Supply and Demand, mapped for Downtown Houston

Variable Database

Agriculture

  • For both beef and soy agricultural source locations, there was not enough data to include in the model. References to the assumed quantity of farmland that might be producing soy was baked into the local market share of that product.

Supplier

  • For both beef and soy suppliers, the agricultural commodity websites were scraped and market research took place to find a short list of distributors that would be reasonably plausible to say they serve Downtown Houston.

Transport

  • For both beef and soy products, there was not enough data to include transport companies in the model. Research showed that any licensed transport company could potentially hire a commercial driver to bring a shipment in, or provide less-than-truckload (LTL) services at short notice.

Consumer

  • Building footprints were lifted from Microsoft's Footprint GIS layer, and matched against Harris County Appraisal District's State Class code which inform building use.
  • Business Point of Interest information was brought into the model.