Spatial analysis and Modeling

Module 4

Site Selection and Suitability Analysis

Multi Criteria Evaluation (MCE)

 Modeling
In the field of GIS , modeling provide understanding of the way the world works

Model is one of the most overworked terms in the English language.

There is clear distinction needs to be made between the data models and spatial models

A data model is a template for data, a framework into which specific details of relevant
aspects of the Earth’s surface can be fitted.

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  Modelling in GIS
• So what about Spatial Modeling …?
Reason enough to think about what exactly
we think of by referring to spatial modeling
Generally, a model is a (simplified)
description of reality (static reproduction,
conceptual description)
Modeling can (or should) be considered as a
process …

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What do Spatial Models Do?
• Using spatial data
• Making use of combined functional capabilities such as analytical tools
for
• spatial and non-spatial computation, GIS and
programming languages
• Representing meaningful features, events and processes in geographical
space

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 Modeling
• In general terms, a model is a representation of reality. Due to the inherent
complexity of the world and the interactions in it, models are created as a
simplified, manageable view of reality. Models help you understand, describe, or
predict how things work in the real world.

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  What is GIS Modeling?
• GIS Modeling is a PROCESS
• Need of a way to “think spatially”
• How to represent (abstract) our world in a GIS?
• What are the visible or functional patterns
• What are the spatial relationships between representations in the geographic
space?
• What can these relationships tell us and how can we
• combine/measure/examine them to derive meaningful
• models?
• As always, a structure is helpful!!

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What is a Spatial Model

• Spatial models (at some places GIS models)

• might describe basic properties and processes
• for a set of spatial features
• • The aim is to study spatial objects or
• phenomena in the real world
• • As you can imagine we also find dozens of
• definitions and many different classification
• schemes - we will look at three of them

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 Models designed for many applications such as:
◦ Dynamic simulation models of natural processes such as erosion,
currents ...etc.
◦ Models of social processes, such as residential segregation,
movement…etc.
◦ Processes designed by humans to search for optimum alternatives.
◦ simple calculations of indicators or predictors, such as happens when
layers of geographic information.

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Spatial Data Analysis and Modeling

Spatial is relating to the position , area , shape and size of the things
Spatial describes how objects fit together in space , on earth
Data are facts and statistics collected to place in the earth
Spatial data are that connected to place in earth
Spatial data are data or information about the location and shape of
and relationship among , geographic features usually stored as
coordinates and topology

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General Classifications of Models:
 There are two main types of models:
representation models—represent the objects in the landscape
process models—simulate processes in the landscape

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General Classifications of Models:
• Representation models Representation models try to describe the
objects in a landscape, for example, buildings, streams, or forests. The
way representation models are created in a geographic information
system (GIS) is through a set of data layers.

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Representation models
• The representation model attempts to capture the spatial
relationships within an object (for example, the shape of a building)
and between the other objects in the landscape (for example, the
distribution of buildings).

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 Representation models
• Along with establishing the spatial relationships, the GIS representation model
is also able to model the attributes of the objects . Representation models are
sometimes referred to as data models and are considered descriptive models.

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Representation models

Representation models try to describe the objects in a

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landscape
Process models
• Process models attempt to describe the interaction of the objects
that are modeled in the representation model. The relationships are
modeled using spatial analysis tools.
• Process modeling is sometimes referred to as cartographic modeling.
Process models can be used to describe processes, but they are often
used to predict what will happen if some action occurs.

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Process models
• Some process models are simple, while others are more complex.
Even more complexity can be added by adding logic, combining
multiple process models,

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Models complexity
Simple evolution models–simple
prediction model for an attribute–
the same rule for all grid cells–no
interactions between neighbouring
grid cells

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Models complexity according to
Coupled dynamics,
multiple-system models
–dynamic interactions of a number of local
parameters
–multiple models for different grid cells
–takes into account interactions between
neighboring grid cells

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Process models

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 Spatial and GIS Models
• • Cartographic models:
• temporally static, combined spatial
• datasets, operations and functions for
• problem-solving
• • Spatio-temporal models
• dynamics in space and time, time-driven processes
• • Network models:
• modeling of resources (flow,
• accumulation) as limited to networks

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Cartographic Models
• Ranking and Weighting of criteria

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Spatio-temporal Models

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 Overview of Weighted Site Selection and Suitability Analysis

 Site selection or suitability analysis is a type of analysis used in GIS to

determine the best place or site for something. Potential sites used in
suitability analysis can include the location of a new hospital, store or school
among many others.

