This tool from Sidewalk Labs lets planners draw upon vast quantities of data to create agent-based models, simulating who gains and loses when changes are made.
Comparing it to a far-more-accurate version of Sim City, Oscar Perry Abello covers Doppelgänger, an agent-based modeling tool from Google's Sidewalk Labs. Doppelgänger provides "real-world planners a simulation based not on some 1990-era coder's best approximation of people, but instead one based on the terabytes upon terabytes of real-world data available in today's digital world."
According to Sidewalk Labs modeling lead David Ory, "Doppelgänger enables planners to create a set of virtual households that accurately reflects real neighborhoods, cities, regions, or states, along any dimension relevant to the problem at hand. [It] can create households that have accurate numbers of children, seniors, teachers, persons with disabilities, electric-vehicle owners, swing-shift workers, and so on."
With its capacity for future projections, the tool may help planners visualize which sections of a city benefit (or lose out) from a given change.
FULL STORY: Digital Tool Aims to ID Urban Planning’s Winners, Losers
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City of Yakima
City of Auburn
Baylands Development Inc.
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.