Collaborative visualization tools for urban design

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Modern urban design practice includes extensive consultation with multiple stakeholders (city planners,developers, residents, merchants, and tourists). Often this is carried out through workshops and othercommunity-based events that follow a 'charrette-based' model in which participants actively explore alternativeurban designs and discuss the consequences from various perspectives. Working with industry partner EsriCanada, researchers will adapt Esri's geographic information system (GIS) software tools to integrate with anexisting research prototype that uses a multitouch tabletop display to support urban design charrettes. Theresearch will explore alternative representations and interaction techniques that can be used to providereal-time feedback to charrette participants in a variety of formats (2D map-based representations on thetabletop, 3D aerial and street-level views, and auxiliary information visualizations that supplement the GISviews). A key element of the research will be extensive usability testing with potential user communitiesincluding university urban design researchers, city planners, and interaction design experts as part of aniterative human-centred design process. The expected outcome will be a series of prototypes that test thefeasibility of integrating Esri's existing software tools with urban design collaborative visualization tools, aswell as design recommendations for future Esri software tools that may open new markets for Esri. Threeresearch questions will be pursued: (a) how to integrate full GIS capability into a multi-display environmentcomprising interactive touch tables, wall displays, and hand-held individual devices, (b) how to utilize GIS toprovide collaborative visual analytics for assessing sustainability implications of an urban design, and (c) howto achieve these goals using low-cost, commodity hardware and software components that deliver a 'walk upand use' experience for the general public while meeting the more sophisticated needs of the highly skilledprofessionals who facilitate the urban design process.