This lab was intended to utilize a variety of tools to provide an answer to a geospatial question. The question to be answered was "Where can I live in Aitkin County, Minnesota? I want to live near a park and a hospital, but away from highways and railways". The specific criteria used were: within 10km of a park, at least 2 km away from railways and highways, and 25 km or less from the nearest hospital. The intended audience for this map is other GIS users and anyone looking for a home in Aitkin County, Minnesota.
Data Sources
To meet the criteria for this map, data concerning park land area, hospital locations, railway and highway locations, and the county border of Aitkin county. All data was obtained from the ESRI database server ( Data concerns include: age of the data (and therefore reliability), whether or not "hospitals" includes ER's and general health clinics, and whether or not railways are active or not.
Methods
To begin creating this map, a new file geodatabase was created to store and easily access all feature classes used in the process. For the Study Area locator map, three data layers were added: a Minnesota boundary layer, Minnesota counties layer, and study area layer. To create the study area layer, a query in the Minnesota counties layer was used to create a new layer containing only Aitkin County.
For the Suitable Living Area map, the three layers used above were added as well as these data feature classes: US Hospitals, US railways, US highways, and US parks. The parks layer was given a buffer of 10 kilometers and then dissolved. The park land layer was then erased from this buffer in order to produce a new layer representing living area within 10 km of park land. This layer was then clipped to the Aitkin County layer. The railway and highway layers were merged and clipped to the study area. A buffer of 2 kilometers was then created and dissolved. Since the criteria demanded that suitable living area exclude any land within 2 km of railways and highways, the buffer was erased from the layer representing living area near parks. This layer was then clipped to the Aitkin County layer. Finally, the hospitals layer was buffered to 25 km and then dissolved and clipped to the feature class near parks and away from rails and highways, creating a final result of a suitable living area including all of the requested criteria.
Below is a data flow model as a visual representation of the steps that were taken and the tools that were used.
Results
The map below represents suitable places to live in Aitkin County for a person looking to live near a park and hospital but away from railways and highways. There are four hospitals in Aitkin County to choose from. Much of the county contains park land, so it is not difficult to live near parks. Avoiding highways and railways is more difficult but can be accomplished. There is ample space to find an appropriate living area in Aitkin County even when considering the criterium.
Source: Esri - GIS Mapping Software, Solutions, Services, Map Apps, and Data.
Evaluation
This project was enjoyable because I got to pick the type of map I wanted to create. It was fun to put my skills to use in a way that brought GIS into a real life application. Something that I struggled with was creating the data flow model, however after developing such an elaborate one for this project I feel very comfortable with that skill. If I were to repeat this project, I would choose a different county. Preferably a larger one. I would also explore something different like where to put a golf course or a community pool. I kept my research question simple to ensure that I could properly display the skills that I have learned without making it too challenging and elaborate.
