Lab 4

Introduction: The goal of this lab was to find a suitable area in Vilas or Oneida counties for a golf camp. The objective was to find an area in close relation to a number of different things. The camp needed to be inside of a forest, within a half mile of a lake, 15 miles of a golf course, and 15 miles of a hospital. The intended audience for this project would be an entrepreneur looking to start a golf camp in Northern Wisconsin. The entrepreneur would use the data to find what land to buy to establish the camp. 

Data Sources: The data which was used was from the 2014 Department of Natural Resources of Wisconsin's survey, and a 2014 Esri Data; both bought by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire for academic uses. 

Methods: The first operation executed was to clip all of the features used so that the only features displayed were within the county. However the hospitals and golf courses were not clipped until a buffer was given, because some were outside of the county but within a distance of 15 miles. Next was selecting the lakes in the vegetation cover to create a new class of lakes. Then a 1/2 mile buffer was given to the lakes to find land close enough to have campers walk to the lake on an average day. An intersection of the 1/2 mile lake buffer, 15 mile golf course and hospital buffers, and forests, was completed. Lastly an analysis of unavailable land was done. For the purpose of this lab US and Wisconsin parks were erased from the previously executed intersection. This was to show that this land could not be purchased, and therefore should not be included. If given more data more area would be erased, per land available for purchase.

Results: The results showed areas touching lakes in both counties, that fulfilled all of the previously mentioned criteria. Although not an incredible large selection was given, the areas were large enough to contain camp necessities, ie. mess halls, dormitories, infirmary, and other classrooms. The result would most likely be larger if more accurate data for golf courses was given. Although plenty of courses were shown on the report, in reality there are more courses. 

Evaluation: This project was very interesting given the ability to pick ones research topic. If done again more accurate data would be beneficial. More golf courses would be present and therefore more areas for the camp would be available. More in depth analysis would be able to be done, for example areas where multiple golf courses are present would allow for campers to experience a larger number of courses, hence yielding a better result to their game. Some challenges faced were long loading times for some of the overlays used, namely the intersection of all of the criteria.  

Lab 3

Goal: The goal of this lab is to demonstrate skills in spatial analysis in ArcGIS. During the lab we used overlay tools to display bear habitats

Background: The lab looked at a study of bear populations, and worked to find an optimal habitat for black bears in Marquette county, Michigan. Using vector analysis tools I determined the preferred habitat for black bears. The criteria for the habitat was, in the preferred ecological cover, within 500 meters of a stream, within DNR land, and at least 5 km away for urban or built up areas.

We began by taking a zipped file of X-Y coordinates of tracked bears. Once we had our data displayed on a map we began to run analysis of the bears population, and their habitats. By querying the data, it was determined that the optimal location for black bears was in Mixed, Deciduous, and Evergreen forests. I than buffered the streams 500 meters, and ran a intersection to determine that over 30% of the bears were within 500 meters of a stream, in fact 72% were within a stream. Forrest type, and stream proximity were then added as criteria for the bear habitat.

The next step was to intersect the buffer of streams, with the suitable habitats. This generated our first look at where the bear habitat would be. Although this showed where bears could live in the area, it did not display whether or not the data was inside of a DNR managed area. To solve this problem, I ran a clip of the DNR zones within the study area. Next I ran a intersect of the DNR zones, and the previously determined habitat zones. This showed us areas where the bears habitat could be, within the DNR zones. The last objective was to ensure that the bear habitat was outside of 5 kilometers of urban, or built up areas. I began by creating a feature class from the selected "urban or built up" areas in the landcover data. Next I created a 5 km buffer around those urban areas. Lastly running a intersection, of the urban buffer and the DNR_bear_habitat I determined the areas too close to civilization.

The data flow model below shows the steps, and order of the steps, which I used to generate my map of potential habitat areas.

Data Flow Medel

The following maps shows the areas of Marquette county which meet all of the qualifications of a bear habitat, as defined by the lab. The Blue areas show possible habitat locations that a too close to an urban area. The green shows the habitat areas which are outside of an urban area, and inside DNR land. The red shows the urban areas. Dots and lines represent bear location, and stream location respectively.

Python coding for certain operations used in Lab 3.

>>> import arcpy

>>> arcpy.Buffer_analysis("streams", "steams_buf", "1 kilometer", "FULL","ROUND","ALL")

<Result 'H:\\Documents\\ArcGIS\\Default.gdb\\steams_buf'>

>>> 

>>> arcpy.Intersect_analysis(["steams_buf", "suitable_habitat"], "land_stream")

<Result 'H:\\Documents\\ArcGIS\\Default.gdb\\land_stream'>

>>> 

>>> arcpy.Erase_analysis(["Urban_Buffer_All", "Suitable Habitat"], "Erase_Buffer")

<Result 'H:\\Documents\\ArcGIS\\Default.gdb\\Erase_Buffer’>

>>> 
Sources

http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/mgdl/nlcd/metadata/nlcdshp.html http://www.dnr.state.mi.us/spatialdatalibrary/metadata/wildlife_mgmt_uni ts.htm  http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/mgdl/framework/metadata/Marquette.html