GIS Laboratory VIII

Mary Catherine Rubisch

BSEN 5220
November 19, 2014

INTRODUCTION:
ArcGIS is a valuable mapping tool that can be used for a wide variety of applications. This lab
gave students more experience on raster and vector analysis. Students were given data and a
series of requirements to identify possible landfill sites for Athens Clarke County (ACC).

PROCEDURE:
The requirements given by the county and set forth by the Georgia Environmental Protection
Division are as follows:
1. 75 foot stream/lake buffer
2. Avoid floodplains
3. Avoid wetlands
4. Avoid significant groundwater recharge areas
5. 1.5 miles from surface water intakes
6. Must be on a geologically stable area (slope < 8%)
7. Non-residential land use
8. Avoid high density population areas
The data used included water Intakes, DEM, hydrology (lines and polygons), Floodplains,
Wetlands, land cover, groundwater recharge zones, and address points (building locations).
All data used was projected into Georgia West State Plane Feet, NAD 83 through ArcCatalog
before proceeding with the analysis. Additionally, all modifications were made with the output
coordinates, processing extent and snap raster of the environment settings set to the elevation
layer.
The streams and lakes were first separated from the rest of the hydrology vector data using
"TYPE" = 'lake' OR "TYPE" = 'stream' in the definition query. A 75 foot buffer was then created,
and the buffer and hydrology data was erased from the county map. The vector data for
floodplains, wetlands and the water intake buffer was erased from the county map as well.
Before working with the raster data, the cell sizes in each layers were resampled to a pixel width
of 100 feet. In order to exclude areas of high population density, the values for high population
density were extracted from the land cover layer using the raster calculator with an input of
("gw_recharge_res"!="Comp_Shp2Raster_Conv"). The true data (value = 1) was then extracted
using the extract by attribute tool and converted into a polygon.
The data for groundwater recharge areas was also converted into a polygon. These 2 newly
made polygon layers were also erased from the base county map. To account for residential
land use, the address points were converted into raster data and converted back as polygons
then erased in the same manner as the groundwater recharge areas and areas with a high
population density.

To account for slope, the slope tool was used on the provided DEM. The raster calculator was
then used to extract all data that was equal to or greater than 8% using the query
"slope_dem_cor" >= 8. The true data (value = 1) was then extracted using the extract by
attribute tool and converted into a polygon. This polygon was then erased from the county map
base.
The resulting polygon was then converted into raster data with a set pixel width of 100 feet.

RESULTS:
A map of the resulting polygon showing possible sites for ACCs new landfill is located in
Appendix A. Generally, somewhere on the eastern side of the county would be ideal.

CONCLUSIONS:
This lab provided further practice with vector and raster analysis and converting between the
two forms. I believe that there may have been a more efficient way to complete this map, but am
confident in my results based on the requirements stated. Although I feel I have learned a lot
this semester about GIS, I certainly still have much more to learn, and look forward to using this
tool in the future.

Appendix A