{"id":175651,"date":"2011-07-01T20:12:22","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T20:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&p=175651"},"modified":"2018-12-18T11:35:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T19:35:34","slug":"locating-a-park-through-suitability-analysis","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/analytics\/locating-a-park-through-suitability-analysis","title":{"rendered":"Locating a park through suitability analysis"},"author":5051,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[23341,37151],"tags":[23241,27971,26361,24321],"industry":[],"product":[36991],"class_list":["post-175651","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analytics","category-design-planning","tag-best-practices","tag-editing","tag-geodesign","tag-geoprocessing","product-arcgis-desktop"],"acf":{"short_description":"Park analysis and design: Locating a park through suitability analysis (part 2)","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Park analysis and design: Locating a park through suitability analysis (part 2)<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In my previous blog post<\/a>, I analyzed park accessibility in the City of Redlands and discovered several areas of the city that were farther than one mile from an existing park along the walkable street network. Now, I want to determine where to best locate a new park within the areas I identified as being underserved by current parks.<\/p>\n

To answer this question, I\u2019ll conduct a suitability analysis to find parcels that are most appropriate for a new park.<\/p>\n

There are two main types of suitability analysis: binary and weighted. Binary suitability analysis involves a binary final answer \u20141 or 0, or in our case, suitable and unsuitable. A weighted suitability analysis allows for a range of final answers, from 1 to 10, for example, and allows certain layers to have more influence (weight) on the result of the model. For this example, I\u2019m going to create a binary suitability analysis model.<\/p>\n

As with our park accessibility analysis, I\u2019ll start with several datasets from the City of Redlands, including parks, schools, roads, trails (off-road and on), existing and proposed bicycle lanes, and vacant parcels. Before I construct a model, I should know the distances the new park should be from certain features. In most cases, I\u2019m looking to be close to certain features, but in other cases, I want to make sure I\u2019m far enough away, such as with highways and existing parks.\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Remember that any of these values can be changed to suit any criteria. ModelBuilder allows a workflow to be created, run, and then modified to suit different ideas of how far each feature should be from a new park.<\/p>\n

Creating a data processing workflow<\/strong>
\nMy analysis should read like a flowchart: buffer the schools, trails, and bicycle lanes to make the \u2018good\u2019 areas. Buffer the existing parks and highways to make the \u2018bad\u2019 areas. Then remove the bad areas from the good areas, and find the areas that are common to the vacant parcels.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Developing a suitability model<\/strong>
\nTo use the data and tools found in ArcGIS to accomplish suitability analyses, I\u2019ll develop a model using\u00a0ModelBuilder<\/a>. ModelBuilder acts much like a living flowchart, with data elements connecting to tools creating outputs just like the flow processing diagram. A model serves not only as an organizational tool for doing data processing, but the elements of the model store parameter values and data paths that can be changed, and the model itself can be shared and run on different data. For example, other users can change the input datasets to their own parks and street network to achieve the same analysis.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By definition,\u00a0geoprocessing\u00a0<\/a>tools take one or more pieces of geographic data, run a process based on parameters I define, and create a new piece of data as the result. That first result can be fed into another tool which results in yet another piece of data. Once the new data has been created, the old result can be discarded. This data is called intermediate data. Each piece of intermediate data should be written to a\u00a0scratch workspace<\/a>, which is defined in the\u00a0environment settings<\/a>\u00a0of the map or model.\u00a0 Keeping intermediate data in a scratch workspace is a great way to ensure I don\u2019t end up with random datasets all over my computer.<\/p>\n

Tools for models can be found using the\u00a0Search window<\/a>. The Search window will allow me to type in the name of a tool, dataset, or script and show results across all types of data. To add a tool to a model, drag the tool by its name, and drop it on the model canvas. Model elements can be connected using the Connect tool from the model window. Double-clicking a tool or element will open a dialog box that allows me to ensure the settings are correct before I run the model. ModelBuilder will also check the inputs are valid before running, and I can check them all manually by clicking the Validate Entire Model tool from the ModelBuilder toolbar. I can save the model in a toolbox, which can be stored anywhere on disk or in a geodatabase, as I am doing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When the model runs, a dialog box shows me the progress, notification that it is finished, and any messages, warnings, or errors that might have occurred. The\u00a0Results window<\/a>\u00a0is the location to track the status of a model or other geoprocessing operation.<\/p>\n

Reusing models as tools\u00a0<\/strong>
\nAnother nice feature of models is they can be\u00a0used in other models as tools<\/a>. Since I already proved the effectiveness of measuring distances along the road network versus straight-line buffers, I can\u00a0\"\"<\/a>take the method I developed and use it as a tool in my park suitability model. I\u2019ll call the tool Buffer Along Roads and use it for the schools and existing parks, which are the only datasets that require travel to be measured along the road network.<\/p>\n

My model tool will operate as any other tool: it requires an input point dataset and will create a polygon dataset containing buffers along the roads using the distances exposed in the reclassification scheme. Once I\u2019ve created these distance polygons, I then choose the ones that meet my criteria\u2014in this case those that are \u00bd mile from existing parks and within \u00bd mile of schools.\u00a0 From there, the rest of my analysis can continue using straight-line buffers from bike lanes, trails, and highways.<\/p>\n

Determining the final location<\/strong>
\nWhen the model is finished, I see that there is more than one suitable location for a new park. I then have some work to do to figure out the final parcel or location. For example, perhaps I\u2019m looking for the area that is closest to downtown. Using my park access analysis as an example, converting the final suitable polygons to points and running them through a cost distance tool would be one method to use.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

However, I want to allow the citizens to provide input. In the next entry in this series, I\u2019ll use ArcGIS Server to collect volunteered geographic information, crowd-sourced, or user-generated content to allow users to vote on their favorite location for a new park. This concept is now being referred to as \u201cparticipatory planning\u201d.<\/p>\n

Accessing the data and models<\/strong>
\nThe data and models for this blog post can be found\u00a0here<\/a>
\nThe rest of the data and tools for this blog series can be found in the Park Analysis and Design group\u00a0here\u00a0<\/a>(make sure to filter by Show: All Content at the top of the page)<\/p>\n

Update<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part 1 \u2013 Park analysis and design \u2013 Measuring access to parks<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 2 \u2013 Park analysis and design: Locating a park through suitability analysis<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 3 \u2013 Park analysis and design:\u00a0 Voting on a new park location<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 4 \u2013 Park analysis and design:\u00a0 Sketching the design of a new park<\/a><\/p>\n

Content for the post from Matthew Baker<\/em><\/p>\n"}],"authors":[{"ID":5051,"user_firstname":"Rhonda","user_lastname":"Glennon","nickname":"rmglennon","user_nicename":"rmglennon","display_name":"Rhonda Glennon","user_email":"rhondaglennon@gmail.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2018-03-02 00:16:41","user_description":"","user_avatar":""}],"related_articles":"","card_image":false,"wide_image":false},"yoast_head":"\nLocating a park through suitability analysis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/analytics\/locating-a-park-through-suitability-analysis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Locating a park through suitability analysis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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