Suitability Analysis for UCLA Satellite Campus

          UCLA’s campus has been growing and growing every year because of the high acceptance into the institution. However, UCLA’s campus can only hold 31,000 and is currently at its capacity. Each class size is getting larger and effecting the ability for students to learn. In order to promote high education with smaller class sizes, the UC Regents and Los Angeles County have decided that UCLA is in need of an extra satellite campus that will serve an additional 5,000 students. They have decided that certain criteria should apply. Besides the fact that the second campus (UCLA2) should be located within Los Angeles County, it has also been agreed that it should be on relatively flat land; within close proximity (1-3 miles) of other major universities (including the mothers campus); be within a distance of 2 miles of major highways and freeways; and should also be on suitable land types. By using GIS and technologies we can create a maps for each criteria ranking the most suitable areas and then combining them all to create a final suitability analysis.

Besides the fact that UCLA2 must be located in Los Angeles County, another important criteria is that it must be on relatively flat land. The campus needs to be on a relatively flat surface because flat land is easier to work with and maneuver around than steep hills. It is easier to build on flat surface and easier to maintain it. Therefore, I created a slope map of Los Angeles county using a digital elevation model. The resulting map gives me values from 0 to about around 73 in degrees slope. First, in order for the final suitability analysis to work, I need to reclassify to values of slope. I decided to have five classes that will determine how suitable to land is. One will be ranked the least suitable and 5 will be ranked the most suitable. I then reclassify the slope values into those five classes, 5 being the areas that are relatively flat surface and 1 ranking as the steepest and least suitable for a new campus. The resulting map’ labeled “Slope’” is shown as the first map on the second page of maps. Class 5, the most suitable, is shown in green. As we can see, most of the flat land is located in the LA Basin area in the middle of the county and also north-west of that in The Valley. We can expect the UCLA campus to go somewhere in the area on the green.

          Furthermore, it is necessary for UCLA2 to be located with a close proximity of other major Universities. These seven universities include: UCLA, USC, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Domiguez Hills, and Cal State Los Angeles. This promotes strong interaction between the campuses including combined campus events like seminars, lectures, fundraisers, parties, positive social interaction and friendly rivalries. By being close to other campuses, UCLA2 will be given the opportunity to learn from and interact with students from different these universities. Therefore, it is most important that the new UCLA campus is close to any of these schools. I created a multiple ring buffer around these schools to show the areas around those campuses. There are four rings each at a distance of 1 mile, 2 miles, 3 miles, and 4 miles away from the universities. I next had to convert the data into a raster feature in order to reclassifiy. I then reclassified those rings to be more suitable than the others. I classified being within a 1 mile radius of one of the campuses as being a highly suitable area for UCLA2 therefore giving it class five. I gave the 2 mile ring a class 4, 3 mile ring class 3, and so one. Anything that was outside of a 4 mile buffer is considered to be the least suitable and therefore is considered class one. The results are projected in the second map on the second page. As shown, class 5 suitability is at a one miles radius around all the major university campuses mapped and

Chelsea Kemp Lab 4 April 26, 2011is represented in orange. As you go farther out, the suitability class changes and the land becomes less suitable because the areas closer to the university are the most suitable.

          Other than close proximity to other university locations, it is necessary that UCLA2 must be within a close distance of major freeways and highways. Los Angeles is a very motor driven county and to get anywhere one must travel either by car or bus. It is necessary that UCLA2 must be located within a 2 mile distance from all major freeways and highways. This would ensure that students, who are commuting from home or the main UCLA campus, will have an easy and more direct drive. I created a 2 mile buffer around all major freeways and highways in Los Angeles County and then converted the features to a raster in order to reclassify the values. Since there is only one buffer (of 2 miles) this buffer is put into the most suitably class (class five) because it is the most important area for UCLA2 to be. Anything outside of the two mile barrier is a class one, the least suitable. As shown in the third map, the 2 mile buffer is shown around all major freeways and highways and is the most suitable land for UCLA2 to be located. All areas around the 2 miles buffer are not nearly as suitable and are only in suitability class 1.

          Additionally and arguably most importantly, we need to look at what land is available to build, and assess the land that would need to be converted and the expenses. Taking all of this into account, we can look at landuse in Los Angeles County and rank the types of land by suitability class. First, I converted the features to raster in order to reclassify the data. Then, I reclassified the data assessing whether or not the landuse would be suitable to build on or convert into a campus. The land use that were put into a class five (most suitable) were vacant land not being used, underdeveloped areas or the like, whereas landuse put into class 1 (least suitable) were things like fire stations, airports, etc. Landuse that was in between and given classes ranging from 4 to 2 were landuse like, apartments and condominiums, office buildings, elementary, junior, and high schools, parks, malls, etc. Furthermore, landuse that will definitely not be used for UCLA’s second campus received NoData and these areas include landuse such as beaches or harbors. The results are shown in the forth map. Most of the areas are scattered and show no overall pattern, but now we know areas that are vacant and available to build and the areas that would cost money to convert to a new UCLA campus. We are now ready to combine all of maps and create a final suitability analysis map for UCLA2.

          Using the raster calculator, I combined the four reclassified data or slope, university buffers, highway buffers, and landuse types. The resulting data projected gave me ranging numbers from 7 to 20, 7 being the least suitable and 20 being the most suitable. I changed the symbology into classified data with each number having its own value and use a white-pink-blue to yellow-orange-red color scheme. The dark red spots on the map show the land that is most suitable with the combined criteria. I circled 4 places of the darkest red clusters of areas of which the second UCLA campus can be located. It looks like the area that is furthest north closest to Northridge and the two further south of that near UCLA’s primary campus, are the locations that are the most suitable locations. Therefore, according to the criteria that UCLA2 must be located in Los Angeles County, be on flat land, be in close proximity to major universities and major freeways and highways and also be on suitable landuse type, the most suitable locations have been mapped. Now, the UC Regents and Los Angeles County will need to look further into those locations and take into account the cost it will be to build a new campus.

All data found is from UCLA GIS Data Repository.

By

Chelsea Kemp

April 26, 2011