Wind Turbine Visibility on the Colby Campus

This project was designed to demonstrate the visibility of potential future wind turbines built on the Colby campus. We conducted viewshed analyses in ArcGIS on three different potential turbine sites to determine the visibility of the turbines within a 10km radius. We found that the Runnals hill turbine would be visible to the largest area and the largest number of residents.

Light Coverage on Colby College Campus

Outdoor lighting is an essential component for nighttime safety on college campuses. Outdoor lighting on Colby College campus is not uniform, leaving some areas with minimal light. The purpose of this project is to analytically evaluate if and where major walkways on Colby College have inadequate lighting. While we were unable to define inadequate lighting, we found that most paths on campus do appear to be well lit, while in general open spaces on campus have the lowest light levels.

Using GIS Network Analyst to Identify Suppliers for a Produce Co-op in Waterville, ME

The idea for organizing a cooperative market on Waterville Main Street was proposed by Aime Schwartz in the fall of 2008. The Co-op would entail an open market located on Main Street to provide fresh, local produce and crafts to town locals. Through shorter delivery distances and agreements with local farmers, the co-op theoretically will offer consumers lower prices on produce than can be found in conventional grocery stores, as well as an opportunity to support local agriculture. One of the tasks involved with organizing the Co-op is to source all of the produce from among the hundreds of farmers located in Maine. The purpose of this project is to show how Geographic Information System (GIS) tools can be used to help the Co-op and other businesses a) site nearby farms that carry desired produce and products, and b) determine which farms are closest to the business site. Using GIS for this purpose will make it easier and more efficient to source produce suppliers, and reduce the workload on business planners. GIS Network Analyst is a tool that provides network-based spatial analysis, and can be used in conjunction with traditional GIS technologies to determine not only the geometric distance between points, but also distance over existing networks (like roads). We used Network Analyst to find the closest produce suppliers to the Co-op for specific produce items, and compute how far they are over existing roads. This will enable business planners to source potential suppliers by distance before contacting individual farmers, allowing for more efficient use of their time and a faster planning process.

Modeling Potential Tiger Habitat in Hupingshan-Houhe and Mangshan-Nanling National Nature Reserves, China

After declining steadily for several decades, the South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) is now thought to be extinct in the wild. However, there is some hope of reintroduction, with Hupingshan-Houhe and Mangshan-Nanling National Nature Reserves in southern China seeming to hold the most promise. Our study used slope, elevation, vegetation, and landcover variables to construct a rough habitat suitability index for tigers in these two parks. According to our model, there are areas of suitable habitat within both parks. However, there are some important variables that we were unable to include in our model, such as human population density and prey availability. Considerable in-depth research will be necessary to evaluate the suitability of these locations before reintroduction is considered.

A Visibility Analysis of the Cape Wind Project

Cape Wind has proposed a wind farm of 130 turbines on Horseshoe Shoal in the center of Nantucket Sound. A prominent concern about the project is the impact the visibility of the turbines will have on the region's tourism industry and property values. It is feared that their presence will diminish the value of the pristine coastline that has attracted vacationers to Cape Cod for generations. In this project, we assess the extent to which Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket will be visually affected by the wind farm. It was completed using a Viewshed Analysis in the GIS program, ArcMap, from the surface, mean, and maximum height of the towers. These Viewsheds were combined to give a comprehensive perspective of which areas are able to see the highest percent of the wind farm. Finally, a weighted land use value was applied to the Viewshed to account for the impact of land use on the ability to see the project. The objective of this analysis is to provide a visual representation of how great an influence the wind farm will in fact have on Cape Cod.

The Carbon Emissions of the Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox emit a great deal of carbon throughout the regular baseball season because of flights to the home fields of their opponents. Knowing that air travel is one of the biggest transportation-based contributors to global climate change, the Boston Red Sox (and all major league teams) should be encouraged to offset their carbon emissions from regular season travel. Using ArcGIS to map the flight paths along great circle routes, the distance of flights to opponents’ cities was calculated to total the number of miles traveled in the 2008 season. The price of offsetting this carbon was estimated using the calculators of carbon offset retailers, such as Native Energy, a Vermont-based retailer. This project provides the potential costs of offsetting the carbon emitted from Red Sox air travel. To take the lead in the future of the Northeast, the Red Sox should begin to consider their contribution to climate change.

Habitat Suitability Analysis of the Critically Endangered Florida Panther

The purpose of this study was to conduct a habitat suitability analysis of the critically endangered Florida panther (Felis concolor coryi) in Florida. We gathered land cover, population and road data from the Florida Geographic Data Library and performed map algebra using ESRI’s ArcGIS to compile a suitable habitat map. We found that there is 20381.7 km² of highly suitable habitat and 557124.4 km² of less desirable but usable habitat for the Florida panther. The highest concentration of highly suitable habitat is in Big Cypress National Park, with smaller patches in Tates Hell State Forest and along the southeast portion of the Panhandle. Due to extensive fragmentation, however, and without establishment of habitat linkages to the existing southern population, there is little chance of survival of additional panther populations in much of northern Florida.

