Urban EcoMap, San Francisco & Amsterdam, 2008
Urban Ecomap enables Citizens to view their GHG neighborhood and track changes over time.
Urban EcoMap turned citywide greenhouse gas data into a public-facing tool people could actually use. In collaboration with the San Francisco Department of the Environment, our team designed the digital experience and supporting analytics that translated emissions data into a neighborhood-level map, helping citizens explore their local impact and create practical plans to reduce it.
How do you turn abstract emissions data into something people can actually view and understand how to impact? Urban EcoMap was designed to make greenhouse gas data visible, local, and actionable. Created in collaboration with Cisco and the San Francisco Department of the Environment, the project helped translate citywide emissions data into something citizens could explore at the neighborhood level, and use to make more informed decisions in their own lives.
Our team led the website design and supporting analytics for the experience. A key part of the work involved establishing new data-sharing processes across city departments so information from power, waste, and transportation systems could be collected, aggregated by zip code, and translated into estimated CO2 emissions. From there, Cisco developed the models that translated that information into estimated CO2 emissions for the map.
The result was an interactive map that allowed citizens to view the emissions profile of their neighborhood, explore impacts by category, and better understand the environmental footprint of everyday activity. Users could filter emissions by transportation, energy, or waste, then create a personalized reduction plan based on changes they could realistically make.
To support action, the experience connected people to practical local resources, including bike routes, energy-saving guidance, and composting information. It also included social and participatory features that allowed users to share plans and contribute their own examples of change on Facebook and other social sites.
Urban EcoMap Visual Preview from Connected Urban Development on Vimeo.
Related Information
UrbanEco Map Fact Sheet