The city of Philadelphia has deployed high-tech sensors and a new statistical model in its ongoing fight against the blight and health problems that follow vacant and abandoned properties.
Claudius Vargas reports on the new high tech methods implemented by Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I) to monitor vacant properties.
"L&I has developed a high-tech model to determine which properties might be vacant and imminently dangerous before an inspector sets foot on the property," writes Vargas.
The model is built first with high-tech data collection. The city "has new light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology, which allows inspectors and L&I staff to look at aerial shots of homes and determine which might have collapsing roofs," explains Vargas. "The system, using laser imaging, shows a color range to signal height disparities across a property's roof."
Once that data, and others, are collected, L&I staff use a scoring system between 1 and 49 to rate the safety of vacant and abandoned properties—the higher the number, the more dangerous the property.
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