 When performing site selection analysis users must set various criteria from
which the GIS software can rate the best or ideal sites. Site selection analysis
can be performed with vector or raster data but one of the most widely used
types of site selection, weighted site selection, uses raster data.
Understanding the suitability modeling workflow
The suitability modeling workflow

To identify the best location to conserve you will use a suitability model. A
suitability model is comprised of six steps:

1. Define the problem

2. Identify and derive the criteria
3. Transform values to a common scale
4. Weight the criteria relative to one another and combine
5. Locate the phenomenon
6. Analyze the results
Spatial Data Modeling Steps Data
collection& preparation

Model identification

Parameter Estimation&
model fitting
No

Model assessment OK
Done

Interpretation of results
Yes
Suitability modeling is the most common application for ArcGIS
Spatial Analyst extension and can solve a variety of problems:
•Where to site a new housing development
•Where to locate a new ski area
•Where to deploy troops in a military operation
•Where to locate firefighting crews to best fight fires in the dry season
•For this case study, which sites are best for bobcat habitat
•Where …..where………………..
When to Use Weighted Site Selection in GIS
Weighted site selection or suitability analysis is best to use with raster
data when a user needs to find a site based on a number of criteria
such as the following problems explained by the ESRI Virtual Campus
course “Using Raster Data for Site Selection”:
•When one needs to find the rankings of suitability for cells in a raster
dataset
•When one needs to find next-best site options in addition to finding an
ideal site
•When data has a distinct boundaries and other levels of certainty
•When the user determines where something will go based on
specified criteria
•When the user wants to rank different criteria as more or less
important in finding an ideal site
 About Z factor

If your x-, y-, and z-values are all in the same unit of measure (for
example, if they are all in meters), you can accept the default Z
factor of 1, so the z-units are not converted. Setting an
appropriate z-factor is critical for good results if your input surface
is stored in a geographic coordinate system (for example, the x,y
units are a spherical measurement, such as decimal degrees or
decimal seconds). The z-factor can also be used for exaggeration
of the terrain.
What is ModelBuilder?

Model Builder is an application you use to create, edit, and manage models. Models are workflows that string
together sequences of geoproce-ssing tools, feeding the output of one tool into another tool as input.
ModelBuilder can also be thought of as a visual programming language for building workflows.
While Model Builder is very useful for constructing and executing simple workflows, it also provides advanced
methods for extending ArcGIS functionality by allowing you to create and share your models as tool.
Model Builder can even be used to integrate ArcGIS with other applications. An example is provided below:

The above model is used by a municipality to send e-mail

notifications to all addresses within 1 mile of an address for which a
building permit application is filed. The model starts with a feature
class of multiple permit application point locations. This feature class
is fed into an iterator that loops over each individual point and feeds
the point into the Select Layer By Location tool, where all addresses
(parcels) within 1 mile of the point are selected.
The benefits of Model Builder can be summarized as follows:
•Model Builder is an easy-to-use application for creating and running
workflows containing a sequence of tools.
•You can create your own tools with Model Builder.
•Tools you create with Model Builder can be used in Python scripting
and other models.
•Model Builder, along with scripting, is a way for you to integrate ArcGIS
with other applications.
  A set of conceptual steps can be used to help you build a model. To understand the
sequence of steps, you will work through a sample problem.

Step 1: Stating the problem

To solve a spatial problem, you should first state the problem you are trying to solve and the
goal you are trying to achieve. Start with a concept of the intended output of the study to
visualize the types of maps you want to produce.

 The problem is to find the best location for siting a new school.
You will need to produce two maps.
The first will identify the suitability of each location relative to one another, known as the
suitability map.
The second, which is derived from the suitability map, will identify the actual location to build
the school accounting for the functional needs of the school (size and desired shape). To
create these two maps you will produce a weighted suitability model.
Step 2: Breaking down the problem
 Once the problem is stated, break it down into smaller pieces until you know what steps are
required to solve it. These steps are the objectives that you will solve.

o When defining objectives, consider how you will measure them

o How will you measure what is the best area for the new school? In this fabricated school
siting example, a driving factor is to minimize the cost of development.
It would be cheaper to build on certain land-use types, such as areas that are currently open fields, as compared to areas
that have already had some development

 Another factor is terrain, since it is typically easier to build on flat areas than steep slopes. Since many of
the families who have relocated to the town have young children, it is preferable to locate near
recreational facilities. To distribute the resources throughout the town, it is important to locate away from
existing schools.
 To meet these objectives, you want to know the following:
•Is the land use in these locations of a suitable type?
•Where are locations with relatively flat land?
•Are these locations close enough to recreation sites?
•Are they far enough away from existing schools?

