AT40900 Capstone Project Announcement: Spatial Analysis of the Relationship of UAS Incidents to Airmen Data

Description of Project:
           Our group will be engaging in spatial analysis to tease out spatial patterns in the U.S Airmen Certification Database and will correlate that data with UAS incidents to show how they relate. The results from these findings will be shown in the form of maps that highlight these findings.

Background Information:
            According to National Geographic, geography is the study of places and the places and relationships between people and their environments. Spatial analysis is a type of geographical analysis in which the goal is to explain patterns of human behavior and its spatial expression in terms of mathematics and geometry. This esri article, www.arcgis.com has a good example of spatial analysis using the dilemma of whether a business should open a second store. This example focuses on using demographic and economic data to see if there will be enough sales. Our spatial analysis will focus on using the Airmen Certification Database and UAS sightings Database.

            The Airmen Certification Database is a freely available document available on the FAA’s website. The database that we are using is the includes a unique ID, name, address, region and, medical certification information. The database does not include certification numbers, or the address of those who do not want their address released. Here is the link to the database:

            The UAS Sightings Report Database is another freely available document on the FAA’s website. This database takes sightings from pilots, citizens, law enforcement, and other sources, and compiles them using 3 month period as the time frame.Each individual incident report has: The date of sighting(including the time in UTC), the state and city(no zip codes), as well as the preliminary info(which has the alert number, type of alert, as well as the aircraft that spotted the UAS), and a summary of the event. Here is the link to the database:

Simple Spatial Analysis Example Using Airmen Database:
            Take an excel table of the Airmen Database, geocode the data so that each point shows up spatially on a map, then perform a hotspot analysis on the data to see where pilots congregate. 

Figure 1: Airmen Dataset Excel Sheet

Figure 2: Airmen Dataset Geocoded

Figure 3: Airmen Dataset Hotspot Analysis

Group Members and Responsibilities:
            The group members are Sam Scroggs and Jaspar Saadi-Klein. Because we already have the data sets for this project, we have no need for in field data collection. As a result, we will not adhere to the traditional PIC and VO format. Instead, we will be co-researchers working together to find additional information by correlating data between the Airmen and UAS datasets and will analyse them together experimenting with various spatial analysis tools to group data together based on their proximity and make inferences based on this.

            In terms of designating specific roles each person will fulfill:

• Sam will be the primary note taker of the capstone process and background researcher.
• Jaspar will be the primary generator of GIS data, maps, and outputs.

            In addition, each member will do the necessary research to advance their GIS skills, and build background information on U.S. Airmen incident patterns. The workload of working with imported databases, existing data, spatial modeling, and creation of a research paper is not limited to one individual and will be split between group members where deemed necessary.

Data Processing and Analysis Timeline:

• Begin map creation and background research: August 27th
• Finish all background research: September 10th
• Maps created: September 24th
• Begin poster design/creation: October 1st
• Poster completed: November 5th ready for poster day 
• Final Presentation: December 3rd