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Development of a Web GIS for urban sustainability indicators of Oakland, California

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Development of a Web GIS for urban sustainability indicators of Oakland, California

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Content i
Development of a Web GIS for
Urban Sustainability Indicators
of Oakland, California

By
Gina A. Kiani

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF SCIENCE
(GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY)

December 2014

Copyright 2014 Gina A. Kiani
ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A special thanks for the existence of this thesis is due to the University of Southern
California, Spatial Sciences Institute, which provided the structure, tools and resources in
support of this work. My committee chair, Robert Vos, Ph.D., who demanded a high standard
while providing reference contributions and knowledgeable direction in my preparation and
presentation of sustainability. Thank-you also to my committee members Daniel Warshawsky,
Ph.D. and Jennifer Swift, Ph.D. Dr. Swift provided the essential building blocks to communi-
cating sustainability indicators through technology using web GIS. Mariko Dawson, Ph.D.
provided invaluable feedback to refining this work by the structure and rules of writing.
Acknowledgement is also due to the College of Natural Resources at the University of
California, Berkeley for providing the environment during my undergraduate career that intro-
duced GIS as a tool towards conservation and sustainability goals. To my mother, husband
and daughter for giving me the inspiration to be the best that I can be and the support in my
direction and path to get there.
The data provided for this work is attributable to the Pacific Institute, Smart Location
Database, State of California GeoPortal, USC GeoPortal, Google Maps, and Esri. Sustainabil-
ity indicator structure is based on the Sustainability report produced by the city of Oakland,
California.

iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ii
Lists of Tables v
List of Figures vi
List of Abbreviations viii
Abstract x

Chapter One: Introduction 1
1.1 Motivation 2
1.2 Urban Sustainability 3
1.2.1 Scale of Planning for Sustainability 5
1.2.2 Sustainability Indicators 6
1.3 Participatory Planning 9
1.3.1 Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) 9
1.3.2 Social Media and Ambient Geographical Information (AGI). 11

Chapter Two: Related Work 13
2.1 Quality Indicator Methods 14
2.2 Oakland’s Sustainability Indicators (SI) Web Reporting Program 15
2.3 Urban Sustainability Indicators Online 18
2.3.1 San Francisco 18
2.3.2 Washington DC 21
2.3.3 Boston 22
2.4 Web GIS Applications 25

Chapter Three: Study Methods and Application Development 31
3.1 Oakland Indicators 33
3.1.1 Climate Change Vulnerability 34
3.1.1.1 Spatial / Web GIS Value 36
3.1.1.2 Data Source 36
3.1.2 Housing 37
3.1.2.1 Spatial / Web GIS Value 38
3.1.2.2 Data Source 39
iv
3.1.3 Transit Accessibility 39
3.1.3.1 Spatial / Web GIS Value 40
3.1.3.2 Data Source 40
3.1.4 Economic Availability 40
3.1.4.1 Spatial / Web GIS Value 41
3.1.4.2 Data Source 42
3.1.5 Natural Resource Projects Inventory 42
3.1.5.1 Spatial / Web GIS Value 42
3.1.5.2 Data Source 43
3.1.6 Culture and Community 43
3.1.6.1 Spatial / Web GIS Value 44
3.1.6.2 Data Source 44
3.2 Preparation of Spatial Data and Programming 45
3.2.1 EPA Geo RSS 50

Chapter Four: Results 51
4.1 Site Overview 51
4.2 Demonstration of Culture and Community Indicator 55
4.3 Demonstration of Housing Indicator 56
4.4 Demonstration of Transit Accessibility Indicator 56
4.5 Demonstration of Economic Availability Indicator 57
4.6 Demonstration of Natural Resource Projects Inventory Indicator 58
4.7 Demonstration of Culture and Community Indicator 59
4.8 Integrated Application Demonstration 60

Chapter Five: Discussion/ Conclusion 62
5.1 Limitations 62
5.2 Application Feedback 63
5.3 Integration of Web GIS with Oakland Sustainability Indicator Reporting 65
5.4 Future Considerations 65

References 68
v
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Sustainability Indicators customized from Oakland’s Sustainability Report 34
Table 2. Sustainability Indicator Data Sources and Preparation 45
Table 3. Web GIS application development 48
Table 4. Survey Questions 63

vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Sustainable Oakland Home Webpage 16
Figure 2. Housing, Land Use & Transportation Webpage 17
Figure 3. San Francisco Sustainable Communities Index indicators Webpage 19
Figure 4. Graphic GIS Map Image for San Francisco 20
Figure 5. Screenshot for Washington D.C. Indicator Format 22
Figure 6. Top of the Housing Sector Webpage for Washington D.C. 23
Figure 7. Screenshot of the Children & Youth Crosscut Topic by the city of Boston 24
Figure 8. Santa Monica Spider Diagram of Sustainability Indicators 25
Figure 9. Screenshot of Explore Santa Monica web GIS Application 26
Figure 10. Baltimore Maryland’s Web GIS 27
Figure 11. City of Surrey’s Sustainability Dashboard 28
Figure 12. Environmental Performance Index Web GIS 29
Figure 13. Flowchart 32
Figure 14. Climate Change Vulnerability Attributes 35
Figure 15. D4 Transit Segment from Smart Location Database 38
Figure 16. D2r_JobPop Land Use Diversity Segment from Smart Location Database 41
Figure 17. Urban Sustainability Indicators of Oakland, Ca.Web Map Application 48
Figure 18. Urban Sustainability Indicators of Oakland, Ca. Web Page 52
Figure 19. Culture and Community PPGIS for Oakland, Ca 53
Figure 20. EPA GeoRss Feeds 54
Figure 21.Climate Change Vulnerability Layer 55
Figure 22. Housing Layer 56
vii
Figure 23. Transit Accessibility Layer 57
Figure 24. Workers to Jobs Ratio 58
Figure 25. Natural Resources Layer 59
Figure 26. Social Media Layers 60

viii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ACS American Community Survey
AGI Ambient Geographical Information
API Application Programming Interface
CBG Census Block Group
DOT Department of Transportation
EGPR Environmental Goals and Policy Report
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
EPI Environmental Performance Index
GHGRP Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program
GMS Green Map System
GIS Geographic Information Science
HUD Department of Housing and Urban Development
LEHD Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics
NIMBY Not In My Back Yard
NRPI Natural Resource Project Inventory
NSIP Neighborhood Sustainability Indicators Project
PPGIS Participatory Planning Geographic Information Science
REST Representational Estate Transfer
SCI Sustainable Communities Index
SCP Santa Monica’s Sustainable City Plan
SI Sustainability Indicators
SLD Smart Location Database
ix
SoVI Social Vulnerability Index
SUD Sustainable Urban Development working group
SUV Sustainable Urban Village
TIGER Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing
URL Uniform Resource Locator
USGS United States Geological Survey
VGI Volunteered Geographic Information
xhtml Extensible HyperText Markup Language
x
ABSTRACT
Anthropogenic climate change, growing populations, the decrease of essential resources, and
the availability of funding to deal with these emerging conditions, provide the incentives for
cities to mitigate and adapt through urban sustainability programs. Though web GIS applica-
tions visualizing features of sustainability do exist, few visualize actual sustainability indica-
tors, and almost none visualize performance on the refined scale of the city. A web GIS appli-
cation targeting such objectives with urban sustainability indicators was developed for Oak-
land, California. The application demonstrates a tool for planners and the public by creating a
starting point for a time-referenced spatial view for the pace of progress. The six broad indica-
tor elements determined by the city of Oakland’s Annual Sustainability Report worked as the
foundation to customize spatially related indicators meeting specifications of quality in repre-
sentation and function. These customized indicators are climate change vulnerability, em-
ployment availability, housing, public transit accessibility, natural resource project inventory,
as well as culture and community. Another application with editing capabilities informs the cul-
ture and community indicator with volunteered geographic information (VGI). The features
demonstrated in the applications’ functions include classifying methods of performance, a
strategy-based approach informed with municipal policy, access to indicator attributes, as well
as basic map capabilities allowing for zoom to neighborhood, toggling of individual indicator
visibility, and an integration with social media resources. An overview of the steps in the ap-
plication development process was documented. The application was made available for test-
ing with a survey for feedback that was both utilized and acknowledged for future considera-
tions.
1
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Sustainable development as presented in the Brundtland Report is defined as “development
that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs,” offering an illustrative model of a triangle equally sided with ecological,
social, and economic factors (Brundtland 1987, 37). Overall, this project integrates existing
methodologies to demonstrate GIS sustainability using three techniques. First, the study
conducts limited spatial analysis where needed to improve or geocode indicator
measurement. Second, this study builds and documents an interactive web application for
visualization of spatially sensitive indicators. Third, as appropriate for given indicators, this
work develops a portal to volunteered geographic information (VGI), to invite public
participation and gather necessary data that may not exist. The principal objective of this web
GIS project is to demonstrate whether and how geographic information science and
technology can provide a visualization platform for the evaluation of urban sustainability
based on spatial criteria that enrich analysis of existing and customized indicators.
This chapter discusses the motivation for developing a GIS web application for urban
sustainability at the local level of the city. Indicators developed at this scale for Oakland, Ca.,
were developed with the inclusion of Public Participation Geographic Information Systems
(PPGIS) via social media outlets such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, and
Webcams.travel. A demonstration of the application will discuss these features as well as the
programming results and future implications to expand and improve upon this body of work.

2
1.1 Motivation
Sustainability has become a global pursuit with government agencies in the United
States offering programs, technical assistance, and funding opportunities for strategic growth
within cities. Such partnerships include federal sustainable community revitalization incentives
by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of Transportation
(DOT) initiatives for the promotion of walkable communities, and support from the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) towards the protection of environmental and human
health (EPA, 2013a).
The development of a web GIS application could aid in the efforts of sustainable urban
planning and development by offering a visualization of performance and measurement
towards municipal targets of sustainability indicators. Using Oakland, California as the case
study location, the purpose of this application design and documentation is to reveal the
strengths and weaknesses of the city's urban environment in a spatial context towards the
goals and efforts of sustainability. This project seeks to establish a measurement of
sustainability indicators, visualized to demonstrate performance at the spatial extent of the city
of Oakland.
A web GIS application based on quality indicators of sustainability offers a tool for
planners and the public to utilize potential state and federal sustainability opportunities by
identifying need, demonstrating performance, and evaluating effectiveness. The tool may be a
resource to the community of Oakland as well as an example of spatially visualizing and
measuring sustainability for an urban environment. The application could act as a springboard
to initiate similar projects in other cities or to expand for Oakland. Sustainability would also be
more effectively promoted, recognized, and understood, with accessible geographic
information readily available for view among planners, developers, and the citizenry.
3
Managing the database with new data throughout the years could display a reference for pace
of progress in the city over time.
Spatial science and technology practitioners would benefit from the project by having
transparent access to the methodologies and data used for its completion. Just as other GIS
projects have been utilized and expanded upon within this work, a customization of applicable
methods provided here may offer support to other related efforts. Other municipal agencies
and departments may also find value and relevance in the determination of spatial indicators,
the measurable scale of performance incorporated, or the method of development for the
technology utilized here. Code, scripting, and functionality of web GIS components would also
offer a template resource with a working version of what to expect from programming
techniques.

