7 Suitability Analysis

For this report a final suitability analysis of the site was conducted. In total, 10 different factors were considered: six of these factors were natural environment constraints and five of these factors were built environment constraints. Each of these factors is furthered detailed in their respective sections below.

7.1 NATURAL ENVIRONMENT FACTORS The six natural environmental factors that were considered are: • Parks & Green Space • Wildfire Response Index • Floodplains • Wetlands • Soil Conditions • Slope

Wetlands and floodplains are the most important environmental constraints that we considered. The City of Austin prohibits development entirely within the 25-year floodplain and severely restricts development within the 100-year floodplain. Thus development within these areas will be almost entirely prohibited. Because 11% of the study site falls within the 100-year floodplain that land be not be able to be developed. Additionally, wetlands are environmentally sensitive areas that should not be developed. In terms of soil, the majority of the site is Houston Black Clay or other, similar prime farmland soils. Thus, an additional constraint was placed on our model in attempt to avoid development in prime farmlands whenever possible. Wildfire

Figure 13: Natural Environment Factors

risk in the site was generally low and thus was not weighted heavily in the model. Finally, slope and contour of the land was considered, but there was very little variation in slope across the site and thus slope was not weighted heavily in the model either. Figure 13 gives a full accounting of the environmental constraints considered.

7.2 BUILT ENVIRONMENT FACTORS

The four development constraints factors that were considered are:  Streets  Existing Settlements  Airport Facilities  State Highway 130

In terms of built environment factors, four different constraints were placed on the study site. First, development closer to existing settlements, like the existing homes and the airport, was considered to be more advantageous than development further from the site. Second, development closer to existing arterial roads was considered desirable. Finally, development near the highway was considered undesirable and thus weighted negatively.

7.3 FINAL SUITABILITY ANALYSIS

In the final suitability analysis, the built environment was weighted as 40% of the overall score and the natural environmental factors were weighted at 60%. Overall 44% of the land was found to be very desirable for development. Figure 15 shows the final suitability of the site for development.

Figure 14: Built Environmental Factors Considered

Figure 15: Suitability Map of the Site