Lab 4: Mini-Final Project
Introduction:
Lab 4 requires all students to come up with a spatial question to analyze and answer. To answer the question, the students must analyze data, create a data flow model, and use geoprocessing tools in ArcGIS to create a map to explain the answer.
My question is centered around St. Croix County, Wisconsin. I wanted to know where the best placement is for a new high school in St. Croix County. There are a few criteria that have limits on where the new high school can be built. It must be at least five miles away from another high school, it must be further than two miles from any major roadway, it must be in an area of over 1000 people, and it must be ten miles or closer to a middle school. With overpopulation in many high schools throughout St. Croix County, I wanted to uncover the best placement for a new high school.
Methods:
To find the answer to my question, I used multiple geoprocessing tools with the data to find what I needed. All of the data I used for this project started with a query to gather data strictly from St. Croix County. Figure 1 below shows the work flow model I used to find the necessary information I needed. Some of the geoprocessing tools I used were the following: queries, buffers, intersect, erase, and union to find all of the necessary data I needed.
To find the answer to my question, I used multiple geoprocessing tools with the data to find what I needed. All of the data I used for this project started with a query to gather data strictly from St. Croix County. Figure 1 below shows the work flow model I used to find the necessary information I needed. Some of the geoprocessing tools I used were the following: queries, buffers, intersect, erase, and union to find all of the necessary data I needed.
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| Figure 1: Workflow map showing the geoprocessing tools used as well as the results upon using them |
Results:
I found that there are many areas within St. Croix County that would be a good area to build a new high school based off of the criteria I chose. Figure 2 below is the map I created showing the best possible area for a new high school. The red polygons created (shown below) are the areas in which a new high school meets the criteria. The criteria are that the new high school must be five miles from a currently existing high school, in a town with more than 1000 people, within 10 miles of a currently existing middle school, and at least two miles away from any major roadway.
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| Figure 2: This map is used to show the best possible area (in red) for a new high school in St. Croix County. |
Data Sources:
To create this map, I needed placements of schools in St. Croix County. I had to query the data to find specifically where middle schools were versus high schools. I also had to have data about all of the major roadways in St. Croix County. The last piece of information I needed was The placement and data about St. Croix County which was gathered from a data source with all of the counties in Wisconsin. All of the data used for this project were taken from an ESRI data source. A few data concerns were keeping the coordinate systems the same throughout all of the layers within the map, and not taking into account that most of the major towns in St. Croix County already have a high school. After I finished the map, I had to double check all of the layers and make sure all of the coordinate systems were the same. I am concerned that the area is going to be a rural area.
Evaluation:
Overall, this was the best projects all year. It was interesting to each person because we picked what we wanted to do with our own spatial question. Lately there has been quite a bit of talk about a new high school in the St. Croix County area, so I wanted to see where the best location was spatially. It was cool getting to chose what to do our projects on. It was a great feeling being able to create a map of something from start to finish. I gathered the data I needed from a large data base and used my knowledge of geoprocessing tools and other tools in ArcGIS to create a map. If I was asked to repeat this project I would do more with the population. I only based my map off of a town of 1000 people, but I would like to go more in depth within the population. It was challenging trying to come up with a solid question that incorporated so many different criteria. Overall, creating this map was a great way to end my first GIS class!
