Animating San Francisco's Turbulent Decade

A joint project by technology company Esri and the city of San Francisco shows the promising confluence of open data and innovative visualization techniques.

1 minute read

October 16, 2012, 10:00 AM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


Ariel Schwartz looks at the successful collaboration that created the San Francisco Urban Revitalization Map,
"a visualization of the city's explosive
growth, and how it has affected different neighborhoods." Created using open data that captures the past 12 years of San Francisco's growth, the animated map shows the city's transformation in vivid colors.

"The map doesn't venture outside San Francisco," says Schwartz, "but there's no reason why
other cities with open data policies can't do similar projects. For
Esri
, this is just the beginning--the company is considering doing a
mapathon or maphacking event where data scientists and cartographers get
together to see what they can do with open data. 'We want to show that
web mapping is growing up,' explains [Esri's Jim] Young."

Monday, October 15, 2012 in Fast Company Co.Exist

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

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