Mt. Tom Wind Turbine Project

This week for class, we were asked to show what areas in Easthampton, Southampton, and Holyoke would be able to see a 400ft wind turbine placed on the highest peak of Mt. Tom. We were also asked to calculate the degrees of visibility - which areas would see 100% of the turbine, 75%, 50%, or 25%. On top of that, we also had to see which areas may be somewhat protected by the screening effect of trees - what areas were forested. Below is the poster that I created for this project.

I also created an ArcGIS Online web application to show this:


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And to top it all off, below is a Google Earth map to visualize the viewshed.

You can also click here to see the flowchart/report that I created for this project.

Mt. Tom Wind Turbine Viewshed

For class this week, we were told that we have an upcoming project that is siting a fictional wind turbine on Mt. Tom in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and seeing how visible it would be to the surrounding towns. Before any GIS work can be done, though, a flowchart must be created. This will help keep us organized along the way with our project and help keep us from pounding our heads on the keyboard in frustration or saying "um...now what do I do????" Flowcharts make you think about the process before you even touch the mouse so that you won't get stuck..hopefully. So below is the flowchart that I have created for this upcoming project. Keep in mind that this is what is called a "living document." I will be making changes to the flowchart as I go along in the project as we do not know the specifics of the project, so different criteria will be specified or different tools will be used. This is just the very basic flowchart that I will be using.

Wind Turbine on Mt. Tom

Hope you enjoy it and stay posted to see the project and final flowchart!