Arc Collector

Introduction:
Many of us have a GPS that we can take out and collect points to then go back and add attributes to that point later on. Others may have the ability to TYPE out the attributes right in the field, this however is a tedious process that is not realistic when you have a short time frame to collect data. There is a solution though... Using ArcCatalog, ArcMap, ArcGIS Online, and Arc Collector we can be proactive and create the spatial layer in the lab so that when we go out to collect the data, the process is made much more efficient since we can now collect the point and SELECT the attributes from domains instead of typing them out. This is done mainly through the use of Arc Collector which is an App that you can get for your smartphone, therefore making your smartphone more powerful than your friends expensive GPS.

Study Area:
 My study area that I will use to demonstrate this process is my family farm located in eastern Eau Claire County (Figure 1). I took these points during opening weekend of the 9-day Gun Deer Season. I tend to want to enjoy the outdoors when I am hunting so many of the wildlife I encountered did not get recorded since I did not have my phone on me or available.

Figure 1: A map showing the location of my family farm relative to the rest of the county

Methods:
To begin we first need to decide what we are mapping. Once you have narrowed that down we can create a feature class in ArcCatalog and start the process of creating our domains. Domains are basically rules for what we can and cannot enter while in the field. We can set the min and max values for data entry to ensure that we don't enter a number that is so far out of whack that we cant even figure out what digit to remove. We can also set what field attributes we are going to enter data for and what specific data values we can select. This vastly expedites the data collection process and makes a geographers job much easier.

Once the domains are created for that geodatabase we then open up our shapefile in ArcMap so we can sign in to ArcGIS Online and publish the map to our enterprise account with the university. This then allows us to go through the process of uploading the map/shapefile to the cloud so that we can then access it through the ArcCollector App. Doing this can be difficult and many people have problems because if you miss one direction to help you upload the layer, you wont be able to open it on your phone. But for those of you that know the advantage of ArcGIS Help, you can go through it in a breeze.

Now that you have your shapefile uploaded to the cloud, you can grab it from your Arc Collector App and begin taking points for whatever it is that you are mapping. It is really simple, all you have to do is take the point by pressing collect, and then It gives you a drop down menu of all the fields and preselected attributes that you assigned to be options for those fields. This makes it so much simpler and faster when you are outside in the cold and you don't want to lose feeling by typing out long field entries.

To get this data back onto ArcMap, you go back to ArcGIS Online and open up your map and then download your shapefile that you have been working with back onto your desktop. The ArcCollector updates in real time so you do not have to push any data from your app to the online account. From here you can create your maps just like you would with any other shapefiles!


Results/Discussion:
Like I said earlier, the main purpose of this blog is to demonstrate my ability to show how to use ArcCollector, so for that reason I did not go batshit crazy and map out every single car in a parking lot. I did however spend a lot of time creating my domains (Figure 2) so that whatever wildlife I did encounter over the gun deer season, I had a attribute already created for that animal. This was a rather long and tedious process but it was worth it since I feel confident that I can give a first time geographer this app and shapefile and send them on their merry way and be confident as well that they don't come back asking any questions because this is as straightforward as it gets. The resulting map is shown below in Figure 3.

Figure 2: Screenshot showing an example of one of my domains titled maturity with the selection options listed below

Figure 3:  Map demonstrating the different point locations that I took with the attributes assigned to them

Conclusion:
All in all this ArcCollector app is the way of the future. It is simple to set up, use, and makes the once long and tedious method of data collection now much simpler. Anyone can use this app, but it does take someone with a geospatial mind to create the geodatabase and feature so we can properly set up domains that make sense. There are a few tweaks here and there that ESRI could fix such as the Time/Date Stamp (It just gave me a weird equation) and the problem that every time you set up the geodatabase domains, if you screw up then you have to start all over again. Besides this, the App could be used for a vast variety of different applications by different users which makes it very very powerful!