WEEK 10. Homeland Security

Our assignment this week was to use data we prepared last week to assess locations of critical infrastructure and various line-of-sight surveillance points in relation to NORAD command center at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado.

This lab went fairly smoothly for me. Despite my slow server, I think I have the advantage of working in a different time zone, and not 'sharing' ARCGIS with many other users.

To anyone living in the developing world, NORAD has a completely different meaning. It's the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, a major donor in this part of the world. So this acronym was a little confusing for me to associate with American Homeland Security.

Map 1. Location of the heliport




Map 2. Egress and Ingress points into the Heliport buffer zone.

WEEK 8. DC Law Enforcement

1. Base Map of Washington DC



2. Proximity of Crimes to Police Stations



3. Kernel Densities of Various Crimes

WEEK 7. Wildlife Crossings

SCENARIO
Funding is available to build a new wildlife crossing for Florida Black Bears (Ursus americanus floridanus), which are a threatened species. Wildlife crossings reconnect habitats, allowing animals to cross roads safely. They help to reduce the number of accidents involving wildlife.

LOCATION DECISIONS:
In which county should the crossing be built?
Marion County was chosen as the county with the highest number of roadkills, and with no wildlife crossings.

Where in the county should the crossing be built?
Five criteria were chosen to guide the site selection process. These were
1) Proximity to the county seat (one of the main reasons for failure of wildlife crossings is that they are not maintained. My reasoning was that the closer they are built to a town, the more likely they are to be maintained)
2) Proximity to active landfills (bears eat trash and the further away from a landfill site, the better, as one would not like to provide an easy conduit for bears to gain access to a landfill site)
3) Human population density (low human population density is preferred)
4) Proximity to public land (close to or within a protected area is best)
5) Density of bear roadkill (the more bears are killed on the road in a particular site, the greater the need for a safe wildlife crossing, for both bears and people)

1. Base Map of Marion County, Florida


2. Maps of the five criteria chosen for site selection


3. Maps of two weighted overlay analyses identifying suitable sites




Three sites to the east of the county seat Ocala, were identified as the best sites by both analyses.