Lab 5: Term Project

Introduction:

For my term project, I studied where the best place for a new outdoor music venue would be in the state of Wisconsin. The objectives of this project included coming up with this spatial question, finding relevant data, analyzing the relevant data using vector geoprocessing tools, creating a data flow model, and reporting the results. Geoprocessing and cartography was done in Esri ArcGIS.

Data Sources:

To answer my question I used several data layers, including US Cities, US Major Highways, Wisconsin State Boundary, and Wisconsin Outdoor Music Venues. Most of the data was retrieved from UW-Eau Claire's online data server. Most of the data from there was taken from the Esri Online database(US Cities, US Major Highways), while some was taken from the Wisconsin DNR database (Wisconsin State Boundary). The Wisconsin Outdoor Music Venues feature class I created myself- digitizing many of the outdoor concert venues in the state. I have a number of concerns about the data used in the project. Firstly, the data is not necessarily current. For example, I noted that the cities feature class's most current population field was from 2007, where the population of those cities may have changed greatly since then. Another data concern I had was the general error associated with digitizing my own feature class. I placed a point feature on the venue's land, when really the feature would be best reflected by a polygon. Also, I may have not included venues that I am not aware of.

Methods:

First, I added my feature classes to the map. This included US Cities, US Major Highways, WI State Boundary and Existing Music Venues. I then clipped those feature classes that contained data for the whole United States to the WI state boundary. I was left with a map of Wisconsin that had my data in it. I made sure to project my data frame to an appropriate projection- for this project I used NAD 1983 Wisconsin TM. Noting that all cities included in the clipped Cities feature class had populations of at least 10,000 I buffered it, leaving all cities with a boundary of 20 miles around it. Next, I used the select by attributes tool to select all cities with a population greater than 50,000, and created a buffer of 100 miles around it. Next, I selected all Interstate Highways and US Highways with the select by attribute tool, and buffered the results by 20 miles. I then buffered my Existing Venues by 50 miles. Next, I used the intersect tool, inputting the buffered feature classes of Cities >50,000, Cities > 10,000, and Interstate or US Highways. I was left with all potential locations of outdoor venues that were within 100 miles of cities with a population of at least 50,000, within 20 miles of cities with at least 10,000, and no more than 20 miles from Interstate or US highways. Next, I used the erase tool to remove the buffered Venues feature class from the results. This left me with the above criterion, this time excluding any location that was within 50 miles of existing outdoor concert venues. Finally, I used the intersect tool to only include results that were within WI state boundaries, as the buffers used previously had gone outside state boundaries. See below for data flow model and final map.

Results:

There are a number of proposed sites shown in the above map. These include a relatively large area right in the middle of the state, centered around Stevens Point, Plover and Wisconsin Rapids. There is another possible area near Marshfield, one near Lacrosse and another centered on River Falls. There is another possible area in NE Wisconsin, centered around Marinette. There are a couple small polygons near Waupun and Sheboygan as well. 

Evaluation:

This project was useful in fully understanding the geospatial process, as I was required to formulate my own spatial question, find my own data and process the data accordingly. If I were to repeat the project, I would first be sure that there was relevant data available, such that I wouldn't have to digitize my own data. This induced more error than I would have liked, and was time consuming. Also, conceptualizing my spatial question to the point that it wouldn't need to be revised would be beneficial.