1. ____________________________ Raster GIS & Modeling (32-630-01)
GIS Site Suitability Analysis for developing a vineyard in Sonoma County, CA
____________________________
David Jaquet
Raster GIS & Modeling ( )
Fall 2005

2. Motivation
Sonoma County is one of the two best producing wine regions of the north central coast of California.
I am interested in visualizing the criteria matrix needed for correctly choosing a potential land development for a vineyard, I may want to develop a vineyard in the future.

3. Sonoma County, CA wine regions (Appellations)
Study Area
Sonoma County, CA wine regions (Appellations)

4. Research Objectives
This GIS suitability model analyzes potential suitable land for creating a vineyard in Sonoma County, CA.
The model has both descriptive and prescriptive components as it describes various suitability criteria themes within Sonoma County and uses these criteria themes in a matrix to prescribe where a vineyard should be developed to be successful.

5. Methodology
The physiographic criteria were chosen from a variety of web sources. These criteria can determine optimal land parcel characteristics for developing a successful vineyard.
Dataset
Primary Derived Criteria
Primary Raster Analysis Parameters
Regional 30m 7.5' x 7.5' DEM 1:24,000 dataset
Sonoma County Slope
5% ≤ Slope ≤ 35%; reclass
1 category
Sonoma County Aspect
112° ≤ Aspect ≤ 337°; reclass
Sonoma County Elevation
0 m ≤ Elevation ≤ 800 m; reclass
California Counties dataset
Sonoma county
Select Sonoma Co., make new layer
California Land use dataset
Sonoma County agriculture land
Select all agriculture land in Sonoma County
California Hydrography dataset
Sonoma County hydro features
Select hydro features in Sonoma County; reclass 1 category
Distance buffer from hydro source
Raster Dist. buffer m bad fit, 100+ m good fit; reclass with 2 categories
Sonoma County soils dataset
Soil constituents suitable for vineyards in Sonoma County
Chemicals/organic constituents suitable for vineyards in Sonoma County
Existing vineyards survey (1997)
Vineyards surveyed in 1997 in Sonoma County
Feature to raster; reclass to 1 category.

6. Flowchart 1 Continue to flowchart 2 Overlay For elevation For Slope
Re-project To Geographic Coordinate System
Spatial Reference: NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_10N
Datum: D_North_American_1983
Re-project to Geographic Coordinate System:
Vector Lattices (d38123, d38122)
Define Geographic Coordinate System:
Raster Grids (d38123, d38122)
Select/Query/make new layer
Sonoma county
Raster to feature
CA Landuse
features
Select/Query/make new layer of Land use features within Sonoma County feature layer
Sonoma Co
Land use Features
Continue to flowchart 2
Mosaic rasters d38123 and d38122 to a new combined DEM
Overlay
Regional DEM
Sonoma County DEM
For elevation
For Slope
For Aspect
CA Hydro features
(Lakes)
Sonoma County
feature
raster
Sonoma Co stream features
Feature to raster
CA Landuse (mgmtscape_vt) dataset (raster)
Regional 30m 7.5' x 7.5' DEM 1:24,000 dataset
California counties (feature)
CA Hydrography-rivers/sreams (features)
Re-projected
Dataset
Select/query
streams within Sonoma Co.
CA Hydrography- lakes (features)
lakes within Sonoma Co.
Sonoma Co Lakes features

7. Flowchart 2 Land suitable for developing a successful vineyard !
0-100 m
Calculate Slope Grid (Raster)
Slope Grid
Calculate
5≤[slope]≤35
Sonoma Co DEM
Calculate Aspect Grid DEM
Aspect Grid
“Good Aspect”
“Good Topo”
Grid
Land suitable for developing a successful vineyard !
(Raster)
Feature to raster
Stream
Reclass grid 1 cat
Sonoma Co stream features
Create Buffer: Max distance 1000m
Reclass Buffer distance 2 categories m
Hydro buffered
“Good Slope”
Calculate elevatin
0≤[DEM]≤800
Elevation Grid
“Good Elevation”
Sonoma Co Landuse features
Select/Query Agriculture landuse
Sonoma Co
Agriculture land features
Grid – 2 categories
0-100m ‘bad fit’ and 100m+ ‘good fit’
Sonoma Co lakes features
Overlay
Hydro
Select/Query vineyard suitable soils
“Good Soil” Feature
“Good Soil” raster
Lake Grid
Sonoma Co Soils features
“Aggie land” raster
“Good surface” raster
Land suitability for vineyard development within 100m+ buffer zone ‘good fit’
112≤[Aspect]≤337
Flowchart 2

