Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Lab 5 Potential Cabin Locations in Bayfield County, WI

Introduction
For this lab my goal was to find out the best locations in Bayfield County, Wisconsin that I could build a cabin. I created a list of four specific criteria for where I wanted my cabin to be located in Bayfield County. The first criterion was that the location must be in a census tract with a population greater than 2,500. I wanted my cabin to be in an area that was somewhat isolated but I also wanted there to be people in the vicinity. The second criterion was that the location had to be within 25 miles of a lake. If I were to build a cabin in Bayfield I want it to be near a lake so that I can go boating and fishing. The third criterion was that the location must be within 20 miles of a county forest. I wanted my cabin to be close to a county forest so that I could go on nature walks and experience nature. The fourth criterion that I wanted was that the location be at least 5 miles away from a major highway. The map that I created for this lab shows the best locations for my cabin. I think the map may be helpful to anyone who is thinking about or planning to build a cabin in Bayfield County. 

Data Sources
To answer my spatial question I needed to use data provided by ESRI and the Wisconsin DNR. I retrieved my data from the ESRI and Wisconsin DNR databases in ArcMap. The data files that I retrieved from the ESRI database include the Bayfield County boundary, the lakes of America, census tracts, and major highways. From the Wisconsin DNR database I used data for the county forests in America.

Methods
To answer my spatial question I first added the specific data layers I needed to my map from the ESRI and Wisconsin DNR databases. Next, I located my area of interest, Bayfield County, Wisconsin in ArcMap and made it a feature class. Next, I clipped the census tracts, lakes, county forests, and major highways data layers to the Bayfield County feature class. My next step was to begin using the analysis tools in ArcMap to answer my spatial question. I began by looking for census tracts that had a population of greater than 2,500. I did a select by attributes query to find the census tracts that had a population greater than 2,500. After I found the tracts I wanted I proceeded to find areas in Bayfield County that were within 25 miles of a lake. To find these areas I created a 25 mile buffer on the lakes data layer and dissolved to make sure that any internal boundaries were cleared. To find the areas that were within 20 miles of a county forest I created a 20 mile buffer on the county forest data layer. Once I had found all of the criteria I wanted for my cabin location I was ready to use the intersect tool. I intersected the new census tract, lake, and county forest data layers that contained the areas I wanted my cabin to be located. Then I moved on to find the areas that were 5 miles away from a major highway. To find these areas I created a 5 mile buffer on the major highways data layer. I did not want my cabin to be near a major highway so next I used the erase tool to remove the areas in Bayfield County that were 5 miles from a major highway. After doing the previous steps I finally discovered the best locations to build my cabin based on my criteria.

Results
My final map has four separate maps that show each of my criteria along with the best locations to put my cabin. Based on my maps the areas that met my criteria were located mainly in the northern region of Bayfield County.

Evaluation
I thought this project was fun because I was able to choose what my spatial question was going to be. I also liked that I was able to choose the criteria I wanted for the question. If I were to do this project over I would try to make my criteria more detailed and less basic. In order to make my criteria more advanced I would look up more information about what attractions are in Bayfield County that I may want my cabin to be near or do some research on locations that I may not want my cabin to be next to. For example, next time I would try to find data on the locations of restaurants in Bayfield County because when I go to the cabin I would like to be able to not have to drive very far if I want to go out for a nice meal with some friends.

I ran into some challenges as I worked through the project. One problem that came up was that one of the criteria I chose did not work when I ran the analysis tools. Before I ran the analysis tools I wanted my cabin to be in a census tract with a population under 1,500 and be 25 miles away from a major highway. The area that resulted from this criteria was non-existent because there were no areas that matched this criteria in Bayfield County. So in order to fix this problem I had to change the buffer distances. After changing the buffer distances I was able to find areas to put my cabin.

Figure 1. Potential Cabin Locations in Bayfield County, WI















Data Flow Model





Friday, December 6, 2013

Lab 4 Vector Analysis with ArcGIS


Goal
The ultimate goal for Lab 4 was to use different geoprocessing tools available in ArcGIS to help find suitable habitat for bears located in the study area of Marquette County, Michigan.

Methods
The first step I took to find suitable bear habitat was to find the top three forest types that bears prefer in Marquette County. I did a table join between the landcover and bear locations feature classes to determine the top three forest types that the bears liked the most. Next, I wanted to figure out if streams were essential in a bear habitat. To find out if streams were important to bears I did a query of the bear locations and streams feature classes to see if the bears were located close to streams. I found out that streams are important to a bear habitat because 72 percent of the bears were located within 500 meters of a stream. Now I had the two important criteria for a bear habitat, close proximity to streams and the best forest types for the bears. Next, I found the best areas for bears to live in Marquette County based on the criteria I created. I clipped the streams and the preferred landcover feature classes in order to locate the streams that were located within the preferred landcover area. Then I did a 500 meter buffer on the streams feature class and I made sure to dissolve after the buffer so that any internal boundaries were omitted. Next, I figured out the best areas for bear habitat in the management lands of the Michigan DNR. I found the best areas for bears by clipping the study area and the DNR management feature classes. Then I created a union between the DNR management and preferred land cover feature classes and dissolved to clear away any internal boundaries. The DNR did not want the bear habitat to be within 5 kilometers of urban or built up land. To make sure the bear habitat was away from urban or built up land I created a union between the landcover feature class and the all habitat in the study area feature class. Then I did a query to determine where the urban or built up land was located and created a 5 kilometer buffer for those areas of land.

Results
The Bear Habitat in Marquette County map indicates that the optimal place for bears to live is near the streams and near the evergreen forest, the forested wetlands, and the mixed forest land. The Michigan DNR Land map indicates that there are areas within the DNR Management lands that will be ideal for bears to live.
Figure 1. Bear Habitat in Marquette County, Michigan
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sources: Michigan Center for Geographic Information http://michigan.gov/cgi/0,1607,7-158-14652-30811--,00.html
 
Figure 2. Data Flow Model