1.2 Urban Sustainability
Growing human populations worldwide are increasing urbanization and sprawl making
more imperative the need to address sustainability in these systems. In general, sustainability
is about regenerating the means of living within a psychologically and physically healthy
environment. Many of the resources on sustainability planning trace the examples and
concepts of their models to the writings of Ebenezer Howard in 1898, To-Morrow: A Peaceful
Path to Real Reform. His book inspired the “Garden Cities” of Letchworth, England
established in 1903, followed by the Welwyn Garden City in 1920. The foundation behind the
designs and concepts outlined by Howard focused its city planning emphasis on the
preservation and enrichment of social and natural environmental relationships involved with
the functioning and continuing of human development. His design plans can be described as
a series of small, self-sufficient townships, interconnected through a mass transit system with
4
a cultural center located at the core (Howard 1898).
Many proponents of sustainability remark on the opportunity of cities as large resource
consumers to have the most influence in countering the implications of that consumption.
Wheeler (2013) describes the problem of meeting such goals, as caused by allowing
developers control over the design of large portions of land and building construction. This
lightly regulated private sector control has fragmented development into suburbs and cut-off
communities; creating development lacking in sustainability fundamentals across the country.
Sustainability proponents argue that the authority of local officials to approve or deny
applications of such development should be utilized to advance sustainability features within
communities. Such features should include mixed use zoning favoring pedestrian and public
transit accessible to a diverse demographic of income levels, age, and ethnicities targeted for
a dense availability of housing. Green space should be located nearby with a diversity of
recreation for children, elderly, teens, gardeners, fitness fans, and naturalists.
Every neighborhood also has the potential for ecological preservation of biodiversity,
perhaps from a creek that could be restored, small ponds or lakes, pockets of fields or
woodlands connected with wildlife corridors, and even back yards filled with native plants.
This inclusion of pedestrian networks and green space also benefits public health by
promoting activity and countering the epidemic of obesity (Wheeler 2013). Web GIS can
provide a valuable tool towards such goals, capable of offering a spatial perspective of these
conditions. While the above objectives occur within the city, visualizations at the level of the
neighborhood is where the work towards sustainability will be greatest.

5
1.2.1 Scale of Planning for Sustainability
The intrinsic geographic nature of implementing sustainability lies in the essential role
of scale in planning. Wheeler (2013) discusses the scales of planning ranging from
international, national, state and provincial, regional, local, neighborhood, and site planning.
At the local level, which cities fall into, municipalities typically have control over land use,
vehicle, bicycle, pedestrian networks, green space, parks, housing, education, and waste
collection. Though the ability to actually implement sustainability measures is greatest at the
local level, an issue with political systems capable of encouraging sustainability regionally or
beyond, stems from the fragmentation and folding of urban boundaries creating suburbs and
competition over jurisdictions and tax revenues (Wheeler 2013). A geographic application can
visually manage these evolving boundaries to compare data within each, with analysis
specific to actionable elements under the city’s influence to adapt.
As Wheeler (2013) explains, these local level planning and development priorities for
urban sustainability should be implemented through the connection of pedestrian friendly
roadways, parks and recreation, mixed land use zoning that facilitates affordable housing,
economic opportunities and community services. Other sustainability measures also typically
under the local jurisdiction of cities, is over buildings and related systems, codes, and
development guidelines to require and incentivize sustainability in materials, efficiency, and
density.
The neighborhood level of planning contains the building blocks of cities and is needed
to incorporate the beneficial measures in the power of city officials to change and improve.
This web GIS application can bridge the communication gap by giving the city and public a
tool for understanding and incorporating neighborhood provisions by providing data which
residents can use to voice influence on governmental and municipal planners. Not In My Back
6
Yard (NIMBY) collaborations of residents and development with weak public regulation have
carved out the tragedy of the suburban plight, cutting into more biologically rich regions to
expand the trafficked reach of humans. Neighborhood design and in-fill potential to
incorporate density is embedded into the census block group (CBG) and analyzed at the
neighborhood scale allowing for the planning of street-scape design, open space availability,
equity, public health and other such elements that urban form and design have influence over.
According to Wheeler (2013), although sustainability of some sort is included in the
general plans of more and more cities, measures are often symbolic rather than substantive.
Portney’s (2002) analysis of 24 major U.S. cities using an established index of taking
sustainability seriously found that actual implementation and actionable initiatives were
lacking in the majority of them. The findings pointed to the need for real goals and tools, such
as sustainability indicators to measure progress. Climate Change specifically was an area
most essential to the need for implicit measures, such as facilitating recycling, pedestrian and
public transit, and reducing greenhouse gases through the certification of public structures
and conversion of city vehicle fleets to efficiency standards. To be effective, these initiatives
should be meaningfully associated with policy and programs that can be monitored, evaluated
and institutionalized to endure over the long-term (Wheeler 2013). Customizing sustainability
indicators provides the ruler by which to measure progress or regression of sustainable
development and communicate meaningful progress.
1.2.2 Sustainability Indicators
The complexity of determining appropriate measurement indicators of sustainability is
that there are so many credible models that exist, though none is universally accepted or
utilized. In Hecht’s (2006) discussion of whether indicators and accounts can really measure
sustainability, the definition of sustainability itself is questioned, noting that unjust dictatorial
7
societies have been sustained historically for hundreds of years. Adding social equity to the
contemporary definition of sustainability entails that subjective decisions must be incorporated
to include values that such a system might attempt to achieve. In environmental and
economic terms, would sustainability goals imply continuing current living standards and
practices or adjusting them into the adaption of viable practices for continual resource-use at
a perpetual state without considering advancements such as new technologies?
Taking a deeper look at the ability of existing indicator systems to actually determine
sustainability, Hecht (2006) begins with the international system of the United Nations, based
on 58 metrics meant to measure social, economic, and environmental sustainability. However,
as much as we care about data such as life span, child mortality, green house gas emissions,
species diversity, or GDP, these parameters are individually and collectively unable to tell us
whether a society is sustainable. Although one of these, for example air pollution, may be able
to provide insight into what is not sustainable, since pollution at a certain level will cause
sickness, beyond that upper limit, is there a measurement that would be an indicator that the
environment is sustainable?
This raises the question of whether it would be appropriate to suggest that any metric
based on the crossing point where human damage is observed should be considered
sustainable. Other indicator systems use a goal-oriented approach in which progress can be
charted away or towards targets over a period of time. Being based on an ideal notion of
sustaining or improving economic, environmental, and social goals, the argument of
subjectivity again arises as such targets are based on decisions of value. As there is no
devised system that can irrefutably determine a sustainable society, the best that can be
hoped for is that any sustainability indicator system generates information about whether
current practices lead in a direction that is not sustainable or draws attention towards
8
problems that may conflict with predetermined ideals of quality in the welfare of our economic,
environmental, and social conditions (Hecht 2006).
Developed by both experts and citizens, the use of sustainability indicators (SI) has
grown rapidly since their inception in the 1990’s. Turcu (2013) discusses some of the
complications associated with the use of SI in urban areas; such as the reliance of cities on
outside resources contradicting the very definition of sustainability and that the objective for
sustainability is not feasible. However, urban SIs are arguably a useful tool to measure and
communicate conditions to drive more efficient use of human and environmental resources.
Such information can be used to improve quality of life and replenish natural capital propelling
cities into role models of sustainability. As the underlying nature of SIs is political and social,
an integration of the expert-led, top-down model with the participatory citizen-led model is
required. After analyzing over 170 indicators, discussed by over 60 ‘sustainability experts’ and
hundreds of residents from three urban areas in the UK, Turcu found that integrating both
models worked best to make measurable progress towards resource goals while considering
value-based neighborhood elements important to local perspectives (Turcu 2013).
The integration of expert and citizen derived data is included in the indicators
developed for the city of Oakland to be used in this application, with indicators that are
informed by empirical metrics as well as from community and social media resources. The
determined indicators with municipally set targets and objectives would ideally be updated to
evaluate progress over time. To make a meaningful contribution towards implementing a
measure of sustainability in cities, a geographic understanding of current circumstances and
site potentials should be specifically customized to local values, needs, and regulations.

