methodology
Data Collection
A few of the images were in raster format, and were ready to go. However some were in ArcGIS shapefile format, and need to be converted to raster format so that it was compatible with IDRISI. That was where I had the most fun, importing files from ArcGIS and ArcView.
Factors:
Suitable Land
A landuse map of the GVRD was available on the S: drive in IDRISI format, so no converting was necessary. In order to display the areas that I needed, an ASSIGN and EDIT operation was performed. EDIT was used to create my .AVL file to be used in conjunction with the ASSIGN module. My values were 14 1, as 14 corresponded to the Open and Undeveloped Land.
Slope
The slopebool image was created from the DEM file of the GVRD which was already in raster format on the S: drive. Since I preferred land areas that had a slope of 10 % or less I had to use the surface module. The SURFACE module calculates a slope image from an elevation image. In order to obtain areas that had a slope of less than 10% I had to use the RECLASS module.
Bus Stop
The bus stop image was quite difficult to create. First off, it was not in raster format, and needed to be converted. Secondly, the bus stops were not on the same layer, so I needed to append the shape files together. So what I needed to do first was append the different layers. This took a while as I was not familiar with the process. Once it was completed, the image needed to be converted to IDRISI format. Then I wanted to create a buffer around each bus stop. Therefore I used the BUFFER module to do this, I chose 100 meters because people will not walk as far to a bus stop rather than to a skytrain station.
Skytrain
I had problems with this layer, and was not able to get it to work properly until the end of my project. This file was not in raster format, so once again I had to import the shapefile from ArcGIS to IDRISI. Once it was in raster format I created a buffer of 1000 meters using the BUFFER module, I chose 1000 meter because I knew people were more willing to walk a further distance to the closest skytrain station.
Roads
No matter how convenience it is to take public transportation, some people can not let go of their cars. Some feel that it is necessary to show off their cars, and for that, we must consider access my major routes. The ALLROADS image on the S: drive was not in raster format, so I had to convert it before any operations could be performed on it. I then used the BUFFER module to create a buffer zone of 50m around the all roads. Then I used the FUZZY module with a sigmoidal curve using 50 and 1000 as control points. Since there were no longer distances below 50 it was treated as a minimum and 1000 was used as a maximum.
