GIS Environmental Management | Assignment

GIS Environmental Management 1
GIS ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
Name of Student
Institution
Date
Location

GIS Environmental Management 2
Introduction
In this task, our major aim is to identify a new housing development, which is based in
the urban areas. It means that we will conduct an evaluation both in the vector and raster
analysis, and the evaluation has to take care of various factors such as access to transportation,
access to restaurants and shopping malls, presence of special restriction, as well as other facilities
for the people who are employed. These factors have to be put into considerations as they
influence the urban setup (Aydin et al., 2013).
The question thus is, how are we going to evaluate these sites in a more defensible and
quantifiable manner. The answer relies on the availability of data, as well as tools that can enable
us to analyze as well as determine the various geographic relationships. However, we have been
provided with key vector data that have a significant influence on the selection. The diagram
below illustrates the data, upon which will have to analyze it to come up with a suitable site, say
for student accommodation.
Landuse category Landuse Characteristic
1 Parkland
2 Urban – mixed residential
3 Urban - commercial
4 urban - industrial
5 Urban – vacant (including Brownfield)
6 Rangeland (vegetated area with no protected status)
7 Orchards and nurseries
8 forest
9 water
Fig 1: key vector data for site selection
Name Details

GIS Environmental Management 3
Bus Bus terminals (points)
Parks point
Community Community centres, libraries, museums and
the like – point vector
Roads Major roads -Line vector
retail Shopping and retail centres - point vector
schools Primary and secondary schools – point vector
Fig 2: vector folder information
Discussion and analysis
To determine the suitable location, we will divide the work into three phases Phase one: analysis preparation
We first have to organize the tutorial data that we have. Organization of the data will entail
locating where our data and then transferring it to the ArcMap. This will then be followed by
setting the workspace, through navigation into the spatial analyst folder or rather the scratch.gdb
and then add it. The final step of the first phase is to add the data to the ArcMap and then save
the map document (Bonham-Carter, 2014). Phase 2: accessing the extension and data exploration
In the second phase, we will begin by assessing the ArcGIS spatial analyst extension license,
and if it is updated, then we proceed to add the spatial analyst toolbar. This toolbar contains a
histogram button and a create contour tool which assist in the development of a hillshade. From
this step, we proceed to display and explore the data. This will be then followed by selecting the
various feature of the map and identifying the features using the identify tool. The final stage
will be an examination of the histogram and saving the data (Chainey and Ratcliffe, 2013) Phase 3: Location of the site

GIS Environmental Management 4
This will be the phase for the production of the cartography, which will apply the various
ArcGIS spatial analyst extension tools to determine the appropriate location for building the
students accommodation. The various steps will be demonstrated in the section below
Tools used in the phases
In this section, an outline of the various tools, which helps in determining the appropriate
location, will be provided. The tools include;
Tool illustration Description
Aggregate points It helps in the
determination of the
points-in-area spatial
relationship which
enables for statistical
calculation of the place
(Neteler and Mitasova,
2013)
Summarize within This tool determines the
features within the
points/area of analysis.
Find Existing
Locations
This tool generates the
locations within the
study area which meets
the criteria
Choose Best Facilities This tool selects the
facility which will best
meet the demand of the
surrounding locations
(Quantum, 2013)
Create Viewshed This tool generates
areas, which allows the
observer to see the
objects on the ground.