GI System and Science - Assignment Example

GI System and Science work Assignment Summary The proposed arcGIS Automated spatial function for crime mapping works by mapping, reformatting, joining, manipulating and merging spatial data with census data in order to generate a wide range of spatial information regarding the crime rates of Greater Manchester region . This will enable law enforcers to effectively unlock some of the spatial patterns of criminal activities in the region so as to better deal with crime. GI System and Science Coursework Assignment Introduction  The automated spatial function presented in this report is specifically designed to perform a diverse number of spatial analysis routines on the geographical database of crime rates of Greater Manchester region. Obtained in March, 2014 from the police.uk website, the compiled crime data base provides details of various geographical locations across England and Wales. In addition, the police.uk website has a unique interface that allows people to view and compare crime rates in any location in England and Wales. ArGIS software used in this task is an important geographical information system that offers a unique functionality for building models, creating maps, compiling geographical data and analyzing the mapped information. The use of Geographical Information System (GIS) tools in crime mapping is increasingly becoming popular among crime analysts in various law enforcement agencies across the globe. This is particularly attributed to the fact that crime opportunities are neither randomly nor uniformly organized in space and time. Fig 1: An example of Interactive Crime map of England & Wales Source: Home Office, 2011 The underlying theories and scientific basis of environmental criminology were first devised in the early 1980s as seen in the works of scientists such as Patricia and Paul Brantingham among others. With the recent technological advancements, crime mapping has increasingly sought to incorporate modern spatial data analysis techniques in order to address some of the previous inherent limitations of spatial data. According to Andresen (2006), this enables law enforcers not only to make better decisions regarding allocation of resources and formulation of strategies but also to enhance their tactical analysis such as through improved geographical profiling and crime forecasting. Based on these theories, the proposed automated spatial function uses arcGIS software to produce interactive maps of crime rates based on a compilation of the geographical database of crime rates of the greater Manchester region. For example, the crime statistics obtained from the police.uk website and other relevant sources such as UK census data are used in conjunction with the Index of Multiple Deprivation to help explore the correlations and associations of various kinds of crime, and deprivation. Generally, the function works by mapping, reformatting, joining and manipulating spatial data in order to compute crime rates per head of population in the Manchester region. The model shows workflows that links together sequences of geoprocessing tools by feeding the output of each of the tool into another tools input. Fig 2: General Flow Diagram of the Automated Spatial Function Input Data The input data required to effectively run the arcGIS automated function and generate the expected spatial information include the geographical database of crime rates of the Greater Manchester region and the population census data. The data regarding crime rates of the Greater Manchester region are obtained from the police.uk web site (http://data.police.uk/data/). On the other hand, the population input data is retrieved from the UK census site (http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.html) and is then used in the calculation of the crime per head of population of the greater Manchester region. Process The first step of the processing of the input data by the function involves compiling geographical database of the crime rates of the target location (the greater Manchester region). 1. The excel file for the crime data of the particular region (the greater Manchester) dated April 2014 is downloaded from the police.uk web site (http://data.police.uk/data/). Next, the coordinate system of the crime data from WGS84 latitude and longitude are converted to the British National grid. 2. A geographical Information system (GIS) file is then created and added to the crime sheet together with the XY data and the British national grid projection. 3. The next action involves downloading the [English Lower Layer super Output Areas (LSOA) map, 2011], with the City of London 001 as the selected Area. The boundary data is then added into GIS 4. In order to determine the number of individuals in each of the lower super output areas, data is exported from the MANCHESTRCRIME$Events to create Manchestercrime. Spatial join is then used to join data from another layer based on spatial location. For example, English_low_soa_2001 is joined with Manchestercirme before creating the layer ManchesterCrimeCount. 5. Next, a new column known as count is generated in the attribute table and the symbology in the properties is then changed in order to show the crime in each LSOA using graduated colours. 6. The other important step involves downloading the population data from the website: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.html and then calculating the crime per head of the population of the Greater Manchester region. Next, the CrimePerPerson data is exported and the crime rate 1000*[Count_]/ [POP] is produced using the field calculator. In addition, the data of total population for each LSOA area in the Greater Manchester is also calculated. 7. To show the crime rate in each LSOA by graduated colours, the symbology in properties. 8. Satge2 is created and the CrimePerPerson layer is then copied. Next, the IMDeducation deprivation and income deprivation data is downloaded from http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/indices2010 and then joined with the layer CrimePerPerson Data. In this regard, the darker the colour, the higher the value, which indicated that the area is more poor. 9. Finally, the Crime per person Export the attribute table is then clicked and the output3 resave as csv document is exported and renamed as MANIMD.csv. The crime rate, income, IMD and education domains are then in a new sheet and scatter graphs created as shown below. Results The results of the spatial analysis of the crime rates in the greater Manchester region reveal a number of potential causal factors. For example, higher levels of deprivation such as income deprivation and education deprivation are associated with higher levels of criminal activities. However, this is not always the case as some deprived areas may have lower crime rates due to the successful crime prevention initiatives. Other Applications There are a number of other current and near future applications of Geographic GIS analysis automated spatial functions. Some of the other related applications include analysis of satellite and aerial images in order to allow information such as rainfall, temperature as well as tactical analysis such as through improved geographical profiling and crime forecasting. User Documentation The Automated spatial function for crime mapping requires to sets of data input namely, the crime data and the population census of a region. ArGIS model builder is used to create and manage workflows of geoprocessing tools of this model. The model shows workflows that links together sequences of geoprocessing tools by feeding the output of each of the tool into another tools input. Generally, the function is particularly optimized to map and merge crime data with census data in order to create a spatial geographical database for the crime rates in the region. The crime data obtained from the police.uk website is used to develop a geographical crime data base of the given region (the Greater Manchester). On the other hand, once the spatial data has been mapped, the population census data from the UK census website is used to help calculate the crime per head. Finally, the two data sets are merged in the GIS and processed in order to provide spatial information that can be used to relate the crime rates with various population attributes including exploring the relationship between the crime rates and deprivations. References Andresen M. (2006). Crime Measures and the Spatial Analysis of Criminal Activity. Br J Criminol 46(2), pp.258–285. Home Office Website. (2011). Annual British Crime Survey for 2010/11 results: Crime in England and Wales 2010 to 2011. Retrieved on July 11, 2014 from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/crime-in-england-and-wales-2010-to-2011 Read More