Service Areas for Fire Stations in Pembroke, MA

For this project, I had to determine the response times for fire stations in Pembroke, MA. The map on the left shows the response times if all fire stations are open. The map on the right shows response times if the fire station on the east side of town, near Duxbury, was closed due to budget cuts. As shown in the maps, some people's response times would increase if that fire station was closed. I included tables to show the percentages of total town area and response times. To determine the response times, I used the "Generate Service Areas" tool, which takes roads into consideration. More details are described in the map text.

Service Areas for Massachusetts Community Colleges

For this project, I had to find service areas for Massachusetts Community Colleges within 20 miles. I used two different tools as shown in the maps: "Generate Service Areas" tool and "Euclidean Distance" tool. Each tool revealed slightly different results as described in the map text.

GPS Map - Driving to School

View Larger Map This is a GPS map showing the route I took driving from my house to Bridgewater State University. I recorded my route using a smartphone app called My Tracks. The distance between each marker is 1 mile. The total distance was 16.8 miles.

St. Mary's Abbey Wind Turbine Project

For this project, I had to find all areas in Franklin, MA and Wrentham, MA where a wind turbine at St. Mary's Abbey in Franklin can be seen. The new wind turbine is 120 ft. tall. The map on the left shows all areas where all or portions of the wind turbine can be seen. This map shows results considering elevation only. The map on the right considers both elevation and the screening effect of trees. Some people may not be able to see the wind turbine if trees are blocking their view. I selected all areas that were labeled as forest or forested wetland and created a separate layer from that. I estimated the forest heights to be about 24 meters. I combined the forest layer with the DEM of Franklin and Wrentham to help create the results shown in the map. There are some flaws with this however. Some forests may have lower tree density or several different tree heights. So in some areas that are considered forested, the wind turbine might be seen in some areas. Below is a flowchart showing the steps I took to make both maps and also the layers and geoprocessing tools I used.

Massachusetts Community Colleges and Town Population

For this assignment, I had to locate all community colleges in Massachusetts using geocoding. Then I had to perform some kind of analysis. In my map, I show town population in the year 2000. Almost all of the community colleges are located in towns with higher populations in the area, and there are more colleges located in areas with the highest town populations. Some examples are explained in the map text.

Solar Wind Farm Project Maps

For this project, I had to find all suitable locations for a solar wind farm in Kingston, MA and a town of my choice (Pembroke, MA). The required selection criteria was that the site had to have a slope angle of 15 degrees or less, a southerly aspect slope (135 degrees to 225 degrees), and a wind speed of at least 5 m per second at a 30 m height. I also included land use in the criteria, where the land had to be described as either forest, waste disposal, or open space. I thought these three land use categories would be best for a solar wind farm location.Size of the the solar wind farm was not provided but should also be considered when choosing a location. I used several other raster and vector layers and geoproccessing/spatial analyst tools to come up with a final layer (shown in red on the map) that fits all 3 required criteria.

Solar Wind Farm Project (Pembroke)

This map is showing (in purple) possible locations for a solar wind farm in Pembroke, MA. Here is the link to the web application for both the Pembroke map and the Kingston map: Web Application