9
1.3 Participatory Planning
Cilliers (2014) outlines the importance of involving the actual inhabitants of neighborhoods
with the decisions and plans affecting their area. The qualities of ‘experience’ and ‘feeling’ are
sought by urban planners using place-making strategies to influence social dynamics. The
inclusion of local stakeholders works to accentuate the creative process to more effectively
determine and bring about such design. Cilliers (2014) also notes that engaging the citizenry
is an act of democracy that meets a basic human need for participation, improving the
psychological health and happiness of an involved community (Cilliers 2014). Collecting data
by the people and making it transparent to the public supports the expansion of equity into the
urban fabric by revealing conditions that may provoke action where the data suggests it lacks.
Incorporating public participation into this application design intends to do that.
1.3.1 Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS)
The field of public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) is an im-
portant element in the response to the call for participatory planning. A key subset of PPGIS is
known as volunteered geographic information (VGI). As labeled by Goodchild (2007), VGI
builds geographic data through large-scale use of people contributing geographic intelligence
due to the willingness to participate. Data researchers, community planners, and emergency
response have utilized the power of VGI by gathering and structuring of crowd-sourced data.
Acquiring data through PPGIS would bring great benefit to the evaluation of contemporary
sustainability through the inclusion of social variables.
Flint (2013) discusses the mapping of neighborhood assets as anything a resident
might view as adding value to their community or would consider to hold cultural meaning and
importance. Asset mapping is defined as a community-based tool to identify anything from
people, places to organizations that improve the quality of life for the people exposed to them
10
(Flint 2013, 122). In determining the sustainability of such assets, evaluating criteria including
the community’s self-sufficiency and local production ability such as urban gardens, recycling,
and certified structures can be included to define features in a PPGIS application.
A pilot project in Oakland, documented in “Ecocity Mapping Using GIS: Introducing a
Planning Method for Assessing and Improving Neighborhood Vitality” provides an example of
spatially accessing neighborhood vitality and assets (Smith and Miller 2013). The project used
GIS with twenty-three variables to evaluate neighborhoods and recommend a site for an
affordable housing development or Sustainable Urban Village (SUV). PPGIS technologies
offered a platform for the input and rating of attributes for locations of value to participants
(Smith and Miller 2013).
In another example, the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana utilized a Web-based
mapping technology to characterize and rate the places important to residents, along with
their perceptions of the threats to these assets in the pursuit of resource management and
cultural valuation of the landscape. These contributions were incorporated, expanding the
boundaries determined by managers for conservation to include areas of cultural meaning
(Stewart et al. 2013).
Examples featuring the accuracy and relevance of such crowd-sourced distribution of
geographic information can be seen especially in events of crisis such as earthquakes,
hurricanes, or disease outbreaks like the H1N1 flu. These data chains derived from PPGIS,
have proven invaluable, with the crisis-mapping platform Ushahidi used in Haiti as a specific
testament to open, decentralized, real-time data captured publicly. The data even proved to
be so reliable that the platform was found to be more useful than the established authoritative
maps for government and aid workers to find open routes and areas in most need of
distribution of emergency services (Roche & Mericskay. 2013).
11
In an attempt to inventory community resources, PPGIS will also be used in this project
to deem assets as determined by residents themselves. The accuracy of such methods has
been shown in similar projects and can be evaluated even further for credibility through the
inclusion of social media.
1.3.2 Social Media and Ambient Geographical Information (AGI).
As distinct from volunteered geography, Stefanidis (2011) defines social media data
collection using geographic keyword trails defined as ambient geographical information (AGI).
Though such messages may not be expressly geographic, geographic footprints can still be
found in the metadata that often is attached with author, time, and geolocation. More often
however, this locational information is contained in the geotag or keyword in the title
referencing an area or location that can then be associated and mapped. The Arab Spring
demonstrates this vividly, in which tags such as Tahirir Square communicated clearly to the
outside world the relevance of the location as a hotspot of activity. Harvesting such data can
provide not only human relationships with the landscape, but also the evolution of these
relationships over time. The power of using crowd-sourced AGI can elude the burdens of “up
to 85% of the cost” typically accounted for in traditional GIS data capture.
One important critique of AGI is that it is derived from a selective sample of social
media users. However, more and more individuals participating in such contributions are
steadily moving these activities into the mainstream with the increasing deployment of GPS in
mobile devices and tablets. As such, the use of AGI can then be considered as a means of
analyzing the evolution of “the human social system” as it adapts and changes over space
and time (Stefanidis et al. 2013).
Determining keywords to query such social media resources as well as a valuation of
such results from metadata tags from sources such as Flickr, Instagram, and Twitter reflect
12
the semantics of geography, which can demonstrate relevance of returned results by number
of photos uploaded per location, number of individuals uploading photos per location, and the
commonality in tags used. From these insights, it is then inferred that the more photos, by the
more users concentrated in specific areas, is more likely a greater representation of place that
can be established by social media (Mackaness and Chaudhry 2013). The combination of
PPGIS and AGI to provide an inclusive social metric in the valuation of locations considered
as assets to the community can be attained in such a way through social media. The mapping
of these data can provide information at a glance of which areas may be more socially vibrant
and closer to the ideal of sustainability in culture and community.

13
CHAPTER TWO: RELATED WORK
This project seeks to create a visualization resource depicting sustainability that could offer
support to planners, decision-makers and the public with insight for future planning. Although
many cities use some form of sustainability indicators, few utilize a web GIS application.
Representing the National Center for Biotechnology Information, Visser (2014) documents the
collaboration with U.S. National Library of Medicine, and The Associated Press, of research
on attention span with findings that ability to focus on a given task has been decreasing over
the past decade (Visser 2014). In terms of web page interaction, Weinreich et al. (2008)
studied 59,573 page views, and found that users only read an average of 49% of the words
on sites with 111 words or less. Attention drops further on longer web pages, with only 28%
of the typical webpage, with around 593 words, actually getting read. For each additional 100
words on a webpage, approximately 4.4 seconds is spent (Weinreich et al 2008).
To realize the benefits of reporting sustainability indicators, visualization is key. A web
GIS is important because it easily communicates a great amount of information visually with
the need for fewer words, links, and pages to navigate through. As most cities with SI
programs already have webpages for reporting, an interactive map application would offer a
practical complement that easily conveys data while keeping the users attention through
interactivity.
This chapter starts with a brief review of an indicator classification method, followed by
Oakland’s SI program and web resources, a review of sustainability indicators as they are
presented online for other urban areas, and examples of other web GIS applications. Each
area provides background needed to understand the development of Web GIS for urban SI
programs.
14

2.1 Quality Standards in Indicator Methods
Following the 2010 World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the White House
Office of Urban Affairs and U.S. HUD Department, with support from the Ford Foundation,
coordinated a group of stakeholders from government departments along with private and
non-private sectors throughout North America to evaluate approaches to sustainable urban
development in the U.S. and Canada. This became the Sustainable Urban Development
working group (SUD), which investigated, prepared, and detailed an analysis of indicators
used in the United States. From this effort, they determined a standard of quality in indicator
systems, documented by Lynch et al. (2011). They explored urban sustainability indicators
through the lens of the environment, economy and society, determining multi-element
indicators to be more effective than single element schemes and recommending a lean
concise system with a goal-oriented framework.
The SUD working group also recommended a classification of indicators as a pressure,
state, or response. A pressure is an act or threat against sustainability, for example, carbon
release. These measurements would be based on minimizing such threats that counter
sustainability. The state indicator is a current measurement, typically numeric, of existing
conditions in relation to sustainability objectives. Response measures evaluate programs or
efforts designed to respond to the states and pressures that contradict sustainability
objectives. These classifications may overlap with each other when one indicator falls into two
or more categories (Lynch et al. 2011). Utilizing the recommendations offered by the SUD
working group can work to establish methods of producing quality indicators with a
categorization that offers a standard of measurement and tracking of sustainability objectives
away or towards target goals.
15

2.2 Oakland’s Sustainability Indicators (SI) Web Reporting Program
In Oakland’s pursuit of sustainability, an array of data, maps, and indicators are made
accessible online. The Sustainable Oakland Report, prepared by the city since 1999, provides
the basis for this hosted data and covers six focus areas that work as indicators for
sustainable objectives. These are buildings, energy and climate; economic prosperity;
education, culture and community; health, safety, and wellbeing; housing, land use and
transportation; and natural resources, waste, and environmental health. Figure 1 below is a
view of the sustainable Oakland home webpage. Clicking on the link for each focus area
reveals more details concerning the indicator with highlights of progress made concerning the
area of interest and followed by measurement status of performance.

16

Figure 1. Sustainable Oakland Home Webpage- Links to focus areas on the left.

Figures 2 below provides an unscrolled view of the Housing, Land Use &
Transportation focus area with a synopsis of the indicator and highlights including Affordable
Green Developments, Transit-Oriented Development, and Bicycle Plan Implementation. The
bottom of the page contains a section of measured performance and links for additional
resources related to the focus area.
17

Figure 2. Housing, Land Use & Transportation Webpage- Top of page view with brief description of
the focus area and highlights of related city progress.

The SI program for the City of Oakland provides multiple links and webpages with a
vast array of words, graphs, and images for each of the SI focus areas (City of Oakland
2013). A web GIS application could provide an overall summary of this detail to communicate
the indicator metrics at a glance.
18
2.3 Urban Sustainability Indicators Online
In selecting examples with the multitude of cities that use sustainability indicators, it is
useful to begin with cities that rank high on sustainability measures. Corporate Knights, Inc.
(2013) provides a list ranking the most sustainable cities in North America. The five
categories: environmental quality, economic security, governance and empowerment,
infrastructure and energy, and social well being, were measured using 27 indicators, such as
population density, pollution, and education. Of the United States cities included in the
assessment, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Boston ranked the highest for sustainability
(Corporate Knights inc. 2013). The SI programs and associated web page resources for these
three cities are briefly reviewed here.
2.3.1 San Francisco
Indicators for San Francisco are based on the Sustainable Communities Index (SCI).
This indicator system uses over 100 measures based on the five evaluation requirements of
measurability, appropriateness of scale, motivation, responsiveness to action, and relevance
to human health and sustainability. San Francisco’s Department of Public Health maintains
data for the city’s main indicator categories: environment, transportation, community cohe-
sion, public realm, education, housing, economy and health systems. Each indicator includes
sub-categories of action-oriented goals, which each also include additional child sub-
categories of primary indicators. Figure 3 is the homepage view of this hosted data with the
main indicator of Environment visible, along with the action-oriented goal, “EN.1. Decrease
consumption of energy and natural resources”. Exposed below this goal are the primary indi-
cators of natural gas use, electricity use, water use, solid waste disposal and diversion, and
renewable energy production. Getting to all of the information for these indicators requires an
extensive navigation of links through each indicator element, category and sub-category.
19

Figure 3. San Francisco Sustainable Communities Index indicators Webpage- Transportation primary
indicators exposed in list showing the 3 levels of categories with additional resources.

Upon exposing the primary indicators, clicking on each reveals an analysis, an inter-
pretative overview, data sources, and a table of the relevant data organized. The following
figure is found on the web site upon clicking the Open Space primary indicator, which is a
child of the “EN.2. Restore, preserve and protect healthy natural habitats” action plan, which
is a sub-category of the main indicator, Environment. Open spaces and natural areas are col-
or-coded in the map below when clicking this primary indicator.
20

Figure 4. Graphic GIS Map Image for San Francisco- From the Environment indicator, a geographic
analysis communicates part of the Open Space primary indicator.

