The Infona portal uses cookies, i.e. strings of text saved by a browser on the user's device. The portal can access those files and use them to remember the user's data, such as their chosen settings (screen view, interface language, etc.), or their login data. By using the Infona portal the user accepts automatic saving and using this information for portal operation purposes. More information on the subject can be found in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. By closing this window the user confirms that they have read the information on cookie usage, and they accept the privacy policy and the way cookies are used by the portal. You can change the cookie settings in your browser.
This study presents best practices in the quality of life planning process in two low-income, multiethnic urban neighborhoods in San Diego, California. We focus on the planning process since community engagement is frequently identified as a critical factor in successful quality of life planning, but the processes through which this occurs require further investigation. We analyze case studies from...
SAVI is one of the nation’s largest community information systems containing over 10,000 indicators of quality of life. This chapter describes the history and development of its robust data processing system, its interactive web application that allows users to analyze and visualize the indicators, the governance and funding structures, and the cultivation of the user community and support mechanisms...
As important as community indicators projects can be to a region’s health and prosperity, they do not come with built-in revenue streams. This chapter explores how operations can be sustained based on the model established in Twin Cities Compass, a regional project covering the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area in Minnesota, USA (population 2.8 million). The model consists of grant-funded “core”...
This chapter describes the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP), a network of “information intermediaries” in 34 cities that develop and maintain neighborhood-level data warehouses. Their common mission is to make the data broadly available and help local stakeholders, particularly the residents of distressed neighborhoods, use the data themselves to achieve their goals more effectively...
In Japan, national development strategy has been based on industrial development. Over the last 140 years Japan has shifted its economic structure from agriculture to industry and service sectors. However, this strategy has incurred costs as well as benefits. From the late 1950s to the 1980s, Minamata City, a small city in Kyushu, suffered the worst industrial pollution case caused by organic mercury...
The American Human Development Report is an application of the conceptual framework pioneered by Mahbub ul Haq, Amartya Sen, and others to look at human welfare more broadly than traditional measures of economic growth. It includes a Human Development Index, a composite measurement of well-being and opportunity comprised of health, education, and income indicators. Human development reports have now...
The Metropolitan Philadelphia Indicators Project (MPIP) is a multidisciplinary research initiative that gathers and makes available data describing the Philadelphia Metropolitan Region. Comprised of 353 municipalities in nine counties that span Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the region is a rich and diverse area that has benefitted from the creation and growth of a social indicators project. To accurately...
Demographic, health, and socioeconomic indicators are useful and significant for understanding the quality of life of a population. They are also useful for understanding the needs of a population. The main purpose of “Portraits of Peel (POP)” is to create a new and unique level of information within the Peel community. This chapter highlights the Social Planning Council of Peel’s (SPCP’s) experience...
Quality of life (QOL) is a complex and multidimensional concept relevant to community conditions in a specific geographic region, and it is traditionally captured using both objective and subjective indicators. QOL indicators are typically used to monitor and evaluate community development in relation to the social, health, environmental, and economic aspects in a community. The goal of this case...
The Working for Water Program is a national public works program established in 1995 with the aim of bringing the problem of alien invasive vegetation under control and to provide short-term employment and training to unemployed people, particularly in rural areas of South Africa. The program is run by the Department of Water Affairs and combines the principles of sustainable control of alien invasive...
This case study gives an example how the cities of post-socialist Croatia could use urban indicators for monitoring and measuring the progress toward sustainability. Such information would enable planners and decision makers to formulate redistributive policies and programs addressing some of the disparities that exist in a post-socialist city. It focuses on the current situation in the emerging Croatian...
One of the limitations of analyses of apartheid is that they tend to focus largely or exclusively on the issue of racial domination and oppression. What is less often appreciated is that this system also modernized and entrenched patriarchal rule in African communities, especially urban areas. In this chapter, we begin by exploring the impact of apartheid on women in the townships of the main urban...
A social indicators community project was launched in 1999 to monitor changing living standards in Rhini, a low-income suburb of Grahamstown, Makana Municipality, South Africa. Since 1994, under democratic rule, considerable progress has been made in service delivery to the formerly disadvantaged in South African society in terms of access to housing, infrastructure, and a social safety net to mitigate...
Community indicators are summarized or aggregated statistics that include broad measures aimed at measuring the progress of a community but community indicator projects are often criticized for a lack of direct policy and planning actions. This chapter introduces Community Indicators Victoria, a community indicators project located within a southern state of Australia, and describes a successful collaboration...
Set the date range to filter the displayed results. You can set a starting date, ending date or both. You can enter the dates manually or choose them from the calendar.