This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
How do you build a sample frame that can be used to conduct a survey of commercial buildings nationwide? In the past, the approach was to field an on-the-ground listing operation. But that’s complex and costly.
Today, a virtual listing is the answer to this kind of challenge. This approach uses geographic information system (GIS) tools and data to identify eligible buildings. It enhances the mapping environment, allowing for complete virtual canvassing of buildings rather than having to travel to an area of the country, driving around canvassing, and recording buildings as they are passed.
Creating a Virtual Listing System (VLS)
To establish an eligible sample, Westat can build and add geographic data layers to the mapping environment, including
- Incorporating point-of-interest data layers. When clicked, they display relevant building characteristics for reference during listing.
- Adding a feature to store listed buildings as polygons, enabling automated square-footage calculation.
- This enhanced virtual listing environment is the genesis of Westat’s VLS, a custom-built, fully integrated, web-based system for observing, cataloguing, and documenting study-eligible buildings.
Advantages of VLS
VLS provides a number of advantages over the traditional on-the-ground approach:
- Reduces time. The virtual listings can be completed in less than half the time.
- Increases survey efficiency. Guesswork is eliminated out of square-footage estimations.
- Eliminates travel costs. Virtual canvassing involves no travel expenses, saving projects money.
- Enhances supervision of listers. With a centralized facility, supervisors can better manage multiple listers and easily answer questions.
- Virtual canvassing is a significantly better method for today’s data gathering challenges. It saves time and money and improves the quality and coverage of surveys.
-
Issue Brief
Young Children’s Consumption of 100% Fruit Juice by Racial-Ethnic Characteristics of Their MothersMarch 2023
Congress authorized the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) as a pilot program in 1972 and made WIC permanent in 1974.…
-
Perspective
CDISC Conformance and Compliance: So Many Resources, So Little Time!February 2023
Implementing the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) standards required for data management, programming, documentation, and eCTD data submission can be challenging for many reasons…
-
Expert Interview
How Will the Marine Corps Integrate Men and Women at Recruit Training?January 2023
Marine Corps recruit training is every bit as intense as it looks. Each morning starts hours before sunrise with a chorus of screaming drill instructors…