GIS-Based Suitability Analysis and Planning of Green Infrastructure: A Case of the PPCOD, Capitol Hill

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

The combination of the population growth in cities and climate change at a global scale continually requires developed approaches and strategies for our built environments. In the city of Seattle, which is one of the fastest growing cities in population and of the most intense cities in urban heat islands in the U.S., Capitol Hill is a representative neighborhood for these issue, having the highest population density in the city. Also, the Pike/Pine Conservation Overlay District (PPCOD) is a central historic district in Capitol Hill, which is facing intensive pressure of redevelopment. With this background, this thesis starts form recognizing the three pronounced issues in Capitol Hill –lack of green space, stormwater management, and urban heat islands– and addresses that efficiently applied green infrastructure planning, grounded on a specific analysis, can contribute to mitigating the issues and projecting the better neighborhood. This thesis has a key concept and a key methodology. The key concept is green infrastructure (GI). It is generally accepted with two dimensions: GI as a conceptual meaning of green networks and GI as a practical meaning of stormwater management. Suitability Analysis is a methodology of this thesis. It is an GIS-based overlay method to support the decision-making process by identifying the most and least suitable location for given purposes. In this research, suitability analysis mainly deals with the site’s issues by integrating six selected criteria, but also tries to fill gaps between the different definitions of GI. This research has two major goals. First, by conducting suitability analysis, it will provide the most suitable suggestions of GI for Capitol Hill to improve its built and natural environment. Second, by using suitability analysis, this research will try to fill gaps between the concepts of GI and the practices of GI.