Although other San Francisco indicators are informed with static maps, they lack the in-
teractive experience and level of detail needed at a glance to inform decisions of sustainabil-
ity. Scrolling down to the middle of the Open Space primary indicator page is the indicator’s
interpretation and data sources with an analysis table of the data for open space in terms of
acres and percent according to neighborhood. A section for interpretation and analysis
followed by data sources is at the bottom of the page. A total of 90 links to similar pages for
primary and secondary indicators is available from the webpage.
21
2.3.2 Washington, D.C.
Next on the Corporate Knight list of sustainable U.S. cities is Washington D.C. An
overview of the Washington D.C. indicators is available at their webpage for Neighbor-
hood Sustainability Indicators Project (NSIP) (2009). These indicators were developed
through a participatory process with the local citizens. Categories of energy, environment,
mobility, economy, and social capital, were established as the framework for goals for each
neighborhood. A baseline of indicators under each category is represented as a measure of
conditions to work from, beginning with 2009 and 2010 data. The goals developed are: in-
crease energy conservation, increase production of renewable energy, increase environmen-
tal management of buildings, increase water conservation, increase water quality in neighbor-
hood streams, restore, enhance and protect tree canopy, increase use of greener modes of
transportation, increase the number and quality of local green businesses, and expand the
community’s green social capital. The figure below displays the list of goals on the webpage
as it initially appears, with the option to expose the related indicators of each by clicking the
plus sign.
Exposing the sub-categories to each listed goal reveals the primary indicators, targets,
and progress to date. It also suggests actions for the community and individuals of each. Fig-
ure 5 below demonstrates the opening of “Goal 9: Expand the Community’s Green Social
Capital,” revealing the primary indicators as the number of NSIP participants and activities
with a table of the targets and current status of progress, and the suggested community and
individual actions listed below.
22

Figure 5. Screenshot for Washington D.C. Indicator Format- Additional information available for
each goal as displayed clicking the plus sign next to Goal 9: Expand the Community’s ‘Green Social
Capital’. (Green Living DC 2014).

2.3.3 Boston
Another example, also hosted online is the Boston Indicators Project. For over a dec-
ade, the city has tracked data in 10 primary Sectors with six cross-cutting topics into 70 broad
goals with sub-categories of 150 indicators and almost 350 measures. The primary sectors
are civic vitality; cultural life and the arts; economy; education; environment and energy;
health; housing; public safety; technology; and transportation. Clicking on each sector opens
23
up its own webpage with a description of the indicator with links below the description for a
sector overview; key trends and challenges; and accomplishments and developments. The
following section provides a spotlight of the indicator with maps, blogs, data and other rele-
vant links with additional information on the sector. Figure 6 below displays the top of the
Housing sector webpage.

Figure 6. Top of the Housing Sector Webpage for Boston.- Details the sector with additional links and
a featured data visualization section if scrolled to below.

The use of maps is abundant throughout with the communication of data and infor-
mation displayed visually. Scrolling down the Housing web page is a dispersal of geographic
analysis with a multitude of links. It is clear that within each indicator are even more links and
a vast number of clicks that would be required to get to every map offered within each of the
ten sectors represented, truly testing the user’s attention span.
24
An even greater extent of data, information and detail on each of the cross-cutting top-
ics is included in the city of Boston’s sustainability methods. The cross-cutting topics are: Bos-
ton neighborhoods, children and youth, competitive edge, fiscal health, race and ethnicity, and
sustainable development. For each topic, a multitude of indicators hosting a pop-up with more
details can be expanded or collapsed. The figure below is a view of the Children and Youth
topic, which hosts an additional 34 indicators. The view in Figure 7 below has expanded indi-
cator “3.3.5 Families Living in Poverty”.

Figure 7. Screenshot of the Children & Youth Crosscut Topic by the city of Boston- Displays
the pop-up for the Families Living in Poverty indicator.

(Boston Foundation 2014).
25
The use of maps here again in this indicator subcategory is more graphical than as an
interactive focal point. Much of the same data presented in the multitude of maps throughout
the Boston website is included in the Oakland Sustainability Indicator web GIS. The extensive
navigation required in all of these urban examples of sustainability, could all be more compre-
hensively represented as multiple layers in an application all found under one uniform re-
source locator (URL).

2.4 Web GIS Applications
One example of providing sustainability indicator metrics at a glance is from the Santa
Monica Sustainable City Plan (SCP). Since the program began in 1994, targets have been
designed and redeveloped over the years with a strategy to minimize negative social and
environmental impacts. The SCP indicator system has evolved to provide specific goals that
can be measured for progress over time. By visually indexing a simple scale of 100 and using
the spider diagram in figure 8 below to illustrate such results, city staff are able to present
progress and results for easier comprehension.

Figure 8. Santa Monica Spider Diagram of Sustainability Indicators

(Bertone et al. 2006).
26
Though such a diagram meets the intention of easily communicating data, a mapping
application also combines the complexity of understanding the geographic element of a city
as well as allowing for interaction to engage the user and provoke greater interest.
There are very few interactive web GIS maps representing progress in sustainability or
any kind of classification, evaluation or analysis of metrics. The Explore Santa Monica GIS
Applications does offer the interactive component, allowing users to zoom to neighborhood,
move the map, add mark-ups for remote viewing, and toggle selected layer visibility. There
are 12 layers under their Sustainable City folder including locations that can be classified as
alternative vehicle fueling, community garden, green business, and oil recycling centers. The
screenshot below offers a view of the interactive map with these layers selected for view.

Figure 9: Screenshot of Explore Santa Monica web GIS Application- View with all but the sustainable
city folder collapsed.

(City of Santa Monica 2013).
27
The Open Green Map System (GMS), has hundreds of participants from cities around
the world utilizing their methodology with mapping tools and legend of icons signifying
sustainability. This symbology includes graphic representations for recycling, urban gardens,
renewable power, and public transit to name a few. Some of the U.S. cities taking part in this
initiative include Baltimore, Long Beach, Detroit, and Jersey City, which host interactive
versions of this mapping technique. Figure 10 below is an interactive web GIS application
using this methodology for Baltimore, Maryland.

Figure 10. Baltimore Maryland’s Web GIS- Uses the Open Green Map methodology.

(Green Map 2014).
28
Although the symbology in the Santa Monica and Open Green Map applications
represent an extensive array of locations associated with sustainability, they provide no
metrics or criteria to demonstrate any type of performance index. A user of these maps may
be able to find locations in a city that have been categorized as sustainable, but such maps
offer no way to differentiate conditions between neighborhoods or inform efforts to improve
sustainability.
In another web GIS example of sustainability, the Canadian city of Surrey provides
comparative data of performance over time in indicator themes including transportation,
energy, housing, and more, though much of the spatial information is not represented as
such. For example, figure 11 below demonstrates choosing the ecosystems theme in the list
on the left of the webpage, and the park land indicator from the associated drop-down box.
This reveals a graph of acreage by type, although this type of indicator would be well suited
for geographic representation.

Figure 11. City of Surrey’s Sustainability Dashboard- Demonstrating the park land indicator.
29
For indicators that are displayed geographically, similar to the Santa Monica and Green
Map methodologies, they simply display certain locations rather than any type of evaluation.
For example, under the growth and urban design theme, the interactive map simply shows the
locations of transit, town and city centers and green space (City of Surrey 2014).
The only interactive web GIS application found for comparison that is based on a
visualization of performance in sustainability indicators is the Environmental Performance
Index (EPI) developed by Yale University. The map covers an exhaustive list of indicators that
combine into an EPI score. These are classified into categories with sub-categories of
indicators. For example, the forests category is characterized by the forest loss, forest cover
range and growing stock change indicators. Figure 12 below is a snapshot of this application
displaying the sulfur dioxide emissions per capita, which is an indicator of ecosystem vitality.

Figure 12: Environmental Performance Index Web GIS- Displaying layer for sulfur dioxide emissions per capita.

(Yale University 2013).

30
Although this application does provide an analysis of indicators as a measure in a
quality classification system, and could also be utilized to chart progress over time, the extent
is only available at the global scale so that these indicators can only be selected and viewed
in terms of countries. Overall, the reviewed web GIS applications for sustainability found for
comparative example, either lack as a measure of performance, are limited in spatial context,
or are not available at the extent of the city. This project intends to meet these criteria.

31
CHAPTER THREE: STUDY METHODS AND APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
The following chapter will discuss the study methods used to process the sustainability
indicators and the development of the web GIS application from data to browser. There are
three interactive maps on the hosting webpage, each using the data visualization capabilities
of GIS, delivered as interactive content to the public through the internet. The first map is
based on data provided by the Smart Location Database, Natural Resource Inventory Projects
database, and the Vulnerability Index created by the Pacific Institute, as well as social media
resources. The second is based on California landmarks from USC’s Geoportal and a .kml file
of Google “culture” and “community” keyword results. The third map is based on EPA data
accessed through the EPA application programming interface (API) and is described at the
end of this chapter.
This project builds customized spatial metrics for Oakland’s sustainability indicators
based on already available data. Several elements in Oakland’s existing set of sustainability
indicators were confirmed to have pre-existing spatial data sets suitable for a web GIS
application. Indicators are mostly based on existing data and analysis provided by a
combination of non-profit organizations and government departments. The Web GIS
application draws its credibility from the analysis and methodology employed by each.
The data determined representative of sustainability indicators were processed through
ArcMap and published to ArcGIS Representational Estate Transfer (REST) services. With
access to the ArcGIS spatial database server, the processed data layers representing the
indicators were customized into web applications. The application for the first map was
selected to enable the AGI component of the culture and community layer via the social
media keywords, while displaying the sustainability indicators. The second map uses a
template enabling the PPGIS component of the culture and community indicator, allowing for
32
edits and feedback to be collected from user input. The API for ArcGIS and the EPA were
used to publish the components of the web applications which were then all coded into an
Extensible HyperText Markup Language (xhtml) document with Adobe’s Dreamweaver and
then published to USC’s student server at
http://www-scf.usc.edu/~gblackle/OaklandSustainability/index.html. The applications were
tested and are functional in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox browsers. Figure 13 illustrates this
process of authoring the data for representation, hosting it on a server and programming the
method of delivery for use.

Figure 13. Flowchart- Illustrating Application Development from data to visualization.

33
3.1 Oakland Indicators
The city of Oakland has produced an Annual Sustainability Report since 2001 featuring
six general elements highlighted in their publications. The elements in Oakland's
Sustainability Report are: buildings, energy, and climate; economic prosperity; education,
culture, and community; health, safety and well-being; housing, land use and transportation;
natural resources, water and environmental health (City of Oakland 2013). Though the city of
Oakland has determined targets of sustainability, these are slightly altered to accommodate
spatial visualization. Of the various approaches available, working with the City of Oakland to
incorporate local and national sustainability targets into this web GIS application would be the
preferred means of evaluating sustainability for the indicators based on the elements listed
above.
Working from the established elements in Oakland's Sustainability Report, my research
focused on combining existing strategies and tools of sustainability into an application
accessible through a web-based environment. For the purposes of this project and based on
available data, the following established elements of Oakland’s Sustainability are spatially
represented as: climate change vulnerability; economic availability; housing; transit
accessibility; natural resources project inventory; culture and community. As a note, although
the Oakland Sustainability Report combines housing and transportation into one indicator
category, a spatial visualization of these elements is more clearly represented as individual
layers. The indicators and the customized spatial metrics for this web GIS are listed in Table 1
below.

