Site Suitability Analysis

This project, undertaken in Geography 181A at UCLA, sought to identify sites within San Diego County that would be suitable to replace existing fossil-fuel energy infrastructure with clean and renewable solutions. Weight was given to elevation, flat slopes, and existing power plant infrastructure (with a focus on large capacity plants), and urban areas were subtracted from the analysis (Fig. 1). These weights were combined into a classified suitability analysis, which used graduated symbology to visually represent the scores of different areas. Multiple sites were identified, and the list was narrowed down by land ownership, ease of purchase, and protected lands, resulting in a single site identified just north of the southern border with Mexico. The full write-up for this project is viewable below.