FAST Campus Map

This project aims to put the different aspects maintained by CSU's FAST into one comprehensive ArcGIS desktop and web map.

Amelia Hoffmeier - UST 487 GIS Applications

Project Description

Through the entire semester of the GIS Applications course, this final project presents a comprehensive GIS-based data inventory tailored for the needs of the Cleveland State University (CSU) Grounds Department. Utilizing ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, spatial data management, as well as critical thinking, students in the class were able to showcase their abilities in creating functional GIS solutions.

The projects main goal is to create a comprehensive, exhaustive inventory of the Campus's assets, along with their pertinent attributes. The different maps and data that will be seen in this presentation are an array of elements integral to campus infrastructure and maintenance, ranging from buildings and green spaces to emergency telephones and bike racks. Through the use of all three databases (ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, and ArcGIS Storymaps) students will be able to convey accurate and easy to follow maps and charts that will help make mainiting the campus easier for the FAST crew as well as demonstrate some important statistics from the campus's assets.

GIS Skills and Tools

Throughout this project, students honed a diverse set of skills within the realm of ArcGIS, showcasing proficiency in spatial data management and analysis. Utilizing ArcGIS tools, attribute tables were carefully edited to ensure data accuracy and completeness. Leveraging tools such as the ArcGIS Pro "feature class to feature class tool" data layers were transitioned into a personal domain before any analysis was done to maintain the integrity of the original data layers. Employing the measure tool ensured that measurement data found in attribute tables were accurate in order to make sure no misinformation was delivered. Once the attribute tables were refined for each data layer summary statistics were generated for each layer in order to take the information from the attribute tables and putting them into a concise table, providing the CSU grounds department with invaluable insights into assets distribution and characteristics. Not only were tables utilized, students also spent time in ArcGIS creating different barcharts, pie charts, and histograms of the data that was previously summarized. Data transfer between ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online was used throughout the entire project to make sure the analysis for both the desktop version and the online version were identical in abundance. Not only were new skills such as these used in the project, but also old skills learned in previous years such as the "Clip" tool that allowed students to make sure that the Cleveland streets data layer as well as the Cleveland parcel data layers, data retrieved from Cuyahoga County Open Data Source, were only in the confines of the CSU Campus Boundary to make the map more specialized to the CSU specific area.

Layer Groups

  1. Cleveland State University (CSU) Owned Area. Data Layers...
    1. CSU Campus Boundary
    2. CSU Campus Parcels and Lots
  2. Cleveland State University Campus. Data Layers...
    1. Campus Buildings (Athletics, Academic, and Administrative)
    2. Innerlink
    3. Campus Building Entrances
    4. Parking
    5. Sidewalks
    6. Streets
    7. Interior Campus Walkways
    8. Bike Racks
  3. Safety. Data Layers...
    1. Emergency Telephones
    2. Campus Lighting (lampposts)
    3. Fire Hydrants
    4. Irrigation
    5. Bollards
  4. Nature. Data Layers...
    1. Green Spaces
    2. Plants/Shrubs
    3. Pollinator Gardens
    4. Campus Trees
  5. Art and Public Use. Data Layers...
    1. Public Art
    2. Benches
    3. Tables
    4. Trash and Recycling
    5. Signage

Cleveland State University (CSU) Owned Area

  1. CSU Campus Boundary: This represents the campus boundary for what qualifies as the CSU Campus. The table has one attribute, and that is the total area.
  2. CSU Campus Parcels and Lots: This represents the number of parcels owned by CSU and the area of all the different parcels.
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The CSU Campus Boundary data layer includes three subsequent layers.

  1. Sidewalks
  2. CSU Buildings
  3. Study Area

Sidewalks: The only attribute that was utilized in the analysis of the sidewalks was the length of the sidewalks. The length was given in feet but was then also converted to miles in excel.

Total Feet: 36,016

Total Miles:6.8

The chart on the right demonstrates the use of a histogram to show the different shape lengths of sidewalks. The blue line in the graph represents the mean sidewalk length.

CSU Buildings: The CSU Buildings layer shows all of the different buildings on the CSU campus. In the attribute table the data shows us the name of each building, different building name abbreviations, as well as the buildings addresses. The data used to analyze the layer are the overall building area.

Total Area: 235,913.565 meters squared

The histogram on the right demonstrates the different areas of the CSU Buildings. The blue line represents the mean area of all buildings.

Study Area: The only attribute from the table that is useful for the Study Area is the actual total area of the campus boundary.

