How Technology Is Transforming Urban Planning

A new generation of "decision support" tools are empowering ordinary citizens to participate in planning.

1 minute read

August 8, 2005, 7:00 AM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

"Today, thanks to ever more sophisticated software, urban planning itself has increasingly come to resemble a SimCity-style public-policy game...Today, a new generation of GIS applications, known as ''scenario planning" or ''decision support" tools--which allow users to visualize, project, and manipulate a wealth of environmental data--have made citizens into major players in the gaming of urban futures...Across the United States, in communities from Chicago to Honolulu to Boston, these tools are enabling an unprecedented level of public participation in broad regional planning initiatives. Only when a public is fully engaged in the process, the thinking goes, will it pledge itself and its elected officials to the very real commitments and tradeoffs that are key to effective planning."

Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan

FULL STORY: Sim civics

Sunday, August 7, 2005 in The Boston Globe

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