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Coverage and field disposition codes from a virtual listing frame of commercial buildings (308140)

Keywords: frame, GIS, field listing, coverage, commercial, buildings, CBECS

Field listing costs have historically represented a sizeable portion of a survey budget. For most of its 40 year history, the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) has used field listing to create its area frame of buildings. Although this method of frame construction has proven successful, it is expensive and time-consuming. The 2018 CBECS used a new virtual listing method to create a majority of the sampling frame, with the goal of maintaining or possibly improving frame quality while saving money and time. The Virtual Listing System, which incorporates web searches, online maps, satellite images, and point-of-interest layers from commercial data sources, was used by trained staff in a centralized location to list about 230,000 commercial buildings for the 2018 survey.

Prior to implementing the virtual listing as the primary method of frame construction, a test was conducted in 59 randomly selected segments, in which the buildings were independently virtually listed and field listed. A comparison of the listings from the two methods showed that 20% of the 22,000 buildings listed were found with the virtual listing but not by the field listing, while 11% were found with field listing and not with virtual listing.

In this presentation we discuss a comparison of coverage between two listing methods (the new virtual method and the old field listing method) using new information from data collection. The analysis uses buildings sampled and fielded for the 2018 CBECS that were listed in the 59 segment test. We examine eligibility rates, types of ineligibility, and response rate patterns among building types and sizes. Finally, we make recommendations for improved use of virtual listing in future rounds of CBECS.