You are here

hexagon grid coupled to GIS

I'm currently developing a dynamic model that desribes the growth of seagrass in Tampa Bay FL.  The model will be spacially explicite.  I'm currently thinking of using a 501 by501 hexagon grid and a unit model for growth.  When one hexigon is filled I will have it spill to adjacent hexs having no grass.  What's the best way to use GIS data to set the initial coverage. 

Forums: 

I assume your GIS data is in rectangular grid form? There's no exactly right answer; I would try initializing the level for each hexagon to that of the square containing its centre point. You'd have to make a square grid in the Simile model and load the data into that, then in each hexagon work out the indices of the square containing its data.

We are trying to develop a hexagonal grid in ArcGIS that is the same shape as the grid for assessing the landscape.  If we can number the GIS grid the same as the simile grid then we can creat a data file that represents each hexcell.  For a seagrass model this would mean idenitying hexcells with grass and without grass and how much grass.  The GIS data would initiate the model.  Can we use hexs in GIS? Do you know anything about SimARC?