Start here · Essential guide
Maps as Planning Tools: What Cities Can See
A plain guide to the main kinds of planning maps, from base maps to heat maps, and what each one reveals, hides or can distort about a place.
Planning and People
Maps, Surveys and Evidence
Simple methods planners use to see what is happening in a place.
Indicators and Dashboards: Useful or Decorative?
How to choose a small set of planning indicators worth tracking, what makes a dashboard useful, and the common ways measures mislead or go stale.
Land Use Surveys and Parcel Inventories
How a block-by-block land use survey and parcel inventory is built, what fields to record, how to keep the data reliable, and where such records fall short.
Population Forecasts and Their Uncertainty
Why population forecasts for cities are shaky, how planners build them, and how scenarios and regular updates help plans cope with being wrong.
Three-Dimensional Models and Visualizing Change
How 3D models and renderings help people understand a planning proposal, and how to spot choices that make a picture more persuasive than it is accurate.
Vacancy Surveys and Counting Empty Buildings
How cities count vacant buildings and units, the common methods and their blind spots, and why two honest counts of the same place can give different numbers.
Visual Preference Surveys and Photo Methods
How planners use photos and images to learn what residents like about places, including photo surveys and mapping exercises, and the limits of each method.
Walk Audits: Reading a Street on Foot
A plain guide to walk audits: how to plan one, what to look for on a street, how to record findings and what the method cannot tell you.
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