 Is the land use in these locations of a suitable type?

Input dataset needed: Land use
 Are these locations close enough to recreation sites?

Input dataset needed: Location of recreational facilities

 Are they far enough away from existing schools?

input dataset needed: Location of existing schools

Step 3: Exploring input datasets
 Once you have broken down your problem into a series of objectives and process models
and decided what datasets you will need, you should explore your input datasets to
understand their content. This involves understanding which attributes within and between
datasets are important for solving the problem and looking for trends in the data.

Step 4: Performing analysis

 You have decided on your objectives, the elements and their interactions, the process
models, and what input datasets you will need. You are now in the position to perform
analysis.
 Following is a general process diagram for this example of identifying the ideal location for a
proposed new school. The accompanying text will go into more detail for each of the steps.
Creating a suitability map

 Creating a suitability map enables you to obtain a suitability value for every location on the
map. Once you have the necessary dataset layers in place (in this example, those are Land
use, Slope, Distance to recreation sites, and Distance to schools) for your analysis, how do
you combine them to create a single ranked map of potential areas to site the school? You
need a way to compare the values between layers. You can do so by transforming the values
within the different datasets onto a common scale.

 Each location in each layer is ranked by how suitable it is as a location for a new school. For
example, you might assign a value to each location in each layer on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10
being the best.
Creating suitability scales
 Many scales are not linear relationships, although they are often presented that way to save time and
money or because all options were not considered. For example, if assigning a scale to travel distance,
traveling 1, 5, or 10 kilometers would not be ranked as a suitability of 10, 5, and 1 if you were walking.
Some people may think that walking 5 kilometers is only two times as bad as 1 kilometer, while others
may think it's 10 times as bad.

 When you construct a suitability scale, work with experts to find the best and worst of a
scenario and as many intermediate points as possible. Experts should be knowledgeable
about the objective being studied. For example, it is more meaningful to ask commuters to
rank their opinions on drive time desirability than to ask a city official when he thinks traffic
is worst.

Ranking the inputs

Once your various inputs are prepared, they now need to be transformed to the common scale
Ranking the areas on suitable land-use types
To rank the map representing land-use types, use the Reclassify tool. As it is preferable to
build on certain land-use types due to the costs involved, you need to decide how to rank
the values.

Ranked land-use types.

Input raster of land-use types.
 Ranking the areas on relatively flat land
 To avoid steep terrain and find areas that are relatively flat to build on, you need to know
the slope of the land. The Slope tool will create such a map, identifying for each cell the
maximum rate of change in value from each cell to its neighbors
 The resulting raster records the slope as continuously changing floating-point values. Because the preference
is considered to vary directly with changes in the slope value, the Rescale by Function tool will be used to rank
this map, by applying the Linear function. Since it is preferable to locate on relatively flat areas, give a value of
1 to locations with steep slopes and 10 to locations with the shallow slopes. The values in between will be
adjusted in a linear fashion, as the following illustration shows.
Ranking the areas close to recreation sites
 To site the school close to recreational facilities, you need to know the distance to them. The Euclidean
Distance tool will create such a map, calculating the straight-line (Euclidean) distance from any location to
the nearest recreation site.
 This will assign much higher preference values to the locations closer to the recreation
sites, with locations farther away being far less preferred. With each meter change in
distance from the recreation sites, the preference continuously changes, as the following
illustration shows.
Ranking the areas away from existing schools

 To avoid the catchment areas of the other schools, you need to know the distance to them.
The Euclidean Distance tool will create such a map, calculating the straight-line distance from
any location to the nearest school. The result is a raster dataset in which every cell represents
the distance to the nearest school. To rank this map, once again use the Rescale by Function
tool. As it is preferable to locate away from existing schools, the Large function is used to give
a value of 1 to distances closest to existing schools and a value of 10 to distances farthest
away from existing schools.
Combining the suitability maps

