Vector Analysis Mapping

This week, I got a chance to practice with the vector analysis tools in GIS in order to produce a map that depicts the goldilocks zones for camping in a portion of DeSoto National Forest in Mississippi. Given vector maps of roads, water features and conservation zones in the study area, I was tasked with mapping out areas that were no less than 300 meters from a road, either 150 meters from a lake or 500 meters from a river and which were not within designated conservation areas.

To produce a layer with polygons that met these criteria I used ArcGIS' tools for creating buffers and overlays. Firstly, I created polygon features of buffers around the road and water features, designating the buffers as listed above in the buffer tool. Once I had separate buffer layers for roads and for water features, I was able to use the overlay tool to create a layer based on the intersection of the buffer layers, i.e. another polygon layer that only had features where BOTH buffer layers covered an area. Once I had that, I then used the erase tool to remove any portions of the intersection layer that intersected with anything within the conservation areas feature I was provided.

Ultimately, what I produced amounted to (300 meter buffer around roads) AND (150 meter buffer around lakes/500 meter buffer around rivers) BUT NOT (within conservation area).

Once I had created that feature, representing the most suitable places to camp in the study area, I created a simple map of the area, which is below.

Suitable Camping Sites in SW Perry County, MS