Propose a spatial question and then use the geoprocessing skills (vector) you have learned in this class to answer your spatial question.
Objectives:
1. A spatial question.
2. A report which will outline the scope of your project and include a discussion of the question, data sources, methods, results and an evaluation of the project. This will include the data flow model of your methods.
3. A color PDF map with the answer to your spatial question and other pertinent information (locator map).
Introduction:
My research question that I had was where the best location to put a hospital in Washington County, Oregon. My intended audience was any company wanting to learn where to put another hospital, or the county government wanting to put in another hospital in the county. Washington county has a population of 554,996 people.
Data Sources:
The data I needed to answer these questions was cities, county, parks, highways, hospitals, and waterbodies. I was able to get all of these information right off of the ESRI data given for learning Arcmap with the Mastering Arcgis introduction book. The data concern I have is the viability of how recent the data is because a lot could have changed in the ears since its creation, and there may have been more hospitals created since the data was collected making my map outdated. I also am worried that some of the data may be different for the water bodies because of the shortage in water that is happening in the United States, although I am not sure if this affects Oregon or not.
Methods:
This figure above shows the data flow model I used to figure out where the best location would be for the new hospitals to be put in, in the county. I first put a buffer around the Cities, highways, and hospital layers because I wanted my new hospital to within these zones at a certain distance apart. I then intersected them all to create a new layer that shows where they intersect each other. I also created a union between the parks and water bodies because I wanted to know where people may be getting hurt from. I then clipped the map with the counties layer and created the map that can be seen below.
Results:
The Results I got where actually what I was expecting. As shown in the map most of the hospitals are in the eastern part of the county so I was assuming that the areas that would be needed of a map would be in the eastern parts along with some smaller areas that are shown in the purple. This is my proposed new areas for hospitals to be built based on the criteria that I had. To make my map look well I had to make sure the results were easy to be seen on the larger map, and I wanted to make sure the audience viewing this map understood what part of Oregon I was looking at for this. I was able to create a legend in the top to show the different products on the map along with the scale bar at the bottom to understand how large the area is.
Evaluation:
My overall impression of the project was that it was very fun, exciting, and was great way to learn how to solve problems. At first I thought this problem was going to be slightly overwhelming because I have never not had any instructions on how to complete something in this class. Well in this lab I was able to come up with my own Idea, my way of action, and my own way of styling the map. I felt like I was finally let lose into the world of GIS to figure out this problem.
My overall impression of the project is very high and I would recommend anyone learning GIS to try this project for themselves because it is what is done in the real world, but the questions are usually proposed by the company. If I was able to repeat the project I would change the question that I came up with to one closer to home. I was dealing with Oregon, which is not too far, but I feel like it would have been a lot more fun and understanding to do a project near Eau Claire or just in the State of Wisconsin. I would have changed it to figuring out where I would want to live in Wisconsin or another city in the area.
The challenges that I faced with this lab was that there was almost not guidance throughout the entire lab. I was able to get my data-flow model checked off at the beginning when I created it on a piece of paper, but other than that the entire lab was all up to me. I faced the challenge of some of my ideas not working, and having to improvise and improve the idea. I also faced the challenge of making it look cartographic pleasing for anyone to view my lab. The last challenge I faced was making sure the data-flow model worked correctly. This was a challenge to me because it was my second time using it, and first time by my-self without any help. I think in the future I would like to try doing this by using only python, but for not I think the data-flow model is going to be my go to way.
This lab has taught me very much in the last week. Problem solving, making a data-flow model, and using the skills that I have learned in Geography 335 to finish this project.
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