Supporting urban design with open source geospatial technologies

Abstract

Urban designers collect information about a city or neighborhood, design improvements so that the city is functional and pleasant to live in, and communicate these improvements to relevant stakeholders. The use of space and the spatial relationships between physical features play a significant role in urban design, therefore much of the information that is collected and manipulated is georeferenced. We followed a scenario-based approach for collecting requirements for urban design projects. Functional and nonfunctional requirements were categorized into data collection, data storage and management, and data visualization. Subsequently, we reviewed and evaluated open source geospatial tools that can be used for the collection, storage, manipulation and visualization of geospatial data in urban design projects. Based on the evaluation, we propose an open geospatial toolbox for urban design projects. The results are equally applicable for researchers and professionals in other disciplines who collect data at the neighbourhood level.