The Year's Best in Big Data

The "Best of" roll continues with Emily Badger's list of the most useful tools, maps and data visualizations to make use of municipal open data over the past year.

1 minute read

December 19, 2012, 1:00 PM PST

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


Hubway Data Visualization

Ari Ofsevit / AriOfsevit.com

As recent writings on Planetizen have noted, the emerging methods of urban governance, planning, design, and management made possible by technological advances in data collection, analysis, and communication promise to make our cities better, and more efficient, places to live. As more cities take advantage of the opportunities made possible by Big Data, a wider range of possibilities for the instrumentalization of such data become evident. Over the past year, for instance, a group of Code for America fellows unveiled a new web application to help identify and clean up New Orleans's blighted properties, and San Francisco’s Department of Public Health published a High-Injury Corridors map, an indispensable tool in identifying the city's most dangerous streets for pedestrians.

From green roofs in Chicago to dangerous dogs in Austin, Badger examines eight other significant open data releases from 2012.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012 in The Atlantic Cities

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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