Total Area: 731,061 Square Meters

Parcels and Lots: The parcels and lots layer was gathered from the Cuyahoga County Open Data Source, the data was then clipped to the boundary of the CSU Campus. The parcels and lots field has a lot of valuable information such as the name, the address, and zip codes. The attributes that were used for analysis were the total acres of the different parcels and lots as well as the parcel type.

On the right you will see a table with the different types of parcels and then their count as well as percent total. Then we have the different parcel IDs and then their total acres. Once all the areas of the different parcels were totaled then the percent total for each parcel was calculated using excel.

Count by parcel type bar chart.

Histogram of total acres with the dark blue line representing the mean acres.

The first layer group of the CSU-owned area does an excellent job in the maps outlining the total area of Cleveland State University. The data also gives valuable insight into how much area the FAST crew is in charge of. Understanding the total areas of the campus study area and the areas of all the buildings will be helpful to them. Knowing the lengths of the sidewalks in the winter will be essential for the grounds crew to plan for snow plowing on campus appropriately.

The data from this group was straightforward and had no big outliers or strange data. However, the data in the attribute tables for all of the layers included in this map is limited, which makes it hard to complete any type of analysis, especially an analysis using a visual pie chart or histogram.

Cleveland State University Campus

  1. Campus Buildings: This represents all of the different buildings associated with CSU. This includes buildings of all uses and all areas of Cleveland. The Buildings Attribute table consists of the name, abbreviation, address, use of the building, LEED certification, whether or not the building has a green roof, and the flat area of the building perimeter. This layer group also contains the athletic buildings and fields.
  2. Innerlink: This layer represents the outdoor portion of the innerlink connecting the different buildings. Its only attribute is the number of structures.
  3. Campus Building Entrances: This layer shows all building entrances for all of the buildings owned by CSU. The attribute table provides what building the entrance is located in and if they are accessible.
  4. Parking: This section includes all CSU parking garages and lots supported by CSU parking or public parking. The attributes include the garage or lot's name, type, and area.
  5. Streets: All streets on the CSU campus. The attributes include the names of all street segments and their total length in miles.
  6. Bike Racks: All the bike racks are placed around campus. The attributes include the number of bike racks, the type of bike rack, and the number of bike racks per type.
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Buildings: The buildings group consists of all the housing, academic, and athletic buildings and facilities on campus. The data that was mostly utilized in the analysis is the area of each building.

Housing Stats: To the right, we have statistics about the CSU housing/dorm options. The most notable statistic is the total acres of all the buildings on campus.

Total Acres: 8.40

Academic Stats: The acedmic building layer includes all of the academic and administrative buildings on campus. The layer contains all of the building names as well as their abbreviations. The most reportable statistic is the total acres of all the buildings on campus.

Total Acres: 38.6

Athletics Stats: Statistics for all of the athletic buildings and fields. This will be helpful for the grounds crew in terms of knowing how much greenspace they need to attend to regarding the school's athletic teams.

Total Acres: 7.29

Distribution of Area for all CSU Housing.

Count by name of CSU Housing buildings.

Distribution of area for all academic buildings on CSU campus.

Distribution of area for all athletic buildings and fields on CSU campus.

Innerlink: The innerlink is part of the CSU campus internal walkways. It connects all of the buildings on campus, which allows students to travel from one end of the campus to the other all inside. The area of the innerlink will be the most useful information from the attribute table for the FAST crew.

The Statistics on the right show the different lengths and total areas of all the innerlinks on campus. This data is only the outside portions of the innerlink, the parts that connect in between buildings.

Total length: 645.8 m

Distribution of area of the innerlink.

Distribution of innerlink length.

Building Entrances: On the map to the right, the different red spaces near all the campus buildings are the other building entrances. The attribute table shows the accessibility of the entrances and where they are located in each building.

Counts by accessibility for building entrances.

Parking: This layer of data represents all the CSU-supported parking garages and lots that are common parking areas for students. The attribute table shows the type of parking on campus, lot, or garage, as well as the areas of the parking garages.

To the right are the general statistics for the parking garages and lots on the CSU campus. The data was also analyzed for the percent total area of each parking garage, which will help give a sense of which are the largest and smallest.

Total are: 19.55 acres

Distribution of parking area.

Parking count by type, lot or garage.

Streets: The streets layer of this group is representative of all the streets in Cleveland. However, the data was clipped to the CSU campus area and some surrounding areas that are close to campus and used to get to and from Cleveland State.

