Entry Name: "SMU-Team JKY-GC"
VAST Challenge 2017
Mini-Challenge 1
Team Members:
Dr. Kam Tin Seong, Singapore
Management University, tskam@smu.edu.sg
Kishan
Bharadwaj Shridhar, Singapore Management University, kishanbs.2016@mitb.smu.edu.sg ,PRIMARY
Ong Guan Jie Jason, Singapore Management University,
jason.ong.2016@mitb.smu.edu.sg
Zhang Yanrong, Singapore Management University, yrzhang.2016@mitb.smu.edu.sg
Student Team: YES
Tools Used:
- Tableau
- SAS JMP
Approximately how many hours were spent working on this submission
in total?
180
May we post your submission in the Visual Analytics Benchmark
Repository after VAST Challenge 2017 is complete? YES
Video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3rrwuzRci1kN0FKOV9PN1NzNmM/view
Tableau Workbook:
Questions
1 – “Patterns
of Life” analyses depend on recognizing repeating patterns of activities by
individuals or groups. Describe up to six 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 provide a
hypothesis 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”). Please limit your answer to six images and 500 words.
Finding #1: No movement inside camps and
gates at Silent Hours?
No traffic is captured from 11 pm
to 4am (+1 day) at the Camps and Gates for all car types. Camps might
be closed for vehicle movement once night campers have settled in, and may be
unsafe to venture near camping zones, due to other wildlife movement in the
preserve. Gates, which are mainly used for inspection and carrying out road
works, also do not see vehicle flow during these hours. The other parts of the
preserve during this time, however see traffic influx, albeit in relatively
lesser amounts. This however does not necessarily mean that cars are
not present inside camps during the 11pm to 4am duration.
Finding #2: 2axle buses, 3 axle buses and
4 axle trucks do not enter camps at all.
4 axle trucks are found to be present at
Gates, the discussion
about which can be found later. Other vehicles follow the pattern of
entrances-general gates- ranger stops with ranger vehicles also accessing
gates.
Finding #3: The speeding patterns over a
day illustrate vehicles travel at higher speeds from midnight to early
morning.
Due to possible lesser traffic, average vehicle speed is
higher post 6pm until 6am the next day.
Finding #4: The ranger vehicles begin
moving from 6AM to 5PM on a typical day.
Entry of ranger vehicles typically happen
from 6AM to 5PM on a given day. Given the preserve does not follow daylight saving
hours, this is an active explanation to why the rangers might want to harness
all the light that is available to patrol and monitor the preserve.
Finding #5: People who camp as long
stayers, i.e. tend to stay more than 24 hours inside the preserve, have a
preference towards camps 4, camps 5 and camps 8.
People who wish to stay for a short while
also tend to use camps 5 and 8 more.
The visualisation illustrates that the
traffic encountered in the camps is seen the highest inside camps 8 and camps
5, meaning that people generally tend to prefer to camp overnight at these
places. This might be an indication of the popularity of the attractions within
the camp, with more things to explore and better facilities, etc. The diametrically
opposite location of the two popular camps shows that there will be
frequent movement in both the top-down as well as the right-left (lateral)
directions, leading to frequent disturbances for the Pipit.
Finding #6: The car types identified in
Finding #2 have smaller total times spent in the preserve, but as a result,
they tend to move through paths with higher speeds.
Once these cars are past the entrance,
their average speed across the various areas they pass through is greater than
the maximum speed limit of 25 mph. This indicates that these car types might be
frequently creating noises that disturb the calmness of the surrounding, and
thereby scaring the pipit away.
2 – Patterns
of Life analyses may also depend on understanding what patterns appear over
longer periods of time (in this case, over multiple days). Describe up to six
patterns of life that occur over multiple days (including across the entire
data set) 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 provide a hypothesis 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). Please
limit your answer to six images and 500 words.
Finding #1: There is constant traffic at
the gates as compared to the other zones across the 13 months of observation.
The other 4 gate categories experience
wide fluctuations in the traffic flux, while the same is not being observed for
the gates (shown by the red strips in the bottom right of the figure). This can
be attributed to the nature of how the gates are being used, indicating that
roadway works are constantly being carried by a set of ranger vehicles in the
preserve. Ranger vehicles that can perform these works might be carrying heavy
or loud construction equipment, etc. that might lead to the habitat of the blue
pipit being disturbed from their natural rhythm.
Finding #2: Most cars were found in the
preserve between 6am to 6 pm on most days from June until September, which
might have potentially coincided with the holiday season.
Peak activity is found in the month of
July with as much as 193 cars entering from 2pm to 3 pm during the week of 6-12
July 2015, with the peak occurring on the 11th of July 2015.
This might have coincided with the mating
season of the blue pipit, and increased traffic might have scared the birds
away.
Finding #3: The traffic encountered in the
preserve on the weekends- Friday, Saturday and Sunday is relatively higher than
that on the other days.
Comparing the traffic patterns by the days
of the week, as expected, it is seen that the weekends generally draw more
crowds as compared to the weekdays. While individual car type trends vary, this
indicates that the three busy days of the preserve mean that all car types are
in activity along with the ranger vehicles who follow their fixated work
schedules.