34
Table 1. Sustainability Indicators customized from Oakland’s Sustainability Report.
Indicator Categories from Oakland’s
Sustainability Report
Customized Indicators for Web GIS
Buildings, Energy and Climate Climate Change Vulnerability
Housing, Land Use and Transportation Housing
Transit Accessibility
Economic Prosperity Employment Availability
Natural Resources, Waste and
Environmental Health
Natural Resources Projects Inventory
Education, Culture, and Community Culture and Community

Versioning, or documenting changes over time, could work to provide the means with
which a measure can be established. This could be done by visualizing the differences
between past and emerging data from the future, or according to targets either established
through additional research or set by the city of Oakland. The various formulas and measuring
strategies of these indicators are intended as spatial measurements of sustainability. The
following describes existing transparent methodologies and/or customizations of these
elements, for a brief summary of how the above goal can be met. This is followed by a section
on the programming and preparation of the spatial data.

3.1.1 Climate Change Vulnerability Indicator
Because energy and climate data were not readily found to inform such an indicator
definition, the most related GIS download freely available is the report, “Social Vulnerability to
Climate Change in California” documenting a GIS analysis of the state of California with
complete availability to the data used and maps created. The report contains literature
reviews of the techniques used in the indexed measurement produced by the Pacific Institute.
35
The impacts projected through the study include extreme heat, sea level rise, drought,
flooding, erosion, wildfires, infectious disease outbreaks, degradation to air quality and
diminished water availability. Along with geographic and environmental factors, social and
economic factors such as age, socio-economic status, and transit accessibility are also
considered in the analysis of community preparation, response, and ability to recover from
climate change conditions.
The methodology employed is based on studies that show how social factors affect the
responsiveness of various communities to natural disasters such as those expected and
predicted from climate change. Researchers analyzed geographic tracts according to factors
(i.e. elderly, low income, outdoor workers, treeless areas etc.) that would affect the community
response to climate change conditions (i.e. natural disasters, sea level rise, heat waves etc.).
The table in figure 14 organizes these conditions into attributes (Cooley et al. 2012).
Figure 14: Climate Change Vulnerability Attributes- View of data included in vulnerability analysis.

36
3.1.1.1 Spatial / Web GIS Value
The analysis detailed by Cooley et al. (2012) results in a vulnerability index combining
ratings on nineteen indicators into a single climate vulnerability score and mapped for census
tracts. In all, the social vulnerability index used 19 different factors for 7,049 census tracts
across California. Geographic data featuring the severity of projected climate change impacts
and data representing social vulnerability indicators was used. These were overlaid to indi-
cate areas where exposure and vulnerability were rated according to a customization of the
Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI), formulated by Cutter et al. (2003). The composite is divided
into three ranges of overall scores with the lowest vulnerability falling below the 33
rd
percen-
tile, medium between 33
rd
and 66
th
percentile and the highest vulnerability falling above that
range. These rankings are translated as scores of high, medium, and low vulnerability. (Coo-
ley et al. 2012).
The ability to view this data and analysis as a geographic representation, allows for
planners and city officials to clearly see which areas may be most prone to changing climate
conditions. Making this information locational, can help to determine where resources should
be deployed and for what to investigate in certain areas as conditions related to climate
change emerge.
3.1.1.2 Data Source
Data and analysis for the Climate Change Vulnerability indicator is provided by the
Pacific Institute. Based in Oakland, Ca., the Institute was founded in 1987 with a mission to
create sustainable communities. The institute conducts research to advance sustainability
through environmental protection, economic development, and social equity with science-
based solutions. By partnering with stakeholders, publishing reports, advocating for
recommendations between decision makers and advocacy groups, the Institute works to
37
contribute social and political change. The 2012 report, “Social Vulnerability to Climate
Change in California” illustrated the need for adaptation planning using study maps for
projection analysis (Cooley, et al. 2012).
3.1.2 Housing
The Smart Location Database (SLD) managed by the Environmental Protection Agency
(2013) informs the indicator for economic availability. The HH variable provides the count of
occupied household units as documented in the 2010 census. Wheeler (2013) discusses the
potential of infill development to bring sustainability into the places that citizens call home. As
the contemporary definition of sustainability considers the value of equity, planning should
consider the location of hazards, pollution, affordable housing, poverty, traffic noise and other
externalities affecting urban residents.
To implement in-fill development Wheeler (2013) recommends reinvigorating old
downtowns with buildings that support shops and businesses at the sidewalk level and
residential towers in the upper three to five floors as an example of such in-fill potential. While
existing single floor buildings, parking lots and failed shops are good candidates for such
renewal, accommodations should be made to preserve existing residential housing and
historic buildings.
Arterial strips with fast and wide lanes of heavy traffic lined with single story stores, gas
stations, and fast food restaurants are another candidate to in-fill for sustainability by
becoming pedestrian centered with plazas, narrowed streets, mini parks, and courtyards.
Some have even become strictly pedestrian allowing deliveries to businesses only in the early
morning. Duplexes and townhouses with wide set back walkways could introduce residents to
such areas that often have been restricted with outdated zoning laws that should be revisited
and updated.
38
Even existing neighborhoods can become more dense by allowing for the remodeling
of basements and attics, often already done, to legally allow housing for elderly, students, and
single people that need less space, providing affordability for them and income potential for
the homeowners. Often, integrating shops and businesses into these communities also
requires an update to old restrictive laws unnecessarily separating them from residential
development.
For more blank slate development, reusing the sites of old malls, railroads, military,
factories and so forth, offers another opportunity for in-fill. Though often these areas are
categorized as brownfields, the cleanup required does make a contribution to the ecology of
the city and may even qualify for federal support as a superfund site (Wheeler 2013).
3.1.2.1 Spatial / Web GIS Value
A visualization of the density that housing units and residents are currently located can
aid planners in determining where infill potential may exist, where housing may be lacking or
where housing is abundant and in need of nearby businesses and services. Other benefits to
the spatial understanding of this indicator could answer questions of equity where housing
units exist. Are desired amenities of green space, fresh food resources, and public transit
equally available throughout the urban landscape? Does economic development support di-
verse employment with businesses that hire locally for living wages? The ability to map such
features can offer a foundation for the mitigation of these issues to ensure these values.
Putting a geographic context to housing also addresses some of the policy dilemmas brought
up as well by Wheeler (2013). This includes re-visioning the future direction of development
projects with the community, armed with studies that have shown how infill overwhelmingly
increases property values and overall neighborhood amenities to help overcome opposition
from NIMBY attitudes that may exist towards planning for density (Wheeler 2013).
39
3.1.2.2 Data Source
The Housing indicator is represented by data and analysis provided by the Partnership
for Sustainable Communities (Environmental Protection Agency 2013). This partnership is
between the U.S. federal agencies, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD),
Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “The
Smart Location Database” is a GIS data resource developed nationwide to provide accessible
performance measurement of sustainability indicators for U.S. communities. The basis of
measurement standards fall under the established “Livability Principles” around
transportation, housing, economy, mixed-use communities, the coordination of federal policy
and funding, and the valuation of neighborhoods. This resource, designed by the EPA in 2011
and updated in July 2013, provides a summary of 90 attributes characterizing housing,
demographics, transit, and urban economics. The data are acquired from the 2010 census,
five-year demographic estimates from the American Community Survey (ACS), the
Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD), InfoUSA, and NAVTEQ, all at the
Census Block Group (CBG) extent of analysis (EPA 2013a).
3.1.3 Transit Accessibility
This indicator was also informed through the Smart Location Database (SLD), with
completed analysis done by the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. The Transit
Accessibility indicator is based on distance from population-weighted CBG centroids to
nearest transit stop. The D4a layer is converted to miles and displayed as the centers of block
groups as 0.75, .0.50 and 0.25 miles or less from public transit services.
40
3.1.3.1 Spatial / Web GIS Value
Transit Accessibility translates easily into a spatial metric as the location of public
transportation naturally conveys the potential for citizens to choose more sustainable travel
options. Although it is noted by Moran (2013) that data generally shows public transit riders
walking further than ¼ for service locations, it is also recognized that planners ideally like to
adhere to a five minute walk rule, or ¼ mile, for residents to access stops and stations provid-
ing service. Keeping to this limit is promoted to improve environmental health by decreasing
fuel consumption and exhaust while improving public health by incentivizing activity with the
development of pedestrian access to these locations (Moran 2013). The transit accessibility
layer of this web GIS clearly reveals the geographic locations in Oakland that either meet this
rule of thumb or do not.
3.1.3.2 Data Source
Like the housing indicator, the public transit accessibility indicator is also represented
by the “The Smart Location Database”, hosting data and analysis provided by the Partnership
for Sustainable Communities.
3.1.4 Economic Availability
This indicator was also informed through the Smart Location Database (SLD), with
completed analysis done by the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. Part of the Land
Use Diversity variable, provides an analysis of jobs to population. This calculation labeled
“D2r_JobPop” is based on the values of the total population and total employment quantified
for each Census Block Group (CBG) and measured against a ratio of the regional average of
jobs/population. The analysis ranks a percentage from 0-1 with 1 as a ranking of a more di-
verse job to population ratio. The symbology is classified into three natural break groups of
0.00-0.207441 representing the lowest ranking in Oakland, 0.207442-0.550470 as the mid-
41
range and 0.550471-0.989072 as the highest score in their ranking calculation. From the SLD
user guide documentation, figure 16 below illustrates the formula used for this measure (EPA
2013a).
Figure 16: D2r_JobPop Land Use Diversity Segment from Smart Location Database-
Table detailing the calculation of the Employment Availability Indicator by the Partnership for
Sustainable Communities.

3.1.4.1 Spatial / Web GIS Value
The geographic representation of this indicator is visualized and mapped at the CBG
level. The tracts illustrate diversity and density of employment in association with population
suggesting more or less availability. The geographic representation of density, a sought after
feature for sustainability, helps planners to better add the convenience of nearby jobs and
businesses as well as cafes, shops, and restaurants for vitality to isolated neighborhoods or
to find those with infill potential. Wheeler (2013) also advises that zoning considerations for
sustainability planning restrict the size of retail distributors to reign in the tendency of big box
stores to kill small and local businesses. This ensures that employment is available in a range
of specialty and income levels that a diverse demographic would need (Wheeler 2013). Know-
ing where employment opportunities are more or less dense, can aid in planning for a diverse
mix of many businesses to support a diversity of jobs for the diversity of people living nearby.

