Community and Quality of Life Data Needs for Informed Decision Making (2002) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Pages 23-54
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 23... ...
Quality of life might refer to a citizen's satisfaction with residential environments, traffic, crime rate, employment opportunities, or the 23
|
From page 24... ...
Examples at these scales include Miami-Dade, Florida's, 79th Street Corridor revitalization; California's Smart Investment plan; and the Clinton-Gore administration's Livable Communities Initiative (U.S. White House Task Force on Livable Communities, 2000~.
|
From page 25... ...
In turn, working conditions shape individuals' and families' ability to secure decent housing and pay taxes to support adequate urban services and infrastructure, which translate into variations in community livability. As disparities in livability grow, those who are able to move out of the worst places and secure better residential environments do so, with much of the dispersal facilitated by regional transportation system investments, including highways and public transportation.
|
From page 26... ...
In addition, major cities of the developed world consume a disproportionate share of ecosystem resources such as water, forest, and aquatic ecosystem resources, as well as waste assimilation capacity. Central for many urban residents, especially communities made up of minorities, is a measure of environmental justice to ensure that no one segment of the population either suffers from disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards or is denied access to environmental amenities such as urban open space.
|
From page 27... ...
White House Task Force on Livable Communities, 2000~.
|
From page 28... ...
White House Task Force on Livable Communities, 2000~.
|
From page 31... ...
In the United States, communities that initiated local Agenda 21 programs tended to be in areas experiencing rapid economic growth where severe strains were imposed on environmental and cultural resources (Lake, 2000~. Increasingly, nonprofit organizations, whether working alone or in partnership with government agencies, have used such indicators to develop local, national, and regional campaigns.
|
From page 32... ...
Hart (1999) provides a comprehensive overview of sustainable community indicators.
|
From page 33... ...
CONCEPT OF O^~lTy AND GDlC~RS (onom~n~~nment 1 Sozzled ~ [ICORE 1.1 Community as three separate spheres. SOURCE: Hart (lggg~ / \ [ICORE 1.2 Community as three interconnected spheres.
|
From page 34... ...
Despite various conceptual underpinnings, ideas and indicators of livability do influence decision making on a variety of important fronts. There are numerous examples, ranging from transit-oriented urban developments, to local "smart growth" and sustainability plans, to state programs that redirect investment to neglected urban areas, all the way to the federal government's Livable Communities Initiative, a package of policy initiatives and partnerships developed by the U.S.
|
From page 35... ...
They also have been harnessed to measure and track livability. Sometimes, available sets of livability indicators, such as the U.S.
|
From page 36... ...
The ecological footprint described in Box 1.1 represents such a crosscutting measure. These indicators are expressed in units such as "miles of salmon run degraded per kilowatt of hydroelectrical energy produced and consumed per new job created by the aluminum sector." Similarly, the recognition that cultural or social capital is vital to the proper functioning and livability of communities translates into indicators such as "voluntary associates per capita" or "per capita hours of participation in communitybased activities." Other emerging types of indicators are linked to notions of nature or ecosystem services namely, the real work that the air, water, and soil do to keep the ambient environment clean and functioning as our
|
From page 37... ...
These indicators lead away from standard measures, such as "road miles per capita" toward measures such as "loss of stormwater absorption capacity per road mile constructed." In transportation planning, traditional system indicators, such as pedestrian volume or mean commute time, have been used more often than livability indicators. Traditional transportation measures focus on the performance of the transportation system, rather than on the economic, social, and environmental impacts of such systems on aspects of places and everyday life.
|
From page 38... ...
38 COMMUNITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE transportation system is, but also with the impact of all modes of transportation on the everyday life and health of residents and with the implications of transportation for the environment, especially land use, energy and materials consumption, and pollution. Such measures are increas
|
From page 39... ...
The choice of indicators is critical to enabling community members, planners, and decision makers to focus on the desired outcomes of transportation, land use, and economic development decisions and then to measure the attributes of livability that result from their actions. At a broader regional scale, in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Thomas Jefferson Sustainability Council has created a set of livability indicators for the Thomas Jefferson District Planning Council, the region's council of government (Box 1.4~.
|
From page 42... ...
Traditional transportation indicators are clearly most useful for relatively narrow transportation system investment, improvement, and management decisions; transportation-related livability indicators, in contrast, have more general applicability to the quality of life in a place as it relates to transportation infrastructure and utilization patterns (Box 1.5~. Increasingly, such indicators are being incorporated into livability studies by localities, metropolitan regions, and state-level planning efforts.
|
From page 43... ...
Neither standard livability indicator sets nor the more elaborate places-rated approaches that include many variables are adequate to capture the many critical dimensions of urban livability (Landis and Sawicki, 1998~. Major problems of standard indicators are listed in Table 1.4, and several of these problems are discussed below.
|
From page 44... ...
We can improve livability for people, for example, by augmenting their disposable income and thereby allowing them to leave a deteriorating neighborhood. Conversely, it is possible to increase a community's livability without helping any of its original residents who may in fact be displaced as the neighborhood improves and
|
From page 45... ...
Don't conflate indicators with reality 7. A democratic indicators program requires more than good public participation processes 8.
|
From page 46... ...
For example, although health indicators such as infant mortality are meaningful at both local and global scales, many transportation or mobility indicators have little relevance at the global scale. A case in point is "walkability," which can be measured only at a local scale and has relevance only up to a regional scale.
|
From page 47... ...
, "encourages the same fragmented view of the world that has historically led to some of our most serious problems." Linking indicators through the creation of crosscutting measures reveals that the preferred direction of indicator change is not always clear. Although in some cases the desired direction of indicator change may seem obvious (e.g., infant mortality should go down rather than up)
|
From page 48... ...
. Although they are reliable and often available at multiple geographic scales, such sets of indicators are predictably characterized by important gaps.
|
From page 49... ...
Environmental accidents such as oil spills require remediation of damage to natural habitats and wildlife, which costs money and raises GDP. Most people would agree that car accidents and oil spills do not increase the livability of an area, but like other traditional measures, GDP disregards the links among social, environmental, and economic aspects of livability in that it measures economic increases at the expense of society and the environment (see Figure 1.5~.
|
From page 50... ...
Indicators that matter in one place will be irrelevant in others; for example, in the Pacific Northwest, measuring the quantity and quality of salmon runs is considered important to conceptions of livability, while in other areas of the country the number of days that the air quality is "good," or the distance to medical facilities may be more salient indicators. Weighting Indicators Even if all participants in a livability indicators program agree on specific measures, the way such measures are weighted is critical.
|
From page 51... ...
Thus, selection of a set of livability indicators related to the economy that, for example, focuses on quantitative aspects of economic activity (i.e., rates of job creation and retention, average wages, etc.) may tell a very different story than a set of indicators that includes measures of qualitative growth.
|
From page 52... ...
1999. Guide to Sustainable Community Indicators, 2nd edition.
|
From page 53... ...
Washington, D.C.: Livable Communities Initiative. Wackernagel, M., and W
|
From page 54... ...
Forest Hills Garden, sketch: Station Square, Forest Hills, Long Island (Borough of Queens)
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.