2.1 Study design
The project began with a critical look at the data available. Of the layers that were of use, the ones regarding human impact were selected for analysis. The layers chosen were: grazing, agri, severity, rate, chemical, physical, and popdens. In the Boolean analysis, most of these layers were assigned new values where high and very high deterioration were given a 1 value and all else given a 0 value. Several overlays between the layers were conducted in order to understand human impact on the landscape. From these layers a Boolean Multi-criteria evaluation was run to find the areas with the worst soil deterioration at the fastest rates caused by human practices, such as grazing and agriculture, where population densities were high.
The second analysis was a Non-boolean weighted linear combination which used some different layers than the Boolean analysis and weighted the importance of layers based on information from Hudson (1995), which stated the impact of each overexploitation, deforestation, grazing, and agriculture in the context of the amount of land degraded by each practice in Africa. Population density weight was approximated at being of equal importance to over-grazing (which causes the most deterioration) because of the Malthusian argument stated in section 1.2.
Once the possible locations were found using each analysis, a vector layer showing country boundaries was placed over the views and major country names digitized. Cities close to the sites were also digitized so as to present possible cities that the centre could be located in.
2.2 Methodology
The method of the analysis will be described and shown in cartographic models at each step of the analysis. All views will have models attached to show the steps taken to produce those results. See section 3.0 Spatial Analysis.
2.3 Data Sources
The data for the analysis was taken from the Africa data provided for the assignment. However, the importance of each soil deterioration method (i.e.. over-grazing, deforestation, agriculture) was not provided and had to be researched. This was found in Hudson (1995). Because the purpose of the analysis was to place a support and information centre, only data concerning human impact was evaluated. Several books were used for background information on the topic including information not just on Africa but for the whole world. Information for the digitized layers was found on the world wide web from a scanned political map. The location of cities were approximated.
For a full list
of references see section 5.0 References.