42
3.1.4.2 Data Source
Like the housing and transit accessibility indicator, the indicator for employment
availability is also represented by the “The Smart Location Database”, hosting data and
analysis provided by the Partnership for Sustainable Communities.
3.1.5 Natural Resource Projects Inventory
The Environmental Goals and Policy Report (EGPR), released under the Governor’s
Office of Planning & Research defines targets and indicators aimed at a future scenario faced
with the pressures of climate change and a population of 50 million. To “preserve and steward
the state’s lands and natural resources” is among the actions in the five metrics categories
within the report, to fulfill the objective of sustainability. Further, to meet this broad vision of
conservation, the report recommends increasing ecosystem services and biodiversity, pro-
moting green infrastructure, and preserving agricultural lands and forestry (Governor’s Office
of Planning & Research 2013). In consideration of state policy objectives, the vague metrics
of state environmental goals imply the increase of ecosystem services and diversity as corre-
lating with recent policy. This layer is represented by an inventory of projects within Oakland
aim to enhance and preserve the ecosystem and biodiversity within Oakland.
3.1.5.1 Spatial / Web GIS Value
This indicator of sustainability focused on the increase and preservation of natural re-
sources can be informed by showing where projects intending to do so have taken place. As
all neighborhoods should in some way host its own variety of ecology, mapping projects ad-
hering to the Governor’s directives, communicates which areas may not be meeting this policy
objective to increase biodiversity and so forth. Also, overlaying this feature layer on a base-
map of the terrain, may reveal areas in Oakland with the potential to meet this policy goal to a
greater degree by hosting larger areas of environmental assets.
43
3.1.5.2 Data Source
The natural resources projects indicator is represented by the Natural Resource
(NRPI). This GIS resource is produced by the California Biodiversity Council and the
University of California at Davis Information Center for the Environment. The collaboration has
produced a comprehensive electronic database of conservation, mitigation and restoration
projects. The NRPI is divided into three subcategories: The California ecological restoration
projects inventory, a watershed projects inventory, and a noxious weed control inventory. This
database includes an inventory of over 8,000 natural resource projects throughout California.
A few of the 49 such projects located in Oakland include Alameda Creek steelhead
restoration, lower watershed assessment and outreach program, Robert’s Landing marsh,
Bridgeview meadows erosion control utilizing native plants, and Alameda County pungrass
eradication projects (U.S. Department of the Interior 2013).
3.1.6 Culture and Community
A satisfaction grading survey has been offered to communities as a means to evaluate
locations, cultural events, service spots and recreational sites for satisfaction as an indicator
of sustainable communities. Other examples of rating of green neighborhoods include the
Vital Signs for Metro Vancouver to quantify liveability and community vitality, Seattle's
Happiness Report Card, and LEED-ND to rate green neighborhoods (Holden 2013; Bertone et
al. 2006). To some degree, these other ratings systems are also crowd-sourced and rely on
subjective impressions of community members. A layer of Oakland cultural sites and
landmarks was used as the foundation for input of the collected information from photos to
reviews of activities and events. These features are presented in an online format welcoming
the public to document such surveys for locations and events they have attended in their
communities. In some sense, a rapidly updateable spatial inventory of community cultural
44
resources acts like a state indicator for this element in Oakland’s SI framework. These options
allow for a collective view of the value a place might hold to be demonstrated by user input.
3.1.6.1 Spatial / Web GIS Value
Integrating the application with VGI and AGI through social media to display the areas
in Oakland that have been geo-referenced and cataloged with certain keywords goes further
to increase the representation of Culture and Community as a spatial indicator for Oakland,
Ca. Through social media activity, the number and areas where the most users show activity,
acts as an indicator by demonstrating where and at what level specific areas are abundant or
in what neighborhoods they may be lacking. Keywords were also used in Google Maps to
combine additional features with the landmark layer so that libraries, museums and
performing arts theaters not in the Ca_Landmarks layer could also be represented.
3.1.6.2 Data Source
Data for the Culture and Community indicator is provided by the U.S. Census Bureau,
Google Maps, and the social media sites Instagram, Flickr, Twitter, Youtube and
Webcam.travel. The USC Geoportal hosts a layer of California landmarks which is a part of
the U.S. Census Bureau’s Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing
(TIGER) database. Results from a keyword search of culture and community locations in Oak-
land using Google Maps is combined with the landmarks layer to provide a starting point for
the addition of volunteered geographic information. Other social media points informing the
culture and community indicator are provided by user contributions to Instagram, Flickr, Twit-
ter, Youtube and Webcam.travel. These sites share text, photos and videos which the web
GIS application will select and display according to the recorded or ambient geographic data.

45
3.2 Preparation of Spatial Data and Programming
The spatial databases providing resources for this case study are indexed in table 2.

Table 2. Sustainability Indicator Data Sources and Preparation

These customized sustainability indictors were each visualized in ArcGIS desktop and
clipped to the city’s municipal boundaries. The “Climate Change Vulnerability” layer was
classified to display social vulnerability in red with three ranking categories from most
vulnerable to moderately and least vulnerable areas. This classification is based on analysis
Layer Climate
Change
Vulnerability
Housing Public
Transit
Accessibility
Employment
Availability
Natural
Resources
Projects
Inventory
Culture and
Community
Source The Pacific
Institute
Smart
Location
Database
Smart
Location
Database
Smart
Location
Database
State of
California
GeoPortal
USC
GeoPortal,
Google Maps,
Instagram,
Flickr, Twitter,
Youtube and
Webcam.travel
Preparation The social
vulnerability
index was
symbolized
in red from
high to low
climate
change
vulnerability
risk levels.
The
housing
indicator
is
symbolize
d in three
shades of
orange
for the
natural
breaks of
housing
units per
CBG
The transit
accessibility
indicator is
displayed in
three
shades of
green with
light green
for under
0.25 miles,
green under
0.50 and
dark green
for under
0.75 miles
from transit.
Employment
availability is
symbolized
in blue by
three natural
breaks from
most to
least
workers
ratio to jobs
as
compared to
the regional
average.
Natural
Resource
Projects
are
represente
d as green
point
locations.
The first map
displays social
media as
Instagram,
Flickr, Twitter,
Youtube,
and/or
Webcam.travel
point icons.
The second
editable PPGIS
application
displays
landmarks and
culturally
relevant
locations in
purple
polygons.
46
performed by the Pacific Institute using social and spatial attributes to determine conditions in
terms of vulnerability faced by populations under circumstances of climate change.
The “Housing Indicator” is based on the Smart Location Database (SLD) records from
the U.S. census report of number of housing units per CBG. These range from 0-1389 units
per CBG, which are symbolized in three natural breaks as shades of orange. The
“Employment Availability” layer, informed by the SLD as well, is also ranked into three
separate divisions, as most, moderate, and least availability of employment based on a
classification of natural breaks to display ratio of jobs to workers as compared to the regional
average. Also from the SLD, the “Transit Accessibility” indicator symbolizes the distance from
the center of each CBG, as under 0.75 miles away from public transit services, under 0.50
miles away and under 0.25 miles away from public transit.
The “Natural Resources Projects Inventory” layer represents point locations of projects
that are focused on the conservation, mitigation, and restoration of natural resources, clipped
to Oakland, Ca. The attributes of each project are title, abstract, purpose, project date, survey
date, cooperator, resource issue, species, county, habitat, programs, and contact. These are
displayed as 49 yellow point location markers throughout Oakland.
For the “Culture and Community” indicator, the USC GeoPortal provided a layer of
California landmarks (i.e., “Ca_Landmarks”) which were clipped to Oakland, Ca. The project
also used Google Maps, searching the keywords culture, community, art, museum, theater,
youth, urban, garden, and center. From these results, I added appropriate features
representative of culture and community, aggregating all locations to create a customized
map, exporting selected features as a .kml file to use with ArcGIS desktop. The points were
converted into polygon features after converting the .kml into a shapefile. The data could then
be merged with the polygon features of the Ca_Landmarks layer. Some of these feature
47
locations include the Allendale Recreation Center, Brookdale Park, Foothill Meadows,
Downtown Oakland YMCA, Oakland Center for the Arts, Oakland Museum of California,
Oakland Zoo, and more, for a total of 89 feature locations.
The customized map for the “culture and community” indicator was then developed
further as a base map for public participation GIS (PPGIS) tool. Many of the attribute columns
were hidden or deleted, and five fields were added to allow for multiple feedback input from
users. Using the ArcGIS USC_SSI account, a feature service layer was published with the
capabilities in the service editor set to allow for users to create, query, and update features.
This allowed for the “Culture and Community” indicator layer to serve as a starting point for
the addition of volunteered geographic information of cultural events and activities. These
capabilities allow users to click on the map to add and describe attributes of polygons as
geometric features or to edit the attributes of existing features by clicking on existing polygons
in the Culture and Community layer.
The feature service layers are hosted using the ArcGIS Server Manager through the
REST protocol of the ArcGIS.com server. After making the services publicly accessible to
everyone, I then logged into ArcGIS.com and added all of the published layers to a web map
and configured them into a social media mapping application. The social media layer hosts
markers from selectable social media websites geo-referenced to Oakland, Ca. and uploaded
with the keywords culture, community, landmarks, and events. Figure 17 is this web map.
48
Figure 17. Oakland Sustainability Indicators Web Map Application- Hosted through USC_SSI ArcGIS
REST Services at:
http://uscssi.maps.arcgis.com/apps/SocialMedia/index.html?appid=7557e578281b4319a662705e211f8267

Table 3 below offers a summary of the steps involved in the reproduction, customization and
maintenance of a web GIS for urban sustainability indicators.
Table 3. Web GIS application development. Steps, Overview and Process from data to maintenance.
Steps to WebGIS Application Development for Sustainability Indicators
# Overview Process
1 Determine representative in-
dicators of sustainability for
municipal target
This project customized pre-determined indicators
based on municipal sustainability program
2 Determine data to represent
sustainability indicators
Data can be developed or existing. The Smart Loca-
tion Database is a great resource developed by multi-
ple government agencies with the intention of inform-
ing sustainable urban development
49
3 Prepare data In ArcMap symbolize and prepare data as it should be
viewed in mapping application. Save each data layer
of the application as an individual layer in the Table of
Contents Layers of ArcMap. There should only be one
layer in each ArcMap document or .mxd that is saved
4 Have username and pass-
word access to ArcGIS server
Either set up your spatial data server or log-in to your
organization's account at ArcGIS.com
5 Connect to server from
ArcMap
In ArcMap, click File > Sign In from the main menu
and enter your username and password
6 Publish Feature Class Layers Each layer of the application will be published from
each map document individually. In ArcMap, click File
> Share As > Service from the main menu. In the
Share as Service window, select Publish a Service
and click Next. In the Publish a Service window, click
the drop-down box to select the server signed into in
Step 5, give your service a name, then click Continue.
In the Service Editor window, navigate from the left to
Capabilities and select Feature Access; in Feature
Access select the capabilities of each layer for the
users of your application; in Sharing select Everyone
(public). Make any other selections desired then click
Publish in the upper right of the window.
7 Login to ArcGIS.com Using a browser, go to arcgis.com and login
Click My Content from the top navigation bar, your
feature service layers should be listed.
8 Create web map Under My Content, select Create Map. Click Add >
Search for Layers. Add all of the layers to be includ-
ed in the application. Click the drop-down arrow next
to the layer name in the Contents area to customize
the name, pop-ups, table and more.
50
9 Export to Application After finalizing the web map, click Save and then
Share. In the Share window, select Everyone (pub-
lic), then click Make a Web Application. Select the
template of preferred capabilities. Under the Publish
drop-down, you can either select Preview; select
Download for all the necessary files onto your desk-
top; or click Publish > Save & Publish, then configure
your map options with the toolbar on the right and click
Save.
10 Future Maintenance Any changes to the application should be made to the
web map listed in My Content. Change application
configuration by selecting the application in My Con-
tent and then Configure App.

