Course Project Topics

ENV 761 - Landscape GIS   |   Spring 2025   |   Instructors: Peter Cada & John Fay  

Project 1: Solar farms in North Carolina

Objective: Prioritize projective solar farm installations to minimize environmental impact

  • Effect on fragmentation [of existing natural lands forested lands riparian corridors]
  • Effect on connectivity [between SNHAs between resilient landscapes]

Data:

  • TNC Resilient and Connected Landscapes (link)
  • Solar farm locations
  • Significant Natural Heritage Areas
  • Transmission networks
  • Electricity demand

Project 2: Hog Lagoons in Eastern North Carolina

Objective:
Evaluate the impacts of hog lagoons in eastern North Carolina and identify candidates for implementing digesters based on the magnitude of uplift the digester would produce.

Impacts are categorized as follows:

  • Environmental impacts/resiliency
    • Impaired estuaries and streams in flood risk areas
    • Proximity to sensitive natural areas
  • Health impacts
    • Drinking water in flood risk areas
    • Odor and other nuisances
    • Demographics of people affected
  • Carbon impacts
    • Methane production
  • Power production & demand
    • Power produced by digester
    • Likely demand for power

Our goal is to estimate the magnitude of impact each hog farm has for each of these categories. We will do so using geospatial analysis performed on the best available data.

Deliverables:

Listing of hog farm lagoons and:

  • Amount of methane produce (or trapped using various digester technologies)
    • Amount of power generated from the methane
  • List of census block groups within XX m of the lagoon (to be associated with demographics)
    • Distance can be adjusted for prevailing wind patterns, if known
  • Area contaminated under 100 year flooding event
    • List of census block groups within that area (to associate with demographics)
    • # of  surface water intakes within that area
    • # of water distribution wells within that area
  • Distance along the flow path to nearest impaired stream or estuary
  • Length of impaired stream/area of impaired estuary within XX m of lagoon (along flow path)
  • Distance from existing power grid

Data:

  • Hog lagoon locations (incl. methane production) [link]

  • Digital elevation & derivatives [link]
    • Drainage (flow direction, flow accumulation, flow distance)
    • Flood prone areas (linked to specified flooding events)
  • Known flooded areas (for verification)
    • NC aerial imagery
    • Remotely sensed imagery
  • Impaired estuaries and streams [link]
  • “Environmentally sensitive areas” [what might these be? SNHA?]
  • Drinking water sources
    • Surface water intakes [link]
    • Water distribution wells [link]
  • Demographics:
    • Census block group data/
    • American Community Survey data
  • Air flow models [???]
  • NC transmission grid
  • NC electricity demand

Analysis:

  • Identify areas likely affected by flood events
    • Map adjacent areas within a certain elevation above existing lagoon wall height.
    • If rain causes breech, this area will be contaminated
    • Confirm with flooding imagery
  • Identify features within areas delimited above (and flow distances to them)
    • Sensitive streams and estuaries
    • Drinking water intakes
    • Drinking well locations
    • Census blocks
  • Identify census blocks within specific distance of lagoons
    • Weight distance by prevailing air currents