W ATER P ARKS Kevin Agyemfra Deanna Kishchuk Dan Blake Tony Lin

D EFINITION OF A ‘W ATER P ARK ’ An amusement park whose recreational activities involve water. They can be indoor (e.g. Great Wolf Lodge) or outdoor (e.g. Wild Water Kingdom) For instance: water slides, swimming pools, and fountains

B UFFER Go to ‘Geoprocessing’, then select ‘Buffer’ Select the feature that you want to buffer under ‘Input Features’ Select the folder icon to determine the save location Decide upon a distance value that is reasonable Optional Dissolve: ‘Dissolve Type’ is LIST Select appropriate field to dissolve Select ‘OK’

C LIP Go to ‘Geoprocessing’, then select ‘Clip’ Under ‘Input Features’, select the file that you want the clip feature to be clipped on For ‘Clip Features’, select the file you want to be clipped For the option ‘Output Feature Class’, select the folder icon to determine save location Select ‘OK’

P HYSICAL C ONSTRAINTS Slope - The land must be flat in order for the land to be considered for waterpark development - The unique value that best represents a flat slope would be Canada’s Wonderland slope, however, had a slope of Other values for an acceptable slope can be taken into consideration - Canada’s Wonderland is denoted as a green dot on the map

Slopes over 1.2Slopes over 3.5Slopes over 0.2 Too many restrictionsStill quite a large number of restrictions Reasonable amount considering Wonderland has a slope of 3.5 Note: The slopes over 0.5 had only 1 attribute difference to the slopes over The slopes over 3.5 was chosen because it was less restrictive. -Also, the fact that Wonderland is still able to maintain their water park with a slope of Less material to build columns as hills can be used as the peak or foundation to create highest point.

D ISTANCE D EPENDENT Yellow – 2000m Orange – 1500m Green – 1000m -From analysis, existing water parks have located nearby highway interchanges at a reasonable distance ( ranging from a couple hundred metres to under two thousand metres) - The park should not be too far, but close enough for drivers to spot when driving past highways or on the highway interchanges - The park should not be too close to highways because of noise pollution – if some one is in need of assistance, it would be difficult to hear -Waterparks should be located relatively close to highways and major road ways to provide easy access. -The buffer application was used to identify how close water parks should be to major roads. - Different scenarios show different sized buffers around highways and interchanges

S OCIAL C ONSTRAINTS Forests - Forested areas are not a human-friendly environment due to difficulty in navigating, wildlife, forest fires, etc. - Water parks should not be located close to forested areas due to the interference it would have with the forest and the environment. - The location of forests in York Region were buffered in order to determine a safe distance for the construction of a water park for both people and the environment. - Three scenarios with different buffering distances were created to optimize site selection. 120-metre radius360-metre radius600-metre radius

S ELECTING BY A TTRIBUTES “Select”, and then “select by attributes…” for the land use layer. Get unique values and within the category column (look in attribute table) And create a selection where you isolate commercial and open space from the category Then export the selection to create a new shape file of non-suitable land use

Central Business District - Features in the CBD such as city hall, schools, churches, police stations, and fire stations, were buffered to avoid selecting a site that was too close to a highly developed area. - A 500 metre buffer was created for large building footprints and industrial buildings. - These areas often consist of a higher population, more traffic and more noise and overall a more dense area. These areas are not suitable for a water park. - Buffering the buildings will allow one to select a site for a future water park that will not be affected by excess air pollution, noise or heavy traffic. Although not all large building footprints were located in the CBD or the city of Toronto, there are we are clusters of large buildings. The areas surround these buildings are often more populated and more developed.

R EGULATORY C ONSTRAINTS Wetlands - Legally defined restrictions on how far from wetlands construction can occur is relevant in the planning of a location for a water park. - Any construction is to occur at least 120 metres away from a wetland. - Such regulations exist because development, such as a water park, may disrupt the ecological integrity of wetlands if situated too close to wetlands. - Two scenarios were created with considerably larger buffers than 120 m as this distance was thought to be too small. - Water parks must be situated far enough from wetlands as not to cause any environmental damage, such as a leak of chemicals (chlorine). - Cemeteries were also considered in analysis even though there were no regulatory boundaries. - Cemeteries pose as a constraint in water park development because water parks will not only disrupt the peaceful atmosphere of a cemetery but also soften the land due to the excess amount of water being used.

Scenario 1 2 km buffer Scenario 2 1 km buffer Cemeteries 1 km buffer Cemeteries 2 km buffer Cemeteries 2 km buffer -A 2 km buffer around wetlands was chosen to leave the most possible room between the wetlands and the potential water park location. -Scenarios 1 and 2 both display the cemeteries with a 2 km buffer, while scenario 3 shows a 1 km buffer around the cemeteries. -The 2 km buffer was once again chosen to create a sufficient amount of space between the potential location and cemeteries. Scenario 3 1 km buffer

C ONCLUSIONS Site 1 was chosen as a potential location for a water park because it close to HWY 404 and several major roads (Woodbine and Stouffville rd.). It is also 1000m away from the highway which is an ideal location for a water park. This site is also fairly interrupted by avoidances -Buffering the layers and then joining the layers using the overlay union function under the Geoprocessing tab has allowed us to rule out all constraints and select two potential sites for a water park.

Site 2 was also selected due to its proximity to HWY 400 and other major roads. This area is also within 1000m of the highways making it another prime location. This location is not as desired as site 1 because the highway cuts through the sit. Although it is beneficial for a water park to be located near major roads and highways, this may be too close. Some distance is needed between the site and the highway. There is also more interrupted open space in site 2 than there is in site 1.