Spatial Thinking – Site Selection

Class 3 Assignment – Spatial Thinking – Site Selection

A primary course objective is to make you spatial thinkers. To add spatial thinking to the tools (or lenses) you use when thinking critically and/or problem solving.

With this goal in mind, use the questions below to outline an application of spatial thinking to a site selection exercise of your choosing.

1. Briefly describe the business looking for a new site. (I live in Elmira, New York so describe the business looking around my town).
2. Provide the geographic extent of the analysis. Where are you? Describe the town, city, county, region, etc.
3. List the geospatial criteria that need to be considered. Categories of geospatial criteria include demographics, transportation, competitors, existing locations, tourist attractions, natural features, topography, land cover, etc. Describe these geospatial criteria as specifically as possible, for example when the criteria involve proximity, list distance; if there is a target audience, be specific.
4. After each of your geospatial criteria list which spatial data model will be used (vector or raster). If vector are the features points, lines or polygons? If raster, what is the desired cell size? (It might also be a table with a geo ID field…)
5. Describe your spatial analysis step by step.

BONUS: Where do you think you could find the required spatial data?

Examples show below