Making Maps: Final Project

While we weren't required to do a blog post, I am going to do one as this is an online "portfolio" of our work through the semester and program. The final was fairly open-ended in topic as long as it was a geographic in nature and used some of the spatial analysis tools and methods we learned in class. Being open-ended is actually a big part of what got me off to a slow start. I had a lot of ideas, I just didn't have the skills yet or the data, etc. to carry them out. So after may stops and starts and a switch of topic due to data difficulties, I went forward with a suitability analysis and weighted overlay project.

Using an area I currently live near and am familiar with, I decided to look at suitable land for a potential nature center to be built in the Blackwater River State Park in Santa Rosa County, FL. I gathered relevant data and created two maps: a constraint map and a criteria map. The constraint map was a Boolean grid map of all the areas that could be included (value 1) or excluded (value 0) from the analysis, such as wetlands and rivers excluded, and the eastern side of the park included. The criteria map consisted of 4 datasets that I reclassified with suitability ratings (1-4, high suitability to not suitable), then used the Weighted Overlay tool with equal weight to find suitable areas in the park based on those criteria. A final map was created by using the Times tool to combine the constraints with the weighted criteria to produce all included suitable areas in the state park.

A suitability analysis and weighted overlay are both highly dependent on the ratings and weight put on each criteria. As my study was based on my own personal knowledge of the area, but lacking expert opinion, on construction costs for example, the results mostly provide a general outlook on suitable areas, with definite room for further modeling and criteria input.

Based on feedback there are a few things I could have differently with the study, such as cell size considerations and criteria distances for rating. As a first time master's class and new GIS student, I am happy with my final paper though and all I learned during the project. I look forward to implementing what I learned into future GIS endeavors.