Replication of data science workflows is as critical in government as it is in any domain. Much of Philadelphia’s vast…
Introduction to spatial site-suitability analysis in R
1. Introduction The purpose of this tutorial is to introduce spatial analysis and basic geoprocessing in R. In this tutorial, readers will…
Riding (and clustering) the gentrification wave
By Ken Steif & Michael Fichman This post discusses some of our recent experiments with spatial real estate data. These…
Machine learning can predict ‘highest & best use’
Recently, Philadelphia City Councilman and real estate developer, Alan Domb proposed that the City “should figure out the highest and…
Evaluating place-based investments in the cloud
Effica.cy is a proposed cloud-based GIS tool that would allow organizations to perform complex cost/benefit evaluations right in an internet…
#Dataviz tutorial: Mapping San Francisco home prices using R
Authors: Ken Steif & Simon Kassel I constantly preach to my students that no matter how policy relevant your work…
Mapping Philly’s proposed marijuana dispensary zoning restrictions
In April of 2016, the State of Pennsylvania voted to legalize medical marijuana. Currently, Philadelphia City Council members are debating how to use…
Urban heat islands & street trees in Philadelphia
Source: NASA, Earth Observatory This past August, 2016 was the hottest in 136 years according to NASA. In cities, this…
AISP Innovation
Urban Spatial is excited to partner with the Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania to develop technology that lowers the…
NetLogo – Simulating classroom evacuation
I started playing with NetLogo years back as a possible avenue for modeling housing markets. Ultimately, I decided that agent-based modeling, while…
