How to draw a site analysis diagram
Order and principles for site analysis diagrams in a design report, the manual process, and the part sitedia automates.
Overview
A design report usually opens with site analysis. Analysis diagrams take the facts gathered in the survey through to design decisions.
| Stage | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Survey | Gathering facts | Surrounding buildings, protected townscape, station positions |
| Analysis | Drawing design decisions from those facts | The canal houses around the site are four storeys, so the street frontage stays at that height; people walk from the station along one street, so the entrance faces it |
One fact per plate. The decision is drawn on top with an arrow.
Basic themes
| Theme | Content | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Use (existing) | Residential, retail, office, education | How the surroundings are used |
| Planning | Zoning plan (reference), protected townscapes, national monuments | What constrains development |
| Height | High-rise and low-rise distribution | Skyline and sunlight |
| Age | Year built | Historic fabric and where change has happened |
| Open space | Parks, green space, canals and water | Outdoor space the site can connect to |
| Access | Road hierarchy, cycle paths, stations and stops | How people, bicycles and vehicles arrive |
The plates for each theme are listed in The 28 plates.
Radius
| Radius | What it covers | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 150–300 m | Immediate context (neighbouring heights, street width, direct shadow reach) | Individual parcels read clearly |
| 500 m | About 6 minutes' walk; the usual unit for a station area | Several blocks and the grain of the fabric appear |
| 800 m | 10 minutes' walk; neighbourhood analysis | Read by groups and routes, not building by building |
| 1,000–1,500 m | The site's position in the city | Parcels and use colours no longer separate |
Choose the radius so that the reasons for the design decision fall inside it. The maximum radius is 1.5 km.
Frame shape
A circle matches catchment terms («within 800 m of the station») and keeps the site at the centre of every plate. A rectangle suits long sites along a canal or railway and fills a 16:9 slide. Under «Shape», choose Circle, Square or Rectangle. Use one shape and one radius for the whole report.
Colour and legend
| Principle | Content |
|---|---|
| One theme colour range | One range for the theme of the plate, everything else grey |
| Legend matches the drawing | If a category is hidden or a colour changed, change the legend too |
| Unknown stays unknown | Buildings with no use or year built stay light grey («Unknown») |
| North up | Do not rotate the plate; shadows, sun and wind cannot be checked on a rotated plate |
Stating the limits of the data
- State the data date in the caption (for example «Heights: 3DBAG, AHN laser data»)
- Mark estimates: storeys estimated from height, trees detected from aerial images, zoning for reference only
- Keep the credit line under each plate; CC BY 4.0 data require it
Process
By hand, a plate means capturing a map, tracing outlines, colouring buildings and adding layers, legend, scale and north: 1–2 hours per plate. In the Netherlands almost all of the material is open: buildings from the BAG, heights from 3DBAG, parcels from the cadastral map, green space and roads from the BGT and NWB, terrain from AHN4, all through PDOK. sitedia assembles them from an address and draws up to 28 plates at one scale and in one frame. PNG downloads are free; the editable SVG needs a Pro pass (Pricing).
Open data can miss recent buildings or hold old uses, so the last step is a review by someone who knows the site. See Finishing the SVG.
Order in the report
- Location: location plan and aerial photo
- Planning: zoning plan (reference), heritage and designations, cadastral parcels
- Context: buildings, use, year built, height
- Connections and access: green space and water, roads, public transport, walking distance
- Physical conditions: terrain and slope, sun, wind
- Synthesis: one plate that summarises the decisions drawn from the others
Related guides
Example plates: BAG (Kadaster, CC0) · © 3DBAG by tudelft3d and 3DGI (CC BY 4.0) · BGT, NWB, AHN4 (CC0) · Kadaster, Beeldmateriaal.nl, PDOK (CC BY 4.0) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)