Creating Mashup Maps using Web-Based Tools
Corey Proctor, Technology Division GIS Chair Any member of the general populous can create a map – The myth has been refuted as to whether an individual needs a degree or advanced coursework in Geography. Maps can now be created by novices with Internet access. This access provides users with limitless sources of mapping resources [...]
Case Study: Planetizen Video Courses
Chris Steins, Urban Insight and former Chair of the APA Technology Division We know that planning professionals are increasingly being asked to get up to speed on new technologies and take on more responsibilities. The goal of Planetizen Courses (courses.planetizen.com) is to provide affordable, focused video courses that can be viewed on a computer, tablet [...]
Perceived Usefulness of Scenario and Visualization Tools for Planning, Design, and Impact Analysis of Development around Transit Stations
Todd Graham, Metropolitan Council Michael D. Greco, University of Minnesota Center for Urban and Regional Affairs David G. Pitt, University of Minnesota Department of Landscape Architecture “Corridors of Opportunity” is an initiative to promote sustainable, vibrant, and healthy communities framed around a transit network in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, metropolitan region. The initiative is funded [...]
Shareabouts: Open Source Maps for Crowdsourcing
Frank Hebbert and Julia West OpenPlans Successful planning projects make the community an equal partner. But it’s not easy – maximizing public participation in the planning process remains one of the biggest challenges for planners. During the initial phases of a new project, how can we learn what matters most to the community? As a [...]
Beautiful Streets: An Experiment in Place Evaluation
Aaron Ogle, Mjumbe Poe and Frank Hebbert OpenPlans What’s a beautiful street? Sometimes it’s hard to define what makes a place great. Planners can track a neighborhood through census data, population density, crime statistics, and so on. But it’s harder to establish the softer feeling – is this a place I like? Beautiful Streets (beautiful.st) [...]
Using Volunteered Geography Information to Improve Transportation Services for Low-Income Communities
Laxmi Ramasubramanian, Hunter College Department of Urban Affairs and Planning How can we understand the travel behaviors and mobility barriers experienced by low-income populations? The answer is both simple and complex at the same time, since it requires considering the entirety of individuals’ lives, not only their travel to and from their workplace. My research [...]
Developing Digital Commons for Cities
David Bollier, Commons Strategies Group There is a little-known struggle going on right now over how a new series of “top level domains” (TLDs) on the Internet shall be used by cities of the world. TLDs are the suffixes at the end of Web addresses, such as .com, .org and .edu. The international body that [...]
Crowdsourcing Urban Form in Moscow
Peter Sigrist, Cornell University Can participation in urban development be open to all citizens online? Andrei Goncharov has devised a model for how this could work. As a student at the new Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, Goncharov developed a game prototype called “Crowdsourced Moscow,” which envisions a compelling approach to technology-enabled urban [...]
Chesterfield County, Virginia Expands Public Access to Geographic Data
Ted Maxwell, Chesterfield County Chesterfield County has chosen a strategy of open communication and technology investment to mitigate the effects of the challenging economy. This strategy has ensured the investment in technology returns value and has fostered a partnership with the citizens. Technology projects have been guided by an investment model in Chesterfield County since [...]
CanVis: Visualization Software for Coastal Communities
Chris Haynes, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Planners of all kinds face a common dilemma: how can we communicate the true importance and impact of change when armed with charts, graphs, and statistics? How can the speaker make his data coalesce into a visual image that will show his audience—not simply tell them—about potential changes? [...]
New Tool Empowers Citizens, Captures Ideas for Better Cities
Jeffrey Goodman, MindMixer.com Too often, community involvement in the planning process can fall into a cycle of distrust and disengagement. Public meetings bring out only a certain segment of the population, and with an unclear agenda, planners have no way to prioritize the scattershot comments of the public. For citizens, meetings are often difficult to [...]
Area Cartograms for Urban Planning Research: Visualizing Data in a High-Density City
Paavo Monkkonen, The University of Hong Kong Planners and planning scholars frequently portray data about different neighborhoods of cities using a choropleth, a map that displays sections in different colors representing a range of values. However, when the population density is high in some neighborhoods, simple choropleths can be deceptive. Areas that are geographically large [...]
