The Challenge with Planning is a Location Challenge

In Canada, the convergence of population growth, immigration, and a housing shortage presents a critical dilemma for city planners, impacting both large and small urban centers. In major cities where population density is pronounced, housing affordability remains a persistent issue. Simultaneously, an increase in rental rates adds to the strain on people’s cost of living expenses.  

To address immediate housing challenges, city planners are exploring short-term solutions such as expedited approval processes and repurposing underutilized spaces. However, it's crucial to implement these measures with careful consideration to ensure they align with, rather than undermine, long-term city planning goals. A holistic and collaborative approach emphasizes the need for coordination between policymakers, urban planners, infrastructure management planners, environmental experts, and community stakeholders. 

Such an approach should incorporate urban design that identifies infill opportunities to sustain the increasing population and housing density, so long as it is mindful of the impacts on the environment. By identifying suitable infill locations, city planners can optimize land use, mitigate environmental impact, and ensure efficient utilization of existing infrastructure. 

Commercial technology such as a geographic information system (GIS) helps planners answer these questions quickly. In a recent research project for a city in eastern Canada, our teams have found that rezoning, outmigration, and renaturalization of a flood-prone area zoned for residential and commercial development would be a suitable alternative to continued development and maintenance in this at-risk area. Simultaneously, through proposed rezoning of an underutilized commercial area to mixed use, these displaced jobs and residential opportunities could be accommodated along with many more. Furthermore, this upzoning would increase land value overall and tax revenue potential, thereby offsetting costs of infrastructure enhancements such as stormwater management infrastructure in the form of bioswales to intercept additional runoff generated from impermeable surfaces, like widened roads and sidewalks. Arriving at this recommendation took only one month. 

Fundamentally, applying a GIS approach to integrated planning provides a unique data-centric process to achieving the goals we have outlined above. A GIS organizes planning data so that information management can occur – it provides a unique opportunity to integrate how information is captured, managed, visualized, analyzed, and shared. We think of it as an ideal framework to create a scale model of the real world – a digital twin – where each layer of information is mapped and integrated by their location. In doing so, a GIS gives a common operating view of multiple data sources that are unified by geography, which ultimately drives better decision making.  

Why use a geographic framework? 

A GIS is an excellent framework for planning, risk assessment, and collaboration for the following reasons: 

• 80% of data has a spatial component and 65% of people are visual thinkers  

• A GIS provides the ability to understand complexities in data using spatial relationships 

• It allows anyone to leverage location as an inherent data integrator since it is the common denominator for all assets 

• The mapping can be accessed online and in real-time as a superior visualization capability over charts, tables, and PDFs 

• Multiple municipal departments including planning and utilities already have a GIS—integrating the data promotes data transparency and collaboration, and streamlines reporting to other government agencies