A Data Model for Multi-dimensional Transportation Location Referencing Systems

Formulating effective planning strategies and urban policies for revitalizing inner-city neighborhoods is a critical goal in the urban planning process. The development and use of neighborhood indicators can provide data needed for policy-making activities. This article discusses the value of using neighborhood indicators in urban planning. The article explores GIS-based indicators studies that are being conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in conjunction with neighborhood stakeholders to examine inner-city neighborhood conditions in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The use of a multi-scalar approach has been found to be particularly valuable. Responses from the stakeholders indicate that such studies are helpful for monitoring neighborhood conditions, assessing past success and failures, and in formulating new planning policy. Introduction The use of a geographic information system (GIS) in planning has grown steadily in North America since the 1960’s (French and Wiggins 1990, Huxhold 1991, Wiggins 1993, Harris and Elmes 1993, Budic 1994, Huxhold and Levinsohn 1995, Nedovic-Budic 1998, 1999). Consequently, a wide range of GIS applications in various planning tasks have evolved such as land use, zoning, transportation, site suitability analysis, and economic development. GIS has aided equally in managerial and decisionmaking tasks in planning. Growing knowledge, awareness, and acceptance of GIS coupled with lower costs of hardware and software have assisted in spreading the implementation of GIS in planning organizations. In recent years, one notable area of application in GIS concerns neighborhood planning. Neighborhood strategic planning is considered to be an important approach for cities that are undertaking revitalization strategies for their blighted central city neighborhoods. GIS is able to greatly facilitate such strategic planning through its data analysis and visualization capabilities. The application of GIS in this arena is helpful not only when analyzing the data, but also when communicating the outcomes of such analysis to the citizens through its visualization techniques. Such neighborhood mapping can be an important tool for facilitating citizen participation in the neighborhood revitalization process. It is widely recognized that citizen participation in neighborhood strategic planning is highly signifi cant and can often make the planning process more effective. However, citizen participation can be badly hampered by a lack of data at the neighborhood level and access to technologies that enable quick access to and analysis of such data (Barndt and Craig 1994, Pickles 1995, Sawicki and Craig 1996). Based on the assumption that greater access to information leads to greater opportunities for citizens to participate in planning, a range of initiatives have been undertaken by various agencies (federal, state, and local) for providing citizen groups with access to GIS (Barndt 1998a, 1998b, 1999; Obermeyer 1998, Sawicki and Peterman 1998). Neighborhood-based grassroots community organizations in turn have shown increasing interest in working with GIS in order to address issues of concern in their neighborhood (Craig and Elwood 1998, Elwood and Leitner 1998, Ramasubramanian 1998, Kellogg 1999, Elwood 2000, Ghose 2001, Ghose and Huxhold 2001). While these developments have been positive infl uences in the neighborhood planning process, there is still a considerable lack of data available at the local level that can pose a serious constraint. In that respect, we will argue that GIS-based neighborhood indicators studies can assist in bridging the crucial data gap for the benefi t of citizens and planners alike. Through the development and use of indicators, assessment of changing social, economic, and physical conditions of a neighborhood can be conducted. Such indicators can be used when identifying neighborhoods experiencing high levels of social problems in a city, targeting public resources to these identifi ed neighborhoods, and evaluating the results of such targeted investment strategies over specifi c time intervals. Additionally, the use of neighborhood indicators across different geographic scales can result in cross-comparisons, which can be more effective than single-scale analysis in identifying problems and trends and directing policy-making in an effort to resolve such problems. The visualization techniques of GIS can be combined with specifi c neighborhood-based indicators to assess the quality of life so as to effectively distribute public resources to the areas that are most in need. Such “equity mapping” (Talen 1998) can be benefi cial both in neighborhood revitalization activities and in public policy research. In fact, a major objective of indicators-based studies is that they should assist in public policy-making. Few studies have attempted to develop GIS-based indicators in order to assess the quality of urban life at the neighborhood scale, yet GIS-based indicators studies can have a signifi cant relevance to local planning and policy formulation process. Beginning with a discussion of the concept of indicators and their importance in public policy research, this article explores