New Tool for Involving Stakeholders in Regional Scenario Planning
Michelle L. Johnson and Spencer R. Meyer, University of Maine Scenario planning and alternative futures projects are increasingly popular in the field of planning. Researchers with the University of Maine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative are developing an approach to multi-community scenario planning that uses stakeholders’ local knowledge to co-develop regional land use models. In our process, [...]
Participatory Planning Game Brings Diversity and Transparency to Citywide Visioning Process
Allegra Williams, City of Lowell When it came time to engage citizens in a recent Master Planning process, the City of Lowell, Massachusetts opted for an unorthodox approach: an interactive online game. In order to engage a diverse population, the city partnered with Emerson College researchers to debut a newly developed participatory planning tool for [...]
The Power of the Kindergarten Art Supplies in Planning
Ken Snyder, PlaceMatters PlaceMatters has partnered with the National Charrette Institute on a number of occasions, providing trainings and giving panel presentations at conferences. One of our common themes is “High Touch, High Tech Charrettes.” During the sessions we also talk about the advantages of low tech and when it makes sense to bring in [...]
Urban Planners and Open Data: Making the Connection
Karen Quinn Fung, University of British Columbia Government organizations around the world are planning or launching open data initiatives. The aim of these initiatives is to make data generated from the provision of government services freely available on the Internet to citizens for analysis, mash-ups, or use by web or mobile applications. The trend is [...]
Communicating With Easy, Free Video Tools
Are you looking to integrate video into your practice, but are intimidated by the difficulty of learning new software? There are an increasing number of web-based video products available to help people create quality videos that communicate their message. As part of Planetizen’s Friday Funny series they posted a recent mock video about a NIMBY [...]
New Technologies for Visualizing Sustainable Planning
Anthony Flint, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Advances in technology are helping revolutionize a key component in planning: engaging citizens in the planning process. The Visualizing section of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy website explores recent computer-based tools for the visual display of long-range, scenario, and regional planning, as well as different forms of [...]
H & T Affordability Makes Dollars and Sense
Matthew Sussman, Center for Neighborhood Technology The Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), a Chicago-based “think and do” tank that has promoted urban sustainability for more than 30 years, has launched a web tool that offers a new and comprehensive way of thinking about the cost of housing. The Housing and Transportation (H+T) Affordability Index reveals [...]
New App Empowers Citizens to Report Code Violations
Shawn Leininger, AICP, City of Delaware, Ohio The City of Delaware, Ohio recently launched “MyDelaware,” a free smartphone application that gives residents a new and more efficient way to notify the City about code violation and other issues. Once installed on a compatible smartphone, users open the application and follow prompts to document and take [...]
New National Database Will Facilitate Transit-Oriented Development Projects
Sofia Becker, Center for Neighborhood Technology This fall, the Center for Transit Oriented Development (CTOD) launched the TOD Database, a map-based website that provides comprehensive information on 4,610 transit stations across the country. The TOD Database is a first-of-its-kind tool for planners, developers, academics and government officials. It is designed to help stakeholders understand and [...]
Engaging Communities Online to Find the Best Ideas
Karen Levy, Princeton University Department of Sociology Participatory planning techniques recognize that the best ideas can often arise directly from local community members. However, in practice it can be challenging to collect and measure community input in a meaningful way. Public meetings and design charrettes are often held to create a forum for participation in [...]
Where are the People? Using Technology to Bring Life Back to our Streets
David Lustberg, Arterial LLC A downtown street without pedestrians and cyclists is like a playground without children: something essential is missing. Streets that are full of life and activity — where commerce, nature, and recreation converge — are the foundation of a successful urban setting. Despite this understanding, many once-vital commercial cores across the United [...]
Making Water Quality Data Understandable Through Online Mapping
Sam McKinley, RA Consultants, LLC The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSDGC) has taken on the challenge of making over 4,700 annual water quality data points understandable and accessible to the general public. The data are collected several times a month at 40 testing sites throughout Hamilton County, and track 11 variables that characterize [...]
