Weighted Location for Parents Move to Collier County FL

Abstract “GIS is used to analyze potential markets within Collier County that make up Naples and surrounding area. A raster-based, weighted model along with demographic data were used to find the ideal location(s) for simultaneously isolating the optimal residential locations with their other requirements. It was determined that a single tract (000400) within collier county met the weighted requirements as defined by the customer. ”Zielsdorf

These requirements included: Catholic churches, predominately white, middle income, hospitals, and community centers. This final model can be adjusted and used in the future to find secondary locations for additional marketing or replan efforts

An in depth interview of a couple who are planning on moving to the moderate climate off the coast of Florida. The analysis focused on their desires and the various requirements were weighted based on their specific inputs

Final Analysis

County Tract 000400 around Naples meets exceeds every requirement levied by the Murphy’s. Having visited Naples, interviewed my parents, studied the data and run the analysis, the result is something they could use to make a very well informed decision. They are typical customers and have been asking about further refinements upon seeing the data and seeing the possible opportunities and options they never knew existed. That is exactly what should happen.

Introduction
Choosing a place to live is a complicated decision influenced by many factors. One needs to balance personal preferences with work, budget, and family constraints. In this exercise, we made decisions about where to live using demographic data, property information, and such spatial factors as proximity to important landmarks. The preferences are prioritized by giving some factors more weight than others.

A key use of GIS in many businesses is to support decision making, such as where to site new locations. Deciding where to locate a business comes from weighing a variety of factors, such as population density, income level, distance from competitors, traffic, etc. One of the challenges is to decide what weight (prominence) to give the various factors. In this week’s activity, I use weighted overlays in ArcGIS making this task fairly simple. Before moving on, brainstorming the factors that might go into a particular location decision (e.g., where to build a new school or rent an apartment near a college) and consider how one may weight each of these factors.

An in depth interview of an elderly couple (my parents, Mark and Annie Murphy) who have decided to look for a new place to live since Mr. Murphy had brain surgery 2 years ago and never regained full physical control. It is now and most likely will always be difficult for him to walk without a cane or walker. This situation has also been very hard on Mrs. Murphy, who suddenly had to take the reins for managing the business and all the medical issue that come with being an octogenarian couple. So they are considering moving to a warmer climate, such as Naples FL, that will be conducive to a better life and better health care. There is a retirement community that specializes in serving those with prior military service. Since Dad is a proud former member of the Army Special Forces, this type of community would beneficial. Mr. and Mrs Murphy stated that they want to be able to visit their children regularly and vice versa so proximity to Amtrak or an Airport is important. There is one Rehabilitation center in Naples that has the necessary requirements. They are both outdoors people so that was also included in the evaluation.

Key Stakeholders – The key stakeholders are Mr. and Mrs Murphy, children, Children’s spouses, and grandchildren. 
 
Key Benefit – The key benefit to Mr. and Mrs Murphy will be a better and more robust living situation.

Objectives – The objectives for the Location Decisions Collier County - The GIS expert needs to find a site with the required characteristics as defined by the clients. In this case they want: http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/gis/manual/raster/index.htm  Catholic churches, predominately white, middle income, hospitals, and community centers.

Once potential areas are outlined, we will turn them into individual zones with the RegionGroup function and then create several other surfaces that will be used to evaluate the potential sites.

Refinements
This case study in the Naples area can be continually refined to include locations grocery stores, cleaners and other shops within walking distance. It can be further refined to consider bulk food stores such as Wal-Mart and Costco since they have stated that they currently shop at these and similar stores
Objective 1 – Gather the necessary data evaluation
Objective 2 – Calculate Euclidean distance from the following criteria established by the client

• Location close to Naples Regional Medical Center
• Location close to the Total Back Care Center
• A neighborhood with a high percentage of people 65 years old +
• A neighborhood with high White population
• Near Major Transit (Airport, Train, Major Roads)

Objective 3 – Conduct a weighted analysis based on the client’s preference to live near the following locations considering various priority levels:

• Rehab Center and hospitals
• Hospital
• Predominately White Christian population
• Catholic Churches
• Community centers

Objective 4 – Determine the best possible location to live based on Client’s criteria and analysis results.

Objective 5 - Create a meaningful set of maps, slides and documentation Clients can use for making smart decisions where to live based on their preferred criteria. They may choose this area or ask me to do another, either way it will be enlightening to think through the process and see the effects of their decisions.

Tools used for the Analysis.

The Primary tools that will be used are ESRI ArcGIS and MS office. Within ESRI’s ArcGIS the following tools will be used:

• ArcMap
• ArcCatalog
• ArcGIS Spatial Analyst Extension
• ArcGIS Model Builder
• Euclidean distance tool
• Feature to Raster tool
• Join function
• Clip tool
• Data Export
• Map Creator

Additionally, MS Office (Excel, Word, and PowerPoint) was also used in this analysis.

The general steps that will be taken to accomplish this lab are as follows:

Step 1: Create a base map of Collier County

Step 2: Calculate Euclidean Distance from Florida Rehab Medical Center

Step 3: Calculate Euclidean Distance from Catholic Church

Step 4: Create a Field for Percentage of Population 65+

Step 5: Convert Tracts to a Raster for Age Range and Reclassify

Step 6: Show locations of targeted Retirement Communities

Step 7: Create a Weighted Overlay with Each Factor Weighted evenly

Step 8: Create a Second Weighted Overlay based on their input

Step 9: Write a cogent analysis describing the differences between the two overlays

Final Analysis
County Tract 000400 around Naples meets exceeds every requirement levied by the Murphy’s. Having visited Naples, interviewed my parents, studied the data and run the analysis, the result is something they could use to make a very well informed decision. They are typical customers and have been asking about further refinements upon seeing the data and seeing the possible opportunities and options they never knew existed. That is exactly what should happen. For a power point presentation select Slides or Slides with Presentation Summary  for the full paper select Final Project Results

References
 a. Jenness, J. 2004. Weighted Mean of Points (weightmean.avx) Extension for ArcView 3.x, v. 1.2c. Jenness Enterprises. Found at: http://www.jennessent.com/arcview/weighted_mean.htm .

b. Dong, P. . (2008). Generating and updating multiplicatively weighted Voronoi diagrams for point, line and polygon features in GIS. Computers & Geosciences, 34(4), 411-421. Retrieved from http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0098300407001495  or http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0098300407001495

c. Drobne, Samo; Lisec, Anka. (2009, November 1). Multi-attribute decision analysis in GIS: weighted linear Combination and ordered weighted averaging The Free Library. (2009). Retrieved July 19, 2011 from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Multi-attribute decision analysis in GIS: weighted linear Combination...-a0216411796