COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES

Department of Geography and Environmental Studies

Course Title: Principles and Application Environmental Modeling (GISR 512)
MSc. in GIS and Remote Sensing
Project Title: Suitable Site Selection for Horticulture Investment in
South Wollo

Using ArcGIS Pro

Group Members
No Name ID Number
1 Ali Yasin Ahmed SGSR/0029/13
2 Siraj Jemal SGSR/0028/13
3 Medina Yasin SGSR/0024/13
4 Mulat Amare SGSR/0027/13

Submitted To: Dr. Abebe M

January, 2021@Wollo University

Table of Contents
Project 1 ...................................................................................................................................................... III
Phase One: Add and produce necessary data .......................................................................................... 1
Produce Airport Euclidean Distance..................................................................................................... 3
Produce Slope Using Slope Tool .............................................................................................................. 5
Produce River Euclidean Distance ........................................................................................................ 7
Convert LULC to Raster by LULC type .............................................................................................. 9
Convert SW_Soil to Raster by Soil Type ............................................................................................ 12
Phase Two: Transformation phase .......................................................................................................... 14
Transform Euclidean Slope using Rescale by Function .................................................................... 14
Using Rescale by Function transform Slope ....................................................................................... 16
Transform Euclidean_River using Rescale by Function ................................................................... 18
Transform LULC raster using Reclassify tool ................................................................................... 20
Transform Soil raster using Reclassify tool ........................................................................................ 23
Transform DEM using Reclassify tool ................................................................................................ 26
Phase Three: Weighted Sum .................................................................................................................... 28
Phase Four: Locate Region ...................................................................................................................... 32
Phase Four: Producing Cost surface ....................................................................................................... 36
Re-class Soil using Reclassify tool for Cost Surface........................................................................... 36
Re-class LULC using Reclassify tool for Cost Surface ...................................................................... 39
Add Slope into the Model ..................................................................................................................... 41
Produce Cost Surface ........................................................................................................................... 41
Phase Five: Producing List Cost Path ..................................................................................................... 43
Produce Cost Distance .......................................................................................................................... 44
Produce Cost Backlink ......................................................................................................................... 46
Produce List Cost Path Map ................................................................................................................ 48
Model for Suitable Site Selection (Horticulture) .................................................................................... 51
Model to Produce Cost Surface ............................................................................................................... 52
Model to Produce List Cost Path ............................................................................................................. 53
Final Map of the Project........................................................................................................................... 54

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Project 1
1. Despite the dangerous effects on environmental health, floriculture industry is booming in
Ethiopian. Currently Ethiopia is the second largest flower exporter in Africa (after Kenya).
Ethiopia‟s flower exports reached 100 million USD and the industry is one of the top four
sources of foreign exchange for the country. The Ethiopia Horticulture Producers and
Exporters Association (EHPEA), needs to prioritize cut flower suitable lands all over the
country. To meet the strategic plan of EHPEA, you are requested to locate potential flower
farm sites in south wollo by considering the following requirements.

Flat lands on altitudes between 1500 and 2500 meters are the highly preferred agro-
ecological zone. However, small patches (< 10 hectares) of such land do not attract
investors. Cut flowers demand fertile soils. Assume major soil types such as ‘Fluvisols’,
'Vertisols', 'Cambisols' and 'Luvisols' as very fertile soils, 'Nitosols', 'Lithosols', Andosols'
and 'Histosols' moderate and other major soil types as poor in fertility. Sufficient water
supply is another key requirement for flower farming. The proposed sites should have
rivers (streams) nearby (within 1 km). Land cover types like bareland, grassland,
cultivation and woodland are highly preferred. It is quite important to bring the cut flower
products correctly and on time into market. Since such products are among the export
goods, the proposed site(s) should be within 35 km from national and international airports.
Transport logistic and topography are more important than other criteria.

2. Also propose a least cost path from the proposed site (s) to the nearest road using slope,
soil type and land cover as criteria. Steep slope, loose soil types and agricultural lands are
more expensive than others.

