Using GIS to map citizens' preferences of their neighborhoods.

Bad land-use decisions can be made when citizens aren't aware that others share strong feelings about the community. Dr. Thomas Horan heads a multi-university team based at Claremont Graduate University in Southern California that uses GIS to explore citizens’ attitudes about their neighborhoods. Horan focuses on specific places that elicit strong positive and negative perceptions.

In one Minneapolis-based study performed in collaboration with the University of Minnesota, researchers asked citizens: "What are the things that you don't like about your neighborhood? What do you think brings lesser value to your neighborhood?" The answers included boarded-up storefronts, liquor stores, and railroad tracks. Using GIS, citizens pointed out the places they disliked, producing a map of "hot spots" that people agreed were liabilities to the neighborhood. Researchers also asked, "What things are assets to your neighborhood? What things do you take pride in?" The local system of lakes rated highly in this study.

This process of assessing the neighborhood, says Dr. Horan, "creates a visual summary of community feelings giving decision makers an immediately understandable impression of what neighborhood residents cherish and want preserved, and what they want improved." Dr. Horan and his colleagues have replicated this approach in several communities throughout the United States.

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