A farming cooperative is looking to purchase some land for agricultural development and needs to consider two different sites' suitability. They contract an environmental surveyor to assess the two plots of land to determine the total area and suitability for development. The surveyor must determine if the two areas, Site 1 and Site 2, which run along existing creeks and roads, are similar and comment on which site might be the best for agricultural development.

Task

Calculate the approximate area of each site in square kilometres and compare the two areas. Useful information The two maps have scales of 1: 25 000, which means that 1 cm on the map equals 25 000 cm in real life. Ensure you factor in the appropriate unit conversions for the measured dimensions of your shapes to calculate the area in square kilometres accurately. Use (when and where necessary) the following formulae for the areas of the different shapes you use. You are free to use other appropriate shapes but ensure you clearly show the formula's used to calculate the areas.

Square Area = side side Rectangle Area = length width Triangle 1 baseheight 2 Area = Trapezium ( ) perpendicular height 2 a b Area + = (a and b are lengths of the parallel sides) Parallelogram Area = base perpendicular height

Steps to help answer this question

A large uneven area can be calculated by breaking it into smaller shapes (use no more than six shapes per site).

Use a measurement device such as a ruler to determine the lengths of the shapes to break the areas up.

Include a hand-drawn or digital drawing to show the shapes and dimensions used.

Ensure your shapes are numbered or identifiable to correspond to the presentation of the calculations in the methods section. Use the map scale to calculate the areas of the shapes and the total area of each of the two sites. Ensure you convert your final area results to measurements in square kilometres.

In the conclusion

Evaluate and discuss the difference between the areas of the two sites and the considerations for which site might be the most appropriate for agricultural development.

Discuss the assumptions/limitations with the accuracy of the mathematics and methods used to estimate the areas of the sites.

What implications this could have on the financial decision making for the farming cooperative.