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Full-Text Articles in Urban Studies and Planning

From Data To Decisions In Local Government, Michael P. Johnson Jr. Jul 2019

From Data To Decisions In Local Government, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Making good decisions is essential to enabling local government to deliver services that improve the lives of constituents. But what is a good decision, and what is necessary to make good decisions? In this presentation, given to fellows of the Lead for America program, I introduce the notion of decision and data analytics, specific to the needs of resource-constrained local governments, provide three examples of analytics & decision opportunities ranging from mostly-qualitative to mostly-quantitative data and analysis, and end with three case studies that I had the Lead for America fellows perform.


Decision Modeling For Housing And Community Development: A Methodology For Evidence-Based Urban And Regional Planning, Michael P. Johnson Jr. Aug 2017

Decision Modeling For Housing And Community Development: A Methodology For Evidence-Based Urban And Regional Planning, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Urban community development corporations and other local institutions routinely face challenging problems in housing and economic development that require substantial expertise in data analytics and decision modeling. Recent research, inspired by local responses to the housing foreclosure crisis, and developed in cooperation with Boston-area CDCs, has resulted in a collection of applications that can assist CDCs and similar organizations to design local interventions for acquisition and redevelopment of housing. This paper describes these applications. The first of these is values and objective design, i.e. the process of identifying decision opportunities. The second of these is data analytics, or …


Community Data Analytics: Localized Data Analysis And Decision Modeling In The Era Of ‘Big Data’ And ‘Smart Cities’, Michael P. Johnson Jr. Jan 2017

Community Data Analytics: Localized Data Analysis And Decision Modeling In The Era Of ‘Big Data’ And ‘Smart Cities’, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

Community-based organizations use data for program design, services provision and strategic planning. However, CBOs often have limited ability to identify, access and apply these data. Thus, CBOs may make decisions on the basis of inadequate data, or limited understanding of the local environment, or limited ability to generate mission-aligned solutions.Community data analytics (CDA) uses local know-how and clearly-articulated values in order to transform data into action. CDA is rooted in principles of operations research and management science for public benefi#12;t. These principles include: active participation by local stakeholders to identify problems of interest; a critical perspective on issues of problem …


Data, Analytics And Community-Based Organizations: Transforming Data To Decisions For Community Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr. Dec 2014

Data, Analytics And Community-Based Organizations: Transforming Data To Decisions For Community Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

The past ten years have seen a revolution in two disciplines related to operations and strategy design. “Big Data” has transformed the theory and practice of producing and selling goods and services through methods associated with computer science and information technology. “Analytics” has popularized primarily quantitative models and methods by which organizations and systems can measure multiple aspects of performance. As these fields rely on information technology to collect, store, process and share data, we refer to the collection of knowledge and applications associated with Big Data and analytics as “data analytics and information technology.” The impacts of data analytics …