GIS and Urban Planning

1
GIS and Urban Planning
Transportation
Zoning
Utilities
Zoning is the process of categorizing land tracts
according to their intended use. Common types of
zones include commercial, industrial,
recreational, and various levels of residential.

Transportation within urban areas is crucial as
it allows for the movement of people from place
to place. Airports, highways, railways, and
public transportation systems all play vital
roles in the city.
Without utilities, no modern-day urban area would
be able to function. Water, gas, electricity,
and sewage among others are crucial to the growth
and survival of the city.
Source http//www.esri.com/events/gita/index.html
Source http//www.esri.com/industries/transport/b
usiness/airports.html
Source http//www.esri.com/industries/transport/b
usiness/airports.html
Familiarity of all utilities are very important
when it comes to building new property, repairing
a damaged system, or constructing a new one.
Incorporating GIS data into a 3-D visualization
output can help to achieve a full understanding
of the orientation of pipelines and cables in all
directions with respect to the ground above.
Along with traffic and the associated pollution
from emissions, another type of pollution
emerges noise. Highways, major freight lines,
and commercial airports are among the largest
producers of noise pollution. McCarran
International Airport in Las Vegas is located
adjacent to the area known as the Strip. Based
on the alignment of the runways, GIS can be used
to visualize which areas of the city receive
noise from arriving and departing airplanes.
San Antonios Broadway Corridor is undergoing
plans to diminish the number of assembly
districts and add more park space and community
residences. Using GIS, the current land use
tracts of every block along the corridor can be
visualized along with future projections of what
the area may look like. This allows for a
comparison to be performed to help appeal to the
approval of contractors and city ordinances.
Source http//www.epwu.org/water/water_rights.htm
l
Source http//www.orcity.org/gis-mapping/
The El Paso Water Utilities Service obtained a
75-year lease from property owners to supply the
city with water from the Rio Grande. In doing
so, three different grant areas were established.
Mapping these areas affirms the exact geographic
areas where property owners are to be compensated
for the citys use of their surface water
sources.
Source http//www.chesapeake.va.us/services/depar
t/infotech/gis/maps.shtml
The city of Oregon City, OR uses GIS for a 3-D
zoning visualization. By combining land use data
with building height and topographic data, it can
clearly be seen where certain zones exist with
respect to terrain. Improvements in city
planning can be performed much more easily given
this information.
Chesapeake, VA is proposing transportation
corridors along two major routes in the city.
Mapping one-mile wide corridors shows exactly
which areas will benefit from new development and
increased transportation accessibility.
Pros of GIS
Cons of GIS
Sources and References

• GIS can help greatly to visualize data that
  could be very difficult to perceive otherwise.

• Acquiring and processing data may cost a great
  amount of time and money to carry out.

ESRI, Inc. http//www.esri.com City of
Chesapeake, VA http//www.chesapeake.va.us/service
s/depart/infotech/gis/maps.shtml City of Oregon
City, OR http//www.orcity.org/gis-mapping/ El
Paso Water Utilities http//www.epwu.org/water/wat
er_rights.html
Background image acquired from Johnnyroadtrip.com
http//www.johnnyroadtrip.com/cities/newyork/

• GIS is a multi-layer tool it can combine
  multiple data sets and put them into one database.

• GIS requires trained experts and/or time to
  train people to become familiar with the system

Armand Silva GEOG 363 Section 4