Geoprocessing with ArcGIS

In order to produce the map above of the arable land in the basin, we analyzed the basin study area and the soils. We clipped the larger soils file to the basin shape, selected the land that is unusable to farmers determined by soil type, and erased this selection from the basin shape. The final output is the area of the basin that is useful for agriculture.

Using Modules in Python

For this script we used the random module and gained experience calling modules in Python. We called random integers to simulate a dice game. Also we created lists and used the append function in order to create a random number list between 0 and 10. Finally we used the For and While loops in addition to the remove function in order to remove all instances of a certain value from the list.

Suitability Analysis

In Suitability Analysis we can compare a variety of variable in order to determine the most suitable geospatial location. In this situation, we compared elevation, land cover, soil type, distance from roads and distance from rivers. In the Equal Weight scenario we used the weighted overlay tool to compare the 5 pre-processed variables and assigned 20% weight to all. While this may make sense comparing just the raster, this is not effective in real scenarios. For the alternative, we used real world data and project specifics to weight the variables based on importance to the client. In this situation we assigned land cover and soils a value of 20% each, slope 40%, and distance to streams and roads at 10% each.