There are a lot of factors, both physical and social, which could affect urban development in Ventura County. Not surprisingly, a lot of data were needed to represent these factors. The probability grid was imported into ArcView 3.1 and work on the Policy Simulation and Evaluation Model were finished in ArcView, which uses a series of ArcView commands and coded scripts to construct and simulation different growth policy scenarios. Each policy scenario consists of an urbanization probability grid, a set of population and density projections, and a series of development constraints. We defined Ventura growth policy scenarios as no constraint, farmland protection, environmental protection and compact growth.
Environmental protection prohibits development on hillsides and in wetlands or riparian zones.