Online Tools

North Carolina Is Building an Online Tool to Quantify Outcomes of Flood Projects
The tool will allow local planners to evaluate impacts of flooding and prioritize projects with the biggest return on investment.

Uber Releases Open-Source Mapping Tool
Individuals and major companies alike have already found a variety of applications for the software.

New Tool Analyzes Chicago Zoning Maps
Six thousand different maps of Chicago can now be automatically dissected online.

A Better Way to Compare Cities
An online tool released three weeks ago by the Chicago Federal Reserve allows a more nuanced comparison between peer cities.

Map-Correcting App Shows 'The True Size Of' Places
Typical world maps badly misrepresent the size of countries; a new web app shows their true scale.

What I Learned When an Angry Group Destroyed My Public Meeting
Introducing the Fiasco Files—a lighthearted look at those times when things went sideways in community engagement. This Fiasco File tells the story of an angry and vocal minority group and the havoc the raised at a public meeting.
New Outreach Tools Reshape the Relationship Between Citizens and Government
Driven by an explosion of online tools, cities across the country are looking beyond the traditional public hearing to rethink how to increase citizen involvement in decision-making and reshape the relationship between citizens and government.
Crowdsourcing the Master Plan
The city of Lincoln, Nebraska, is asking locals to submit and vote on ideas to integrate into its new master plan, hoping to get citizens more involved in the process and test out unconventional ideas.
Why Transit Agencies Should Open Their Data
Streetfilms offers this video about how opening up transit agency data can greatly improve urban public transit systems for riders at little or no cost to the agencies.
Scoring Your Transitability
A new online tool shows people how accessible their homes, neighborhoods, and businesses are to public transit.
Opening Data Makes Finding Urban Solutions Easier
Next American City's Christian Madera reports on a series of seminars looking at how the growing open data movement is helping to offer cities solutions to some of their operational problems.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research