Characteristics of Fairfax County That Contribute to Deer/Vehicle Collisions

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Characteristics of Fairfax County That Contribute
toDeer/Vehicle Collisions
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Executive Summary

• Thousands of deer related accidents are reported
  each year
• Virginia Ranks 7th in the nation for deer related
  accidents

CNN online, 2006
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Executive Summary

• The 2006 Deer Management Study conducted by the
  Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
  states that Deer/vehicle collisions are one of
  the most critical types of deer damage in
  Virginia.

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Executive Summary

• Solutions
• When addressing deer management solutions, cost
  and urban growth play a big part in the decision
  making process
• Management practices used in the past include
• managed deer hunts
• citizen awareness programs

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Executive Summary

• Solutions
• Fairfax County completed a Crash Abatement
  Program funded by VDOT. Roadside reflectors
  were installed on 7 sections of county roadway
• Both Virginia and Fairfax County governments have
  deer management programs
• Deer/vehicle collisions have been addressed in
  the plans

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Executive Summary

• Urban sprawl is the root of the problem
• X Leveling the human population
• X Building moratoriums
• X Cease new road projects
• All are unrealistic!

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Executive Summary

• Continued Deer Management Studies
• Decrease the deer population
• More effective deer management practices such as
  road barriers, signs and reduced speed limits on
  selective roadways.
• More realistic and cost-effective solutions!

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Executive Summary

• What characteristics of Fairfax County contribute
  to deer and vehicle accidents?

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Goals

• Use GIS to identify the characteristics of
  Fairfax County that contribute to deer/vehicle
  collisions
• Analyze roads, human population, deer population,
  and deer habitat to prove or disprove that they
  were contributing factors
• Apply deer/vehicle collision data to the
  characteristics and analyzed the results for
  relationships.

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Objectives

• Research related studies
• Develop a plan and scope for the project
• Identify the Fairfax County characteristics that
  I would analyze
• Identify the data I would need for analysis
• Make a data model

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Objectives

• Collect data
• Manipulate the data files for use in the GIS
• Extract the necessary data I needed
• Import the files into my personal geodatabase
• Begin project analysis

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Data Model
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Data

• The data used in the deer/vehicle project were
  obtained from local and national sources
• Fairfax County GIS Department
• Virginia Department of Transportation
• The Weldon Cooper Center at UVA
• USGS
• Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

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Data

• VDGIF Virginia Deer Management Plan 2006-2015
• Deer population abundance data was taken from the
  PowerPoint version of the plan
• All of the data is freely available to the public
  on the web
• The Virginia Department of Transportation
• Deer and vehicle accident data for 2003 2005
  through the Freedom of Information Act
• The files were in vector format and ready for
  analysis.

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Data

• Fairfax County GIS
• Available free of charge for educational purposes
• Basic Fairfax County vector data in a geodatabase
• The Weldon Cooper Center at the University of
  Virginia
• provided the human population data
• downloaded for free at http//www3.ccps.virginia.
  edu/demographics/estimates/2005/0-main.html

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Metadata, Projection and Storage

• Metadata was included with most of the Fairfax
  County GIS data
• Basic metadata was created for the data that I
  generated or converted
• Personal geodatabase
• ensure the integrity of my original data files
• prevent any data corruption during the analysis
  phase
• make it easier to find the files

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Metadata, Projection and Storage

• Fairfax County GIS data - Virginia State Plane
  FIPS 4501 (Feet)
• Applied this projection to all of the unprojected
  data except land cover raster data
• Landcover dataset - NAD83 Albers Conical Equal
  Area
• Converted the Fairfax County shapefile to a
  raster file and changed the projection

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Analysis

• The goal of this project was to identify the
  characteristics of Fairfax County that contribute
  to deer/vehicle collisions
• Analyzed the incidents of deer/vehicle incidents
  in Virginia and Fairfax County
• Applied data from five basic areas deer
  population, human population, roads, and land use
• Analyzed the resulting data to establish a
  relationship between the focus areas and
  deer/vehicle accidents in the county

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Analysis Deer/Vehicle Accidents

• How Fairfax County ranks in relation to other
  Virginia counties
• Increase in incidents from one year to the next
  in Fairfax County
• The incident data from VDOT was a spreadsheet
  of all vehicle accidents reported for the years
  2002 2005. I used the data from 2003 2004.

