Linking Policy, Business, and Design through GIS
Geographic information systems software has always had many practical uses. The software is utilized in almost every major industry and sector. In government, GIS is used to map policy data and demonstrate the effects certain decisions have on the population. Businesses often use GIS software to test supply-chain methods as well as strategies to improve efficiency. With the help of GIS software, urban planners are able to show correlation between the structural and social dimensions of a city environment. This analysis will attempt to demonstrate how GIS software is utilized by these particular industries to measure economic development in the greater Phoenix area, as well as show how GIS software can help these industries work together to solve problems. Utilizing GIS techniques from each industry, this analysis will attempt to show how these strategies can be combined to measure economic development in a specific urban enterprise zone in the area.
Public Policy
Public policy can be generally defined as the course of action or inaction taken by the government organizations with regard to a particular issue. Policy is passed through constitutions, laws, and judicial decisions. Shaping public policy is a complex and multifaceted process that involves the interplay of numerous individuals and interest groups competing and collaborating to influence policymakers to act in a particular way. These individuals and groups use a variety of tactics and tools to advance their aims; including advocating their positions publicly, attempting to educate supporters and opponents, and mobilizing allies on a particular issue (Kilpatrick 2004). Through GIS, policy-makers can map the effects certain policy decisions have on the population. The software can utilize database sources and transform data points in geocoded locations. Census data allows many government agencies to measure population trends within their municipality. This data can also be mapped to create visual references of trend comparisons. With the use of GIS, policy-makers in the greater Phoenix area plan transportation and resource allocation strategies in order to spur growth in certain areas of the city. This analysis will explore the city of Chandler and attempt to examine the policies that affect economic growth in the area.
Chandler is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and is a prominent suburb of the Phoenix, Arizona Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). It is bordered to the north and west by Tempe, to the north by Mesa, to the west by Phoenix, to the south by the Gila River Indian Community, and to the east by Gilbert. The population was 240,595 according to the Census Bureau's 2006 estimate (Census Bureau 2010). Chandler also has satellite locations for the technology companies Intel and Orbital Sciences Corporation. It is also home to Innovations, the incubator attracting many high-tech firms to the area.
Innovations is a 40,000 square-foot incubator that has been developed for companies in the biotech and high-tech manufacturing industries. Designed by scientists and technology entrepreneurs, the incubator offers state-of-the-art facilities, laboratories and a specialized core of services, equipment and support to accelerate the development of high-tech companies. The City of Chandler has invested over $6 million in the infrastructure and tangible resources of the incubator. Unlike other models which are funded by private or education funds which need to recoup their costs through equity sharing and the like, Chandler does not seek to recoup its initial investment through direct payback, Chandler is also home to a diverse workforce. According to the Maricopa Community College’s Center for Workforce Development, approximately 24 percent of the city’s workforce work in a professional, technical, or advanced manufacturing type of industry. Policy has been created to support this type of workforce development in the area. Through education and taxation policy, the municipality’s government has attempted to target this highly skilled workforce in order to maintain levels of economic development in the city’s enterprise zones.
Business Strategists
Urban Enterprise Zones encourage development in blighted neighborhoods through tax and regulatory relief to entrepreneurs and investors who launch businesses in the area. UEZs are areas where companies can locate free of certain local, state, and federal taxes and restrictions. These zones are usually located in the industrial and/or commercial portions of a city, within a continuous boundary. Reductions in the general Sales tax rate and hiring incentives are designed to reinvigorate the business climate within the Zone.
Chandler’s enterprise zone incorporates several locations for the technology companies Intel and Microchip Technologies, Inc. Intel, an American global technology company, is the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. Intel’s Chandler headquarters currently employs approximately 5,525 employees. With the addition of a $3 billion expansion project, the company plans to bring another 1,000 positions to the area by 2011 and 2,213 direct jobs by the year 2015. This expansion will also help create a predicted 1,713 supplier jobs and 5,589 consumer jobs by the year 2015 as well. The blue indicator in figure 2 represents the Chandler’s Intel headquarters. The surrounding indicators represent neighboring businesses. The size of each indicator is determined by company size which is determined through amount of full-time employees. Data for the map was collected through the Maricopa Association of Governments and includes information on 47,587 organizations in the greater Phoenix area for the year 2009.
The zone pictured above demonstrates business concentration in the particular area. The map also shows how businesses have located themselves close to the highway systems surrounding Intel (blue indicator).
Urban Planners
Urban, city, and town planning integrates land use planning and transportation planning to improve the built, economic and social environments of communities. As the density of an urban environment increases traffic, urban planners are utilized to organize space within a city. Urban planners are usually hired by developers, private property owners, private planning firms and local/regional governments to assist in the large-scale planning of communal and commercial developments, as well as public facilities and transportation systems. Urban planners in the public role often assist the public and serve as valued technical advisors in the myriad web of the community's political environment. Related disciplines include regional, city, environmental, transportation, housing and community planning. Urban planning matches theory along with reality, incorporating age-old techniques with modern technology. The Concentric ring model also known as the Burgess model is one of the earliest theoretical models to explain urban social structures. It was created by sociologist Ernest Burgess in 1925. Figure 3 demonstrates the basic structure of the concentric ring theory.
The center of the concentric ring structure in figure 2 represents the city’s core business district (downtown), characterized by several certain unique characteristics. Most North American downtown districts are dominated by high-rise office buildings in which commuters from the suburbs filled white-collar jobs, while the remaining residential populations sank further into unemployment, poverty, and homelessness (Frieden et al. 1989). The dark red ring represents the transition zone of mixed residential and commercial uses. The blue ring represents the low-class residential homes (inner suburbs), which are now often referred to as the “inner city.” The green ring represents middle-class homes (outer suburbs) as the yellow zone represents the commuter zone. The commuter zone usually contains the outer transportation system of the city.
The city of Phoenix has experienced rapid growth over the past several decades. Urban planners and developers have looked to concentric ring models to help design the city’s complex freeway system. Utilization employment databases like the one collected at MAG, planners can create density analysis maps through GIS software like ArcGIS. Figure 4 demonstrates how urban planners and city developers used this particular data to help design the Arizona Department of Transportation Highway Project. The map in figure four uses ArcGIS’s Hot Spot Analysis tool to determine indicator color based an employer’s number of employees and spatial distance to other employers. The concentric rings divide the city based on density, the more dense parts of the city being located in the center and least dense on the periphery. ADOT and MAG used density analysis to determine the proper locations for the city’s freeways. Spreading over three zones, Chandler demonstrates how a city can incorporate an urban environment with a suburban environment. Chandler’s location has proven to be an effective method for attracting business to the area.
Figure 4: Phoenix’s Concentric Rings
Although basic, the techniques shown in this analysis demonstrate how GIS software like ArcGIS can be useful in the implementation of economic policy and business strategy. When incorporated into an organization’s business methods, GIS software can produce visual interpretation of results while allowing users to measure data accurately. Enterprise zones like the one in Chandler can be viewed through GIS software in a way like never before. With the help of GIS software, planning organizations can begin to work together in one easily understood language.
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