GISC_381_Lab2_Assignment
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GISC381
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Geography
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Apr 3, 2024
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GISC 381
Lab 2 – Assignment
Use the appropriate units and include the required deliverables for each question. Other geoprocessing tools that will be helpful for this assignment are the raster calculator, reclassify, buffer, clip raster, and zonal statistics as table so be sure to review the ArcGIS Help for these tools.
TOTAL: /64 marks (Part A – 24 marks; Part B – 40 marks)
PART A – Surfaces and calculations
This is a multipart question. Parks Canada is exploring the possibility of re-establishing fire lookouts to protect the Bow Valley
in Banff and Yoho National Parks. A key part of this pilot project is determining the ‘suitability’ of potential fire lookout locations. As you would expect with a fire lookout, suitability is largely dependent on the areal extent which can be seen from the potential location. Visible terrain can be calculated using a viewshed analysis.
Provided data:
bow_dem.tif
: a subset of the Canadian Digital Elevation Model (CDEM)
digital for Banff and Yoho National Parks acquired from Open Data Canada (
https://open.canada.ca/en/open-data
)
lookouts.csv
: a table (comma separated values) of potential lookout tower locations and their respective latitude and longitude coordinates. NOTE: these data were collected using WGS_1984 (i.e., a geographic coordinate system) 1) What is the total area (hectares) of visible terrain from each of the four proposed lookout tower locations? Round your answer to two
decimal places [4 marks]
2) What is the total area (hectares) of visible terrain overlap from any
of the four proposed tower
locations? Explain the steps you used to calculate the answer (NOTE: there is more than one way to do this). Round your answer to two decimal places [3 marks]
3) For the first stage of the project, Parks Canada would like to summarize and visualize
the suitability of potential lookout tower building sites within 500m
of the point locations provided. Ideally, they would like to modify the surrounding environment as little as possible. The most suitable locations will be relatively flat and have a southerly aspect for solar panel installation. NOTE: You will need to convert your 500m polygon area to a raster using the Polygon to Raster tool (set the cell size as 20m to match the DEM) to answer 3a & 3b
3a) Provide a table (with appropriate annotation) with summary statistics (mean, variance, min and max) the slope within 500m of each potential tower location? Round all values to two decimal places. [4 marks].
3b) For each tower location, what is the proportion
of the 500m area that falls in the South (157.5 – 202.5°) – Southeast (112.5 – 157.5°) – Southwest (202.5 – 247.5°)
quadrant (aspects 112.5-247.5)? [4 marks]
4. After consultation, Parks Canada has decided on the location for the fire lookout tower footprints. However, they need to build the towers sufficiently high to allow the lookout person an unobstructed view without disturbing the surrounding forest. Luckily, they have a raster layer of canopy heights available. The layer standhgt.tif
provides forest canopy height for each cell in
metres. For each of the four lookout tower locations, calculate the maximum
stand height within 1km of
the tower point location. Parks Canada would like the heights (
rounded to the nearest metre
) added to the attribute table of the layer lookout_footprint
as a new field called Height
. (HINT: this will require adding a field to the attribute table and using the editor toolbar OR performing a join).
4a) Insert the attribute table of lookout_footprint
with the new Height
field. [4 marks]
.
4b)
Parks Canada has decided the maximum heights provide good targets for the lookout tower build. However, they would like the viewsheds to be re-evaluated to see how the coverage has changed. Using the heights from 4a, calculate the viewshed area (in hectares) for each of the four
towers based on the observer height. Which tower had the greatest percent increase in viewshed area (report the percent increase). Round your answers to two decimal places [5 marks]
.
NOTE: You will need to convert the lookout_footprint layer to a POINT using the tool Feature to Point (check Inside).
PART B - Visualization
5. Using ArcMap create a map showing the tower locations and viewsheds (
calculated from 4b)
of each respective tower (it is important to be able to distinguish the towers/viewsheds)
Your map should use a hillshade as a base map.
Include any other features or labels you may find relevant to help situate the map.
Be sure to use appropriate symbology, include relevant map elements, and remember layer transparency will help
Include an inset map
showing the banff_dem and the Bow River watershed (as well as any other relevant features you wish to include).
Include a Figure caption describing the map.
Above elements: /15 + Aesthetic/Creativity /5
Question 5 total: /20
6. Using ArcScene create five
3D screenshots/images. For the fire lookout tower images, use the lookout_footprint
Height field to extrude the towers as 3D objects. Be sure to include an informative figure caption describing each image (e.g., orientation of the image, what the viewer is seeing).
Two of the Banff townsite
. One from slightly above, one from ‘in the town’ [5 marks]
One of the Rundle tower oriented towards its viewshed [5 marks]
One of the Aylmer
tower oriented towards its viewshed [5 marks]
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Two of the Castle tower looking northwest (‘up’) and southeast (‘down’) the valley [5 marks]
. NOTE: you do not need to include the viewsheds themselves. It can help to indicate which direction you are oriented towards in the image or point out relevant landmarks (Google Maps can help). You can also comment on the site location of the proposed tower in the Figure caption. Lastly, it may be very useful to include a directional north arrow in your screenshots/images. In doing so, click View
> View Settings..
. > check Directional Arrow
at the bottom of the window. Question 6 total: /20