ISSS608 2016-17 T3 Assign AKANKSHA MITTAL

ISSS608 Visual Analytics and Applications

Introduction

Data Preparation

Dashboard

Demystifying the case of Rose-Crested Blue Pipit
Traffic Patterns of Life through the Preserve

Overview

The Boonsong Lekagul Nature Preserve was created to preserve the habitat of wildlife and flora species native to the area, thanks to a generous grant from the World Fund for Nature Preservation. Mistford is a mid-size city located to the southwest of this large nature preserve. This city enjoys the attractive plumage and pleasant songs of a beautiful specie of bird named - Rose-Crested Blue Pipit. But Mitch Vogel, a post-doc student studying ornithology at Mistford College, discovered that the number of these birds here is decreasing. He came up with few possible reasons of this mysterious happening. One of these is the traffic ongoing in the preserve.

Challenge

As part of this investigation, I need to examine the movement of traffic through the preserve. This preserve is used by local residents and tourists for various purposes. These activities may include day trips, overnight camping and sometimes just for passing through from one side of preserve to another side. While hiking through the various parts of the preserve, Mitch noticed some odd behaviors of vehicles that he doesn’t think are consistent with the kinds of park visitors he would expect. Hence it is highly likely that there can be some link between the traffic going through the preserve and the decline in the nesting Rose-crested Blue Pipit which will be interesting to find out.

Dataset Overview

The data is collected by the park rangers and caretakers of the preserve. The data is gathered by the sensors present on the entrance gates and various other points in the park. Every vehicle entering the preserve has to pay a fees based on the number of axles. This helps locating the vehicle throughout the park like which all gates it is passing by and the timestamp shows the time interval it spends inside the preserve (or at a particular location in the preserve). There are also other locations in the part that register traffic passing through. The dataset includes sensor data and a map.

Questions that can be answered

“Patterns of Life” analyses depend on recognizing repeating patterns of activities by individuals or groups. Recognize daily patterns of life by vehicles traveling through and within the park. Characterize the patterns by describing the kinds of vehicles participating, their spatial activities (where do they go?), their temporal activities (when does the pattern happen?), and try to hypothesize of what the pattern represents (for example, if I drove to a coffee house every morning, but did not stay for long, you might hypothesize I’m getting coffee “to-go”).
Patterns of Life analyses may also depend on understanding what patterns appear over longer periods of time (in this case, over multiple days). Recognize patterns of life that occur over multiple days by vehicles traveling through and within the park. Characterize the patterns by describing the kinds of vehicles participating, their spatial activities (where do they go?), their temporal activities (when does the pattern happen?), and try to hypothesize of what the pattern represents (for example, many vehicles showing up at the same location each Saturday at the same time may suggest some activity occurring there each Saturday).
Unusual patterns may be patterns of activity that changes from an established pattern, or are just difficult to explain from what we know of a situation. Recognize unusual patterns (either single day or multiple days) and highlight why these are unusual.
What are the top 3 patterns discovered that are suspicious to be most impactful to bird life in the nature preserve?