Sustainable Neighborhoods Planning Tool

Project prepared for the City of San Antonio’s

Office of Environmental Policy

Hazem Rashed-Ali, Ph.D.

Chunlin Lin - Halit Beyaztas

Texas Trails & Active Transportation Conference

Texas Bike/Ped Summit • February 1-3, 2012 · San Antonio, TX

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

•  Implementing the INDEX GIS‐based planning software in the city of San Antonio,

•  Identifying and measuring different sustainability performance indicators across the city,

•  Supporting planning efforts to reduce energy and water consumption, vehicle miles of travel, pollution emissions (including greenhouse gas emissions), and the carbon footprint of the city,

•  Quantifying other sustainability metrics as needed.

THE INDEX TOOL

•  INDEX PlanBuilder is an interactive GIS-based planning support system designed to assist in community planning and development,

•  INDEX PlanBuilder includes capabilities for: –  Measurement of existing conditions, –  Creation of future scenarios, –  Evaluation of alternatives, and –  Implementation of adopted plans.

•  INDEX can calculate 89 indicators in the following categories: - Demographics - Recreation - Land Use - Environment - Housing - Travel - Employment - Climate Change

THE INDEX TOOL

HOW INDEX WORKs?

INDICATOR SELECTION

RATING AND WEIGHTING

HOW TO WEIGHT?

FINAL NUMERIC PRODUCT

FINAL MAP PRODUCT

COMPARING ALTERNATIVES

METHODOLOGY

•  DATA COLLECTION: - CITY OF SAN ANTONIO PLANNING DEPARTMENT - MPO - BCAD - SAWS - VIA - CPS (pending)

•  IDENTIFICATION OF TARGET NEIGHBORHOODS

•  DATA PROCESSING: -INDEX READ SPECIFIC FORM OF GIS DATA

•  INDICATOR SELECTION:

•  SETTING TRESHOLDS for EACH INDICATOR:

•  EXISTING / FUTURE CONDITIONS SCENARIO

•  GENERATING NUMERICAL AND SPATIAL RESULTS

APPLICATION

•  MODEL DEVELOPMENT / INDICATOR SELECTION

–  Forty indicators selected for evaluation for different city neighborhoods

•  MODEL VALIDATION / IMPLEMENTATION ON TARGET AREAS

Downtown Loop (Downtown / Lavaca / King William / Lone Star / Collins Garden

•  CITY-WIDE IMPLEMENTATION (Pending)

•  Web Site Design (Pending)

INDICATOR SELECTION

CURRENT STATUS

•  Iden%fy  indicators  and  collect  data      Completed,  

•  Collect  GIS  data          Completed  

•  Prepare  GIS  data  for  processing  for  all  city  neighborhoods,              Completed,  

•  Running  INDEX  for  all  city  neighborhoods    On  going.  

•  Develop  web  interface        On  going  

               

 

 

 

 

 

 

MODEL VALIDATION

WESTSIDE  DISTRICT  0.90  cul-­‐de-­‐sac/intersec%on  ra%o  

STONE  OAK  AREA  0.71  cul-­‐de-­‐sac/intersec%on  ra%o  

INTERNAL  STREET  CONNECTIVITY  

MODEL VALIDATION

WESTSIDE  DISTRICT  91.9%  of  streets  w/sidewalks  

STONE  OAK  AREA  40.8%  of  streets  w/sidewalks  

PEDESTRIAN  NETWORK  COVERAGE  

MODEL VALIDATION

WESTSIDE  DISTRICT  52.7  stops  per  square  mile  

STONE  OAK  AREA  2.0  stops  per  square  mile  

 

TRANSIT  SERVICE  COVERAGE  

MODEL VALIDATION

WESTSIDE  DISTRICT  284.4  vehicle  route  mi/day/sqmi  

STONE  OAK  AREA  19.3  vehicle  route  mi/day/sqmi  

TRANSIT  SERVICE  DENSITY  

MODEL VALIDATION

WESTSIDE  DISTRICT  97.6%  of  pop  w/i  user  buffer  

STONE  OAK  AREA  15%  of  pop  w/i  user  buffer  

TRANSIT  ADJACENCY  TO  HOUSING  

MODEL VALIDATION

WESTSIDE  DISTRICT  99.4%  of  pop  w/i  user  buffer  

STONE  OAK  AREA  61.3%  of  pop  w/i  user  buffer  

TRANSIT  ADJACENCY  TO  EMPLOYMENT  

STRUCTURE OF RESULTS

10 Major Districts

STRUCTURE OF RESULTS

The Neighborhood Associations & Sub-Boundaries

DOWN TOWN

DOWN TOWN

DOWN  TOWN  

DOWN TOWN

DOWN TOWN

DOWN TOWN

DOWN TOWN

DOWN TOWN

DOWN TOWN

DOWN TOWN

DOWN TOWN

DOWN TOWN

DOWN TOWN

DOWN TOWN NEIGHBORHOODS Internal Street Connectivity

Collins  Gardens  Lavaca  

Downtown   Roosevelt  Park   Lone  Star  

King  William  

DOWN TOWN NEIGHBORHOODS Transit Proximity to Housing

Collins  Gardens  Lavaca  

Downtown   Roosevelt  Park   Lone  Star  

King  William  

DOWN TOWN- COMPARISON

Comparison of Sub-Neighborhoods in the Downtown Area

0  

10  

20  

30  

40  

50  

60  

DT  District  

Collins  

Garde

ns  

King  W

illiam  

Lavaca  

Lone

 Star  

Downtow

n  

Roosvelt  

Park  

Non

_Neighb

orho

od  

Downtown  Neighborhoods  Comparison  Overall  Score  for  all  Indicators  

NORTH CENTRAL

NORTH CENTRAL

NORTH CENTRAL

NORTH CENTRAL

NORTH CENTRAL

NORTH CENTRAL

NORTH CENTRAL

NORTH CENTRAL NEIGHBORHOODS Transit Proximity to Housing

NORTH CENTRAL NEIGHBORHOODS Transit Proximity to Housing

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank the “City of San Antonio’s Office of

Environmental Policy” for providing finding for this project and for their continuing

support for its development and implementation

Thank you

•  For further information:

Hazem Rashed-Ali, Ph.D. Department of Architecture, UTSA hazem.rashedali@utsa.edu 210-458-3088