This data layer is used for a visual in this map with labels available to help the FAST crew with navigation around campus.

Bike Racks: This layer represents all the bike racks around Cleveland State University. The attribute table holds information such as the number of spots available at each rack, the type of bike rack, and its condition.

The data analyzed for the bike layer includes the type, condition, and number of bikes that each rack holds.

Total Bike racks: 25

Total Amount of Bikes that could be held: 302

Bike rack counts by style.

Bike rack counts by condition.

Distribution of maximum bikes held at each bike rack.

The Cleveland State University Campus map will give FAST a visual representation of all the different buildings offered on campus and the inner link that connects them all. Parking is also included as a layer on this map, which will give an extensive overview of all the buildings on campus that FAST needs to maintain. The map will also provide FAST insight into all the different campus aspects they need to keep, such as the other building entrances and the bike racks.

What was interesting for the data in this group was just how much the FAST crew actually needs to cover, especially in terms of the innerlinks, which are considered indoor structures. The innerlinks cover a lot more length than it seems, giving FAST just that much more work to do when it comes to routine maintenance of all the CSU buildings.

Safety

  1. Emergency Telephones: This is a list of all the places on campus where emergency phones are located. The only available attribute is the number of phones.
  2. Lampposts: Location of all the outdoor lighting (lampposts) on campus. Attributes include pole material and whether or not the pole has signage.
  3. Fire Hydrants: All fire hydrants are located on the CSU campus. The layer holds no useable attributes.
  4. Irrigation: The attribute table includes a layer of all the irrigation lines on the CSU campus, as well as head types and main shutoffs.
  5. Bollards: All bollards are located on and around the CSU Campus. Attributes contain the type/material.

Emergency Phones: The first layer on the safety map is the emergency phones on campus. The emergency phone attribute table did not show any statistics that would be useful for analysis, but it does contain the coordinates of each emergency phone.

Lampposts: The lamp posts on campus are essential to campus safety, and walking on campus once the sun has set can be pretty dangerous without adequate street lighting. The attribute table has valuable characteristics of each lamp post, such as material and condition, whether there is graffiti on the lamp post, whether the lamp post is located at an outlet, whether the lamp post has a camera, and whether the lamp posts have signage.

On the right are statistics for the different materials that the lamp posts are made of and their condition.

Total Lamp posts: 922

Total in Fair and Poor Condition: 137

Lamp posts at an outlet: 868

Lamp posts with a camera: 6

Lamp posts with signage: 332

Lamp Posts by Head Type.

Lamp Posts by condition.

Lamp Posts by outlets.

Lamp posts by signage.

Lamp Post by material.

Lamp Post by camera.

Fire Hydrants: Only two fire hydrants are present on the map. This means that the attribute table only has two different attributes. This does not leave enough information for a proper statistical analysis. However, using the two attributes, it is clear that they are both unattached to a building, they are both red, and they are both in good condition.

Irrigation: The irrigation layer on the Campus Safety map shows all of the different irrigation heads located on campus, whether they are on or off, and their vertical and horizontal accuracy.

The statistical analysis for the irrigation heads involves their position source type, horizontal and vertical accuracy, and status (on or off).

Total Integrated: 25

Mean Horizontal Accuracy: 17.6 m

Mean Vertical Accuracy: 5.4 m

Irrigation heads on: 5

Irrigation heads off: 27

Irrigation head count by status.

Bollards: There are many bollards on the CSU campus. They are used as barriers to stop cars from entering areas where they are not allowed. The bollards are a safety measure for pedestrians and for the integrity of some campus buildings.

The bollards attribute table had two useful fields, the total count, and the type of material.

Total Bollards: 161

Most common model: Concrete, 63

Bollards count by model.

Overall, many attributes are missing from the safety layers on the CSU campus, especially in the fire hydrant data layer. It is hard to believe that only two fire hydrants are on campus. This layer needs further development involving onsite investigations of all the fire hydrants on campus. Many of the data layers for campus safety features are more for knowing exactly where these resources are located. However, some provide valuable attributes regarding condition and material type that can be useful for FAST in their repairs and maintenance. It was interesting to see how detailed a data layer such as bollards is so highly developed when it seems that would be one of the lesser important aspects of campus safety. Again, it would be beneficial to do on-site research to dive into these data layers and add to their attributes.

