A parameterized region-growing programme for site allocation on raster suitability maps

Abstract

In assigning suitability scores to individual cells suitability maps do not solve the question of optimally locating regions of a particular size, shape and orientation. This paper describes a parameterized region-growing (PRG) programme for locating sites with particular spatial characteristics on raster suitability maps. PRG is an heuristic which trades off underlying cell suitability and region suitability to locate near optimal regions. The size, boundary configuration, elongation and orientation of an ideal shape are specified by a set of parameters which control a shape growing programme. Two simulations show how parameterized region-growing can locate wildlife reserves with different spatial characteristics.