Workflow Narrative

Urban Expansion Impact Assessment

Problem It Solves

What ecological and stream-network impacts should we expect under this growth scenario, and where are priorities for mitigation?

Who It Is For

Urban planners, environmental assessors, and watershed impact analysts.

Primary User

Municipal planning departments, environmental consultancies, and stormwater authorities.

What It Does

Quantifies expansion-driven impact severity from baseline/scenario urban surfaces.
Derives habitat-loss raster products from change footprint logic.
Scores stream features against impact raster exposure.

How It Works

Builds urban change footprint by differencing scenario and baseline urban rasters.
Translates new/expanded footprint intensity into impact and habitat-loss scores.
Samples stream geometries against impact surfaces to compute attributed reach-level metrics.
Indicative formula: change = max(0, urban_scenario - urban_baseline); impact ~= change * habitat_weight.

Why It Wins

Links scenario change, habitat loss, and attributed stream impact in one report-ready package.

Typical Buying Trigger

Planning approvals require quantified environmental impact evidence under multiple development scenarios.

Typical Presets

baseline/scenario-only impact analysis.
add habitat_sensitivity for weighted ecological impact scoring.

Inputs

Parameter	Optional	Description
baseline_urban, scenario_urban, streams	no	Baseline and scenario urban rasters plus stream network used for impact assessment.
optional habitat_sensitivity	yes	Optional habitat sensitivity layer used to weight ecological impact severity.

Outputs

Parameter	Type	Description
impact_severity	GeoTIFF	Impact severity raster for baseline-versus-scenario urban change.
habitat_loss	GeoTIFF	Raster estimate of habitat loss intensity under scenario comparison.
affected_streams	GeoPackage	Vector stream segments flagged as impacted under scenario conditions.
summary	JSON	Machine-readable summary report containing run metadata, QA diagnostics, and key metrics.
html_report	HTML	Human-readable customer-facing report generated from the summary contract for stakeholder review and QA traceability.

Python Example

import whitebox_workflows as wbw

wbe = wbw.WbEnvironment(include_pro=True, tier="pro")

impact, habitat, streams, summary = wbe.urban_expansion_impact_assessment(
    baseline_urban="data/urban_2020.tif",
    scenario_urban="data/urban_2035.tif",
    streams="data/streams.gpkg",
    habitat_sensitivity="data/habitat_sensitivity.tif",
    output_prefix="output/urban_impact",
)

print(impact)
print(habitat)
print(streams)
print(summary)

License Notice

Use of this function requires a license for Whitebox Workflows Professional (WbW-Pro). Please visit www.whiteboxgeo.com to purchase a license.

Project Links

WbW Homepage User Manual Learn More