531 Project

Zachary Arcaro NR531 Final Project Fall 2006

A family with school age children is moving to Wake County and needs to find a place to live. The husband was tired of his old job a wants to set up a new residential lawn care business, which will be based at home. They don’t have any idea where to look for homes in the area but they do have a number of requirements that it must meet.

Questions

Analysis Question 1: How many parcels are candidates?

a. They want a single family house with a yard (at least 2 acres).

b. They have a price range of $150000-$300000

c. They want to live on a safe street with a slow speed limit

Analysis Question 2: What areas meet the needs of the family?

a. They want to live in a convenient place (near their children’s elementary school and near a supermarket, and near a shopping center)

b. They want to live in a diverse neighborhood

Problem 3: What is the area of the areas meet the needs of the business?

The father knows several things that will help his business succeed, and since he would prefer to live near his clients they affect the requirements for the location of the house. He would like:

a. The house must be in an area with sandy loam soils which promote healthy grass that must be cut often.

b. The house should be within a certain distance of arterial roads (interstate, primary roads) to allow quick access around the area.

What specific tracts and which neighborhoods meet all the needs?

Final product map:

Layers needed:

Streets (Streets.shp)– This is a layer that contains the roads in Wake County. It contains all the roads in Wake County from abandoned roads to interstate highways. It has 36 fields of information of which “type” (the type of road) and “speed” (the speed limit) will be used. The projection is: Lambert_Conformal_Conic and the spatial reference is: NAD_1983_StatePlane_North_Carolina_FIPS_3200_Feet

The exact source was: http://lnweb02.co.wake.nc.us/gis/gismaps.nsf/Index/6C8F972440CAF81285256BCD00717515/$FILE/streets.zip

Schools (schoolsJuly06.shp)– This layer contains the location and attributes of all schools in Wake County. It has 29 fields of information of which “glevel” (grade level) will be used.

The projection is: Lambert_Conformal_Conic and the spatial reference is: NAD_1983_StatePlane_North_Carolina_FIPS_3200_Feet

The exact source was: http://lnweb02.co.wake.nc.us/gis/gismaps.nsf/Index/363C527D13E13E5785256A2A0069C4BF/$FILE/schools.zip

Parcels (parcel.shp)– This layer contains the location and attributes of every parcel of land in Wake County. It has 53 fields of information of which “type_use,” (code for how the land is used) “deed_acres,” (how many acres in the deed) “bldg_val” (the value of the buildings) and “land_val” (the value of the land) will be used.

The projection is: Lambert_Conformal_Conic and the spatial reference is: NAD_1983_StatePlane_North_Carolina_FIPS_3200_Feet

The exact source was: http://lnweb02.co.wake.nc.us/gis/gismaps.nsf/Index/EF911CFD92AD76FE85256BCD006FDCEC/$FILE/parcel.zip

Soils (soils.shp)– This is a typical soils file, it includes information about soil type, slope and condition for all areas in Wake County. It has eight fields of information of which “dsl_name” (NRCS abbreviation for soil type) will be used.

The projection is: Lambert_Conformal_Conic and the spatial reference is: NAD_1983_StatePlane_North_Carolina_FIPS_3200_Feet

The exact source was: http://lnweb02.co.wake.nc.us/gis/gismaps.nsf/Index/C6E3557FD7CB6CE285256A2A0069D624/$FILE/soils.zip

Census blocks (tgr37183blk00.shp)– This layer contains the census blocks used in Wake County in the 2000 census. The layer has seven fields of information, of which “STFID” (Unique ID number) will be used.

The projection is: D_North_American_1927 and the spatial reference is: GCS_Assumed_Geographic_1

The exact source was: http://arcdata.esri.com/data/tiger2000/tiger_county.cfm?sfips=37

Census information (tgr37000sf1blk.dbf)- This is a database layer that contains the demographic information for the census blocks in Wake County based in the 2000 census. The database has 44 fields of which “Hispanic,” “Asian,” “Black” and “White” will be used. It also has a field “STFID” which will also be used. The exact source was http://arcdata.esri.com/data/tiger2000/tiger_county.cfm?sfips=37

Key Geographic Locations (tgr37183kgl.shp)– This layer contains the location of the major shopping centers in Wake County. It has seven fields of which “KGLNAME” (name of shopping center) will be used. This layer includes the name of the shopping centers.

