Cities worldwide are grappling with the challenge of managing complex urban development projects. From a small-scale renovation to a massive infrastructure overhaul, the process involves numerous stakeholders, vast amounts of data, and intricate workflows.
The City of New Haven leadership recognized the need for a modern, efficient solution to better understand their development project pipeline. They sought a tool that could not only provide a comprehensive visualization and analytical capability but also empower both planning and non-planning staff to participate effectively in the planning process.
The primary challenge was to find a tool that could cater to a diverse user base. We needed a flexible platform that would allow non-technical city staff to perform key planning workflows, such as creating new development projects and maintaining project attributes throughout their lifecycle. Simultaneously, the tool had to be robust enough for planning staff to perform sophisticated 3D analysis. The solution had to fully leverage the existing Esri ecosystem while remaining simple and intuitive enough to be adopted by all stakeholders involved in the development review process.
To address these needs, we designed a streamlined architecture using a powerful combination of Esri's suite of products: ArcGIS Experience Builder, ArcGIS Urban, and ArcGIS Dashboards.
This served as the user-friendly editor for non-planning staff. We built a simple application here that allowed anyone to easily create a new development project, simplifying data entry and democratizing the planning workflow. As soon as a development project was created in Experience Builder, it was displayed in ArcGIS Urban as a contextual layer where the planning staff designed and expanded the new projects, ensuring data consistency.
Plans created in Experience Builder by non-planning staff
This was our core analytical and visualization engine. It provided a powerful 3D environment for planning staff to analyze development proposals and model future scenarios. Planners could understand a project’s impact on the urban landscape, from shadow studies to view corridors, empowering them to make more informed decisions. ArcGIS Urban’s tools also allowed us to provide more contextual information which sprang life into the project.
ArcGIS Urban used to create 3D Projects
This served as a single source of truth for city leadership and editors. It provided a high-level overview by displaying key project metrics and statuses in real-time, giving executives a clear, concise understanding of the entire development pipeline. The presence of the Experience based Editor within the Dashboard created a unified view of the reviewer and planner application reducing the need to view multiple applications.
Projects viewed in ArcGIS Urban
This integrated approach successfully solved the city's problem by providing a unified, user-friendly platform. The benefits were immediate:
By leveraging the full potential of the Esri ecosystem, we created a solution that was not only technologically advanced but also highly accessible, ensuring its long-term success.