Suitability Analysis: New Satellite Campus Location

For my suitability analysis, I chose elevation, distance to metro stops, distance to highways, and distance to other schools. All data was taken from the LA County eGIS website. For the elevation layer, the more suitable scores are given to lower elevations so that the satellite campus would not be built on a mountain or an area with a high slope. For distance to metro stops and distance to highways, closer distances to the satellite campus were given higher suitability scores, because public transportation and highway access are important factors when considering students and professors who commute to campus. For distance to other schools, the more suitable scores were given to schools that were farther away so that the location for a new campus location would have its own zoning area. 

When calculating my suitability score for the final map, I gave different weights to the four variables depending on their importance. The weights I used are as follows:

• Slope: 0.4

• Distance to Highways: 0.25

• Distance to Metro Stops: .20

• Distance to other colleges: 0.15

Slope had the biggest weight because building a school on land with a higher slope is more costly and difficult. Additionally, having a relatively flat campus is more accessible for students and professors. Distance to highways had the second highest weight, because it is important that professors, faculty, and students are able to access campus from a variety of locations. Being near a highway would allow more people who live in different areas to easily access campus. Distance to metro stops follows a similar logic. Being near a metro stop allows students and professors who do not have a car to more easily access the campus. Finally, distance to other colleges was given the lowest weight, as many colleges and universities throughout the country are located relatively near each other.