Madeline Soule
Intro GIS
Parmenter
Assignment 6
1.
I this project I would like to look at the feasibility of creating
parks/recreational conservation areas in Worcester, MA near to schools in lowincome areas. Worcester is a city greatly lacking in open spaces in comparison to
nearly all other parts of Massachusetts. Additionally, being that Worcester is a city,
there are large concentrations of lower income families, many of which have
children that attend local schools. These schools would benefit by being near to
open spaces such as parks and reserves in their ability to use parks for education, as
well as allow children easy access to these spaces during recreational time or after
school. I would like to determine where the most suitable places in Worcester
would be for additional park areas, and possibly the introduction of programs to
introduce inner city children to nature through these new parks. While Worcester is
a very urban area and does not contain many environmentally significant pieces of
land, there are some areas of priority habitats of rare species that I will take into
account. Also, since Worcester is a city, there is a large amount of impervious
surface, and it maintaining open space is a good way to reduce flooding. I may
incorporate this into the analysis if placement of these open spaces could have an
impact on concentration of impervious surface from future development. Ideally a
new park would provide benefits to the schools and children living near to it, as well
as positively impact the environment and secure conservation land within the city
for the future.
2.
Conine, Ashley, Wei-Ning Xiang, Jeff Young, and David Whitley. 2004. Planning for
multi-purpose greenways in Concord, North Carolina. Landscape and Urban
Planning 68, (2-3) (5/30): 271-87.
This article looks at planning for the creation of greenways, taking into
consideration the various benefits that greenways create, for the environment as
well as the community, including protection, recreation, and alternative
transportation. Greenways are unique because of their connectivity, which also
makes planning especially important so that options can be maximized and an
integrated system can be created. Initially the authors considered demand and
needs of the community for greenways to determine where connectivity was
necessary for transportation. Next they took into consideration the physical
resources that they could use, which they termed “connectivity supplies,” including
natural and man made features that would allow them to “connect the dots” in their
greenways. Finally, for suitability analysis they incorporated other measures of
suitability using rating and weighting layers in an overlay. This type of analysis
leaves the final findings up for manipulation with changes in factor weighting and
rating, which utilizes an important feature in GIS.
Lathrop, Richard G., and John A. Bognar. 1998. Applying GIS and landscape
ecological principles to evaluate land conservation alternatives. Landscape and
Urban Planning 41, (1) (5/15): 27-41.
This article is a case study of Sterling Forest, an area on the New York/New
Jersey border with demand for both development and conservation. The authors
use GIS analysis to advocate a broader landscape approach to conservation. They
created a GIS database with land cover type, hydrography, roads, elevation, and soil
type, and also catalogued critical environmental characteristics under threat by
development, which acted as constraints to development. These were (1)
Development limitations due to soil conditions/steep slopes/flooding; (2) non-point
source pollution potential due to proximity to wetlands/water; (3) habitat
fragmentation potential; (4) sensitive wildlife areas; and, (5) visibility from
Appalachian, Sterling Ridge Trails (presumably a reduction in recreation
enjoyment). These constraints were classified for each grid cell at a level of severity
from 1 to 5. The authors used these constraints to create more simplified maps,
which were used by a coalition of land conservation trusts in order to negotiate with
a land developer. These maps were more simplified, but this study shows the
practical usage of GIS products. Additionally, it shows the way authors’ opinions can
filter into systems of weighting, and ultimately effect the outcome of negotiation
situations, in this case positively for conservation.
Valente, Roberta de Oliveira Averna, and Carlos Alberto Vettorazzi. 2008. Definition
of priority areas for forest conservation through the ordered weighted
averaging method. Forest Ecology and Management 256, (6) (9/5): 1408-17.
This study was used to evaluate the ordered weighted averaging (OWA)
method using GIS to determine priority areas for conservation in a Brazilian river
basin. The study took into account several factors that are important in increasing
biodiversity, including proximity to forest patches, proximity among forest patches
with larger core area, proximity to surface water, distance from roads, distance from
urban areas, and vulnerability to erosion. The authors created a range of
alternatives using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) along with a Participatory
Technique to determine the order and weight of the criteria, as well as using linear
weighting. They tested alternative settings with low-, medium- and high-risk by
variably combining and weighting the criteria. To show their results, the authors
created maps displaying areas of low to high priority. Once again, this model
allowed for variability in defining importance of criteria, giving it flexibility for use.
Weber, Theodore C. 2007. Development and application of a statewide conservation
network in Delaware, U.S.A. Journal of Conservation Planning (3): 17-46
This paper analyzed land in the state of Delaware to determine land to be
used for a statewide conservation network, first finding all land that met certain
criteria, and then determining priority lands through the use of ranking and several
weighting schemes. This analysis is one of a new school of thought called “Green
Infrastructure” which treats natural features as “infrastructure” which makes up an
ecological area that provides services. It determined several important types of
conservation land, including core areas, hubs, and corridors, with connectivity of
great importance. Each type of land was determined through land measurements
such as size, location, quality of vegetation, and land cover. Once the core and hub
areas had been determined, they were compared within their ecoregion, a region of
relatively homogenous ecological systems, to determine which specific areas would
be of highest priority. Each core and hub were given a final ranking based on many
factors, with several weighting schemes again being used. Results were used to
recommend changes to state and local zoning and conservation plans.
3.
I plan to use methods of ranking and weighting overlays similar to those used
in the papers I have read. I anticipate learning about how to carry out these types of
GIS procedures. Initially I will also likely use features that we have learned, such as
selection by location and attribute, as well as joins, summary and statistics.
4.
Layer
MA Block groups
Census income
Other census
information as
necessary
Openspaces
BioMap Core
Habitat
Land Use
Rivers
Schools
HNESP Priority
Habitats for Rare
Species
Impervious surface
World Imagery
Source
MassGIS
MassGIS
MassGIS
Accuracy
MassGIS
Within about 50 meters – unless this
distance is determined too much of a
difference in walking distance
MassGIS
MassGIS
MassGIS
MassGIS
MassGIS
MassGIS
ArcGIS
Within about 50 meters
Within about 50 meters
Within about 50 meters
Within about 50 meters