Advances in Web-assisted Planning Tools: A Land Use Impact Calculator for Guadalajara, Mexico

As spatial data handling tools become incorporated into the Internet, new urban planning and design services will increasingly become available to users worldwide. These technologies can be utilized to facilitate and streamline the planning and design process and increase transparency as to how decisions are made. This paper demonstrates a tool that evaluates the suitability of any newly proposed land use in Guadalajara, Mexico, and gives the user an impact score for the proposed change. The application is a simple decision support tool developed as a proof of concept to illustrate use of the Internet in urban planning practices. The goal is to foster urban sustainability and assist planning agencies to make decisions and reach consensus among stakeholders (see http://guadalajara.tierraplan.com).