Nature

  1. Campus Green Spaces: This layer includes all green spaces on the CSU campus. Its attributes are the number of green spaces and their total area.
  2. Plants/Shrubs: The data layer shows all the different plants and shrubs around campus. The attributes from the layer are the number of shrubs and the species/name.
  3. Pollinator Gardens: A layer of all the pollinator gardens that are either already implemented on campus or planned to be implemented. The only attribute is the total count of records.
  4. Campus Trees: This is an extensive data layer of every tree on the CSU campus. The attribute table includes the number of trees and their species/name.
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Green Spaces: This data layer is a layer from all the green spaces on campus. This data layer includes attributes such as the number of green spaces and their total areas.

Here are valuable statistics for the green spaces. We see that the green spaces were categorized and analyzed by type and total acres.

Total Green Spaces: 861

Total Area: 24.8 acres

Green space count by type.

Distribution of green space square footage.

Distribution of total area in acres.

Plants and Shrubs: The plants and shrubs attribute table contained many null values regarding species and overall counts. The only valuable aspect of the plants and shrubs is the number of each type of species. However, this information is not very useful for analysis due to the multitude of species and the fact that many only have a few around campus.

Pollinator Gardens: This data layer is a representation of the different pollinator gardens located around campus. The only notable attribute from this data is whether or not the pollinator gardens have been implemented.

Pollinator garden stats reporting whether or not the pollinator garden is coming soon or completed.

Gardens coming soon: 13

Gardens completed: 2

Pollinator gardens by status.

Campus Trees: The campus trees data layer has abundant attributes and fields. It includes all the different types of trees on campus and the number in each species category. The data includes their scientific names as well as their common names. The attribute table also includes whether or not trees need to be inspected and their heights.

Here are statistics about the different species of trees located around the entire Cleveland State University Campus.

Total Trees: 1,180

Trees by common name.

Counts by inspection.

Distribution of tree height.

Count by condition

Counts by building.

The nature surrounding Cleveland State University is extensive, especially for a city. The data layers in this specific map give valuable information that the FAST crew can utilize. One interesting point of interest from the attributes is the different tree heights. This could come into handy when the fast crew needs to inspect different trees and the logistics they need to do that. The green spaces layer will also give a deep insight into all the green space that FAST needs to maintain, providing valuable estimates of the overall area and, therefore, the time it would take to preserve these spaces.

Art and Public Use

  1. Public Art: All public art is on the CSU campus and surrounding area. The layer contains no relevant attributes.
  2. Benches: All benches are on the CSU Campus. None of the attributes for this layer are relevant.
  3. Tables: All tables for public use on the CSU campus. No relevant attributes were reported.
  4. Trash and Recycling: This is the location of all trash cans on the CSU campus and surrounding area. The attributes contain only the type (garbage, recycle, dumpsters).
  5. Signage: All signage on the CSU Campus. The only attribute contained is the type.

Public Art: The public art layer contains all of the public art on CSU's campus. However, the data layer does not contain any notable attributes that would be useful for the FAST team.

The public art data layer's statistics contain information such as the art type and material.

Most common material type: Metal

Count by art type.

Count by art material.

Benches: The benches layer represents all of the public benches on the Cleveland State campus. The attributes from the table report nothing notable for the grounds crew except for the condition.

Benches count by condition.

Tables: Much like the benches layer, the tables layer shows all public tables on the CSU campus. Like the benches, the only notable attribute is the table's condition.

Tables count by condition.

Recycle Bins: Data layer gives all the locations of the recycle bins on campus. The attribute table did not report any attributes, therefore no further analysis can be done.

Trash Cans: The trash cans data layer contains all of the trash cans on campus. the attribute table reported the type of trash can as well as its condition.

The statistics note the main type of trash can on campus are city trash cans which may not fall under the jurisdiction of FAST. It can also be seen that many have been reported in good condition and about 20% of them need painted.

Trash count by style.

Trash count by condition.

Trash count by liner condition.

Signage: The CSU signage data layer represents the different signage that is located on campus. The attribute table noted the age of the signage, whether they are outdated or up to date, as well as the condition of the signage.

Signage count by age.

Signage count by type.

Overall, when it comes to public art and public-use benches and tables, there are not a lot of attributes that will be useful for the FAST team. However, knowing the condition of different trash, benches, and signage will help the team understand what work still needs to be done. The map itself will be helpful for the location of all the different aspects of public use infrastructure on campus that can hopefully help make the FAST team's job easier.

Final FAST Campus Map

Special thank you to Tim Square from the Cleveland State University grounds crew for access to this useful data, I hope this story map finds you well and provides helpful information!