East St. Louis Neighborhood Condition Survey: Collecting Data for a Community Development Project
Published April 1999
The East St. Louis Action Research Project (ESLARP) is an interdisciplinary community development initiative of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Since 1989, ESLARP has worked closely with East St. Louis citizens and community groups by providing technical assistance. Since 1994, with the help of UIUC’s Imaging Systems Laboratory, we have been using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to strengthen our outreach activities with geographic analysis.
Community groups we work with wanted to know the condition of their neighborhoods so that they could identify problem areas and prepare neighborhood improvement plans. They were interested in knowing the current condition of housing, open space, and sanitation in their neighborhoods. Geographic datasets available from several federal and state agencies were inadequate. Commercial data collection options were expensive. This meant that we had to devise a process for collecting the data ourselves that:
- would collect data at the required parcel-level resolution
- could be implemented by volunteers with minimum training and equipment
- would allow us to easily incorporate the data into our existing GIS base-maps
- was inexpensive
To address these issues we created the “Neighborhood Condition Survey” (NCS).
In collaboration with our community partners we first compiled a list of multiple-choice questions that would record the attributes for parcels in the neighborhood. To record the data in the field we printed these questions on machine-readable forms (MRF). MRFs are generally used for student testing so most students are already familiar with filling in the “bubbles” to indicate the answer to a multiple-choice question. Completed forms can then be passed through a scanning machine that converts the data recorded on these paper forms to digital data. Standard MRFs with blank space on which we could print our questions were available through UIUC’s Office of Instructional Resources for a nickel per form. Scanning charges at UIUC were 17 cents per form, making this a cost-effective solution.
Student and neighborhood volunteers organized into teams collected the data. Using custom maps of the neighborhood showing parcel numbers for every parcel, they walked through the neighborhood, identified the parcel, and recorded its condition using one MRF per parcel. A team could survey about twelve parcels per hour. In East St. Louis, we were able to survey a neighborhood of approximately 1300 parcels in eleven hours.
Back on campus, we had the MRFs scanned to convert the marked MRFs to digital data — a process that took less than thirty minutes. We then checked the data for machine or human errors such as duplicates, valid values and logical consistency. The next step involved joining the data to a digital GIS parcel base map provided to us by the City of East. St. Louis. Using ArcView GIS software, we joined the data with the parcel base map and checked for errors such as missing or incorrect parcel numbers before using it to prepare maps. The time required for error-checking and joining the data to the GIS base map varied greatly depending on the landuse of the area being surveyed and the number of human errors introduced in the field while surveying. On an average it took us approximately four hours to check and join a hundred parcels.
The data and maps were used in preparing neighborhood improvement plans and for research activities. For example, NCS data has been used to:
- assist in determining where there is potential for expanding or consolidating open space
- identify where urban infrastructure is intact and where revitalization is needed
- identify derelict houses for potential rehabilitation or demolition
- identify sanitation code violations so citizens can lobby for municipal action
NCS has had the additional benefit of introducing student volunteers — many of them in the planning, architecture, or landscape architecture programs at UIUC — to an organized way of collecting, analyzing, and using detailed data. NCS data is also distributed via the Internet on the East St. Louis Geographic Information Retrieval System (EGRETS) website.
Using the NCS, we were able to effectively utilize the available resources while reducing the time required to develop a useful dataset. Since 1995, we have carried out this survey in 4 neighborhoods. We have also created a similar process to survey the condition of a neighborhood’s infrastructure such as streets and lighting. The NCS process has enabled our community partners to quickly collect accurate and current data and use it to inform the planning process in preparing neighborhood improvement plans.
Related Links:
East St. Louis Action Research Project (web archive)
East St. Louis Geographic Information Retrieval System (web archive)
ESLARP Neighborhood Condition Survey (not available)
Imaging Systems Laboratory (web archive)
East St. Louis Action Research Project History
Abhijeet Chavan served as the Information Technology Coordinator for the Imaging Systems Laboratory and the East St. Louis Action Research Project from 1995 to 1999. He received Master of Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
