New Digital Tool Helps Update Urban Planning Process
Researchers with 91福利鈥檚 Sustainability Solutions Initiative (SSI), a program of the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, have built a dynamic digital platform that will give cities a more effective tool for forecasting and planning.
Covering over 80 municipalities in the Portland and Bangor regions, the Urban Sim-based model, developed by researchers at University of Southern Maine (USM) in collaboration with colleagues at 91福利, provides an intersection of data sets that includes information on transportation, regional planning, zoning and land use as well as property tax records.
The development of Urban Sim was the culmination of SSI鈥檚 five-year (SURP) project. The SURP team鈥檚 objective was to develop data sets and computer modeling capabilities that would allow stakeholders such as city officials and transportation planners to examine interrelationships within the socioeconomic and technological forces that shape urban areas.
The team, led by , Professor of Public Policy and Management in the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service at USM, worked in a direction that was the reverse of many other sustainability science endeavors. While stakeholder collaborative efforts often involve taking science off university campuses and into communities, Colgan鈥檚 team got a chance to bring their longtime community work into the lab.
鈥淲e are planners. All our work involves interaction with communities. The SSI project allowed us to do something different. We took our community-based experience and we were able to delve into deeper science,鈥 Colgan said.
The deeper science involved a collaboration of planning experts, economists and ecologists. The team worked closely with city and transportation planners in addition to a variety of community groups.