Visualizing Our Future: Using Mapping Charrettes to Support Local Planning

Municipal participation is part of New England culture and considered unique in land management. This participation is oftentimes spirited; the pressure for planners to answer simple questions arising from stakeholder meetings can be daunting. For instance: how well does public transport serve communities of color? Or: where is residential development likely to happen? These inquiries require immediate visualization—but how do we make results understandable to non-experts? In this course we’ll explore spatial questions confronting planners and produce meaningful graphics quickly. Students will encounter diverse, real-world problems in New England and evaluate the efficacy and efficiency of their mapmaking decisions.