Some minute issues became present in the data recordation process do to the way the geodatabase was normalized. An additional "other" option for the brand field would have prevented nulls and higher set range for the number of butts and feet for the proximity to doors would have improved this study. (See figure 9.)

Figure 9. Attribute table of collected data.

References:

    "Campus Smoking Policy." Campus Smoking Policy. UW-Eau Claire and the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, 11 Jan. 2016. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.