TRANSPORTATION ACCESS POINTS

JUSTIFICATION FOR USE:

Even though we chose to develop separate suitability maps for residential and commercial uses we knew that there would be some factors that would be used by both. We also knew that some of those factors might be used differently by both. This information layer, for example, was used differently for each suitability analysis. We did not use this layer at all in our Residential Suitability analysis. However, because we understood how important it is for commercial firms to locate at or near major intersections we did use it for our Commercial Suitability analysis.

PROCESS:

We created this information layer from another information layer which was obtained in a digital format from the Florida Geographic Data Library (FGDL). While we got the data from FGDL, in is important to note that the source of the original data is the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) This information layer, or coverage, contained many different pieces of information, or fields, which we could analyze or display on the computer. We created areas around each of the major intersections which gave a higher suitability to those areas closest to the intersections and lower suitability to areas farther away. We reclassified the areas on the map into one of three categories:

1 = Least suitable for development; 2 = Intermediate suitability; or 3 = Most suitable for development.

This classification format was used for all of the different information layers that our group created and analyzed. The reclassification was done so as to maximize the relative differences in susceptibility of each area. In other words, all of the category "1" areas have similar characteristics and are significantly different from the other two categories. The same holds for each of the other two categories as well. We gave a "3" value to all areas within a ¼ mile of the intersection, a "2" to areas within ½ mile and a "1" to all other areas.

RESULTS:

The result of our reclassification was a map that shows the three county area with each of the resultant three classifications which we created shaded a different color. This map then became one of many different information layers that were weighted and combined to give us our Residential and Commercial Intermediate Suitability Maps.