Suitability evaluation of urban construction land based on geo-environmental factors of Hangzhou, China

Suitability evaluation of urban construction land based on geo-environmental factors is the process of determining the fitness of a given tract of land for construction. This process involves a consideration of the geomorphology, geology, engineering geology, geological hazards, and other geological factors and is the basis of urban construction land planning and management. With the support of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), grid analysis, and geo-spatial analysis techniques, four factor groups comprising nine separate subfactors of geo-environmental attributes were selected to be used in the evaluation of the suitability level for construction land in Hangzhou. This was based on K-means clustering and back-propagation (BP) neural network methods due to their advantages in fast computing, unique adaptive capacity, and self-organization. Simultaneously, the evaluation results based on K-means clustering and BP neural network were compared and analyzed, and the accuracy evaluation was set. The results showed that the geo-environmental suitability evaluation results of construction land based on K-means clustering and BP neural network were similar in terms of the distribution and scale of construction land suitability level. At the same time, the results of the two evaluation methods were consistent with the variability in suitability level, engineering geology, and hydrogeology of Hangzhou. The results also showed that the real advantage of the methods proposed in this paper lies in their capacity to streamline the mapping process and to ensure that the results are consistent throughout. The suitability level of the urban construction land based on the geoenvironment in Hangzhou was divided into four construction sites: land for building super high-rise and high-rise buildings, land for building multistorey buildings, land for low-rise buildings, and nonbuilding land. The results of the suitability evaluation for each category will provide a scientific basis for decision-making in urban development in Hangzhou. Crown Copyright & 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.