Almost all of my original images were taken from the S: drive as it was already in IDRISI format and was for my study area. My DEM of the Lower Mainland came from LandData BC with the help of Howard since he couldn't figure out what to do with it when he got it and I helped him figure it out.

    From the images available I decided on which criteria were most important to my study. These criteria were: landuse, buffer zones around all bodies of water and watersheds, soil type, distance from roads and slope gradient.  Once I had produced my images I realized that the water bodies surrounding the Lower Mainland were also included so in order to eliminate them as possible sites I used the cities image to mask out the water bodies.

    Once I decided on my criteria I had to come up with numbers, for example the size of buffer zones and the ideal type of soil. I wanted to keep my project as realistic as possible so I enlisted the help of Bruce MacDougall, a landscape architect that I had worked with over the summer at Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners Ltd. With his help I came up with the following:

-The Ministry of Environment recommendation for buffer zones around water bodies to be 15-30m, I chose 30 to be on the safe side
-well drained sandy loam as the most versatile soil type
-a minimum of 3% slope, I decided on a maximum of 20% to ensure that the course is not overly challenging
-regenerating an area by putting in a golf course and building around it
-50m buffer from roads
-land parcel of at least 120 acres to accommodate a practice range, clubhouse and parking.