Digital Transformation of Analytic Processes at the US Census Bureau

[ThalitaC]

Author:

Deborah Chase

Role:

Director of Marketing

Company:

Reveal Global Consulting

Collaborators:

Hector Ferronato, Director of Technology

Overview of Use Case

U.S. Census data is one of our most valuable national assets. It must be accurate, timely, protected, and used wisely to allocate over $675 billion in federal funding to states, local communities, and businesses. For the past several decades, the Census Bureau has relied heavily on 50-year old manual processes and antiquated tools to collect, process, analyze, and report data on the population, housing, businesses, workforce, public finance, resources used, etc. The sheer volume, velocity, and veracity of the Census Bureau’s big data is hard to manage with legacy systems. Manual surveying and data processing are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and costly. Learn how an innovative advanced analytics solution using satellite image analyses from Reveal and Alteryx is digitally transforming data collection, analyses, and dissemination processes for the U.S. Construction Indicator. With the solution, the Census Bureau is dramatically reducing operational costs while improving the accuracy and quality of economic indicators.

Describe the business challenge or problem you needed to solve

Most Americans have heard of the US Census Bureau given its role in surveying every person for the “Decennial Census of Population and Housing.” What people may not know is that the Census Bureau, part of the US Department of Commerce, is the nation’s leading provider of quality data about the economy.

Mandated to do so by law, Census collects, analyzes, and reports actionable data about people, places, and the health of the economy to Congress; the White House Office of Management and Budget; federal, state, and local government agencies; news organizations; businesses; and the public. For example, Census data, research findings, and key indicators are used to:

• Assess the health of the US economy
• Allocate funding for new roads and schools
• Define voting districts
• Provide services for the elderly
• Locate job training centers
• Qualify people for social security
• Assess construction spending and activity
• Audit disaster recovery spending

Describe your working solution

Use Case: The US Construction Indicator

As part of its digital transformation efforts, US Census Bureau Economic Indicators Division, Construction Programs, contracted Reveal Global Consulting to design, build, and deploy modernized, and automated approaches for data collection, analysis, and dissemination that reduce operational costs while improving the accuracy and quality of the Census Bureau’s economic indicators. More specifically, the Census Bureau wanted an advanced analytics and analytic process automation solution to compile and release worldwide economic indicator data that would meet specific requirements and achieve these tangible goals:

• Eliminate redundant data entry
• Streamline the economic indicator release process
• Create a consistent look and feel for the indicators’ website
• Prevent early release of indicators
• Maintain security of indicator information
• Re-use existing systems rather than create new ones
• Use enterprise systems for their primary purposes
• Use a loosely coupled architecture
• Use existing security infrastructure
• Minimize changes to established business processes
• Refactor code rather than rewrite it
• Improve the quality of Census data products
• Prioritize security over performance

The Reveal / Alteryx Analytics Approach & Solution

The US Construction Indicator use case required an end-to-end solution with a strong Analytic Process Automation (APA) platform at its core. APA eliminates barriers to data analysis by unifying multiple tools into one platform that provides end-to-end, self-service analytics across big data management prep, analytics and data science, and process automation to accelerate insights and actions.

The Reveal advance analytics, automated workflow, and visualization solution for the US Census Bureau:

• Modernizes construction industry indicators (housing starts, residential and non-residential construction spending, and others)
• Identifies alternative sources of data to reduce reliance on manually administered surveys
• Leverages advanced analytics and automates processes to optimize performance
• Provides advanced analytics and data visualization to provide Census users and external stakeholders with timely, relevant insights for optimal decision-making
• Uses AI to analyze satellite image data showing construction activity over time.

The solution collects, filters, formats, and aggregates unstructured data from numerous Census and third-party sources. The data is ingested into the Alteryx platform. Alteryx provides a unified analytic process automation (APA) platform that enables the creation and scheduling of workflows, that can collect satellite imagery and automate analysis using geospatial and AI/ML capabilities to validate, compile, and create more accurate and timely construction indicator insight.

Data utilized includes:

• 3rd party US permit data for residential single-family homes
• Web-scraped jurisdiction websites and pdf’s
• Census Bureau shapefiles for every US state
• Satellite images of construction sites showing pre-construction and post-construction

Actions the solution performs with the data include the following:

• Filter, format & aggregation
• Map and perform spatial analysis
• Evaluate 3rd party data coverage and accuracy
• Schedule, prompt, and collect CNN Model Classifications
• Evaluate and aggregate image classifications
• Merge 3rd party construction data and image classifications
• Create visualizations
• Update Construction Indicator

Describe the benefits you have achieved

The joint Reveal/Alteryx solution contributes to the achievement of US Census Bureau’s stated mission goals:

• Create, acquire, and offer new data sources and products
• Maximize operational efficiency
• Build a better customer experience
• Ensure safety and security for the digital age

The Reveal/Alteryx solution meets these measures of success:

• Reduce the burden to survey respondents
• Reduce the need for field data collection
• Remain cost neutral
• Leverage innovative methodologies and technology

The solution provides tangible benefits to the US Census Bureau:

• Automates several manual processes for data collection and pre-processing
• Improves efficiency by freeing up Census analysts to perform higher-value tasks
• Improves quality and accuracy of construction activity data
• The solution can be expanded to improve other Census products

[MxS]

@ThalitaC great article -- can you just elaborate on the following technical detail: does this use case use the default satellite imagery in Alteryx?

Thanks

Mike