3.2.1 EPA Geo RSS
A third web application is included on the site with data provided by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to inform current updates in air, land, water, and toxic substance
conditions of Oakland Ca. This data is updated through a GeoRSS feed provided by the EPA
and embedded in another map also set to the extent of Oakland, Ca. with an assessment
summary displayed below the map. EPA “EnviroFacts Widgets” are also encoded to provide a
search tool for users to type in a geographic location to obtain greenhouse gas emissions as
reported by the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), hazardous waste, drinking
water reports, locations of facilities manufacturing or importing toxic substances, and a
multisystem search of environmental conditions in the specified area of interest. To customize
an EPA map of envirofacts and obtain code to publish, visit
http://www.epa.gov/emefdata/em4ef.home . Code for widgets can be found at:
http://www.epa.gov/enviro/facts/widgets.html (EPA 2013b) .
51

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS

To this point, the motivation for this project has been offered along with an introduction to
sustainability, urban planning, and a geographic vehicle to communicate customized
indicators with the inclusion of participatory planning. Coverage of related work included an
indicator method developed by SUD, web resources on urban sustainability indicators,
including those hosted for Oakland, Ca., and other actual web GIS applications. To follow the
study methods, indicator specifications and programming, the discussion of results for this
section will begin with an overview of the site and demonstration of each indicator.

4.1 Site Overview
The site hosting this web GIS application is made-up of four html navigation pages:
home, about, data, and contact. The “Home” page hosts the web GIS applications with a
Quick Start of capabilities and layer descriptions. The “About” page provides a more detailed
description of the indicators used in the application and an overview of sustainability. The “Da-
ta” page provides links and a description to the data used for this project and the “Contact”
link simply provides information of my name, email and phone number. Initially visible upon
opening the URL is the web GIS application of sustainability indicators with a Quick Start
guide to the right of the map. Figure 18 below is the initial view displaying the first map appli-
cation and navigation links at the top of the site. Each application contains the mapping func-
tions to search, zoom, pan, and user location finder. Exposing legend and layers provides util-
ity for data viewing with an additional level for attributes displayed as pop-ups.
52
Figure 18. Urban Sustainability Indicators of Oakland, Ca. Web Page- Partial view of opening
webpage showing the first application at the top
The hosting address is: http://www-scf.usc.edu/~gblackle/OaklandSustainability/index.html

Scrolling down the index page brings up the Culture and Community application. This
is the PPGIS capable map and a quick guide with basic instructions on the right. The poly-
gons on the map represent the landmark features that are the basis of the indicator. The pan-
el on the left is used to perform the functionalities to edit existing features or to add new ones.
Figure 19 below is a snapshot of the second PPGIS application.
53

Figure 19. Culture and Community PPGIS for Oakland, Ca.- View scrolling down webpage showing
the PPGIS application

Below the first two maps on the main web site is a map provided by the EPA for Oak-
land embedded with five widgets which query their database for specific environmental data:
greenhouse gases, hazardous waste reports, drinking water safety, facilities importing toxic
substances and a multisystem search-box tool. Following the EPA map are links concerning
air quality, water quality and hazardous waste. Figure 20 below shows a partial view of the
EPA GeoRSS feeds as displayed at the bottom of the page.

54

Figure 20. EPA GeoRss Feeds- View after scrolling to bottom of webpage showing the as a map,
search widgets, and the partial updated listed and graphical data.

55
4.2 Demonstration of Climate Change Vulnerability Indicator
Building upon this work to measure Oakland's sustainability in relation to climate
change is appropriate as the social vulnerability to such events is most likely what the public
and planners will find of greatest interest in regard to climate change scenarios. This total
feature class is categorized as a state indicator as the vulnerability rating from lowest to
highest risk areas establishes an identification of conditions to aid in the targeting of future
efforts. A planner or community member could click on any polygon to view the attributes
used in the vulnerability score calculation. Figure 25 below, shows the climate vulnerability
layer enabled with the analysis in red visible on the left. On the right, clicking on a high-risk
vulnerability block group reveals the area to have a high percentage of people in poverty,
foreign born, and of color. The actual vulnerability score is found scrolling to the bottom of the
pop-up boxes.

Figure 21: Climate Change Vulnerability Layer- On the left, Pacific Institute Analysis Indexed from
High to Low Vulnerability to Climate Change, displayed in red, and Clipped to Extent of Oakland, Ca
On the right, opening the Legend on the left displays the layer’s symbology with display of pop-up
attributes box clicked open.

56
4.3 Demonstration of Housing Indicator
The Housing indicator is displayed as three natural break categories with dark orange
as the areas of most housing, orange as the middle range and light orange as the areas with
least housing. As a current measurement of housing units, this is considered a state indicator.
Users are able to select any CBG of interest by clicking that area. As done in figure 22 below,
the left is the housing layer viewed alone. On the right, a section with a high number of
housing units is selected, opening up the pop-up to reveal attributes relevant to understanding
housing like the tract’s total population and total household units.

Figure 22: Housing Layer- On the left, Oakland Housing indicator is classified into low, mid and high
natural breaks and displayed in a color range from light to dark orange.
On the right, a CBG with a high number of housing units is selected to reveal the pop-up.

4.4 Demonstration of Transit Accessibility Indicator
The transit accessibility indicator displays areas ¾, ½ and ¼ of a mile away from public
transit service locations including the bus, Bart, Amtrak and Caltrans. From this analysis,
each distance range is given a solid layer in a range of green representing the CBG’s
accessibility to public transit. Dark green reveals the areas under ¾ of a mile from service
locations, the green under ½ mile and light green for areas most accessible and under ¼ of a
mile from public transit. This representation of current transit conditions acts as a state
57
indicator for accessibility. In the demonstration figure below, an area of ¾ of a mile or more is
clicked to display the pop-up attribute box with attributes such as number of pedestrian
intersections per square miles and frequency of transit service per square mile available.
Figure 23: Transit Accessibility Layer- On the left, a preview of Transit Accessibility layers displayed
as CBGs over ¾ mile, under ½ mile, and under ¼ mile in a range from dark to light green.
On the right, a pop-up reveals attributes for a selected block group.

4.5 Demonstration of Economic Availability Indicator
The display of economic availability is represented as a high to low color range of light
to dark blue. This is a state indicator as current conditions demonstrate the variation across
CBGs. Figure 24 below has clicked on a block group categorized as a strong balance of
worker to jobs ratio of selected CBG. The information in the resulting pop-up box reveal the
correlating attributes, such as percent of population of working age, to income ranges and
employment types. This could be of value to in-fill planning to determine where service, office,
or retail employment would be of most benefit in increasing the balance of jobs and housing
across the city.
58

Figure 24: Workers to Jobs Ratio- On the left, Oakland Employment Availability based on worker to
jobs ratio compared regionally and classified into three natural breaks
On the right, pop-up of attributes is displayed for a selected CBG.

4.6 Demonstration of Natural Resource Projects Inventory Indicator
Displaying progress towards this sustainability target in a web GIS would show the in-
crease or decrease of preserved lands and biodiversity over time, which can be characterized
in projects aimed at such objectives. Although only a current display of point locations hosting
natural resource based projects is used in this web GIS application, over time, a rating of a
color range scale could be introduced to indicate an increase or decrease in efforts to pro-
mote eco-system health and become a response indicator. The natural resource projects in-
ventory is hosted by UC Davis at http://www.ice.ucdavis.edu/nrpi/home.aspx . This data layer
acts as a state indicator, representing areas where conservation efforts have taken place.
Figure 29 below shows the points of inventory projects and legend on the left. On the right,
the selection of a point feature, displayed in yellow, reveals place name and project title
displayed in attributes of the pop-up box.
59

Figure 25: Natural Resources Layer- Preview of point locations in yellow, documented by the Natural
Resource Project Inventory. On the right, a data point is selected revealing the pop-up dialog.

4.7 Demonstration of Culture and Community Indicator
The culture and community indicator is displayed as separate components in two of the
applications on the same web page. The social media aspect displaying AGI data for the sites
Flickr, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and webcam.travel, can be selected at the bottom of the
first web app. Figure 26 below on the left, demonstrates the Instagram layer enabled and a
photo marker selected for preview.
The editable element of the culture and community indicator can be found by scrolling
below the top map of other indicators because of its VGI functionality. The polygons are dis-
played in purple with the option to add feedback to existing features or to add new features to
the map. As a PPGIS application, the community is able to participate in determining where
neighborhood assets are. Neighborhoods lacking in features of this indicator may provide the
reasoning to evaluate whether it is necessary to intervene for the creation of strategies to
build community. For the demonstration of this indicator in figure 26 below on the right, I add-
ed a polygon for the streets hosting the event for the Oakland Art Murmur along with the times
on the first Fridays of the month that it occurs in the feedback text box.
60

Figure 26: Social Media Layers- On the left, image pop-up selected in Instagram layer
On the right, preview of adding feature to culture and community PPGIS application.

