Field Activity #6: Using Survey 123 to gather survey data using your smart phone

Introduction

This activity provides an overview of using Survey123, an ESRI app for gathering survey data. This application has compatibility with phones, computers, tablets, and other electronic devices. The tutorial for this application provides insight into creating a survey, completing it, analyzing results of it, and sharing it via web app. This tutorial's scenario was creating a survey for the Home Owner Association (HOA) to collect data on how to prepare for earthquakes and home fires.

Methods

The criteria for the survey included using the 9 "Fix-its" created by Resilience by Integrating Societal and technical Knowledge (RISK) (shown in Figure 2.) and data collection. Once logged into Survey for ArcGIS, a new survey was created. Referring to Figure 2. Shows the toolbar on the right side under the "Design" tab. Multiple tools were used to add a variation of questions to this survey. In total 29 questions were created. Questions were created using the Date, Singleline Text, Single Choice, Multiple Choice, GeoPoint, and Number.

Figure 1. "Fix-its"

The Date question-allowed for participants to choose what day they took the survey or allowed the creator to set a date that the survey was only open. 

The Singleline Text- was used for questions that required text, i.e. participant name or location

Single Choice- allowed participant to choose only one answer to multiple choice question.

Multiple Choice- allowed participant to choose all that applied to answer multiple choice question. 

GeoPoint- Inserted a map within the survey to allow a geographic location of the area the participant was from.

Number- used for questions that asked specifically of how much there was of something. 

Figure 2. Design tab overview

The most common tool used for questions was "single choice". As shown in Figure 3. It allowed for a set range of choices to choose from. Then using this as a baseline more questions could be asked based on what the participant answered by setting a rule that is outlined in red in Figure 3. This allowed a follow up question to appear only if the participant choose a specific choice. Each question comes with the option of being required under "validation", shown outlined in blue in Figure 3. This allows the creator of the survey to require certain information that can be analyzed. For this survey the Date, Participant name, location and all 9 "Fix its" were required.

Figure 2. Single Choice

The next step of the Survey was to gather data. The Survey was then shared within the UWEC organization making it a private survey compared to public within ArcGIS. The Survey URL was shared to open directly in the browser. Figure 4. Shows the Survey in a desktop format and Figure 5. Shows the mobile phone format.

Figure 4. Survey completed on Monitor

While completing the survey via mobile phone, you have the option to send now or send later. The desktop version does not have this option.

Figure 5. Survey completed on a Mobile phone

After gathering the data it was analyzed under the "Analyze" and "Data" tabs. Figure 6. Shows the data in two views, Pie and Bar graphs. There are multitude of other ways the data can be viewed.

Figure 6. Analysis of Data

Figure 7. Shows the data in a table format much like how ArcMap portrays their attribute data. It also shows a map of the areas that data was collected from. Each column can be sorted and show the statics of data for the specific question. The data can then be downloaded as a CSV, Excel, KML, Shapefile, or File Geodatabase; depending on how it will be used. It can also be opened in map Viewer and used in compatibility with ArcGIS online.

Figure 7. Data overview

Results/Discussion

The data gathered for this map is visualized in Figure 8. in Map Viewer. The map was created in web app online. It allows sharing of the results of a survey but map form. The creator is able to change the theme and layout of the map to some extent. As well as run different analysis tools on the data.

Figure 8. map of data

Conclusion

Survey 123 is a very applicable application. Especially with it's compatibility with ArcGIS. It can easily be imported to ArcMap or analyzed in a Web Map. Having an open platform apps allows for easy access from the public. This application is perfect for crowd sourcing natural disasters and preparedness. On the other hand like all technology, having your personal home information can make you vulnerable and since these surveys can be shared and are on public domain anyone can see the data that is accumulated.    

Reference

https://learn.arcgis.com/en/projects/get-started-with-survey123/lessons/create-a-survey.htm