Suitability

Suitability (aka Transition Potential, utility, or land use value) is a combination of factors that express the added value of allocating a resource to a purpose.

In the context of GeoDms applications,
 * resources are usually Land Units, often organised as a grid of raster-cells.
 * purposes are usually Land Use Types
 * the added value is expressed as:
 * 1) Ratio (which relates to the use of the pseudonym Transition Potential) or
 * 2) Monetary unit of Yield per [Land Unit]] or area per unit of duration (say: [EUR*m^-2*year^-1]) or
 * 3) the capitalized value thereof (say: [EUR*m^-2]).
 * Suitability is operationalized as a set of value maps, one for each Land Use Type.

Common Factors of Suitability are:
 * Physical factors, such as soil type that determine the annual yield of specific production plans.
 * Locational factors (usually taken as positive, representing interaction value, although a more physical interpretation related to negative costs of transportation and travel would make sense too).
 * Accessibility measures
 * Neighbourhood Enrichment or Neighbourhood Potential ( AKA Convolution ).
 * Transition Costs of destruction and reconstruction (usually represted as one time costs, which forces a modeler to think on Annualisation or Capitalisation)
 * Location specific subsidies and/or taxes
 * Spatial Planning Restrictions (sometimes taken separately in Allow maps).
 * Physical restrictions on transition (which are sometimes time dependent).