Week 7 Assignment

Mapping Places and Spaces

Geographic information systems are important tools for defining the social and environmental contexts of urban design, planning, and architecture
by Bill McGarigle

http://archrecord.construction.com/features/digital/archives/0206feature-1.asp

This article is about geographic information systems (GIS). This is a type of software system that enables someone to link any amount or kind of data to a location by geographic- or user-defined coordinates. This information can then be analyzed to find relationships and trends. Then, the results can be viewed in 2D or 3D map layers. Each layer will represent a specific type or class of information, such as wetlands, wildlife habitats, crime statistics, or various types of demographics. This tool is great for planning projects in urban design or in architecture.

Often times when an architect is given a project, there is a lot of research that must be done on the site. Income of people living in the area, population, and many other factors can affect a design and the future success of a project. GIS is a way that an architect can look at all this information at once. Sometimes, this information is already there for them because of the GIS. The GIS will put all types of information into one map with many layers.

This also makes city planning much easier. It can help planners decide the best areas to build different types of buildings and roads just by looking at one map instead of many. Then, the GIS can help predict what will happen over time. This further helps planners make decisions before they start building.

One example of the use of GIS is in Los Angeles. GIS was used to conduct an environmental-justice analysis to determine whether distribution of environmental impacts from a proposed expansion of LAX would mostly fall on minority and low-income communities. Using demographic data from the census and from federal guidelines, GIS specialists first identified the socioeconomic profiles of several communities close to LAX. Then on other layers, they showed environmental-impact data. This data was centered primarily on aircraft and construction noise, traffic patterns, and air quality. Because of the GIS, they could see who the affected populations were, and what communities they were in. The team also overlaid noise contours onto maps showing individual property boundaries to determine the exact numbers of households and populations that would be affected by aircraft noise.

Another example of using GIS is in the redevelopment department of Glendale, Colorado (population 4,527). They recently used CommunityViz to inform a communitywide master plan focusing on a series of proposed redevelopment projects. A variety of layers were put into the program such as transportation, education, land use, utilities, tax-revenue generation, and cost of services. These were assessed as the plan was developed, and the software was also used to model alternative building plans and land-use scenarios. The goal was to create a “walkable” community, affordable housing, and a new retail model to increase tax revenue and provide ownership opportunities. The project will involve architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, and economic analysis. GIS helped to create a 3D physical plan detailed enough to measure conformance of proposals with community standards for growth.

GIS can be a great tool for working with scales as large as cities and as small as individual buildings. By “three-dimensionalizing” social and environmental impacts of proposed planning scenarios, it can help architects recognize patterns and resolve conflicts. GIS not only maps out the social and environmental data for areas of design, planning, and architecture, but it helps people visualize how a space can be inhabited. It is almost as if GIS is a tool to predict the future of a building project.