Preservation: A common goal of planners

This case study is based on work conducted by Keith Edward for Superior Township, in Washtenaw County, Michigan. The study area is located in the southeastern lower peninsula of Michigan, just northeast of Ann Arbor and north of Ypsilanti.

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In this case study, planners for a township seek to identify the characteristics of parcels of agricultural land that may be preserved from development. The GIS techniques used in this study are common to projects on many different topics. The analyst creates a series of thematic maps, witheach theme reflecting one or more criteria important to the study. Good thematic maps condense complex information into a few meaningful categories to help the user identify key spatial patterns.

This case study requires a basic understanding of geographic information systems and ArcView 3.x.If you are unfamiliar with either of these,we recommend you read our Training Manual and complete the accompanying exercises before proceeding with this case study.

• Document (Agland.PDF - 4.28 Mb) of this case study in Adobe Acrobat Reader format.

• Data used in  this case study (Agland.zip - 4.58 Mb)

• Xtools (xtools.zip - 39 Kb),  an extension for ArcView that contains useful spatial operation tools. It is developed, collected, or modified by Mike DeLaune, Oregon Department of Forestry.

Please read the Frequently Asked Questions for the Case Studies.

This case study developed by W/SA with contributions by the following;

• Dr.Yichun Xie, Director, IGRE at Eastern Michigan University.
• Keith Edwards,Planner, Farmington Hills Township, Michigan
• Beverly Hunter, Consultant to W/SA
• Dr.Yiyi Sun,Visiting Scholar, IGRE
• Dr.Micheal Charles, Assistant Professor, School of Education,Eastern Michigan University