Rating Locations in Rasters

In this analysis, we used classified rasters to rank areas most suitable for development. The criteria considered included original land cover, soils, slope, proximity to rivers, and proximity to existing roads. The data for land cover and slope were already in raster format, so it was a simple process of reclassifying these cells into the suitability ratings. The data for soils were included as polygons, so I had to convert them into a raster and then reclassify based on suitability ratings. The rivers and roadways were polylines, so I used the Euclidean Distance tool to create a raster and then reclassifying those based on distances from the original polylines.

To combine all the data and find the areas most suitable, I used the Weighted Overlay Tool. I ran the tool twice, once with all criteria weighted equally and once giving more weight to the slope and less to river and road distance. I used the Zonal Geometry as Table tool to calculate the areas for each suitability rating for both models. Using the evenly weighted scenario found less land with the most suited rating, and equal amounts of land rated 3 or 4. The other alternative scenario found more land with the most suited rating, but far less with a rating of 4, and most land rated at a 3.