Question

let's say i have three pieces of data: 1. the grand river floodplain (polygon), which covers multiple counties in southern ontario, including wellington 2. the outline of wellington county (polygon) 3. private property boundaries across southern ontario (polygon) if i worked for the grand river conservation authority and wanted to determine all the public (non-private) floodplain areas we were responsible for maintaining, what spatial analysis approach should i take?

Answer 1

In order to determine all the public (non-private) floodplain areas you were responsible for maintaining, the right way to go about it is to use a spatial intersection analysis.

What is spatial intersection analysis?

Firstly, it will help you to note that a floodplain, also known as a flood plain or bottomlands, is a piece of land close to a river.

Secondly, note that spatial intersection analysis can be likened to the use of a magnifying glass to see where different shapes overlap on a map.

One way to look at this is to imagine a floodplain or a private property and checking to analyze all the areas where the shapes of these areas meet.

In simpler terms, spatial intersection analysis helps a person determine which parts of a flood plain fall within an area. This way they can assess the risk of that area being flooded so they can plan in advance.