The projection is: D_North_American_1927 and the spatial reference is: GCS_Assumed_Geographic_1

The exact source was: http://arcdata.esri.com/data/tiger2000/tiger_county.cfm?sfips=37

Wake County Boundary (wakebdy.shp) This layer contains the boundary of Wake county. It will only be used for the map.

The projection is: Lambert_Conformal_Conic and the spatial reference is: NAD_1983_StatePlane_North_Carolina_FIPS_3200_Feet

The exact source was: http://lnweb02.co.wake.nc.us/gis/gismaps.nsf/Index/C6E3557FD7CB6CE285256A2A0069D624/$FILE/soils.zip

Procedure log:

Setup

Create a Personal Geodatabase

Layers needed: none

Use Create Personal Database tool to create a personal Geodatabase

Result: Personal Geodatabase created (final3)

Create a Feature Dataset

Layers needed: final3 personal Geodatabase

Use Create Feature Dataset tool

Use spatial reference from streets layer (import)

Result: feature dataset created (final3) within final3 personal Geodatabase

Project Census blocks layer so that it matches other layers

Layers needed: Census blocks (tgr37183blk00.shp)

Use Project tool to project layer.

Use same spatial reference as streets layer (import):

NAD_1983_StatePlane_North_Carolina_FIPS_3200_Feet

Result: new Census blocks created with correct projection: (tgr37183blk00_Project.shp)

Project Key Geographic Locations layer so that it matches other layers

Layers needed: Key Geographic Locations (tgr37183kgl.shp)

Use Project tool to project layer.

Use same spatial reference as streets layer (import):

NAD_1983_StatePlane_North_Carolina_FIPS_3200_Feet

Result: new Census blocks created with correct projection: (tgr37183kgl_Project.shp)

Load Feature Dataset with layers for project

Layers needed: parcel, schoolsJuly06, soils, Streets, tgr37183kgl_Project, tgr37183blk00_Project

Use Feature Class to Geodatabase (multiple) tool

Result: project3 feature dataset loaded with needed data.

Processing Questions

Analysis Question 1: How many parcels are candidates?

a. They want a single family house with a yard (at least 2 acres).

b. They have a price range of $150000-$300000

Procedure Log for Analysis Question 1 a and b

Find parcels that meet requirements for problem 1a and 1b

Target layers: parcel

Use Select tool to find parcels

Selection expression: [DEED_ACRES] >=2 AND [TYPE_USE] = '01' AND [BLDG_VAL]+ [LAND_VAL]>=150000 AND [LAND_VAL]+ [BLDG_VAL] <=300000

Result: new layer created (price_yard)

c. They want to live on a safe street with a slow speed limit

Procedure Log for Analysis Question 1 c

Find streets with a speed limit of 35 mph or less

Target layer: Streets

Use Select tool find appropriate streets

Selection expression: [SPEED] <=35

Result: new layer created (speed)

Find area around streets with low speed limits

Target layers: speed, price_yard

Use buffer tool

Buffer distance 40 feet, dissolve: none

Result: new layer created (speed_buffer)

Find which of the candidate parcels are on streets with low speed limits

Target layers: speed, price_yard

Select by Location tool

Select features from: price_yard layer

That intersect features in the speed_buffer layer

Results: candidate parcels are on streets with low speed limits are selected

Create layer from selection

Target layers: price_yard

Click: Price_yard > Data > Export Data

Result: new layer created (question1)

Find number of parcels that meet requirements

Target layers: question1

Open attribute table of question1

Find umber of records

Result: 3105

Analysis Question 1 Answer

There are 3105 candidate parcels in Wake County

Note to grader: I could not get these last two steps to work in the model so I had to do them manually. The “Select Layer by Location” tool in the toolbox did not behave the same was as the “Select by Location” from the menu bar. Regardless of this, I also couldn’t figure out how to create a layer from a selection in the toolbox.

Analysis Question 2: What areas meet the needs of the family?

a. They want to live in a convenient place (near their children’s elementary school and near a supermarket, and near a shopping center)

Find areas near elementary schools

Target layers: schoolsJuly06

Use Select tool to select elementary schools

Selection expression: [GLEVEL] = 'E'

Result: new layer created (schools_select)

Use Buffer tool to find areas within 1 mile of elementary schools

Target layers: schools_select

Dissolve type: all

Result: new layer created (schools_buffer)

Find areas near grocery stores

Target layers: parcel

Use Select tool to select grocery stores

Selection expression: [TYPE_USE] = '49'

(Type_use 49 is for supermarkets)

Result: new layer created (supermarket)

