- American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition
As the rawest form of information, data serve as the building blocks for the construction of knowledge. The knowledge constructed from the analysis of data serves as the basis of policies that aim to change social conditions. Planners and policymakers rely heavily on data to understand social phenomena, particularly how these phenomena change over time and how they vary geographically.
Who decides what data to collect? Who is able to access the data? In what format is the data be stored? What tools are required to use the data? What training does one need to comprehend the data?
As the above questions demonstrate, the decisions made by those who generate data affect your ability of using it for your own purposes. Data have traditionally been collected, interpreted and used by ãexpertsä. The movement to democratize data counters this tradition, empowering citizens and community groups by providing them with access to data and the tools to use these data to develop their own arguments about what is best for the community. In addition, this movement recognizes that residents possess valuable information on neighborhood conditions by virtue of their daily presence in and observation of their neighborhood. Increasingly, citizens are gathering their own data on their communities for use in planning and policymaking.
We are concerned here with data that are geographical, or spatial data. Spatial data is anything that can be mapped. That is, the observations are located on or referenced to the Earth's surface. Roads, streams, political boundaries, schools, land use classifications, property ownership parcels and toxic release sites are examples of spatial data.
Spatial data inform many aspects of community revitalization and equitable development. In community planning, we are often interested in how a certain quality (home values, for example) varies over a given area (a city, perhaps). Or we might look at how certain ãlayersä of data overlap one another, such as the location of toxic release sites and the racial characteristics of area residents. Spatial data can help community groups better understand their communityâs assets and opportunities, make decisions about where to target resources, and support their funding applications.
Community mapping is one of the principle tools of participatory research, or research that is performed by community members themselves. Like data collection (see above), mapping has historically fallen into the domain of those with power, and the maps created have reflected their particular worldviews. Community mapping is a method for changing this dynamic and enabling groups that are often underrepresented to create their own ãauthoritativeä maps. Community mapping has become an important method for creating new data based on local knowledge, and for visualizing and analyzing new and existing data. As visual representations of data, maps are very powerful because they allow us to analyze spatial patterns very quickly and often dramatically.
Community mapping can be done with very few resources (flip-chart paper and markers, for example) when more sophisticated technologies are unavailable or unnecessary. In cities in the US, however, advances in computer technology have made professional map-making tools more accessible to citizens. Increased access to the internet, and more affordable computer hardware and software have given community mapping a greater potential to be used by concerned community activists and grassroots groups. The main technology that underlies current internet-based community mapping projects is a GIS, or Geographic Information System. Maps created with GIS technology (such as the Oaktown Datahouse) are sophisticated, database-driven, and often use interactive internet capabilities.
See PolicyLinkâs Community Mapping Tool from its Equitable Development Toolkit for further information on the uses of community mapping.
Geographic Information Systems, as defined by the US Geological Survey, ãare computer systems capable of assembling, storing, manipulating, and displaying geographically referenced information ö data identified according to their locations.ä GIS stores information in ãlayersä and allows you to turn layers on and off as you view a map. A GIS allows you to ask questions of your data, and to explore, analyze and present your data through maps.
In reviewing over 20 successful mapping projects, PolicyLinkâs Community Mapping Tool from its Equitable Development Toolkit divided the maps into five categories:
- Documenting, Monitoring and Analyzing Neighborhood Change
- Organizing and Advocating for Policy Change
- Identifying Development Opportunities
- Expanding Community Support Systems
- Tracking Program Success and Sharing Outcomes
GIS-based can help community-based organizations in multiple aspects of their work, from understanding the situation to setting program priorities to writing successful funding proposals to tracking progress.
The Oaktown Datahouse can assist with many of these activities, and we are constantly seeking to make new data available for you to explore and use. The Datahouse currently contains citywide data down to the level of the census tract, which allows for the creation of maps in most of these categories. Future data acquisition plans include expanding on the geographies available through the Datahouse, including block group and parcel-level data.
