GIS EXERCISE 1: LAND SUITABILITY

BACKGROUND
Land suitability is a useful technique for determining the most appropriate place for particular need.
The process of spatial modelling can be done by means of combining several spatial analysis. One of
the most common analysis in spatial modelling is distance analysis, in which in this case related to the
first law of geography. This guide shows the combination of binary model and cost distance analysis
to determine the most suitable location for landfills.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
a) Performing spatial modelling using binary model
b) Cost distance and their calculation
c) Report writing

STUDY QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS

Write up a brief report (3-5 pages text) for solution to land suitability problem described in parts A
and B below. The write up should follow a report format which includes:
a) Brief statement of problem and result identified. Present a conceptual model of the solution,
i.e simple diagram.
b) Present solution as map showing the best 3 sites that satisfy the criteria constraints (Part A) and
other given criteria factors (Part B). The map should be to an even scale, include a title and your
name, show lagend and identify (by simple graphics the best area), and background layers, i.e
roads, land uses. It should communicate the solutions but cartographic quality is not expected.
c) Any supporting explanation of the spatial analysis can be presented in simple images
(screenshot).

Data can be found on the exercise folder under exercise 1 > data
Software required: ArcGIS 9.3 or later version (official licensed software is recommended)

Part A – develop land suitability model satisfying a set of constraints

You are provided with the following datasets:

1. Landuse layer (landuse.shp)
2. Road layer (jalan.shp)
3. Administrative boundary of study area (admin.shp)
4. Elevation with height in meters (elevasi)

Your task is to find suitable sites for establishing a landfill. Suitable sites must satisfy these criteria:
a. Away from roads by at least 300 m,
b. On gentle sloping ground for good drainage, but not too steep where erosion or slope stability
problems could occur (between 2 and 5 degrees),
c. Located on existing agricultural landuse, and
d. Forms a large enough site for the development, i.e. area greater that 10 hectares.

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GIS Exercise – Totok Wahyu Wibowo
Show final sites identified as distinct areas by features or raster zones.

Hints:
 The data is provided as features, but many of the spatial analysis operation require raster as
input. Use the command Feature to Raster to convert.
 To obtain final suitable sites, convert back to feature with Raster to Polygon command and
specify Simplify Polygons option to obtain distinct features contiguous regions (note this is
similar to Region Group command in raster analysis).

Part B – Continue model to find best site away from susceptible landuses.
Following Part A, apply an addition criteria for finding potential sites (i.e. top 3) away from susceptible
landuses. In general, the community wants a landfills site as far away as possible from living areas,
such as residential and buildings. The people’s perception of what “far away” means is also very
subjective and ditances are modified to account for these perceptual factors. In this exercise we will
consider how people’s perceptual distance is influenced by intervening landuses between susceptible
area and the proposed wasted sites. For instance, a landfills site that 1 km away is okay if it is on the
other side of a mixed garden area, but it would be less acceptable if it is 1 km across the other side of
a nearby graassland. The landuses for susceptible areas and perceptual factor expressed as friction
are given in the table below.

Susceptible locations Perceptual Friction

Code Landuses
(Boolean, 1=true) Values
B Scrub (semak/belukar) Null 3.0
GD Building (Gedung) 1 1.0
K Mixed garden (Kebun Campuran) Null 5.0
P Residential (Permukiman) 1 1.0
R Grassland (Rumput) Null 1.0
S Irigated rice field (Sawah Irigasi) Null 1.0
TL Moor (Tegalan) Null 1.0
Hints:
 Use the Cost Distance command to compute Cost Surface with the sources as susceptible areas
and friction given in the table above.
 Use Zonal Statistics command to obtain average Cost Distance to potential landfills.

This exercise is based on an exercise by Muhammad Kamal, M.GIS., Ph.D., but using different dataset.

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GIS Exercise – Totok Wahyu Wibowo