 The last step in the suitability model is to combine the transformed outputs (the
suitability maps) of land-use types, slope, distance to recreation sites, and distance to
schools.
 To account for the fact that some objectives have more importance in the suitability model, yo
can weight the datasets, giving those datasets that should have more importance in the mode
a higher percentage influence (weight) than the others. If all datasets are of equal importance
you can assign the same weight to each one.
 The final suitability map is produced by combining all the maps. Weights can be assigned at
the same time as combining the suitability maps. The final suitability map for locating sites for
the school is shown below. Most suitable locations are in the darkest green color. The least
suitable locations are in red shades.
You can use Map Algebra to weight and combine datasets.
Alternatively, you can use the Weighted Overlay or Weighted
Sum tools. If you use a tool in a model, you have the option of
going back and easily altering weights (percent influence) and
any scale values you might have set. Connecting geoprocessing
tools inside a model means you only need to create the model
once, and then you can alter parameter values to experiment
with different outcomes
 Locating the school
 The final step to this modeling process is to actually locate the school. The final suitability surface ranks
the attributes at each location relative to the land-use type, slope, distance from recreation sites, and
distance from schools. However, the proposed school also has spatial requirements in which to efficiently
function.

Step 5: Verifying the result

Once you have your result from any spatial analysis, you should verify that it is correct. If
possible, this should be done by visiting the potential sites in the field.

Step 6: Implementing the result

The final step in the spatial model is to implement the result, which is to commence the
planning and construction of the new school in the chosen location.
Assignment 4: site selection analysis for new camp for refuges ???????
Hydrology in GIS
• Information about the shape of the earth's surface is useful for many
fields, such as regional planning, agriculture, and forestry. These fields
require an understanding of how water flows across an area and how
changes in that area may affect that flow

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Hydrology in GIS

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What is Arc Hydro?

A Template Data Model for Water Resources

Arc Hydro is a GIS data structure that links hydrologic data to water resource modeling and decision-making
methods. Using Arc Hydro helps you build a dataset that can be integrated with water resource models.

Why Arc Hydro?

Visualize and analyze hydrologic data for tasks such as:

Assessing water quality, estimating water availability, planning Flood prevention, understanding
the natural environment, and managing water resources

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Hydrology Model
• When modeling the flow of water, you may want to know where the water
came from and where it is going.
• Explain how to use the hydrologic analysis functions to help model the
movement of water across a surface, the concepts and key terms regarding
drainage systems and surface processes,
• How the tools can be used to extract hydrologic information from a digital
elevation model (DEM), and sample hydrologic analysis applications.

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Why study hydrology?
• Human systems are intimately shaped by the availability, flows and
quality of water.
• Agriculture
• Manufacturing
• Mining
• Recreation

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 Visualization of a Watershed Model Created Using the Arc
Hydro Data
Structure and Tools

Find Esri water resources solutions

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 Water resources GIS data is stored in layers that can be
selectively
displayed to model a real-world watershed. This image displays
four
layers: shaded relief, watersheds, drainage lines, and watershed
points.

Floodplain and Flood Depth Data on Top of Imagery and Street Base maps

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Hydrologic modeling in GIS
• The hydrologic modeling in the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension
toolbox provide methods for describing the physical components of a
surface.
• The hydrologic tools allow you to identify sinks, determine flow
direction, calculate flow accumulation, delineate watersheds, and
create stream networks.

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 Arc Hydro Framework Input Data

Watersheds Waterbody

Streams

Hydro Points

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 Arc Hydro Components

Drainage System Hydro Network Flow

Time

Time Series

Hydrography Channel System

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Describing the hydrologic cycle
Atmospheric – Land surface

Arc Hydro Drainage System Hydro Network

surface water

Drainage System Hydro Network Flow

Hydrography Channel System

Time

Time Series
Arc Hydro Hydrogeologic unit Borehole
groundwater
Hydrography Channel System
Layers Solid
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Hydrologic analysis sample applications

Example stream network derived from elevation model

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Hydrologic analysis sample applications
• Using an elevation raster or digital elevation model
(DEM) as input, it is possible to automatically
delineate a drainage system and quantify the
characteristics of the system. The following graphics
illustrate the steps involved in calculating a
watershed and stream network from a DEM.

