GIS Weighted Suitability Analysis

Raster Layer Weights

Slope suitability 33%

Land-use suitability 33%

Road-proximity suitability 34%

Suitability threshold (top %) 15%

Weighted Overlay

S = 0.33·Slope + 0.33·Land + 0.34·Road

Mean score

0.500

Best cell score

0.500

Suitable cells

0 / 400

Cutoff score

0.500

How it works

This is a weighted overlay analysis (map algebra), the core GIS operation behind real-world site-suitability studies — choosing where to put a new hospital, solar farm, or warehouse.

Each input raster is rescaled to [0,1]:
  L_slope(x,y), L_land(x,y), L_road(x,y)

Weights are normalized to sum to 1:
  w_i = slider_i / Σ slider_j

Per-cell weighted score:
  S(x,y) = Σ w_i · L_i(x,y)

Slope suitability — flatter terrain scores higher (steep slopes are expensive/unsafe to build on).
Land-use suitability — a synthetic zoning/land-cover layer; some patches are more compatible with development than others.
Road-proximity suitability — cells closer to the road network score higher (lower access cost).
Weight sliders — re-run the overlay live; moving "Slope" up, for example, shifts the best sites toward flat ground even if land-use or access is mediocre there.
Threshold — reclassifies the continuous score into a binary "suitable / not suitable" map by keeping only the top N% of cells, shown in bright green — exactly the reclassify step a GIS analyst runs before recommending a shortlist of sites.

The 3D bars encode the score as height and color (dark red → yellow → green), so you can see both the overlay surface and the highlighted suitable region at once.

Above threshold (suitable) Low suitability

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