NB. This assignment accounts for 30% of your final grade. You can form a group of at most three
people and can submit your results digitally. All the spatial data needed for this assignment can be
found in the folder “tutorial data”.

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Project One: Selecting Suitable Region for Horticulture Investment in S.Wollo
Based on the above criteria we have select the most best 12 regions and we have connect them by
list cost path by using cost surface which also produced using slope, land use, and soil as a criteria.
Here below we show the procedure or steps used to select suitable areas and to prepare cost surface
and list cost path for all suitable regions by using ArcGIS pro.

Phase One: Add and produce necessary data

Step 1: Add all necessary data (criteria for selection of suitable site selection for Horticulture) to
ArcGIS pro. We have 6 criteria to produce final suitability and one additional criteria used in
locating specific regions this is Area in Hectare (>10). The first six are here below:
1. Airport Point Data (Kombolcha International and Mekaneselam National Airoort)
2. South Wollo River
3. South Wollo Land Use
4. South Wollo Soil
5. South Wollo DEM
6. South Wollo Slope

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Step 2: Open new Model to show the hierarchy of the process
On ArcGIS pro >>>>> Analysis>>>>>>>>Model

Step 3: mark and dreg all criteria in to the new model as follow

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Produce Airport Euclidean Distance
Step 4: Using Euclidean Distance Tool produce data from base data (Airport Point Data). Click
on Geoprocessing Toolbox then add Euclidean distance to Model from Distance toolset in spatial
analyst tools.
A. Add and connect Point Data airport to Euclidean Distance by Connect tool. Then double
click the Euclidean Distance tool.

Input: Point Data Airport

Maximum Distance: 35km or 35000m
Extent (in Environment): South Wollo DEM
Pixel Size: 90 (South Wollo DEM
Output: Airport_eculiDista

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B. Right click on Euclidean distance and Run it as follow

C. After the process, right click on the result (Euclidian Airport) and click on Add to Display to
see the produced Map

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D. The final Map

Produce Slope Using Slope Tool

Step 5: Using Slope Tool produce data from base data (SW_DEM). Click on Geoprocessing
Toolbox then add Slope to Model from Surface toolset in spatial analyst tools.
A. Add Slope tool and connect with DEM_SW, then open Slope tool by double clicking it.
 Input: SW_DEM
 Output: Slope

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 B. Run it as follow

C. Add to display by right click the slope and click on Add to Display function as follow

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 D. Final slope map

Produce River Euclidean Distance

Step 5: Using Euclidean Distance Tool produce data from base data (River_SW). Click on
Geoprocessing Toolbox then add Euclidean distance to Model from Distance toolset in spatial
analyst tools.
A. Add Euclidian Distance tool at the right side of DEM_SW

Input: River_SW; Maximum Distance: 2km or 200 meter; Output: EucliDist_River

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 B. Right click on Euclidean Distance and click on Run option.

C. After the process Right click on the output and click add to display to see the output map

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 D. Final Euclidean Distance (Slope) Map

Convert LULC to Raster by LULC type

Step 5: Using Feature to raster Tool produce data from base data (LULC_SW). Click on
Geoprocessing Toolbox then add Feature to raster tool to Model from to raster toolset in
Conversion tools.
A. Add Feature to raster tool and connect with LULC_SW, then open Feature to raster tool
by double clicking it.
 Input: LULC_SW
 Output cell size: 90
 Output: LULC type in raster

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 B. Right click on Feature to raster and click on Run option.

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 C. After the process Right click on the output and click add to display to see the output map

D. Final Map of LULC type raster

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Convert SW_Soil to Raster by Soil Type
Step 5: Using Feature to raster Tool produce data from base data (SW_Soil). Click on
Geoprocessing Toolbox then add Feature to raster tool to Model from to raster toolset in
Conversion tools.
A. Add Feature to raster tool and connect with LULC_SW, then open Feature to raster tool
by double clicking it.
 Input: SW_Soil
 Output cell size: 90
 Output: Soil type in raster

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 B. Right click on Feature to raster and click on Run option.