Use Buffer tool to find areas within 1 mile of supermarkets

Target layers: supermarket

Dissolve type: all

Result: new layer created (supermarket_buffer)

Find areas near shopping centers

Target layers: tgr37183kgl_Project

Use Select tool to select only shopping centers

Selection expression: [CFCC] = 'D61'

([CFCC] = 'D61' is for shopping centers)

Result: new layer created (shop)

Use Buffer tool to find areas within 3 miles of shopping centers

Target layers: supermarket

Dissolve type: all

Result: new layer created (shop_buffer)

b. They want to live in a diverse neighborhood

Find areas inhabited by people of different races

Join census database file to census block file

Target layers: tgr37000sf1blk.dbf, tgr37183blk00_Project

Use Add Join tool to join the database file to the shapefile

Join field for both was “STFID” field

Result: tgr37183blk00_Project layer is now joined to tgr37000sf1blk.dbf

Find areas with diversity

Target layers: tgr37183blk00_Project (joined)

Use Select tool to select census blocks with at least one white family, one black family, one Asian family and one Hispanic family

Selection expression: "tgr37000sf1blk.WHITE" >=1 AND "tgr37000sf1blk.BLACK" >=1 AND "tgr37000sf1blk.ASIAN" >=1 AND "tgr37000sf1blk.HISPANIC" >=1

Result: new layer created (race)

Find areas that meet the needs of the family

Target layers: race, supermarket buffer, schools_buffer, shop_buffer

Use Intersect tool to find areas that meet all requirements

Result: new layer created (q2inersect)

Analysis Question 2 Answer: The areas that meet the needs of the family are described in the q2intersect layer, they are clusters around the center of Raleigh

Problem 3: What areas meet the needs of the business?

The father knows several things that will help his business succeed, and since he would prefer to live near his clients they affect the requirements for the location of the house. He would like:

a. The house to be in an area with sandy loam soils which promote healthy grass that must be cut often.

Find areas with appropriate soils.

Target layers: soils

Use select tool

Selection expression:

Result: New layer created (soils_select) with contains all the soil type with “sandy loam”

b. The house must be within a certain distance of arterial roads (interstate, primary roads) to allow quick access around the area.

Select roads that meet criteria

Target layers: Streets

Use select tool

Selection expression: [CLASS] = 2 OR [CLASS] = 3 OR [CLASS] = 4

Class 2 is interstate, class 3 is US Hwys and class 4 is NC Hwys

Result: new layer created (major_street)

Find areas around arterial roads

Target layers: major_street

Use buffer tool

Buffer distance: 1 mile, Dissolve type: all

Result: new layer created (MajStreet_B)

Find the areas that meet the needs of the business

Target layers: MajStreet_B, soils select

Use Intersect tool to find areas that meet both criteria

Result: new layer created q3intersect

Find area of areas that meet the needs of the business

Target layers: q3intersect

Use summary statistics tool

Find the sum of the shape_area field

Result: 15012218322 square feet

Analysis Question 2 Answer: The total area of the areas that meet the business requirements is 15012218322 square feet, or about 345000 acres

Problem: What specific tracts and which neighborhoods meet all the needs?

What specific tracts meet all the needs?

Find areas that meet requirements

Target layers: question1, q2intersect, q3intersect

Use intersect tool to find areas that meet al requirements

Result: new layer created (final_intersect)

Select parcels that are candidates

Target layers: final_intersect, price_yard

Use select by location to find parcels that intersect areas meeting all requirements

Select features from: price_yard layer that intersect features in the final_intersect layer

Result: final candidate parcels selected

Make a layer from selected parcels

Target layers: price_yard

Result: new layer created (candidates)

Which neighborhoods meet all the needs?

Target layer: candidates, tgr37183blk00_Project

Use select by location to find census blocks that intersect candidates meeting all requirements

Select features from: tgr37183blk00_Project layer that intersect features in the candidates layer

Result: census blocks that incorporate candidates selected

Make a layer from selected census tracts

Target layers: tgr37183blk00_Project

Result: new layer created (neighborhoods)

Note to grader: the above steps were again done manually, I spent a lot of time trying to get “Select Layer by Location” to work and then creating another layer from that selection but either it isn’t possible or it was too tricky for me to figure out.

Project Answer

There were eleven parcels that met all requirements in this project. The family at this point would check to see if they are lucky and one of them is for sale. If one of these houses isn’t available they should look in the neighborhoods selected as they will also meet or nearly meet all of the criteria. It would also be possible for them to loosen up on some of their requirements and thus get a wider selection of areas.