Using Survey 123 to collect data and map in ArcGIS online.

Written by Heather Hall

Gone are the days of paper-based surveys. Having to lug around a clip board, catch papers as they fly off into the wind, have people tell you to get lost cause they don’t trust people with clip boards. ESRI’s Survey 123 is a fast way to collect data using an app on your phone or tablet. Surveys can be downloaded on multiple devices, data can be collected offline and after the data is sent it is automatically uploaded to your AGOL account.

You do have to have an ArcGIS subscription but you can get a free 60 trial when you sign up to use Survey 123 and your data can be downloaded as a CSV, shapefile or file geodatabase.

To get started go to https://survey123.arcgis.com/ and create an account (you must have an AGOL account first to use Survery 123).

Click on create new survey. I like to use “Get started using web designer” for basic surveys. Fill out the name of the survey and tags and start adding questions. 

Download the Survey 123 app to your phone or tablet and choose download surveys and start collecting your data. You can choose to send the data right after you collect it or wait in case you need more information. 

Once all the data is sent you can log into AGOL and you will have a new folder in your content with all of your survey data. There are two feature classes created, one that just says the name of the survey and one that says “fieldworker” after the name of the survey. Both are editable and you can add points, pictures or change the data any way you like. 

Surveys can be shared with multiple people and they can add their own data to it. I only explored the very basics of Survey 123 but found it to be really easy to navigate and collect data.
 
Here are a couple of interesting case studies involving Survey 123.

• https://www.esri.com/~/media/Files/Pdfs/library/casestudies/direct-relief.pdf
• https://www.esri.com/~/media/Files/Pdfs/library/casestudies/harrison-county-west-virginia.pdf