Draft Proposed Public Transportation Routes for Waterville, ME

Currently, there is a public bus transportation route in Waterville, Maine. However, this system could be improved. Our goal was to use GIS to find optimal public transportation routes throughout the city based on given points of interest and high population density areas. Three different groups of points of interest were created in the North, West, and South sections of Waterville. Using the Network Analyst tool, which calculates optimal routes, using existing street data, based on the input of stops, barriers, and impedance, we ran an analysis of what we thought would be the routes that best served the greatest number of people. Two different sets of routes were found: one with length as the impedance (the shortest length between the selected stops was favored), and one with population density as the impedance (the roads with the highest population density were favored). Finally, the times of the resulting routes (given a constant speed limit of 25 mph) were calculated and evaluated.

Modeling Ice Cover on Trails at Grand Canyon National Park

This project used data from the National Park Service, the SRTM data set, and recorded weather conditions to predict snow deposition and snow and ice melt in the Grand Canyon National Park. This model, a simplified version of previous research, shows the location of persistent ice and snow on the Canyon slopes in March.

Prioritizing Land Purchases for the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance

The Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance is an organization that is dedicated to preserving land and water quality in the Belgrade Lakes region in Maine. The BRCA holds land in such towns as Belgrade, Mount Vernon, New Sharon, Vienna, Rome, Smithfield, and Oakland. The BRCA is looking to expand its acreage in and around these areas to better accommodate the public and to promote the ongoing effort to conserve land as part of the Kennebec Highlands Project. The BRCA is currently considering parcels of 50+ acres in New Sharon, Rome, Belgrade, and Mount Vernon. In order to identify possible suitable parcels, we completed a GIS analysis and produced these layered maps, which highlight areas of land that we think might be desirable to the BRCA. Our analysis encompasses human access, wildlife access, and the locations and sizes of parcels.

Solar Panel Modeling on Suitable Roofs at Colby

With the recent construction of Colby Green and the current plans for the construction of several new buildings, the total area for future development on campus has declined. The goal of this study was to illustrate existing campus development and to determine where future growth could occur. GIS was used in determining the different soil systems on campus, the current use of the land, and the boundaries of the Colby property. The project shows what potential obstacles the college will have in attempting to expand the campus and proposes where the best options are for construction.

Developing a Model for Pedestrian Route Selection at Colby

Millions of unconscious calculations are made daily by pedestrians walking through the Colby College campus. I used ArcGIS to make a predictive spatial model that chose paths similar to those that are actually used by people on a regular basis. To make a viable model of how most travelers choose their way, I considered both the distance required and the type of traveling surface. I used an iterative process to develop a scheme for weighting travel costs which resulted in accurate least-cost paths to be predicted by ArcMap. The accuracy was confirmed when the calculated routes were compared to satellite photography and were found to overlap well-worn “shortcuts” taken between the paved paths throughout campus.

Spatial Analysis of Colby College Trails: Perkins Arboretum and Runnals Hill

I created an updated map of trails at Colby College using global positioning system data that were then edited in ArcGIS. The map background, obtained from the Maine Office of GIS, was created from digital orthophotographs produced from aerial photos collected over southwest Maine in Spring 2003. Trail difficulty was determined by creating a slope layer and taking other factors into consideration such as ground surface and path width. The map will eventually be available online, enabling interactive selection of trails where users can access additional trail information.

A Spatial Analysis of Impervious Surfaces at Colby College in 1965 and 2006

Roads, parking lots, buildings, and other impervious surfaces do not allow rainwater to infiltrate the ground. As a result, they can lead to an increase in runoff to nearby ditches and streams, as well as a greater influx of pollutants such as motor oil that can often be found on paved surfaces. For this project, GIS was used to find the total area covered by impervious surfaces on the Colby campus, and to show how this area has grown in the past 40 years. It was found that new development on the campus has lead to a 56% increase in impervious surfaces at Colby since 1965.

Fire Hazard in Coconino County, Arizona

Fire is a major management issue in the southwestern United States. Three spatial models of fire risk for Coconino County, Northern Arizona. These models were generated using thematic data layers depicting vegetation, elevation, wind speed and direction, and precipitation for January (winter), June (summer), and July (start of monsoon season). ArcGIS 9.0 was used to weight attributes in raster layers to reflect their influence on fire risk and to interpolate raster data layers from point data. Final models were generated using the raster calculator in the Spatial Analyst extension of ArcGIS 9.0. Ultimately, the unique combinations of variables resulted in three different models illustrating the change in fire risk during the year.