Suitability analysis is recognized as a multi-criteria decision support approach. In other words, its main aim is to divide the area of interest into two categories based on a set of predefined criteria: appropriate for some kind of use (living, building, conservation, and so on) and inappropriate. A general approach that is used for suitability assessment is multiple layer overlays that support multi-criteria decisions. Depending on the data that represents suitability criteria and overlaid, there are two basic approaches available:
Suitability analysis with vector data. This primarily utilizes operations such as buffering and their sequential combination using vector overlay operations, such as clipping, intersection, and union.
Suitability analysis with raster data. This heavily relies on raster algebra, which is used to reclassify initial raster coverages and then combine them to produce binary or ranked suitability rasters. This approach is more flexible...