Urban Growth Boundary (UGB)
An UGB is a regional boundary that helps control urban sprawl. The area inside the boundary will be used for urban development and the area outside will be preserved in its natural state.
UGB Map
Lancaster County, PA
Lancaster County, PA
UGB maps can help us identify areas suitable for future urban development.
This project aims to first identify a township suitable for receiving new development permits, then visualize areas suitable for development in the selected township considering landcover type. The project is based on Lancaster County, PA.
This map above is created in ArcGIS, visualizing which municipalities are in the 0.25-mile buffers inside or outside the UGB in Lancaster County, PA.
This map above is created in ArcGIS, visualizing which municipalities are in the 0.25-mile buffers inside or outside the UGB in Lancaster County, PA.
Landcover and UGB of
West Hempfield Township
- With 2 bar graphs showing the difference of
density of buildings and sum of daily vehicle miles
traveled of areas inside and outside the UGB
- With 2 bar graphs showing the difference of
density of buildings and sum of daily vehicle miles
traveled of areas inside and outside the UGB
Based on maps I created in ArcGIS and charts I created in Excel, I chose West Hempfield Township as the best township to receive the new development permits based on two variables: density
of buildings and sum of daily vehicle miles traveled. As is shown in the graphs above, for West Hempfield Township, the area inside the UGB has a building density significantly higher than the area outside the UGB. West Hempfield Township not only has the largest inside the UGB building density, compared with other townships, it also has the greatest difference of building density between inside and outside the UGB (1.28). In addition, West Hempfield has the largest values of sum of daily vehicle miles traveled for both inside and outside the UGB, which means that there are high volumes of traffic in town, indicating high potential of future development.
The reason I chose the two variables stated above as better indicators is that, they show greater differences of values between inside and outside the UGB. Also, for these two variables, for most townships, values of inside the UGB is greater than values of outside the UGB, which seems to be more reflective of the characteristics of areas inside and outside the UGB.
The reason I chose the two variables stated above as better indicators is that, they show greater differences of values between inside and outside the UGB. Also, for these two variables, for most townships, values of inside the UGB is greater than values of outside the UGB, which seems to be more reflective of the characteristics of areas inside and outside the UGB.