A living map for changing ground: Strategic planning and GIS in Baltimore city neighborhoods (Maryland)

Baltimore, Maryland is typical of many American cities in that it must contend with budget deficits while seeking to reverse the trend of suburban migration. It is also characterized by an unstructured and informal resident-driven planning process. This thesis explores the creation of a new planning process, integrated with a GIS support system, that facilitates a mutually beneficial collaboration between residents and City planners in their shared goal of creating healthy, sustainable neighborhoods. An overview of the Baltimore planning process is followed by a review of standard, community and strategic planning models and the state of the art in utilizing GIS as a planning support tool. This preliminary research provides the foundation for the development of a new planning model that blends community and strategic planning principles within a comprehensive GIS-based decision support system. An in depth discussion of a crucial component of this proposed system, Strategic Resource Mapping, concludes the analytical portion of the thesis.