Connected China: Explaining the Players and Networks within China – post on the always-interesting blog information aesthetics about a “beautifully crafted” app developed collaboratively by Thomson Reuters and Fathom Information Design. Here’s a direct link to the Connected China app. [It] tracks and visualizes the people, institutions and relationships that form China’s elite power …
How to make a city great – about a new report from McKinsey&Company on how cities manage growth to make them great places to live and work. Besides a summary of the 44-p PDF report, there are four short video clips – Why cities matter, Achieving smart growth, Do …
RE-Powering Mapper – the U.S. EPA recently updated its RE-Powering Mapper, a map-based tool showing renewable energy potential on 66,000 contaminated lands, landfills, and mine sites across the country. Features include: Screening results for over 66,000 sites for solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal energy Search options by renewable energy …
The Codes Project – website is “an anthology of the codes, laws and related documents that have created, or sought to create, particular urban forms.” This project, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, covers codes from “around the world, and from all time periods.” The Directory section …
If you’re interested in energy requirements or ratings for buildings around the world, here are a few sites that can give you specifics. Each link is to one section within a larger website; those parent websites are all worth a bit of further exploration as well. Existing Policies, from BuildingRating.org – select …
If you need to understand U.S. government spending, take a look at USAspending.gov. The first thing you see after a search is a map that lets you know at a glance which states have the most funding for whatever it is you’re looking up. For instance, here’s a search for …
If you’re an urban planner or if you’re interested in how cities work, check out the magazine The Urbanist from the San Francisco Urban Planning and Research Association (SPUR). The focus is on “good planning and good government in the San Francisco Bay Area” but the issues addressed, the …
Federal R&D Award Trending – comparing a number of sources the author examines trends in federal R&D awards and spending. … even though spending appears to have gone down in 2012, the number of contracts saw a slight increase, implying that there was a smaller average dollar amount per …