Spatial Analysis to Determine Location of a New School

This project was completed when I was in Dr. Shubab Khan’s geospatial information systems graduate course in 2022 at the University of Houston. I enjoyed the course so much, I ended up taking it twice. For this particular project, a hypothetical suitability analysis was conducted to determine optimal locations for a new school in the Houston area. In choosing the optimal location for the theoretical school, the following criteria were considered:

  • Locations of existing schools
  • Road Network within Houston Area
  • Boundary of Houston City Limits
  • Flood Plain Data
  • Harris County Land Use
  • Public Safety (Fire station, police station, & hospital proximity)

Buffer zones created from Land Use data, Flood plain location data, locations of pre-existing schools, and proximity to public safety buildings.

Optimal School Location

Weighted overlay analysis was applied to the first map shown above to more practically ascertain location suitability and filter out the best location for a new school. The optimal location determined is shown in pink.