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Analysis - Collisions

• Analysis-
• VDOT excel incident report gt format each year
  (2003, 2004) gt convert to dBase file gt join with
  Virginia county shapefile gt select by attribute
  deer collisions gt new layers of deer/vehicle
  incidents in Virginia per county per year gt
  layout gt MAP 1-A
• 2. For 2003 and 2004 select by attribute
  Fairfax County gt new layers of incidents in
  Fairfax County per year gt summarize the total
  incidents per year gt calculate the change between
  2003 and 2004 gt layout gt MAP 1-B

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Analysis-Deer Population

• The deer population in Virginia, as measured by
  VDGIF, is an estimate
• Deer population for Fairfax County is not
  comparable to the other counties mostly due to
  firearm restrictions in the county
• It is manipulated by VDGIF
• Used VDGIF data to show the suggested
  relationship to other Virginia Counties
• The relationship is informative
• Provides a comparative reference for the deer
  population in Fairfax County.

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Analysis

• Analysis-Deer Population
• PowerPoint data gt Excel spreadsheet gt Format gt
  Database file
• Database file gt join to Virginia boundary
  shapefile gt VA deer population layer
• From VA deer population and Deer density
  layers gt apply quantity symbology gt graduated
  color map of the deer population in Virginia per
  county gt layout gt MAP 2-A

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Analysis Human Population

• Assumption - the population in Fairfax County
  has an indirect relationship in the study
• Increase of people in a defined area
• less deer habitat
• more cars on the road
• more roadways
• more deer/ vehicle collisions
• The population for surrounding counties was
  important to analyze because of the nature of the
  workforce in the Northern Virginia area

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Analysis

• Analysis-State and N. VA Counties
• UVA data gt Excel spreadsheet gt Format gt Database
  file
• Database file gt join to Virginia Counties
  shapefile gt VA population layer
• From VA population layer gt apply quantity
  symbology gt graduated color map of the population
  in Virginia gt layout gt MAP 3-A

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Analysis - Roads

• Three thousand, one hundred and twenty eight
  miles of roadway crisscross through Fairfax
  County
• Four interstates, three U.S. roads, and 18 state
  roads which alone account for 14 of measured
  roadway
• More vehicles will choose the major road routes
  over the secondary roads resulting in a higher
  chance of deer/vehicle collisions
• Speed is a factor in many vehicle collisions and
  I assume that deer collisions are not the
  exception.

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Analysis - Roads

• Assumption Road characteristics would have an
  impact on the number of deer/ vehicle collisions
  in Fairfax County
• Total length- total length of the major and
  secondary road data from Fairfax County GIS
• Type- Interstate, primary, secondary
• Speed- attribute of the road data

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Analysis-Roads

• Analysis-Total Length and Type
• Major roads and secondary roads gt use summarize
  to get the total length of roads in Fairfax
  County
• Major roads and secondary roads gt use layer
  properties to symbolize unique values (NAME
  Field) gt Layout gt MAP 4-A

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Analysis-Roads

• Analysis-Speed
• Road shapefile gt select roads with a speed limit
  greater than or equal to 45 mph. gt Select by
  location all 2004 deer/vehicle collisions that
  intersect the selected roads gt create layer of
  2004 deer/vehicle incidents on roads that have a
  speed limit of 45 mph or more gt layout gt MAP 4-B

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Analysis Road Length and Location

• Assumption the length and location of roads in
  Fairfax County affects the area of continuous
  deer habitat
• Deer will wander from one habitat area to another
  looking for food, water, coverage or space
• Analyzed the FCPA and NON-FCPA shapefiles from
  Fairfax GIS with relation to the road files to
  see if the habitat (parks) were splintered or
  divided by a roadway.

