Top 8 Planning Technologies, 2006

2 minute read

February 25, 2006, 11:37 AM PST

Thanks to a kind invitation from Wally Siembab to present at the well-attendedSouth Bay Cities Council of Governments' Seventh Annual General Assembly, I had the opportunity to unveil my annual list of the top technologies for planning.

I briefly presented each of the top eight technology tools, and then provide one or more examples of each. Following is the list, along with my examples. (The image to the right is from Envision Tool's very cool online impact analysis interface. This image is at least a year old, and according to their website, the new tools are even more compelling. Thanks to Mike Walsh for letting me use these images in my presentation.)

1. Blogs

City Comforts Blog

Curbed LA

Planetizen Tech Talk

Peter Gordon's Blog

Cuyahoga County Planning Blog

Planning Blog Aggregator: Planetizen Radar

2. Project Portals

Neighborhood America

MIG'sTown Square

3. Web Mapping

UCLA's Neighborhood Knowledge, California

4. E-Permitting

King County Washington's mybuildingpermit.com

5. Visualization

Visualization transformations from Urban Advantage

6. 3D GIS

ESRI's ArcView, ArcIMS

MultiGen-Paradigm plug-in

7. Educational Tools

Mid-Tokyo Maps

Google Earth

8. Online Impact Analysis

Envision Tools

Other toosl include:

PLACE3S (California Energy Commission)

Community Viz (Orton Foundation)

INDEX (Criterion Planners/Engineers)

UrbanSim (Open Source, UofW)

What If?

Quest (Envision Tools)

At the conclusion of the presentation, I asked the 150+ conference participants to vote on their favorite tools, and it appeared that the participants, which included a large public-sector contingent, felt that Web Mapping, Visualization, and Online Permitting were the tools with the most promise in 2006.

Chris Steins

Chris Stines is Planetizen's former Editor and the founder of Urban Insight, a leading digital agency. Chris has 25 years of experience in technology consulting and urban planning and has served as a consultant to public sector state, county, and local agencies, Fortune 500 private firms, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations.

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Start Learning

Advertise with us

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.