Geog 193 Project Proposal

Problem:

A GIS tool will be developed for evaluating the potential and suitability of wind power generation facility of locations in North Carolina. This tool will be called WPPS, short for Wind Power Potential and Suitability.

Although many counties in North Carolina have the GIS data available to the public, it is very hard to use. The county tax parcel data is no different. Searching the thousands of entries in the tax data is very difficult. I would like to develop a tool that would allow you to search county parcel data. A comparison of parcel data from year to year is also very hard to do. Having a tool to automate this would be very useful.

Functions of WPPS:

The proposed WPPS tool will produce two output maps: one showing the spatial distribution of an index of wind power potential, and the other showing the spatial distribution of an index of site suitability for establishing wind power facilities. Calculation of both indices will be based on a number of base layers such as DEM and wind speed distribution, as well as some user-defined variables such as the parameters of wind turbine to be used and the threshold values of wind speed.

The wind power potential is dependent on wind speed solely.

To find best site for wind turbine, the following criteria will be involved:

1. Turbine configuration & working requirements

-- The user has the choice of turbine diameter sizes and operating thresholds

2. Topology

-- DEM input needed

3. Wind speed

-- Interpolation of point wind data

4. Environmental impact

-- Potential pollutions

Data:

-  a layer of DEM data

-  a layer of wind speed data

o  this layer will be produced by interpolating a layer of point wind speed observations

-  land use restriction map

Usage:

This tool would allow county planners, business owners, developers and homeowners the ability to quickly check and compare to tax values of parcels across the county. It would also allow for the study of different economic patterns of development in the county. Future development of this tool could include expanding it to all 100 counties in North Carolina as data was attainable. This would allow the tracking of property values statewide.

Programming:

I would like to develop these tools in ArcGis 9 using Python as the programming language. A user form would allow the user to input a search value and would also check the users entry for obvious errors. Incorporated into this form would also be the tools for creating the new tables that contain the trend data for each parcel as well as the trend data for each individual township. This new table will also separate the land values from the building values in order to fairly determine the actual price per acre of land. The form would allow the user to toggle the active document between the individual parcel values and the net change in the total parcel values in each township.

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Wind Turbine Siting Tool

Decision making support system for evaluating wind power generation possibility in NC.

find best site for wind turbine based on the following criteria:

1. turbine configuration & working requirements

-- the user has the choice of turbine diameter sizes and operation thresholds

2. topology

-- DEM input needed

3. wind speed

-- interpolation of wind data

4. environmental impact

5. service area - shortest distance to service area

presentation of proposal – 5-10min.