Capstone Project Update

Introduction:
During the past five to six weeks of the course, our main focus has been on project planning, background research, an annotated bibliography, and a formal introduction to the project. So far, although we have generated some data outputs, we have not delved into the depths of experimenting with different ways to filter and represent the data in ArcGIS Pro. Over the last 1-2 weeks, we have shifted our focus to experimenting with outputs generated in ArcGIS Pro; this project update will focus on showing these outputs and discussing interesting highlights.
Certain data products previously generated are shown and discussed in our story map post linked here. Data Products:
UAS Pilots:
The previous post from the story map displayed the entire U.S Airmen Certification Database geocoded (See the first image of the story map). From that database, all Commercial 14 CFR Part 107 UAS pilots were extracted and the points were displayed on a map (see figure 1).

Figure 1: 14 CFR Part 107 UAS Pilot Points (Continental U.S.)

Figure 1 gives a general idea of the distribution of UAS pilots across the United States. From this map it seems as though there are more UAS pilots in the eastern United States than in the west. It also appears that there are clusters of UAS pilots in around southern California, Denver, Chicago, Fort Worth, Washington DC, Boston, etc. When looking at this map, it is difficult to see the total numbers and exact clustering of points for this, figures 2 and 3 better illustrate these features.

Figure 2: UAS Pilots Per State (Continental U.S)

Figure 2 above shows the total number of UAS pilots per State. Red signifies more UAS pilots and yellow signifies less UAS pilots. Comparing this map back to the points in figure 1, it is now apparent that when split up by state, the seeming large number of points in the midwest and east does not give a good representation of total numbers. Looking at the figure, California has the most UAS pilots followed by Texas and Florida. Although it is not shown, Rhode Island, Vermont and Delaware have the least UAS pilots with 189, 288 and 380 respectively. While Figure 2 shows the total numbers of UAS pilots per state, neither it nor figure 1 show where airmen tend to cluster. Figure 3 below is an Optimized HotSpot Analysis using a fishnet grid of 10km to show where they cluster.

Figure 3: Hotspot of UAS Pilot Clustering

Examining Figure 3, UAS pilots seem to be a significant amount of clusters around large cities such as Los Angeles, Washington DC, New York, Dallas, Jacksonville, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, and Denver. If one overlays the population of United States major cities in 2015 with the size of dot representing how large the population of each city is, the correlation between the size of city and areas of hotspots aligns pretty closely (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: 2015 Major Cities Population Hotspot Overlay

Reported UAS Sightings: Now that we have examined the total numbers of UAS pilots per state and where they tend to congregate, let's examine the number of UAS sightings and see how the two relate. Figure 5 below shows the number of UAS sightings per state as a color map with dark red signifying more sightings and light yellow signifying less sightings. The states that have the most sightings in order from greatest to least are California, Florida, New York, and Texas. If the number of sightings per state is compared to the number of UAS pilots per state, see Figure 2, there is a mismatch in the top three as New York comes in third for the most sightings, while it comes in 5th for the number of UAS pilots. In other words, there is a disproportionate number of sightings in New York compared to the number of UAS pilots living there. Conversely, North Carolina has the fourth highest amount of UAS pilots however it has the 11th highest number of sightings. In other words, while North Carolina has a large amount of UAS pilots, it has a comparatively low amount of sightings. It is worth noting that 1) a sighting is an unconfirmed report made by a pilot; 2) the number of sightings began in 2015, one year before the rules for commercial Part 107 operations came out; 3) our number of UAS pilots does not include recreational pilot numbers. If it did, the data may have appeared differently.

Figure 5: UAS Sightings Per State Color Map

While Figure 5 shows the number of sightings per state, it does not give any indication where in the state these sightings are occuring. Figure 6 below shows the number of sightings by city with large dots indicating a greater number of sightings and small dots a lower number of sightings. The reason sightings by city is used rather than a more exact location is because it is the most consistent, most accurate, filterable field available in all of the data. Looking at Figure 6 below, New York City has the most sightings with 612, Los Angeles follows with 312 and Chicago comes in at third with 218 sightings. From there on, most major cities range from 125-201 reported sightings, resulting in many dots of similar size.

Figure 6: UAS Sightings National Scaling Point Map

Figure 6 is a good overview however, let’s zoom in and examine specific states. Figure 7 below shows UAS sightings by city within Texas. This map is similar to one done in our story map of California. Similar to Figure 6, the size of the dot corresponds to the number of sightings with large dots signifying more sightings and smaller dots signifying less sightings. Looking at population data on Worldpopulationreview.com, Houston is the most heavily populated city in Texas. This is reflected in the number of sightings which is the greatest in Houston. One thing to note is that there is a higher concentration of dots around Dallas, which could be due to the Dallas/Fort-Worth Airport being the 4th busiest U.S. airport as reported by dallasnews.com. The total number of reported sightings in Houston is 201, which is exactly the same as the added reported sightings in the Dallas Fort-Worth area. Despite the similar number sightings between the two areas San-Antonio, as the 2nd most populous city in Texas, doesn’t have a huge concentration of sightings.

Figure 7: Texas UAS Sightings Per City

Figure 8, Florida UAS sightings per city, is another map that makes an argument for the business of an airport being one factor correlated to number of sightings. Despite the largest city populations in Florida being Jacksonville, Miami,Tampa, and Orlando according to florida-demographics.com, the numbers show Miami has the most reported sightings at 182, and Orlando has 169 which is closely linked to the busiest airports which are Orlando International, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale. The link may also have to do with the size, type, and shape of the airspace near the ground these areas which needs to be looked at more thoroughly in the future.

Figure 8: Florida UAS Sightings Per City Map

Future products to be generated: One of the first products which we plan to generate in the near future is a graph comparing the increase in UAS Pilots and reported Sightings over time (which will be used on our GIS day poster). Second, two other maps that are of similar nature that need to be generated are time lapse maps of UAS reported sightings over time and UAS pilots over time. Third, a map with reported sightings relative to major airspace would be interesting to generate.