ISSS608 2016-17 T3 Assign GUAN YIFEI Visualization

VAST Challenge 2017:Mystery at the Wildlife Preserve

Background

Methodology & Dashboard Design

Insights

Conclusion

Viz & Insights

The Daily Trends

Note: The outliers observed in part 3 were removed for the analysis of long period patterns to avoid misunderstandings.

Patterns	Visualization
1. Setting the scene – classification of visitors & the “most scenic path” The visitors were divided into 6 segments based on the types of vehicles they drive and their activities patterns, summarized in Fig 1.A below. The patterns of life analysis will address each segment separately. Fig 1.B shows the most frequently visited paths (by gate categories) for all segments of visitors, in which we noticed the route “general gate-rangerstop-rangerstop-general gate” appeared very frequently. The high visitor volume indicates that most likely this path has most attractions in the reserve. For easier identification, this route will be addressed as “the most scenic route” in the subsequent analysis.
2.Day Campers Refer to Fig 2.1, day campers started to enter the reserve at 5am and left the park by 18:00. In terms of camp selection, Fig 2.2 reveals that camp3 and 6 are their most popular choices, possibly because they are located nearer to the entrances. Accessibility could be one of the considerations for the day campers in choosing their campaign locations due to the limited time they have in the park.
3.Extended campers The day for extended campers started a bit later than day campers, from 6am onwards. The time of exit for them also spread over a longer time range (Fig 3.1). Unlike the day campers, they tend to settle down at the more secluded camp sites like camp 5 and camp 8, to enjoy a quiet night of sleep (Fig 3.2).
4.Rangers The day of rangers started from the ranger base and ends there with their first shift started at 6am and the last shift started at 17pm (Fig 4.2). They travelled by long but fixed paths, the reason could be that they are working on routine shifts (Fig 4.1). There are two typical paths adopted by the rangers, the maintenance path and the patrolling path. The maintenance path passed through various restricted gates, which was normally started at 6am,11am and 14pm. The patrolling path covered the entire reserve, started at regular hour intervals.
5.Service Trucks The service trucks are axle-4 and above heavy vehicles which moved around the reserve throughout the day. They seemed to be visiting the reserve at fixed hours daily – majority of them reported to the “most scenic path” at 6am and 15-16pm daily (path 1 in Fig 5) while the others revolved along entrance 1->generalgate7->entrance 3 at 10am & 14pm daily. These are probably service or supplies trucks transporting goods in and out of the reserve.
6.Sightseeing coaches The sightseeing coaches brought guests to the reserves throughout the day, without entering into the camp sites. Majority of the visitors were brought to the “most scenic path” from different entrances (path 1 in Fig 6) while the rest were dropped along the camping path (path 2 in Fig 6) which connected camps 3,4,5. Unlike the truck drivers, the sightseeing coaches used entrance 3 instead.

The Longer Period Trends

Note: The outliers observed in part 3 were removed for the analysis of long period patterns to avoid misunderstandings.

Patterns	Visualization
1.Campers Fig 7 provides the yearly visitor traffic calendar for the campers. The campers visited the reserve more often from May to Aug, possibly because this is the warm period of the year. The highest traffic of campers was observed in July 2015. There is a drastic drop in the campers, especially extended campers, from Q4 2015 onwards, which could be attributed to the colder weather.
2. Rangers Trend Fig 8 below reveals weekly activity pattern for rangers. In 8.1, the heatmap was configured to show the average stay duration for the rangers at various gates. We noticed the rangers would stay for extended durations at camping 8 (Mondays, 10am to 14pm) as well as gate 2 & rangerstop 1 (Mondays 6am – 11am, Wednesdays 13 – 16pm). The rangers could be doing inspection or maintenance works at this these locations. Looking at the reserve map, we can observe that ranger stop 1 and camping 8 are both located at the “dead ends” of the reserve, with no paths extending beyond them – it is likely that these two locations are surrounded with floras whereby periodic maintenance is required. In Fig 8.2 we could see the rangers gathered at the rangerbase and gate 8 (which is in close proximity to the ranger base) on Thursdays 14pm. It could be an indication that the weekly ranger meetings were held on Thursdays 14pm at the rangerbase.
3.Service Trucks Fig 9 below shows the weekly movement pattern for service trucks at various gates. We noticed that there were a higher number of service trucks moved pass the “connecting path” on Thursdays, at two prominent timings: 1am and 16pm. This might be the scheduled delivery/pick up hours for the service trucks.
4. Sightseeing coaches Lastly, Fig 10 shows the weekly movement pattern for sightseeing coaches. The sightseeing coaches seemed to be bringing the visitors to the reserve on fixed days and hours, as the darker blocks on the heatmap tend to appear in regular intervals. For example, the coaches tend to visit the reserve at below timings: -Fridays & Sundays 3am -Thursdays & Sundays 11am -Sundays 16pm -Mondays 22 pm

The Anomalies

The design
1.The Gantt chart shows all the activities in the reserve over the time span, one Gantt bar indicating one movement.
2.Filters allow the user to filter by restricted areas /car type/cluster
3.Select the suspicious bars to view the heat map distribution to confirm if the observation is within certain car type or happened on certain days of the week
4.Click on the interested area of the heatmap to view the detailed ID table
5.Click on the car ID to view its animated path

Anomalies & Car ID	Visualization
1.A group of 6 cars (type 1) trespassing restricted area ranger stop 1, on 10 July 2015	The gif below shows the paths adopted by the suspicious vehicles,the restricted gates are colored in red.
2.Type 4 vehicle trespassing restricted areas 23 times on Tuesdays and Thursdays 2 to 5 am, following the same path	The gif below shows the paths adopted by the suspicious vehicles,the restricted gates are colored in red.
3.The same extended camper ( 20154519024544-322 ) active at various midnight continuously

Design 2, similar concepts to design 1 but focuses on the duration,gate checked and gate visited by each tourist.
• Total checked: the total number of stops each tourist went
• Total visited: the number of distinct stops each tourist went Car Type

Anomalies & Car ID	Visualization
4.Abnormally high number of stops visited with low average duration • Car-ID 20154519024544-322 visited total 281 stops in the park and stayed in the park from 19th Jun to 5th Oct (Extended camper). The same car ID appeared under observation 4. • Car-ID 20154112014114-381 visited 98 stops and stayed from 14th Jun to 26th Jul (Extended camper) 5.Abnormally high average duration in the reserve with low number of stops visited • 20150105060134-242, 20150420100416-232 visited 4 checkpoints but stayed for over one month in the reserve (Extended camper)
6.Hiking or sightseeing visitors with abnormally long stay in the park (they are the same group of visitors observed in 1) 7.Hiking or sightseeing visitors with abnormally long stay in the park, car type4