Worcester Opioid Epidemic

During 2014 there was an increase in Opioid Abuse in cities and towns across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  Data was collected using the City of Worcester's crime reporting website.  The data collected was for the months of July - October 2014 to show the distribution of drug related crimes that occurred during those months and the relationship to Environmental Justice Populations and distance to the cities detox/methadone/suboxone clinics.  The map of Massachusetts shows the 2012 admissions to treatment facilities for those related to heroin use. In 2012 there was an alarming number of admission in those towns located in Southern Massachusetts and Cape Cod.  These numbers, alarming as they are, are prior to the recent epidemic of a "bad batch" of heroin circulating on the streets, causing many fatal and non-fatal overdoses.

North Attleboro Fire Department, Response Times

This map show the response times for the North Attleboro Fire Stations.  The response times are based on the location of the 3 fire stations and the square mileage of the town.  The map also includes analysis if the town was to cut one of its fire stations and how this cut would affect the response times through out the town.

St. Mary Abbey, Franklin Ma - Turbine Project

St. Mary's Abbey in Franklin wants to upgrade their small wind turbine.  The newer model would generate more power, but it is significantly taller than the existing turbine.  Property owners in Franklin and Wrentham are opposed to the installation of a 120 meter turbine.  The residents believe that a turbine of this height would ruin their aesthetic views and disintegrate property values.  The analysis was performed considering two separate styles of interpretation that would visually explain where in Franklin and Wrentham residents would be able to see the wind turbine. The examination looked at visibility from a 30, 60, 90 and 120 meter height.   The separate interpretations are based upon a Bare Earth visibility analysis, in which no vegetation would exist within the surrounding locations.  The other was built with Vegetation obscuring the visibility within the analysis, whereas forests and forested wetland heights were incorporated into the study.

Services Areas of MA Community Colleges

The advantages of geocoding and generating service areas are, first a business could take their customer’s information and create a map based upon their location/address. Second once the map is created, the business can use the map to generate a service area within a set distance.  This will enable the business to visually see where their customers travel from or create new marketing ideas that would target areas shown on the map that are not within a set distance from the business.  

This map was created by Generating Service Areas of the Community Colleges in MA.  The map shows a 20 mile radius from the colleges in which it can service.

 

The majority of community colleges that are well within the 20 mile radius are located in Eastern Massachusetts. Most of these colleges overlap one another which increase the accessibility to attend college.  The community colleges that are located from Worcester to Western Massachusetts can service most of the larger populations within this area but not all areas have access to a college.  

This map indicates several options for the Community Colleges of Massachusetts.  First, the state could close two possible locations in the Boston area, due to the excessive overlapping. Second, relocate the two colleges in Eastern Ma to areas within Western Ma that are not currently serviced by an existing community college. Lastly, create satellite campuses in the locations that are outside the 20 mile radius of the existing community colleges in western Massachusetts and also take into consideration obtaining locations that are accessible to Interstate and US Highways.  

Massachusetts Community Colleges

Geocoding Project

Geocoding which is another term for address mapping is a process that converts data by using either the address or the name of a place.  Geocoding will take this information and mathematically convert the data into geographic features which can be used on a map to visually analyze patterns in the data.  

This map was created by Geocoding the addresses of the 15 Community Colleges in MA, also added was the 2010 population data from MassGIS, and the MA DOT roads data.  With the addition of this data, the map can clearly compose a story of where the Community Colleges are located in relation to population size of the towns and their accessibility to Interstate and US Highways. 

Solar Wind Farm Project for Kingston & Mattapoisett, Massachusetts

Solar Wind Farm Project: The Kingston Green Energy Committee is looking to identify suitable locations within Plymouth County for the development of a combined solar/wind farm. The maps above are for the Towns of Kingston and Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. Both maps indicate the possible locations within each town, as identified in red, that would be a suitable fit for this type of development. The process used to identify these specific sites was to find land within the towns that have a slope equal to a 15 degree angle and the slope would also need to have a southerly facing aspect. Also included is the wind contour speed, which for a wind farm the locations would have to have winds at 5m/second or greater, this is based upon a 30 meter wind height. Further analysis needs to be addressed to locate suitable sites for the solar/wind farm. Analysis on the type of zoning these sites are located and their land use type. As well as, they type of vegetation, if there is wetlands, water bodies, and if the space is State park/forest. In addition the Committee would also need to address the solar portion of this project, by measuring the amount of solar radiation each site receives during the different seasons.

Click here to also view the Solar Wind Farm site locations in an ArcGIS Online Web Application.

City of Brockton - Sites for a Bio-Tech Industrial Park

Analysis:
Site selection: For the site selection, four parcels were found based upon the directed criteria. The data used for this project is from Mass GIS, and included the Political/Administrative Boundaries - Level 3 Assessors’ parcels, Zoning data, which is the boundaries for the municipal zoning districts and also the MDEP Hydrography data, which contains all water related features such as lakes, ponds, wetlands, rivers and streams.

Parcels suitable and non-suitable: Sites 104-042, 105-114 (these two are located at the Westgate Mall) and 155-107 (Brockton Hospital) would not be suitable sites for a Bio-Tech industrial park. These sites are located in the inner city boundaries and close to a dense residential population. Also, these sites are in areas that experience high traffic volume. The only site found that is possibly suitable is site number 080-001D. This site is already an active industrial area, it is located south of the inner city area of Brockton and has direct accessibility to Route 28 and the area is located in a less dense residential area.

Additional criteria for analysis: Additional criteria that should be analyzed is residential areas, adding a graduated table to show the population within the buffered area and also showing the location of schools and parks on the map would be useful information for the town planner to know. Knowing where the closest fire department is would also be valuable in making a selection. For the selection of the site, suggest possible removing the commercial zoning from the criteria and looking at industrial lands that is shared by surrounding towns with Brockton. Depending on what the Bio-Tech industry is creating or researching, it should be contained within an industrial park.

Other options for Bio-Tech industrial park: Other options that may exist to site a Bio-Tech Industrial Park are adding an academic institute to make it a learning environment, having space for a hotel would provide space for those visiting from other institutions. Having small satellite facilities and meeting spaces. Having a satellite emergency response station as well as adequate parking and green spaces, these are also important options to consider.

How to make site selection “Portable” for other localities: Instead of running this analysis on a town by town basis, create an analysis that is run for each county within the state. Having this analysis run based upon counties instead of by town would make the site selection process more portable and efficient to the localities with in the county and would give the Industry looking to build more options for space and travel.

Pulaski Boulevard Corridor Plan, Bellingham, Ma

This GIS project consisted of composing three maps for the Planning Board of Bellingham. The town is developing a plan that would revitalize the Pulaski Boulevard area of the town. Completing this project will help to assist the Town Planner with additional details need to answer questions regarding the process needed for the corridor plan. These maps are an illustration of the different types of parcels within the Pulaski Boulevard area and are broken down by types residential, types of business and conforming and non-conforming parcels, all details and scopes are based upon the parameter set by the Town of Bellingham.

Swimming Holes in the White Mountain

This map displays the location of swimming holes that I have visited while vacationing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I collected the XY coordinates using Google Map and imported the data using Excel into ArcGIS Online.
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Beaches

This is a map of the beaches I have visited. I complied this data by collecting each locations coordinates and searched using ArcGIS Online.
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