Spatial Analysis - MCE
Multi-Criteria Evaluation was used in examining the most suitable route to build the pipeline. The only contrain of the evaluation was to have the pipeline built within the boundary of BC and Alberta. Therefore, the contrain used for this MCE was the boundary of BC and Alberta.
Once all the factors were input into the Decision Wizard that conducted the MCE analysis in Idrisi Selva. A Fuzzy map for each factor was created based on the distance away from the natural resource.
Criteria |
Parameter |
Parks and Reserved Area |
Linear monotonically decreasing relationship was set as suitability decreases as distance away from the proximity increases. Control points c was assigned with the minimum data value whereas control point d was assigned with the maximum data value. |
Habitat |
|
Lakes and Rivers |
|
Streams |
By assigning areas closest to the factors with the highest “suitability”, the final MCE map would assign those areas with the highest “suitability” score. This “suitability” score has an inverse relationship as the higher the “suitability” the area is, the closer it is to nearby factors, which is more inappropriate to disturb the area. The MCE was done in an inverted order because the suitability score would later be converted into cost, which the higher the “suitability”, the higher the environmental cost.
Parks and reserved area was ranked as the most important aspect in avoiding the pipeline to crossover as these areas has the highest reservation value. Endangered species habitat were ranked secondly. Lakes, rivers and streams were ranked equally and least important in this evaluation as trans passing these natural resources was unavoidable due to their abundances.
The Weight Ratio of all these factors were as follows;
Parks and Reserved Area: 0.5596
Endangered Species Habitat : 0.2495
Lake And River : 0.0955
Streams : 0.0955
As the propose of this evaluation was to explore the options of building a pipeline with the least disturbance to the nature, the higher the MCE scores, the more vulnerable the area would be and the more inappropriate it is to build a pipeline in that location.
