Please enter the address of a location of interest (e.g. 1234 Moraga St. 94122, United States)
WHAT ARE SUITABILITY MAPS?
Suitability maps are geographic maps that in each point show the degree of suitability of that point computed according to a criterion that you specify.We will use your criterion for evaluation of suitability of selected location with respect to desired points of interest (POI) in an urban area.The degree of suitability is defined in the range from 0 (not suitable, e.g. too far from desired POIs) to 100% (perfectly suitable, close to all desired POIs).Suitability is color coded on the map, with dark grey denoting low suitability and light grey to white, denoting high suitability. The color coded LSP suitability map will be displayed on top of an urban Google map.The suitability of location will be computed for a square area of the size 0.5 to 2 miles, based on your selection below, around a central point that you define as any address accessible through Google's Map service. The suitability will be computed only for POIs that are located within the square border shown on the map.
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HOW TO SELECT YOUR CRITERION
In the selected area we first show all existing points of interest (e.g. schools, restaurants, etc.). The first step in defining your criterion is to select POIs that are used as attributes which you want to take into account. You can select two types of attributes: mandatory (those POIs that must be close) and optional (those POIs that are desired but not mandatory). For each attribute you must select the level its importance. In addition, you must create an attribute criterion.You also have the option to select the character of your criterion (relaxed, standard and strict) before you choose to display the suitability map. All the information will be used for building your own LSP suitability criterion.
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HOW TO USE THIS TOOL
1. Enter a desired address and select a desired map size.
2. Press the Get Map button and you will get the default walkability map around the selected location.
3. Select POI categories that you want to take into account and classify them as mandatory or optional.
4. Define the relative importance of selected POIs.
5. Select a desired range of distances from selected POIs (parameters A,B,C,D).
6. Press the Get Map button and wait until the LSP suitability map is displayed. If the map creation is slow, change the browser (we suggest the use of Google Chrome).
7. Identify undesired POIs and remove them from the map.
8. Press the Get Map button to get the final LSP suitability map that reflects your suitability criterion.
9. Without changing address you may add new mandatory and/or optional POIs and create new maps.
10. Press the Change Location button to create maps of other locations.
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LSPmap offers an initial criterion that evaluates the walkability in the selected location and its surrounding area. Walkability is defined as the suitability of analyzed location for easy walking access to a set of selected POIs. We encourage you to edit and customize this criterion according to your needs. The resulting suitability (walkability) of selected location is presented above the suitability map. The range of suitability is from 0% (lowest) to 100% (highest).
In addition to walkability, there are many other criteria that you can easily create for evaluation of selected location and its surrounding area. Examples:
If you want to be close to specific POI, select C and D in the selected row of the criterion table. If you do not want to be close to specific POI, then select A and B. In many cases you may want to be close to the selected POI, but not in its immediate vicinity (e.g. immediate vicinity of a restaurant may causes parking problems, noise, etc.). In such cases select A, B, C, and D. Google usually delivers more POIs than you need. Before you make a map, you should remove from the map all undesirable POIs. To remove a POI, click its name in the POI list (or its icon) and then press the "Remove from map" button inside the corresponding callout. For example, if you are interested only in fish restaurants, then all other restaurants should be removed before making the map.
If a POI is classified as mandatory, its absence in the vicinity of selected location yields a zero suitability of the location. If a POI is optional, the suitability of a location will predominantly depend on the presence of mandatory POIs. The presence of optional POIs will slightly increase the overall suitability and the absence of optional POIs will slightly decrease the overall suitability of specific location. The impact of each POI can be adjusted by selecting its level of relative importance (from 1 to 9) It is usual to mix mandatory and optional attributes. in special cases, the selected attributes (1 or more POIs) can all be mandatory or all be optional.
Requirements can be standard, strict, and relaxed. Make experiments with different requirements to select the option that is the most convenient for you.
Google accepts a wide variety of address formats. A complete address is desirable but not necessary. It may be enough to enter a zip code in the USA (e.g. 94122) or the name of the city (e.g. San Francisco). Incomplete addresses (e.g. without zip code and/or street number) are also usually acceptable (e.g. try Geary Blvd San Francisco). These abbreviated addresses are convenient for experimenting with LSP maps.
LSPmap is a very simple tool that illustrates the idea of LSP suitability maps. Of course, the simplicity is obtained by limiting the functionality and reducing the expressive power of LSP criteria. There are many cases where this is not enough. If you want to develop professional suitability maps using all power and flexibility of the LSP method, please let us know. We can help you.