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Analysis-Roads

• Analysis-Habitat (Parks)
• FCPA and NON-FCPA parks gt add road shapefiles gt
  select by location FCPA parks that intersect
  roads gt add to the selection all NON-FCPA parks
  that intersect roads gt zoom in to selected park
  areas gt analyze for those parks that are divided
  or splintered by roads gt layout gt MAP 4-C

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Analysis Land Use

• Fact the quantity and quality of deer habitat
  directly affects the deer population
• Assumption The land use patterns in Fairfax
  County affect the total area of deer habitat
• Deer habitat, as defined by VDGIF, is the sum of
  forested, open/agriculture, and wetland land areas

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Analysis Land Use

• 2001 U.S. Geological Surveys National Land Cover
  Dataset (NLCD)
• Deer Habitat deciduous forest, evergreen
  forest, mixed forest, shrub/scrub,
  sedge/herbaceous, pasture/hay, cultivated crops,
  woody wetlands, and estuarine scrub/shrub wetland
  
• According to figures based on the 1992 Land Cover
  Dataset, 61 percent of the land in Fairfax County
  was deer habitat (VDGIF Deer Management Plan)

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Analysis-Land Use

• Analysis
• Fairfax County boundary shapefile gt use project
  raster gt new raster file of the boundary that has
  the same projection as the land cover raster file
• Use raster calculator to select data classes for
  deer habitat area gt new raster file of deer
  habitat area in Fairfax County gt calculate the
  percent of deer habitat in Fairfax County gt
  reclassify gt MAP 5-A

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Conclusion

• The deer/vehicle collisions in Fairfax County are
  the third highest in the state of Virginia
• All characteristics of Fairfax County contribute
  to deer/vehicle accidents
• Not one single characteristic can be identified
  as the main reason

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Conclusion

• Deer population in the county is steady
• Their mere presence in an urban area like Fairfax
  County is a contributing factor in the study
• Deer are forced to cross roads for food, water
  and coverage and their habitat is slowly being
  divided or encroached upon
• Length of roads and the posted speed limits on
  the roads also seem to impact the deer/auto
  collision rate in the county
• The higher speed limits and sheer number of cars
  on the roads result in a higher chance of hitting
  a deer

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Conclusion

• A consistent human population growth in the
  county and in the Northern Virginia area seems to
  impact all of the characteristics analyzed in the
  study
• The continued influx of people into Fairfax
  County and the surrounding metropolitan area
  creates a need for more houses, buildings, and
  roads. Each need impacts the overall
  deer/vehicle collision rate.

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Conclusion

• The solution to the deer/vehicle collision rate
  in Fairfax County is as complex as the
  characteristics that contribute to it
• The most effective solutions like placing a
  moratorium on building or roads are highly
  unlikely
• Cost effective solutions that should be
  considered
• electrical road signs at hot spots
• reduced speed limits during the deer mating
  season
• public awareness
• Managed deer hunts

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Future Research

• Deer management and study should be an ongoing
  project
• Hot spot areas can be studied
• Take the findings from this study and conduct a
  more in depth analysis
• Results from deer management practices already in
  use should be analyzed for effectiveness.

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• REFERENCES
• Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
  2006. Virginia Deer Management Plan 2000-2015
• U.S. Department of Interior, Geological Survey.
  2001. National Land Cover Dataset. Digital Data
• The Waldon Cooper Center For Public Services,
  University of Virginia. 2005. Population
  Estimates. Digital Data
• Fairfax County GIS Department, Fairfax County.
  Geographic Information Services. GIS Data. 2006.
  Fairfax, Virginia 22035
• Virginia Department of Transportation. Public
  Information Department. 2003-2005. GIS Data