C. After the process Right click on the output and click add to display to see the output map

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 D. Final Output

Phase Two: Transformation phase

Transform Euclidean Slope using Rescale by Function
Step one: Using Rescale by Function transform Euclidean_Airport
A. Add Rescale by Function to the Model and open it by double click on it.
Input: Euclidean_Airport Output: Transfo_Airport (Transformed Airport)
Transformation Function: MSSmall (near areas have higher value)

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 B. Right click on Rescale by Function tool and Run it.

C. After the process, Right click on the output and Add to Display it.

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 D. Final Output

Using Rescale by Function transform Slope

Step two: Using Rescale by Function transform Slope
A. Add Rescale by Function to the right of Slope in the Model and open it by double click
on it. Input: Slope Output: Transfo_Slope (Transformed Slope)
Transformation Function: Logistic Decay (Flat areas have higher value)

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 B. Right click on Rescale by Function tool and Run it.

C. After the process, Right click on the output and Add to Display it.

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 D. Final output of the transformed Slope

Transform Euclidean_River using Rescale by Function

Step three: Using Rescale by Function transform Euclidean_River
A. Add Rescale by Function to the Model and open it by double click on it.
Input: Euclidean_River Output: Transfo_River (Transformed River)
Transformation Function: MSSmall (near areas have higher value)

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 B. Right click on Rescale by Function tool and Run it.

C. After the process, right click on the output and add to display

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 D. Final output of the transformed river.

Transform LULC raster using Reclassify tool

Step four: Using Reclassify transform LULC type raster.
A. Add Reclassify to the Model and open it by double click on it.
Input: LULC type raster Output: Transfo_LULC (Transformed LULC)
Re-class Field: Value

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B. Each Land use type has their own hierarchical value. Based on their suitability for
Horticulture (we have given the land use which has higher importance for it) we have given
New Value as follow:

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C. After assigning New Values for each land use type, right click on Reclassify tool and run it.

D. After the Reclassify process finish right click on Output and Add to display it.

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E. Final result of the reclassified land use.

Transform Soil raster using Reclassify tool

Step five: Using Reclassify transform Soil type raster
A. Add Reclassify to the Model and open it by double click on it.
Input: Soil type raster Output: Transfo_Soil (Transformed Soil)
Re-class Field: Value

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B. As we see here above each Soil type has their own hierarchical value. Based on their
suitability for Horticulture (we have given the Soil which has higher importance for it) we
have given New Value as follow

C. After assigning New Values for each land use type, right click on Reclassify tool and run it.

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D. After the reclassification process finished right click on the output and add to display to
visualize it.

E. Final result of the reclassified Soil.

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Transform DEM using Reclassify tool
Step six: Using Reclassify transform Digital Elevation Model of South Wollo
A. Add Reclassify to the Model and open it by double click on it.
Input: DEM Output: Transfo_DEM (Transformed DEM)
Re-class Field: Value

Starting Elevation Value The End Value New Value

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B. After assigning new values for each classified DEM, right click on reclassify tool and run it.

C. Add the transformed DEM layer to the map document by right click on the output and click
on Add to Display function.

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D. Final result of DEM after Reclassification or transformation of DEM

Phase Three: Weighted Sum

Step one: Add Weighted Sum tool from Overlay toolset in spatial analyst tools in Geoprocessing
Toolbox and connect it with the six Transformed data that we decide as a criteria to identify
suitable region for Horticulture.

