Gis final Paper Stephen Pantalone
Download 105.81 Kb.
|
1 2
|
GIS - Final Paper Stephen Pantalone Creating the Urban Forest: A Suitability Analysis for Green Space in Boston The purpose of this project is to identify areas within the city of Boston that are most suitable for developing green space. The suitability analysis is based on a criteria that examines population density, canopy cover, impervious land cover, certain land uses, children under the age of 16 and distance to existing park space. There are many approaches to rating most suitable areas, principally those that focus on the ecological benefits and those that focus on the social benefits. In terms of ecological benefits, there is even further debate on whether it is more beneficial to extend and improve existing green space (with the hope of creating green corridors) or to develop green space in highly dense and built up areas. The criteria for this analysis was run under both principals and for obvious reasons produced two maps that showed different results. However, in both cases the social variables (pop, children, distance to parks) used the same scoring. The comparison of maps indicates that both approaches are valuable ways to address urban greening. It was also interesting to see where the two approaches intersected. My final poster focused on the suitability analysis that scored lacked of canopy cover, impervious cover, dense land use more highly. In addition to the suitability map my poster also located 4 parcels in two neighborhoods with some of the highest suitability scores. The purpose of these images/maps was to show one potential next step in implementing green spaces. I had hoped to take this aspect of the mapping further, however determining truly vacant and buildable parcels was difficult to do on the scale of a city, and more detailed parcel data was not available. Nonetheless, using the basic criteria of parcels with no building values did identify parcels that appeared to have potential for development. My interest in green space stems from its social, ecological and visual benefits. Green space benefits the environment by reducing water runoff, removing carbon from the air, reducing the heat island effect, and producing food in some cases. The maps could be used as a tool for city planners who are developing a comprehensive plan. The maps could also be used for zoning purposes in order to steer development of green space to these areas. The end goal of this mapping would be to envision an urban city that intertwines nature within its tall buildings and density. It should be noted that there are additional mechanisms to green a city such as green roofs which would be interesting to map. However, those opportunities are beyond the scope of this project. Criteria for rating most suitable areas (by census block) As previously noted the criteria for suitability was run in both directions. The first table includes the scoring scale and brief description of the purpose of each criteria, and is weighted towards lack of canopy cover, impervious surfaces and high density use. The second suitability analysis merely flips these criteria for canopy cover and permeability, and uses different scoring for land cover. The other criteria of kids under 16 and distance to parks remain the same.
  Data Sets Download 105.81 Kb. Share with your friends:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
1 2