Introduction to Urban Information Systems at MIT

Urban Information Systems (UIS) is a 'cross-cutting' group in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning that connects faculty, staff, and students with shared interests in how information and communication technologies are impacting urban planning. Some of us are studying the complex relationships underlying urban spatial structure and landuse, transportation, and environmental interactions. Others are building neighborhood information systems, modeling urban futures, facilitating public participation in planning processes, or experimenting with e-neighborhoods, community building, and the formation of social capital.

Much of our work involves the development and use of planning-related software and the spatial analysis tools and systems (such as GIS and distributed geoprocessing) that are increasingly important parts of metropolitan information infrastructures. However, our interests go beyond the development and use of specific technologies and extend to an examination of the ripple effects of computing, communications, and digital spatial information on current planning practices and methods and on the meaning and value of the communities and planning institutions that we form.

These are exciting times for planners in computing. Planners are integrating data analysis tools more tightly into their planning practice, while agencies and citizens are beginning to restructure their planning approaches to capitalize on the vast wealth of information currently coming online about people, places, and the interactions among them. Cities and community groups are using Web pages to deliver improved urban services; the Web is facilitating improved citizen access to government; and businesses and homeowners are integrating increasingly sophisticated information-based tools and sensors into all aspects of everyday life. Some of the consequences are unintended, and the tools and information flows have sometimes outstripped our capacity to manage and oversee their use. We are in the early stages of understanding an age of information-rich planning .

Research Focus

Information technologies can help planners improve the efficiency of metropolitan governments and markets, explore the nature of spatial interactions, and understand the composition and workings of communities. IT itself also serves as a significant stimulus for change, since it can affect the spatial relationships that shape our urban fabric. This raises a complex and interesting set of issues:

Will dense urban centers still be needed, as IT and telecommunications make time/place separation a less serious problem than in the past?

Can-and should-technology be used to manage the proliferation of urban sprawl?

Will technology facilitate further polarization of society and heighten the redlining of the poor and other minorities?

Is it possible to translate improved understanding of environmental impacts (such as air, water, and land pollution) into useful land use management and control structures?

Can technology help fill the gap between elegant but quickly outdated comprehensive master plans on the one hand, and site-by-site reviews on the other, which are forced to use unclear or constantly changing yardsticks for pacing growth, protecting environmental resources, and mitigating the marginal impacts of development?

To address these questions, Urban Informations Systems research at MIT has focused on three primary lines of inquiry to date.

First is the development of appropriate information infrastructures for handling digital spatial data. These infrastructures, in combination with networks and the World Wide Web, provide planners with easy, structured access to vast stores of online information, along with the tools for analysis and visualization that are needed to aggregate, manipulate, and recombine this information appropriately.

The second focus is on understanding urban spatial structure and modeling urban futures. This work involves using information technology to shed light on the relationships among land use, transportation, jobs accessibility, and community development.

The third area of study examines how IT and the Web can be used together to improve citizen access to planning-related debate and to better inform constituents about planning issues, through the use of representations aids that help in visualizing and debating urban futures.

As IT evolves and as our understanding of its planning implications improves, PSS research is beginning to shed light on the broader set of issues outlined above. We believe that the pathway toward answering such questions involves a mix of hands-on experience and informed reflection that draws upon the best of what MIT has to offer.

UIS Connections

As a cross-cutting group with diverse interests, members and projects of UIS span across department groups at MIT.

MIT GIS Library (at Rotch)

Government

Mass GIS (Massachusetts Geographic Information System)

FGDC (Federal Geographic Data Committee)

U.S. Census Bureau

U.S. HUD (US Department of Housing and Urban Development)

Others

ACSP (Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning)

APA (American Planning Association)

UCGIS (University Consortium of Geographic Information Science)

OGC (Open GIS Consortium, Inc.)