8. Flowchart 3 - Test Vector Final Analysis Raster Final Analysis
Existing Vineyards (1997) features
Existing Vineyards (1997) raster
Overlay
Result: of Land suitability for vineyard development patches out of or 29.5% overlapped with Existingnvineyards (1997) – raster
Feature to raster
Raster to feature
Select by location all Potential land for vineyard development – features that are crossed by the outline of Existing vineyards (1997) – features
Potential land suitable for developing a
successful vineyard !
feature
successful vineyard ! (Raster)
(Raster)
Select by attribute Suitable values
Value 1
New layer of suitable features
Result: 771 Potential land for vineyard
development – features out of 2640 or 29.2% were crossed by the outline of Existing vineyards (1997) – features
Select by location all Existing vineyards (1997) – features that are crossed by the outline of Potential land for vineyard
development – features
Result: 1078 Existing vineyards (1997) – features out of 3036 or 35.5% were crossed by the outline of Potential land for vineyard development – features.

9. Sonoma County, CA Elevation for Vineyards

10. Sonoma County, CA Slope and Aspect for Vineyards

11. Buffer zones from water source and surface to identify potential land

12. Potential suitable land for Vineyard development

13. Test of final output data w/existing dataset

14. Data Sources California Spatial Information Library
- Regional 30m 7.5' x 7.5' DEM
1:24,000 dataset
- California Hydrography dataset
- California counties dataset
The California Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection's Fire and Resource Assessment Program (FRAP)
- California Landuse dataset
USDA NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) Soil Data Mart
- Sonoma County, CA Soils dataset
The Russian River Interactive Information System
- Existing Sonoma County vineyards survey (1997)

15. Analysis Results Feature to raster
Convert Existing vineyards (1997) -features dataset to a raster: Existing vineyards (1997) - raster
Overlay Land suitability for vineyard development with
Existing vineyards (1997) – raster
[Land suitability for vineyard development] & [Existing vineyards (1997) – raster]
Result: of Land suitability for vineyard development patches out of or 29.5%
overlapped with Existing vineyards (1997) – raster.
I also did a vector analysis out of curiosity:
Raster to features
Convert Land suitability for vineyard development to polygon features: Land suitability for vineyard
development – feature yielded (1 - suitable, 0 -unsuitable)
Select by attributes all Land suitability for vineyard development – feature that are suitable (have a value of
one)
Make new layer of selected features: Potential land for vineyard development – feature
Select by location all Potential land for vineyard development – features that are crossed by
the outline of Existing vineyards (1997) – features
Result: 771 Potential land for vineyard
development – features out of 2640 or 29.2% were crossed by the outline of Existing vineyards (1997) – features
Select by location all Existing vineyards (1997) – features that are crossed by the outline of Potential land for
vineyard development – features
Result: 1078 Existing vineyards (1997) – features out of 3036 or 35.5% were crossed by the outline of
Potential land for vineyard development – features.

16. Challenges
Difficulties I encountered during the modeling process (and glad I learned!) were how to define and re-project geographic coordinate systems for consistent map analysis between datasets, having to figure out how to combine two DEMs by performing a mosaic. Also a challenge at times was carefully implementing map algebra statements in the raster calculator. An extra space or layer name dash in a conditional statement would yield errors, and outputs with no values. Though I conclude that my model did not pass the validation test when compared to the existing vineyards dataset with the resulting percentages above, this was a great learning experience, from searching for datasets to using map algebra.

17. Limitation of model Future Improvements
I do not have expert knowledge in the viticulture field. Upon searching for data I came across companies whose professional services are focused on using GIS for developing vineyards with soil scientists on staff for conducting private soil surveys, and also viticulture scientists for cutting edge wine growing techniques and technologies. It is a well developed industry.
Coming across current data is difficult, for example land use data, and I can also imagine that more vineyards have been developed since 1997.
Certain datasets are not available or are for purchase, such as climatic data for regional wind data and regional temperatures.
Future Improvements
Conduct interviews with vineyard developers for more criteria parameters
and maybe more current datasets.
Research on using geostatistical techniques to obtain more precise results and
maybe obtain more relevant results.