Urban Growth VS Future Sustainable Development

Analyzing Urban Growth and Site Suitability for Sustainable Future Development in Pennsylvania Using Raster Overlay

This project is under the condition that Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is seeking to establish a fund for local land conservancies to acquire environmentally sensitive lands at risk for development. Using raster processing tools in GIS, this project assesses changes in population and developed land between 2000-2010; the amount of developed land that is sensitive; an index of land likely to urbanize in the future; and an index of environmentally sensitive land. Using this information, the entire state is classified as environmentally sensitive land or not and at risk of development land or not. 

This type of analysis could also be used for prioritizing areas most in need of conservation in the future.