Finding #4: The speed of vehicles begins
to increase post the peak season
The calendar of speeds shows not much speeding incidents
occur in the period between June 2015 to Sep 2015, where the surge in traffic
was higher, meaning the roads were probably clogged by vehicles. It
gives an additional insight, that when traffic eased out as can be seen in
Finding #6 below, the roads became clearer and vehicles had more leeway to move
through the preserve faster.
Finding #5: The preserve is most used by
the 2 axle cars and motorcycles
Of all the vehicles which enter the
preserve, the 2 axle car/motorcycle account for
more than 50% of the entries.
Finding #6: Post the peak season, there is
a steep drop in the traffic influx into the reserve.
It is seen that the period from November 2015 to April 2016
experiences lesser traffic, before it begins to rise again in May 2016. This
can be indicative of the preferences of the vehicles in the way they use the
preserve, or may hint a bit on the popular periods when flora and fauna thrive
inside the preserve.
3 – Unusual
patterns may be patterns of activity that changes from an established pattern,
or are just difficult to explain from what you know of a situation. Describe up
to six unusual patterns (either single day or multiple days) and highlight why
you find them unusual. Please limit your answer to six images and 500 words.
Finding #1: The speeding
vehicle
Car ID
20151320031302-558 travels extremely fast (96 mph) between general gate 6 and
general gate 5 on the 20th of July 2015. It enters
through entrance 4 and exits through entrance 2 in just 18 minutes. The distance
between general gate 6 and general gate 5 is being traversed in a minute! It is
a 2-axle car/motorcycle.
Finding #2: The loitering
vehicle with repeat entries
20154519024544-322
is a 2-axle truck that keeps looping between certain paths. The pattern
is repeating over time and leads to 281 instances of being recorded inside
the preserve. The path of the vehicle starts at entrance 1, then keeps looping
between camping 4 to entrance 4, then keeps coming back to camping 4. It might
be familiar with the paths inside the preserve, and is deployed only on
Fridays, Sundays and Mondays. This might to be cater to the heavy
crowd that generally accumulates on the weekends, as inferred previously.
Finding #3: The vehicle
with repeat entries
20155705025759-63
is an example of a vehicle which is entering and exiting the preserve multiple
times in the time horizon. This also gives it a dubious distinction of being
the vehicle to spend the most time in the preserve overall. The repeated
movement of this vehicle might be due to the preference people have in visiting
the preserve. It is very related to finding #4, where it is found that it is
spending most time in the preserve as it is a car which likes to move between
camps.
Finding #4: 23 4-axle trucks are entering the
gates.
Intrusion by 4 axle trucks, which are
considered general traffic is not allowed. So, this is a potential anomaly
arising out of the movement of the 4 axle trucks in restricted areas!
What the 4-axle truck which enters the gates do is that they
follow the same specific path across the observation period. It is seen that
there are 23 vehicles which do this. The GIF shows the gates they
traverse. A looping pattern from entrance 3- ranger stop 3- entrance 3
repeats, and the speed of the 4 axle truck
in this path is high. This pattern happens only from 2am to 5am on
the given days.
Finding #5: Tailgating the ranger vehicles
There is only minimal time difference
between the ranger vehicles and the 4 axle trucks, when entering gates. This
can mean that the 4 axle trucks are doing this with the help of the ranger
vehicles, or dodging the ranger vehicles to move undetected through the gates.
The tailgating calendar also shows that this pattern happens exclusively
on Tuesdays and Thursdays of a given week.
Finding #6 : Ranger vehicle venturing
outside working hours
Two possible reasons:
· They use
their access rights to gates at late nights, the real intention of which cannot
be identified.
· They are
patrolling less during the nights, due to which incidents such as tailgating
are happening.
4 –– What
are the top 3 patterns you discovered that you suspect could be most impactful
to bird life in the nature preserve? (Short text answer)
The three top patterns that can cause impact
to birdlife can be:
1) The contrasting patters of traffic and
speed across the observation period illustrate that when the roads are clogged
in the holiday season, the traffic is affecting birdlife directly. When the
traffic eases, the speeds by all vehicle types begin to increase, which causes
the natural rhythm of the bird habitat to be disturbed. The two-fold effect of
traffic, whether it is high or low, is thereby suspected to have an impact.
2) From the traffic patterns on corridors, it
can be inferred that the middle corridors between General gate-5- general-gate
2 and the top belt from general gate 2-Ranger stop 0, Ranger stop 2, General
gate 1 are being used the most by vehicles and that the diametrically opposite
camps- camping 8 and camping 5 are being thronged by people almost all
throughout the 13-month period. What this means is that even if the birds
decide to migrate within the preserve, they might not be spared as there is
constant footfall on either side of the preserve.
3) The persistent traffic in gates, with
their fair share of heavy equipment which might presumably be used for road
construction works and inconsistent patters such as ranger vehicles being found
at night, 4 axle trucks moving through gates present patters that are not
consistent. There is a case that the security by the patrolling is either weak,
where they allow 4 axle trucks to go into the gates. This is because according
to the park rules, no other vehicle is allowed access. In addition, repeat visitors
who are familiar with the camp such as the vehicle ID 20154519024544-322 might
now begin to trespass to new areas, since they become familiar with the terrain
every time they enter and hop across camps, etc. A stricter watch on these kind
of anomalous behaviours should hopefully save the rose crested Blue Pipits and
allow people coming to the preserve to enjoy nature’s pristine beauty!