Urban Development Mathew Plourde

Transcription

1 Urban Development Mathew Plourde

2 Introduction The purpose of this analysis is to select an appropriate area in Middlesex County of Massachusetts, to develop a small urban community Urban Planning is a valuable force for a municipality to achieve sustainable development. Planning helps make the most out of municipal budgets by balancing demands for growth with the need to protect the environment ArcMap and data provided by MassGIS were used in conjunction to determine an area to prepare a small urban development

3 Data Collection All data was provided by the Massachusetts Geographic Information System Counties Layer:

4 Data Collection A layer representing schools ranging from pre kindergarten, elementary, and secondary were used This layer was used to ensure a short commute to school for possible residents For transportation convenience a roads layer was also used Two more layers were added containing fire and police stations to promote safety for the new development

5 Data Collection The pivotal layer used was the land use layer provided by Mass GIS. The layer consisted of land areas consisting of open space, forests, infrastructure, cemeteries, water features, etc.

6 Data Collection Under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) it is required to file an Environmental Notification Form when you meet a specified threshold. Examples of these thresholds are creation of a larger area of impervious surface, creation of large roadways, creation of large wastewater treatment plants, and development in any area of critical environmental concern. To protect the Commonwealth's wetland resources, the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act prohibits the removal, dredging, filling, or altering of wetlands without a permit. Developing in these areas can be timely and costly. Behind this reasoning, layers representing wetlands, areas of critical environmental concern, and the Natural Heritage Endangered Species Program s priority habitat of endangered species were added.

7 Data Analysis The first step was to add the Massachusetts counties layer. Middlesex County was then selected by using select by attributes where the attribute was Middlesex County. A town boundaries layer was also added. Next the land use layer was added. Open land was the attribute selected for the analysis. MassGIS describes the open land layer as Vacant land, idle agriculture, and barren areas. These lands are ideal for a new development. Then all the layers used for analysis were added: areas of critical environmental concern, Natural Heritage Endangered Species Program s priority habitat of endangered species, flood plain, wetlands, police stations, fire stations, and schools.

8 Data Analysis The clip function was used to erase all data outside of the target area of Middlesex County. Construction of the new development would not be ideal in floodplains, wetlands, Natural Heritage Endangered Species Program s priority habitat of endangered species, and areas of critical environmental concern. The erase function was used to erase these areas from the Middlesex county layer. The remaining land after the use of the clip and erase functions is are more suitable for the urban land development.

9 Data Analysis The rest of the analysis consisted of raster analysis. Euclidean distance was used to convert the roads, schools, police stations, and fire stations to rasters. The distance from schools, police stations, and fire stations were analyzed at five miles. The distance used from the roads layer was two miles. The next step was to convert the open land use layer to a raster by using feature to raster function. Using raster calculator, the rasters were added. The result of the raster calculator was the area of interest for the new urban development. The resulting raster was then converted to a polygon using the raster to polygon tool.

10 Conclusion The area best suited for the new development was identified in Ayer, Massachusetts.

11 References MassGIS website: and tech/it serv andsupport/application serv/office of geographic information massgis/datalayers/