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Step two: In the second phase we have assign new value for each class in each and every criteria
specifically. Now in this phase we give a weight for all criteria in generally as follow:

No. Transformed Criteria Weighted Field Weight

1 Transfo_Airport Value 3
2 Transfo_Slope Value 1
3 Transfo_River Value 1.5
4 Transfo_LandUse Value 1
5 Transfo_Soil Value 1
6 Transfo_Topography] Value 2.5

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Step three: After assigning the above weight, right click on weighted sum tool and run it to
produce the final suitability for Horticulture as follow:

Step four: When the weighting of their sum process finished, add the final suitability of
Horticulture into the map document by right clicking on the output and click on Add to Display
function as follow:

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Step five: Visualize the final suitability of area for Horticulture. As we see here below in the final
suitability area dark green color indicates highest suitability and the brighter color indicates lower
suitability. And also the area which found outside 35 km from the two Airport and 1 km from
water bodies (river) is excluded from this site selection because Transportation and distance from
river have higher value relative to other criteria and in the first phase when we produce Euclidean
Distance for both criteria we decide the Maximum Distance. As we see the dark green color is
around Airport and Near to Rivers; this is because of the rescale function of the two criteria is
MSSamle. This rescale function consider every place near to the Airport and river as higher
suitability. Though these are the main cause for higher suitability around the center, there are also
other factors like Topography (as you see below), slope, land use type and soil type. But all criteria
are determined mainly by distance from airport (3 point) and Topography (2.5 point).

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Phase Four: Locate Region
Step one: Add Locate Region tool in overlay toolsets in spatial analyst tools in Geoprocessing
Toolbox.

Step two: Next fill the most required information on the window which we get after we open the
Locate Region tool. Because most of the information needed for this function are subjective it
differs from one model builder to other. So, based on our point of view, we use the following
information: Here the 7th criteria i.e. minimum area (10 hectares) is used to locate specific region
using Locate Region tool.

No. Required information Fill information No. Required information Fill

is about……… is about……… information
1 Input raster Finalsuitability** 8 Evaluation Method Highest average
value
2 Total Area 4000 9 Region Minimum area 10 (hectares)**
3 Area Unit Hectares** 10 Region Maximum area Auto (not
limited)
4 Output raster (Name) SuitableRegion 11 Minimum Distance 3 km
between Regions
5 Number of Regions 12 12 Maximum Distance
Between Regions Not Limited
6 Region Shape Circle 13 Distance Unit Kilometer
7 Shape/utility tradeoff 50% 14 Input raster or feature of No existing
(%) existing regions region
** Objective and considered as criteria

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Step three: After fill the necessary information in Locate Region tool, right click on Locate
Region tool and run it as you see here below:

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Locate Region Tool on process

Locate Region when it finish the process (Close it and pass to next step)

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Step four: After the Locate Region process finished and close the notification, right click the
final output and add it to the map document by clicking Add to Display function. Here is the
way:

Step five: Visualize the 12 maximum suitable regions which is identified based on the information
that we fill in step two in this phase. As you see here below in the map all the ordered 12 regions
are carefully chosen by using Locate Region tool. And all of them is located within 35 kilometer
from airport and 1 kilometer from river. And also almost all of the regions are situated in elevation
value between 1500 and 2500 meter represented by blue violet color in the map below.

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Phase Five: Producing Cost surface
Re-class Soil using Reclassify tool for Cost Surface
Step one: Re-class soil by using Reclassify tool from Re-class toolset
NB. After we identified the best region for Horticulture investment, we, in the project, ordered to
connect all the identified regions to the nearest road. So, to connect those regions to the nearest
possible road, first it is required to produce Cost Surface to identify the list cost path. Therefore,
in the project we have ordered that Slope, land use and soil as a criteria to produce cost surface.
And in more detail criteria the steeper the slope, the loose soil and agricultural land use considered
as more expensive than other. Therefore, to produce Cost Surface we have used the following
classification and equation:

No. Criteria Type weight Remark

1 Land Use Grassland, Shrubland, Less cost required
Type Bareland, Afro Alpine, 2
and woodland
Cultivation, Plantation, Expensive
Natural Forest, Water and
Wetland 10
2 Soil Type Xerosols, Regosols, 2 Less cost required
Leptosols & no data(2)
Cambisols, Fluvisols, 10 Expensive
Nitisols, Vertisol
3 Slope The more steeper the higher the weight The steeper the slope the
higher the cost

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A. In new Model add the three criteria used to produce Cost Surface. Then add the Reclassify tool
in front of soil by dragging it from Reclass toolset in Spatal Analyst Tools in Geoprocessing
Toolbox and connect it with SW_Soil. Next open the Reclassify tool by double clicking on it
and give weight based on the information provided above.

