Chicago Area Urban Indicators (UI) and Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS)
The Urban Indicators and Spatial Decision Support Systems project is being undertaken by faculty and graduate research assistants in the Urban Transportation Center, University of Illinois at Chicago. The project aims to create a Web-based platform about key social, economic and infrastructure trends. This goal will be addressed using a data-analytic approach with spatial and visual representation of these trends.
Within this system, "Urban Indicators" refers to data and mapping applications of several factors that might be of interest to stakeholders in various decision-making processes. These data and mapping applications will include:
- Transportation System
- Pedestrian Environment
- Housing, Transit Quality
- Regional Employment Accessibility
- Gentrification
- Social and Economic
- Health Quality
- Crime and Schools
"Interactive Spatial Decision Support Tools" will ask for your preferences and find out neighborhoods or sub-areas within the six-county Chicago metropolitan area that best meet your criteria. Tools being developed include a Housing Relocation Tool, Job Accessibility Tool, a Carbon Footprint Tool, and a Neighborhood Quality Tool. A prototype for the Housing Relocation Tool is already available.
The development of the urban indicators depends on utilizing all relevant and available regional data and performing the appropriate spatial analysis. Once the urban indicators are developed, interactive spatial models incorporate user preferences and produce spatial solutions that are disseminated over the internet.
Further details can be found within our presentation to the AAG 2008, Boston:
Economic and Social Urban Indicators: A Spatial Decision Support System for Chicago Area Transportation Planning
