The Community Appearance Index, also known as the Litter Index, is a tool designed by Keep America Beautiful to visually evaluate the overall appearance of a community using litter as an indicator. Every year, 60 routes throughout the five wards of Norfolk are analyzed to determine the cleanliness of the city. After a thorough training, a team of volunteers conduct the analysis using a scoring system ranging from 1-4 with “1” indicating minimal to no litter and “4” indicating extremely littered. Methodology for this process includes recruiting volunteers who commit to attend a one-and-a-half-day Community Appearance Index scan. Each volunteer is thoroughly trained on the index to accurately and consistently survey a statistical sample of the city. The results of the scan are then averaged to produce the City of Norfolk Community Appearance Index score. This dataset is updated annually; the data begins in 2010. The Litter Index survey is normally conducted in August; the 2020 survey will be delayed due to COVID-19.
This dataset has the following 11 columns:
| Column Name | API Column Name | Data Type | Sample Values |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ward-Route | ward_route | text | Ward 5-1b Ward 1-10f Ward 4-11f Ward 2-7a Ward 2-4f view top 100 |
| 2010 | _2010 | number | 1 2 3 1.6 1.4 view top 100 |
| 2011 | _2011 | number | 2 1 3 1.83 1.33 view top 100 |
| 2012 | _2012 | number | 1 2 3 1.17 1.5 view top 100 |
| 2013 | _2013 | number | 1 2 3 1.5 2.5 view top 100 |
| 2014 | _2014 | number | 1 2 3 1.2 1.8 view top 100 |
| 2015 | _2015 | number | 1 2 3 1.5 1.75 view top 100 |
| 2016 | _2016 | number | 1 2 3 1.25 1.75 view top 100 |
| 2017 | _2017 | number | 1 2 3 1.33 1.67 view top 100 |
| 2018 | _2018 | text | 2 1 3 1.25 1.5 view top 100 |
| 2019 | _2019 | text | 1 2 1.5 3 2.5 view top 100 |