Input DEM surface

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Hydrologic Slope
- Direction of Steepest Descent
30 30

67 56 49 67 56 49

52 48 37 52 48 37

58 55 22 58 55 22

67  48 67  52
Slope:  0.45  0.50
30 2 30
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 Eight Direction Pour Point Model

32 64 128

16 1

8 4 2

ESRI Direction encoding

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 Flow Direction Grid

2 2 4 4 8
1 2 4 8 4
128 1 2 4 8
2 1 4 4 4
1 1 1 2 16

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 Flow Direction Grid

32 64 128

16 1

8 4 2

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 Grid Network

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 Contributing Area Grid

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 4 3 3 1 1 4 3 3 1

1 1 12 1 2 1
1 1 2
12
1 1 2 16 1 1 2 1
1 16
1 3 6 25 2 1 3 6
2
25

TauDEM convention. The area draining each grid

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cell. Spatial Analayis and GIS Modeling 68
Flow Accumulation Grid. ESRI convention. Area
draining in to a grid cell

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 3 2 2 0 0 3 2 2 0
0 0 0 11 0 1
0 0 1
11
0 1 0 0 0 1 15 0
0 15
0 2 5 0 2 5 24 1
1
24

Link to Grid calculator

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Flow Accumulation > 5 Cell Threshold

0 0 0 0 0

0 3 2 2 0

0 0 11 0 1

0 0 1 15 0

0 2 5 24 1

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Stream Network for 5 cell Threshold Drainage
Area
0 0 0 0 0

0 3 2 2 0

0
0 0 1
11
0 1 0
0
15
0 2 5
1
24
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• The elevation surface represented by a grid digital elevation model is
used to derive surfaces representing other hydrologic variables of
interest such as
• Slope
• Drainage area
• Watersheds and channel networks

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ArcGIS Hydrology Tools

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 Filling Sinks
This function fills the sinks in a grid. If cells with higher elevation
surround a cell, the water is trapped in that cell and cannot flow. The Fill
Sinks function modifies the elevation value to eliminate this problem.

A DEM free of sinks is a depression less DEM.

• Presence of sinks may result
in erroneous flow direction grid.
• Since flow direction grid is
the first step in deriving the
hydrologic characteristics of
a surface, sinks should be
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filled.
 Filling in the Pits

• DEM creation results in artificial pits in the landscape

• A pit is a set of one or more cells which has no downstream cells
around it
• Unless these pits are filled they become sinks and isolate portions of
the watershed
• Pit filling is first thing done with a DEM

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Hydrologic analysis
• Using the DEM as input to the Flow Direction tool, the direction in which water
would flow out of each cell is determined. The value in any given cell of the flow
direction grid indicates the direction of the steepest descent from that cell to one of
its neighboring cells using the eight direction pour point (D8) method

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Flow direction is determined.
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Flow Accumulation
The function uses the flow direction grid to compute the accumulated number of cells that
are draining to any particular cell in the DEM.

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 Stream Segments
0 0 0 0 0

0 3 2 2 0

0
0 0 1
11
0 1 0
0
15
0 2 5
1
24

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 Stream Segments in a Cell Network
1
1 2
1 2
5
3 5
3 5
4 4 4 3 5
4 4
6 6
6

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 Delineated Subwatersheds and Stream Networks

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Delineating stream networks
• delineated from a DEM using the output from the FLOWACCUMULATION function.
• By applying a threshold value to the results of FLOWACCUMULATION using a GRID algebraic expression, a
stream network can be delineated.

Stream Network

Because the flow accumulation gives the number of cells (or area) that drain to a particular cell, it can be used to define
a stream.

If we assume an area of 25 km2 as the threshold to create a stream, the number of cells corresponding to this
threshold area is 27,778 (25000000/(30*30)). To create a raster, that will have stream cells corresponding to a
threshold area of 25km2

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  Stream Link
This tool assigns a unique number to each link (or segment) in the stream raster.

 Stream Order

This tool creates stream order for the stream network

 Stream to Feature
This tool converts stream raster to a polyline feature class.

 Flow Length

This tool uses the flow direction to compute the flow distance or length from each cell to the most downstream or
upstream cell in the DEM.

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 Basin
This tool uses the flow direction grid to find all sets of connected cells that belong to the same drainage basin, and assigns
the number of cells that belong to a basin to all the cells within that basin

 Creating Watershed Boundary

We can use the basins raster to get polygons as watershed boundaries

 Delineating Watersheds and Sub-watersheds

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Assignment 5: Flood Assessment