Project Design:

This project is suitable to apply multi-criteria analysis. There are eight factors on which the decision of new library location is based:

 

          Proximity to main transits

1. SkyTrain stations: The new library should easy to be accessed by the public. Although the SkyTrain service has  

    limited cover in the West Vancouver and Richmond, the service is efficient and frequent. The closer the new library

    to the SkyTrain stations the better.

2. Bus stops/routes: Bus services make places more accessible for the public because their services cover a large

    geographic area, so proximity to bus stops/routes is important.

 

          Proximity to community centres

3. Library as a service for community should be built near community centres, so that the services are more

    concentrated in one area.

 

          Distance from current libraries

4. The new library should not provide repeated service within a certain area, so the further distance the better.

         

          Land use selection

5. Open and undeveloped lands are the best since no land price competition. Residential area is the second best

    because the area is where the users come from, but land price may be higher. Commercial and industrial are    

    considered to be the selected area. Agricultural land is also considered but is discouraged since if the lands are

    listed in Agricultural Land Reserve, the price to acquire these land may be high.

 

          Target Population

6. Population with secondary education or higher are considered to be the major group of library's users.

7. Population age between 10 to 59 is a important factor since 87% of library users in Vancouver Public Libraries are

    from this age group.

8. Population of immigrants is a factor to consider since public libraries provide multi-lingual materials and English as

    second language materials. In this project, it is assumed that only immigrants can read foreign languages, so they 

    are the major users of multi-lingual materials.  

 

There are four main constraints to select the location where the following land use areas are excluded:

1. Recreation and Protected Natural Areas

2. Lakes and Water Bodies

3. Institutional

4. Transportation, Communication and Utilities

 

When all the factors and constraints are obtained and known, they can be put into multi-criteria evaluation.

 

 

< Back     Top     Next >>