Problems occurred during the execution of this project, most of the problems involved data. Not all relevant data that is needed for this project is readily available. The website that hosted the spatial data for Hawaii is very elaborate; however, there is certainly other data that can be incorporated into this project which cannot be found. Factors contributing to the lack of data for the study can be caused by an overall limited amount of data, the accessibility of data, the understanding of the theory behind the analysis, and the form of data collected.
Some of the data does not match up perfectly which results in output which might not be fully accurate. One can see very clearly when lining up layers such as solar radiation and coastline that some of the solar radiation received is actually in the ocean when seen from the coastline layer. The picutre below shows the inconsistency between layers when they are all overlaid on top of each other.
Some of the data also suffer from lack of detail and generalization. The data such as solar radiation and plant density can be separated into more categories with more detailed numerical value. This makes the result more generalized and less detailed. The data such as solar radiation is measured at specific points within the region and therefore, there is an assumption of where one level of radiation calories occurs and the other level begins.
During the manipulation of the dataset, the transformation of data from vector to raster would change the data slightly. The slight change in data can cause the output result to be incorrect. The process of changing from vector to raster may also cause inconsistency in the data because when changing polygons into cells, if a cell has two different values in it, it will take the form of the values which cover most of the layer.
The MCE factors and constraints are purely arbitrary, and because of my personal interest in environment and sustainability, I chose the criteria that might be from the standpoint of an environmentalist. If the study is done by a business student, the criteria used might be different to suit the interest of that researcher.
During my background research, I encountered an article which states that the state could be looking to locate the power plant on another island which I do not have any data for and therefore did not include in my analysis.
References
Florida State University. (2006). Solar Power Plant. Retrieved November 11, 2006, from http://www.eng.fsu.edu/~shih/succeed-2000/roadmap/solar%20power%20plant.htm.
Oahu Visitors Bureau. (2006). Oahu Visitors Bureau . Retrieved November 16, 2006, from http://www.visit-oahu.com/home.aspx.
Pacific Business News. (2006). Oahu COmpany plans to build solar power plant here. Retrieved November 16, 2006, from http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2006/10/23/story8.html
