Pierce County:
Elementary School Analysis
The Puget Sound Region is an area that is expected to grow tremendously in the upcoming years. This could mean an increase in population in areas that are considered to be urban. If the population increases in these urban areas, schools may be affected, in terms of classroom size and other factors that may influence a child's education. With growing classroom sizes to these areas, schools may have to find innovative ways in which to accomodate the population increase. In this first map,data taken from the US Census Burreau was used to show what areas are currently considered to be urban, and what was considered to be non-urban based on population statistics.
This next map looks at the relative physical size of elementary schools that are currently within the Puget Sound Region, and categorizes them into three groups depending of the area of the school ground. Those where labled as small were considred to be school grounds which were less than or equal to 4.97 acres. The school grounds that were considered to be average were between 4.98 acres and 13.90 acres. Those who were considered to be large schools were those that were greater than 13.91 acres. The areas tht are considered urban have many more schools than the areas that are not considered urban, but they are smaller in size than those found in the non-urban area.
In this final map, impervious surface data was extracted so that only the data points within Pierce County would appear. This allowed for an analysis of the composition of the school ground surfaces within Pierce County to be made. It was assumed that those that are more impervious are densely built and heavily paved. Those that were ranked as having the least amount of impervious surface had less than or equal to 34.20% impervious surfaces total. Those that were considered to have an average amount of impervious surfaces had between 34.21% and 61.30% total impervious surfaces. And, those that were considered to have the most amount of impervious surfaces had a total impervious surface greater than or equal to 61.31%.