Making the 'complex' accessible

"Mapping has emerged in the information age as a means to make the complex accessible" (Abrams, J. & Hall, P. (Eds). (2006) Where/Abouts. From Else/where: mapping new cartographies of networks and territories. p.12).


As a planner, one of the most complex parts of the job is understanding what the hell the district plan is trying to say. What can I do?...or can't do?....or might be able to do, if I plant this certain species of tree, in such-and-such a distance from a nationally significant waterway...as long as my height to boundary ratio is correct (you get my drift).


So if I, a relatively well educated person professing to be a planner-wannabe, struggle to understand this complex and wordy document, how can the average, busy (and generally frustrated with the council) member of society interpret it? What I think needs to be invented, and what my project is intended to be, is a map that visualises this information in order to make interpreting this document easier. And even if my map doesn't leave the map reader with all the answers they need, it must at least enable the reader to be "capable of asking better questions" (Abrams, J. & Hall, P. (Eds). (2006) Where/Abouts. From Else/where: mapping new cartographies of networks and territories. p.14). Alongside this, the mapping project itself should help me question how democratic the district plan provisions are, and as I piece together the zoning provisions for water, ask what is missing?


Looking at the GeoDesign website, it gave me some ideas about how I could layer various information categories from the district plan onto my map. GeoDesign "is the interface between land use, census blocks, traffic patterns, air quality tables, and any other data set, on the one hand, and the process of building—site planning, conceptual design, programming, and construction drawings—on the other."


I found the article hugely interesting, especially as a concept for urban planner and architects. GeoDesign “..asks, ‘How can we use our buildings more effectively?’ and answers the question, ‘Do you need to build at all?’ As designers, we are often intuitive, but our decisions are not based on data. We don’t know the consequences. Geodesign allows architects to make decisions based on [impacts] such as water [use] and carbon output.” In his talk, Fisher said that geodesign could potentially forestall the kinds of housing development patterns that led to the recent economic crisis, and could help track food production and foresee possible shortages. The claims may sound omniscient, but they are rooted in real-life data."


Here's a basic example of GeoDesign -

That's all for now.