IS428 2017-18 T1 Assign Duong Ngo Bao Tran
Contents
Overview
Mistford is a mid-size city is located to the southwest of a large nature preserve. The city has a small industrial area with four light-manufacturing endeavors. Mitch Vogel is a post-doc student studying ornithology at Mistford College and has been discovering signs that the number of nesting pairs of the Rose-Crested Blue Pipit, a popular local bird due to its attractive plumage and pleasant songs, is decreasing! The decrease is sufficiently significant that the Pangera Ornithology Conservation Society is sponsoring Mitch to undertake additional studies to identify the possible reasons. Mitch is gaining access to several datasets that may help him in his work, and he has asked you (and your colleagues) as experts in visual analytics to help him analyze these datasets.
Mitch Vogel was immediately suspicious of the noxious gases just pouring out of the smokestacks from the four manufacturing factories south of the nature preserve. He was almost certain that all of these companies are contributing to the downfall of the poor Rose-crested Blue Pipit bird. But when he talked to company representatives and workers, they all seem to be nice people and actually pretty respectful of the environment.
In fact, Mitch was surprised to learn that the factories had recently taken steps to make their processes more environmentally friendly, even though it raised their cost of production. Mitch discovered that the state government has been monitoring the gaseous effluents from the factories through a set of sensors, distributed around the factories, and set between the smokestacks, the city of Mistford and the nature preserve. The state has given Mitch access to their air sampler data, meteorological data, and locations map.
The task
General task
The four factories in the industrial area are subjected to higher-than-usual environmental assessment, due to their proximity to both the city and the preserve. Gaseous effluent data from several sampling stations has been collected over several months, along with meteorological data (wind speed and direction), that could help Mitch understand what impact these factories may be having on the Rose-Crested Blue Pipit. These factories are supposed to be quite compliant with recent years’ environmental regulations, but Mitch has his doubts that the actual data has been closely reviewed. Could visual analytics help him understand the real situation?
The primary job for Mitch is to determine which (if any) of the factories may be contributing to the problems of the Rose-crested Blue Pipit. Often, air sampling analysis deals with a single chemical being emitted by a single factory. In this case, though, there are four factories, potentially each emitting four chemicals, being monitored by nine different sensors. Further, some chemicals being emitted are more hazardous than others.
Specific tasks
- Characterize the sensors’ performance and operation. Are they all working properly at all times? Can you detect any unexpected behaviors of the sensors through analyzing the readings they capture?
- Now turn your attention to the chemicals themselves. Which chemicals are being detected by the sensor group? What patterns of chemical releases do you see, as being reported in the data?
- Which factories are responsible for which chemical releases? Carefully describe how you determined this using all the data you have available. For the factories you identified, describe any observed patterns of operation revealed in the data.
Background information
Companies
There are 4 companies in Mistford involved in the investigation.
- Roadrunner Fitness Electronics – Roadrunner produces personal fitness trackers, heart rate monitors, headlamps, GPS watches, and other sport-related consumer electronics.
- Kasios Office Furniture – Kasios Office Furniture manufactures metal and composite-wood office furniture including desks, tables, and chairs.
- Radiance ColourTek – Radiance produces solvent based optically variable metallic flake paints.
- Indigo Sol Boards – Indigo Sol produces skateboards and snowboards.
Chemicals
The sensors collect information on several substances of potential concern, including:
- Appluimonia – An airborne odor is caused by a substance in the air that you can smell.
- Chlorodinine – Corrosives are materials that can attack and chemically destroy exposed body tissues.
- Methylosmolene – This is a trade name for a family of volatile organic solvents.
- AGOC-3A – New environmental regulations, and consumer demand, have led to the development of low-VOC and zero-VOC solvents.
Dataset analysis & transformation process
There were a total of 7 documents provided for the assignment: 3 workable excel files, 1 static map in jpg format, and 3 detailed documents with relevant descriptions for the project. This section will elaborate on how the datasets are observed and transformed to prepare for the data visualization.
Sensor location
As both factories and sensors are located based on X and Y coordinates on the map, the factory locations are added to the sheet to prepare for a geodata plotting in Tableau for both items.
The sheet and file name are then renamed to “Coordinates”.
Tableau
The current excel files can be divided into 2 data sources to be worked with in Tableau:
- Sensors: Linking Coordinates and Sensor Data via a left outer join (Item = Monitor). Sensor Data’s Monitor column should be changed to String to match Item’s data format or else they will be unable to join;
- Meteorological Data: Consisting of only the relevant data sheet.
