Post date: Jul 18, 2014 4:19:54 PM
In addition to spending more time on my third chapter, I've started writing documentation for my GIS software's methods. This documentation is not about how to use the tool, but how the tool works. The first piece of what will become a massive document is an explanation of how drainage units are packed into a development area. I'm tempted to copy and paste that whole thing here, but I think instead I'll just give one of the figures from the document.. because I like figures. This one explains how I use an "educated guess" for where a good spot for an additional drainage unit would be.
Basically, the tool looks for the spot where the newest drainage unit (in blue) will have the largest proportion of its area inside the development area. It does so by starting with a full-sized drainage unit (in this case with 6 wells) and after finding a good spot for that, cycles through lots of other drainage unit shapes in the same location to find the one that fits best.
There's more to the optimization, but this is Step 1: Educated guess.