Anthony Living Quality Maps

This is an Immersive Learning Project conducted by students in GEOG 437: Advanced Remote Sensing in Spring 2021 under the guidance of Dr. Jason Yang, and supported by Ball State Build Better Neighborhoods, Muncie Action Plan, and Anthony-Northside Neighborhood Association. The goal of this project is to map the quality-of-life for Muncie neighborhoods, and specifically to map the living quality for the Anthony-Northside neighborhood this semester, using GIS and remote sensing techniques.

Four general categories of living quality indicators were evaluated for each house in the neighborhood and sixteen maps were created in this project: one map for Home Insulation, two maps for Home Value and Lot Size, one map for Lot Greenness, eleven maps for Proximity to Community Amenities (Clinics, Schools, Libraries, Fire Stations, USPS Mailboxes, Bus Stops, Parks, Bike Trails, Recreations, Restaurants, and Places of Worship), and a final Overall Living Quality Index map.

Home Insulation for each house was evaluated from thermal infrared images collected by students using a FLIR One thermal camera. Home Value and Lot Size were obtained online from Zillow. Lot Greenness was assessed based on the greenness percentage in each lot, which was derived from the USA NAIP NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) imagery. Proximity to Community Amenities was based on driving time using Network Analysis in ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online. Walking time was only used for Bus Stops proximity. The values of all indicators were scaled to categories of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest living quality and 5 being the highest. The Overall Living Quality Index was obtained by averaging all fifteen living quality indicators.