A. After all the information fill on the required space, right click on Reclassify tool and Run it.

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B. Right click on the Re-class soil and add it to Map document ba clicking Add to Display
function

C. Visualize the Re-class soil output.

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Re-class LULC using Reclassify tool for Cost Surface
Step two: Produce a classified Land use by using Reclassify from Re-class toolset in Spatial
Analyst Tools
A. After adding the reclassify tool in front SW_LU, connect it with SW_LU and open it by
double clicking on it. Then after fill the weight based on the above provided information.

B. Then next right click on Reclassify tool and Run it.

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C. After Re-class process, right click on Reclassified land use output and addit to display.

D. Visualize the Reclassified land use result.

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Add Slope into the Model
Step three: Add slope which is produced from DEM previously.

Produce Cost Surface

Step four: Produce Cost Surface
A. Add Raster Calculation from Map Algebra in Spatial Analyst Tools and produce Cost Surface
by writing the equation provided below as follow:

("%Slope (2)%" * 0.4 + "%Reclass_Soil%" *0.3 +"%Reclass_LU%" *0.3)

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B. After writing the equation, right click on Raster Calculation tool and Run it.

C. After the process finished, right click on the output and add it to display as follow:

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D. Visualize the produced Cost Surface

Phase Six: Producing List Cost Path

NB. Now we have 12 specific regions and cost surface. Therefore, here is the last phase of our
project. In this phase we will produce list cost path which connect the 12 suitable regions to the
main road which is near to both of them. For our project we digitize the main road which passes
through the Dessie, the capital of South Wollo zone and Kombolcha. Additionally, one another
road which touches Mekane-Selam town. Then we merge the two roads as one line and use it as a
source feature to produce Cost Distance and Cost Backlink to connect the 12 regions with this
main and approximately near road for all Regions.

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Produce Cost Distance
Step one: Produce Cost Distance
A. Produce Cost Distance by adding it in front MainRoad_SW (as a source) and Cost Surface
and open Cost Distance by double clicking it.

Input raster/feature source: MainRoad_SW Input Cost raster: Cost Surface

B. Next, right click on Cost Distance and Run it as follow:

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C. Then right click on the produced Cost Distance and add it to display as follow:

D. Visualize the Cost Distance result. The nearer the place to the main road the less the cost
distance.

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Produce Cost Backlink
Step two: Produce Cost Backlink

A. Produce Cost Backlink by adding it in front MainRoad_SW (as a source) and Cost Surface
and open Cost Distance by double clicking it.

Input raster/feature source: MainRoad_SW Input Cost raster: Cost Surface

B. Next, right click on Cost Distance and Run it as follow:

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C. Then right click on the produced Cost Backlink and add it to display as follow:

D. Visualize the Cost Backlink result.

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Produce List Cost Path Map
Step three: Produce List cost path Map

A. Add Cost Path tool from Distance toolset in Spatial Analyst tools. Then open the Cost Path
tool by double clicking on it and put the following data.
 Input feature or feature destination data: SuitableRegions,
 Destination Field: Value,
 Input Cost Distance raster: CostDistance and
 Input Cost Backlink raster: CostBacklink

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B. Then, right click on Cost Path tool and Run it.

C. After Cost Path process finished, right click on Cost path output, what we call it List Cost
Path, and click on Add to Display function.

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D. Visualize the last output of this project. As you see here the 12 suitable regions which we
identified by using Locate Region tool are connected with the main road by considering the
list cost. When we zoom it there are multiple road lines. This is means there are multiple ways
to construct a road for that suitable place with a minimum of cost.

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Model for Suitable Site Selection (Horticulture)

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Model to Produce Cost Surface

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Model to Produce List Cost Path

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Final Map of the Project

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