4.8 Integrated Application Demonstration

With the maps featuring sustainability all on one webpage, the information is easily
viewable offering a tool for the community and planners. Perhaps a community of residents in
Oakland, after searching and viewing the data for their census block, have come together to
advocate for improvements to their neighborhood. They justify their demands by the low scor-
ing of all indicators across the board. The increased pressure from the community has gained
an allocation of a small budget for targeted development. A planner is now able to look at the
census block in full detail with the applications.
With the first application, the ratings for climate change vulnerability ad transit accessi-
bility rate moderately. However, the area is majority low income earners with a poor job to
worker balance and low housing stock. There have been no natural resource projects in the
area though with the Culture and Community PPGIS app, potential may exist from the Central
Reservoir Recreation Area feature included. There is however no social media markers in the
area, indicating that culture and community could potentially be included in the development
plans. Further down, analyzing the block group through the EPA application, no pollution re-
61
leases are indicated as a problem for the neighborhood. With limited funds for development of
the site, planners determine that areas to concentrate efforts in seeking in-fill opportunities to
introduce more jobs and housing to the neighborhood. The Central Reservoir Recreation Area
also becomes apparent as potential for the planners to launch educational events and activi-
ties that engaged the public in community and conservation. The PPGIS application could al-
so be used by these planners to work with the neighborhood in learning of other neighbor-
hood assets by asking residents to document locations in their area that they would like to see
preserved, restored or enhanced. This example demonstration is of course just one scenario
of use for these applications.

62
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION / CONCLUSION
In concluding this work, it should be mentioned that as a demonstration web GIS urban indi-
cator application, this work is not yet a part of Oakland’s sustainability programs or efforts.
Other than the presence of an existing sustainability indicator program, there was no special
reason to select Oakland as the city to demonstrate this project sample. Work with the estab-
lished sustainability program of any given city will reflect the unique conditions that each city
will bring in local efforts to advocate or advance sustainability. This concluding chapter dis-
cusses limitations faced during this project and includes results from an informal survey to test
the application. The most essential aspect in improving the quality of the map as a measure of
sustainability indicators would be to update the data over time in order to visualize the pro-
gression of changes as they relate to the notion of sustainability for Oakland, Ca. Also, some
consideration should be given to how the Web GIS tool demonstrated here might be integrat-
ed into the existing web page reporting for Oakland’s SI program. Last, this chapter discuss-
es implications of this project for future research on Web GIS for urban SI programs.
5.1 Limitations
Progress on this project inevitably met with a number of obstacles. One limitation was
the constraints on available data with which to represent determined indicators. Other chal-
lenges over the development process were evident during the application programming, in-
cluding limits on the integration of the maps and resulting in three separate map applications
within the single webpage. Though the third EPA map is not directly linked to any designated
indicators, it was included on the premise that real time air, land, water, and toxics data are
important to planners and the public in regards to sustainability and may be a valuable inclu-
sion to other programs attempting these methods. It is also important to note as a limitation,
63
that user feedback was not collected as a scientific survey, but merely as a limited request for
user experience.

5.2 Application Feedback
Fourteen residents of Oakland were asked to test and evaluate the web GIS applica-
tion and to complete a survey. The initial feedback was provided by eight participants that re-
sponded within 2 weeks with a survey of five questions, asked to gauge user opinion and ex-
perience as described in the Table 3 below. The informal survey was conducted with inter-
ested stakeholders in Oakland’s sustainability indicators. Survey respondents were not scien-
tifically sampled and the survey itself is not a detailed user study. Overall, the web GIS appli-
cation seemed to be acceptable to the initial users in communicating the information it was
designed to convey.
Table 4. Survey Questions
Survey Questions Answer Format
How would you rate how informative the first map
was to understanding sustainability in Oakland, Ca?
1 not informative -
5 very informative
Did you input a feature location or feedback on an
existing feature location on the 2nd map?
Open Ended
(What was the input you added?)
How would you rate your experience adding input? 1 difficult - 5 easy
How would you rate your overall experience with the
applications?
1 poor - 5 valuable
What is your overall feedback of the maps? Open Ended
(What you like or would improve?)

64
For the first question, ratings were quite positive for the information people perceived to
gain from the maps. Six respondents posted a top score of five for very informative, while two
gave a rating of four. The overall average for how informative users responded rated at 4.75.
For the second question, four respondents added a feature location into the Culture
and Community indicator. These inputs were an open microphone venue called “Air”, a per-
formance theater called “the Flight Deck”, a produce stand called “Phat Beets,” and the Studio
1 art studio. One respondent added feedback to the existing Temescal Park feature, remark-
ing about the availability of paved paths for stroller accessibility. Three respondents did not
add new features, just remarking on the layers or data. In question number three, the five re-
spondents that did add a feature or feedback, gave an average rating of 4 for overall experi-
ence in adding the input. Overall, they remarked on the ease of doing so, though one did reply
that it was necessary to read the instructions.
The fourth question, asking for overall experience with the applications, rated an aver-
age of 4.63 from the eight participants. Comments included with this answer included adjec-
tives like, “intuitive,” “good,” and “neat”, with one remarking it is valuable to any resident of
Oakland.
For the final more open-ended question for overall feedback, many of the comments
were generally positive. While one commented specifically on appreciation for the transit data,
three involved the social media photos. Of the suggestions offered, one critiqued the font face
used, one pointed out typo mistakes, and two inquired whether and how they could add pho-
tos.
These feedback results were incorporated into the final map revisions, correcting the
typos and text margin as well as including information on the map to instruct users on how to
add photos of their own to be displayed with the social media layer.
65

5.3 Integration of Web GIS with Oakland Sustainability Reporting
The city of Oakland currently hosts a Sustainable Oakland webpage with a section for
news and highlights, performance area achievements, photos, videos, links to the focus area
indicators, awards, adopted policies, and to the Sustainable Oakland Reports. A web GIS on
this initial webpage would work to complement the links to the focus areas by visualizing this
information at a glance. The Oakland Sustainability Reports are available for the various
years after it was first prepared in 1999. This tool could be customized to track the targets of
Oakland by organizing the data to display the progress of each area over time. As new data
becomes available, the tool could also be updated and compared with previous years. Anoth-
er potential use for the city of Oakland to use this web GIS application might be to determine
goals for each of the focus areas that could become a layer of its own in each indicator. The
toggling of this goal layer with the actual indicator layers, could clearly demonstrate whether
or not the specified goals were being met. These implementations into the city’s program
would increase the quality and value of these sustainability indicators by advancing them all
from state to response indicators.

5.4 Future Considerations
An addition to this project may be to complete the remaining indicators from Oakland’s
Sustainability Report. From the combined elements in the “buildings, energy, and climate”
indicator from Oakland’s report, (though energy is inclusive in the RSS feed provided by the
EPA and the “climate change vulnerability” layer covers climate) a future layer with data of
Oakland’s LEED certified or other sustainable standard of rating for building sustainability and
efficiency would be more conclusive. From the “education, culture, and community” indicator
66
from Oakland’s report, a layer of education levels could be added from the census to visualize
the geographic relationship to such attainment. The “health, safety and well-being” indicator is
also unresolved with this application development. A future addition of this information could
possibly come from the public health department and a map of type and number of crime
occurrences. Also lacking in the customizations within this application, from the “housing, land
use and transportation” indicator in Oakland’s report, land use is not included. This could
eventually be informed with data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
Other future contributions to this project would facilitate further public participation in
defining and determining what and where neighborhood assets are, with the accessibility of a
mobile device application. The use of cellphones and tablets to input these assets, would offer
more ease to better inform an inventory of culture and community. Capabilities of a future
mobile application would ultimately utilize the LocationService class to load to the user’s
location. This would enable the input of culture and community features while participants are
actively involved or at the location of the feature they may wish to add. The future mobile
application would also allow for captured photos and a rating option to be included with the
geo-referenced feature locations that users find of value. Being able to add point or polygon
features to the data could better demonstrate a collective view of where such places of value
are.
Additionally, monitoring of the input features collected through the PPGIS application,
would provide a level of quality assurance that the features added do exist or to circumvent
graffiti or advertising from the PPGIS map. Adding a log-in feature with created user accounts
could aid such efforts by adding a trace-back to connect the erroneous inputs with the users
making such additions. Many of these additional capabilities are accessible through
programming of web code, Android and Iphone developing environments, or from the
67
ArcGIS.com service features online.
Furthermore, as this project is simply a demonstration and not part of a municipal
sustainability program, no long-term maintenance has been put into place. An urban
sustainability program using such a tool, however, would need to consider a plan over time to
keep the application relevant. At a minimum, GIS project teams would need to follow the data
sources for the layers used in the map and create new GIS feature service layers in the
ArcGIS desktop environment as additional data becomes available.
As mentioned, the most valuable improvement that would come from ongoing
maintenance would be a progressive update over time of the established indicators. These
could be added as new layers that are time stamped over multiple years, so that the user can
toggle the visibility to compare the data layers from past to present. An additional layer could
even be created that represented progress over time, with a color range from red to green for
negative to positive activity between the given dates. Aside from data updates, continuing the
application presence would otherwise only require continual web hosting.

68
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Abstract (if available)

Abstract Anthropogenic climate change, growing populations, the decrease of essential resources, and the availability of funding to deal with these emerging conditions, provide the incentives for cities to mitigate and adapt through urban sustainability programs. Though web GIS applications visualizing features of sustainability do exist, few visualize actual sustainability indicators, and almost none visualize performance on the refined scale of the city. A web GIS application targeting such objectives with urban sustainability indicators was developed for Oakland, California. The application demonstrates a tool for planners and the public by creating a starting point for a time-referenced spatial view for the pace of progress. The six broad indicator elements determined by the city of Oakland’s Annual Sustainability Report worked as the foundation to customize spatially related indicators meeting specifications of quality in representation and function. These customized indicators are climate change vulnerability, employment availability, housing, public transit accessibility, natural resource project inventory, as well as culture and community. Another application with editing capabilities informs the culture and community indicator with volunteered geographic information (VGI). The features demonstrated in the applications’ functions include classifying methods of performance, a strategy-based approach informed with municipal policy, access to indicator attributes, as well as basic map capabilities allowing for zoom to neighborhood, toggling of individual indicator visibility, and an integration with social media resources. An overview of the steps in the application development process was documented. The application was made available for testing with a survey for feedback that was both utilized and acknowledged for future considerations.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Kiani, Gina A. (author)

Core Title Development of a Web GIS for urban sustainability indicators of Oakland, California

School College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Degree Master of Science

Degree Program Geographic Information Science and Technology

Publication Date 09/23/2014

Defense Date 08/20/2014

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag application,California,cities,climate change,Development,geographic,GIS,Housing,indicators,information,Map,natural resources,OAI-PMH Harvest,Oakland,Planning,programming,Science,sustainability,sustainable,technology,transportation,Urban,Web

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Vos, Robert O. (committee chair), Swift, Jennifer N. (committee member), Warshawsky, Daniel N. (committee member)

Creator Email gblackle@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-484049

Unique identifier UC11286793

Identifier etd-KianiGinaA-2983.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-484049 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-KianiGinaA-2983-0.pdf

Dmrecord 484049

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Kiani, Gina A.

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA