Site Suitability for Lake Overholser Cassi Poor CRP 551

Lake Overholser is a water reservoir located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and is located on the edge of Oklahoma and Canadian County. The North Canadian River feeds into the reservoir. The lake covers approximately 1,500 acres and has approximately 7 miles of shoreline. Currently the lake provides recreational activities such as fishing, boating, nature and bike trails, and bird watching. While there are basic recreational activities along the lake, there are no restaurants or public facilities available. Background Information Proposal This final project is a proposal to determine the suitability of land around the lake for the new development of restaurants and public facilities. Aerial Image of Lake Overholser (Google Earth) Lake Overholser

Data The following Vector files were obtained from US Census Bureau Tiger/Line 2010 and the University of Oklahoma Center for Spatial Analysis for both Oklahoma County and Canadian County: Bodies of Water Hydrology Roads Highways Neighborhoods Notes: The Geographic Coordinate System was NAD 1983.

Notes: Since the Lake is located between 2 counties, data had to be downloaded for both counties and merged together into 1 file. The new merged output data was then saved into a Personal File Geodatabase that I created. Merge (geoprocessing) Canadian County Input Oklahoma County Input Merged Data Output

Cleaning up of Files Notes: It was necessary to clean up several of the files that I obtained from the online databases, this included merging features into one, removing extra lines, and digitizing some roads that were missing from the existing file. I also performed a clip geoprocessing step for the newly merged data files since I did not need all extraneous info for the newly combined counties. Merging the 2 lake area features into 1 Clipping the merged data to a smaller, more manageable area and saving the output to the.gdb

Georeferencing and Digitizing Notes: There was some data that was not readily available (such as vegetation, buildings, roads, etc); therefore I had to georeference an aerial raster of my site so that I could properly locate the new data. I created new shapefiles and digitized the following new features myself: Vegetation Site Boundary Georeferencing the aerial image to the existing data Digitizing the Site Boundary as a shapefile Existing Buildings/Infrastructure Existing Parking Lots

Criteria Established Once I had all the data cleaned up and created it was time to develop and establish a set of criteria. I determined that I did not want to allow development where there was already large amounts of existing vegetation (trees) as well as where there was already existing infrastructure. It is also necessary to stay away from the waters edge to prevent flooding. Thus the following distances were used as criteria for the buffers to prevent development on or around these elements: Highways - 120' Vegetation - 15' Lake - 80' Rivers/Streams - 80' Parking - 10' Roads' - 60' Buildings - 10'

Buffers Created Buffers were created based on the established criteria for each of the data sets Bodies of Water Hydrology Roads Highways Buildings Parking Lots Vegetation Results BUFFER

Buffers Unioned & Clipped Buffer features unioned into one UNION Clipped by the boundary The buffers were unioned into 1 feature and then clipped by the site boundary resulting in what I considered Undevelopable Land. CLIP

Erase (Analysis) An erase geoprocess was performed between the Boundary (input) and the Undevelopable Land (erase feature) with the resulting output being Developable Land. Erase Undevelopable Land from Boundary ERASE New Output of Developable Land

Final Product This site suitability map shows the area of land that could potentially be developable based on the set of criteria that was established. The area of land to the west and south of the lake would serve as the best area for future restaurants and public facilities, as there is little existing infrastructure or vegetation.

Final Poster Layout

Things I learned: I gained a better understanding of the geoprocessing tools. I would often try one geoprocessing tool, create an output map, and then decide that was not the correct tool. It was a valuable learning process. I also gained a better understanding for editing features and digitizing new shapefiles. I learned several new capabilities within the edit function. The final product of a good map is a result of access to good data. Unfortunately, the State of Oklahoma does not have a good database set up for vector data. This made it hard to accomplish all of the things I originally wanted to accomplish, as I couldn’t find topographic data and had to create several features myself. If you get stuck, don’t be afraid to research it (google it) online. There were steps when I knew what I wanted but was unsure of how to accomplish it, fortunately most people have also been in a similar situation and the answers are generally online.

Thing I would do differently: I would have liked to automate the geoprocessing steps using ModelBuilder. However, at the time I didn’t even fully understand the geoprocessing steps one by one, let alone using ModelBuilder. I believe after this project, I understand the individual processes enough that next time I could attempt to try to conquer ModelBuilder! Originally, I wanted to include a slope analysis for the site to determine steep or unsuitable slopes and overlay that with my buffers to determine the areas of suitable land for development. I was unable to locate good topographic data however, which goes back to good data is essential. I also think it would’ve been beneficial to run a few different scenarios and maybe create a thematic map showing land for development based on good, better, and best. Time however took precedence. Lastly, scale was another factor for my project. It was difficult to show in detail all the features because the lake took up so much area and made everything else seem so small. There were many more features I could’ve included, (sidewalks, utilities, etc.) however for the purpose of learning and just starting out, I kept it fairly simple.