Jana's comments

 

1)

I think you need to include a more pronounced economic component as well as physical/social.

The Siedman Research Institute has a very active business research arm, mainly comprised of Jay
Butler, Tom Rex, and Tim Hogan.  They were instrumental in putting together the Morrison Institute
"Hits and Misses" publication.  They should probably be added to your list, and a bit should be
added to the text regarding economic flows/impacts/pulses, etc. as economic considerations will
undoubtably shape future growth in the area.

Also - I would mention the 'legacy effect ' concept as one of the factors to explain
demographic/urban growth - but I suppose 'development history' taps into that theme.

I am going to look at it again later, and see if there is anything else - and possibly propose a bit
more on potential framework(s) within which to organize this mass of data.

SCALE is everything when it comes to visualization of data!  I was glad that got mentioned in point
#6.

"Decisionarium"  - Ambitious!  (too ambitious??)

Half-baked ideas - Indices of Change - Absolutely!!  Bake it.  This may be the best idea on the
table for tying it all together.

Of course, the GIS lab is very interested in taking part on this - I have forwarded the info to
Powers/Lewis/Babb to make sure they are in the loop and on board.

I like the 'pulse' metaphor - (was that a Fritzism?) Analogy lends cohesivness to diverse topics.
 

2)

MAG does a lot of modeling for future growth - so their efforts should probably be mentioned or
incorporated.
 

3)  Change indices

I have jotted down some possible categories of change and the data sources that would support them -
compiling the data would be one task, deciding how to combine it another, and lastly, of course, the
visualization of 'change.'  You could also potentially tweak one factor and it would affect others -
perhaps.

Here it is.

Change Indices -

Demographics:
Population (census)
Ethnicity (census)
Income (census)
Birth/Death/Migration  (state)
Seasonal and transient populations (MAG)
Population Density (calculation)
Of course, there are many more demographic variables, most available from census We already have 70,
80, 90 census data compiled nicely.

Environment:
Air pollution (ADEQ, MAG - real time)
Open Space (undeveloped lands)  (ALRIS, MAG, Stefanov Land cover)
Surface Water, quality and quantity  (USGS gauges and reservoir levels, ADEQ)
GroundWater, quality and quantity (Phoenix AMA) (ADWR, ADEQ, USGS)
Irrigation (ADWR)
Habitat (ASU Biology Dept or Environmental Resources) (AGFD)
Vegetation (ASU Plant Biology) (AGFD)
Heat Island - climatology (Brazel et al?)
 

Quality of Life:
Crime Statistics (AJOC)
Juvenile Crime (GDFC AJJC)
Dropout Rates (ADOE)
Health Statistics (ADHS)
Tourism (Dept. of Commerce)
Transportation (ADOT, MAG, real time)
Poverty (census)
Zoning (cities)
Landuse (MAG, LTER)
There are many  more social type indicators that could be used here.

Economics:
Land Values (Accessors)
Parcel database (Assessors)
Home purchases and sales (Seidman)
Residential housing starts (MAG)
Employment (MAG)
Agriculture (ADWR)

4)


An IT proposal should probably address 'scalability and interoperability' issues - ie., the data should probably be accessible via web, thin client, desktop, server -   You might even want to propose potential
hardware/software solutions, I don't know if they want that much detail, but it would seem you would need to propose some sort of technical details?

Also - perhaps my bias - but I would add something about how spatially referencing data via GIS allows diverse datasets to be synthesized.  This may already be obvious - but it's worth a sentence or so.
 

5)


Hi Fritz/Ramon

Just a heads up to let you know that Scott is also working on an NSF IT proposal for the AZSite
project with Michael Barton of Anthropology.  The proposal basically suggests combining efforts of
the GIS lab with the LTER/ARI/McCartney lab to host the state archeologic database and provide a web
interface for its users.  He hopes to have a draft together soon, and at that time we would probably
like to meet with you to make sure we are coordinating our efforts in the best way.

After attending a social science LTER meeting this morning, I am excited about the potential that
the Phoenix 2100 project, and the NSF IT prospect in particular, lend to organizing mass amounts of
diverse data and making it easier to access and understand.   It is something everyone wants to do,
but it takes resources!!  I have forwarded my ideas to Ramon about how 'change indices' might serve
as a way to organize data.

We fully support the Phoenix 2100 NSF IT effort and if we can assist in whatever capacity you think
appropriate, please let us know.

Jana

PS - we are both 'card carrying' IT members.

6)  Have you heard of Jeremy Rowe - he works for Dr. Lewis doing 'special projects.'  He might work out as an IT 'theorist' if you still need one.  Did you have someone else here you were working with.

Here's his bio:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Jeremy Rowe serves as an academic professional for Information Technology at Arizona State University. His responsibilities include involvement in institution and system level planning for technology and distance
education, and development of policy relevant to these areas. As a result of his production background, he has been involved in policy issues related to copyright, licensing, and ownership of multimedia materials.
Additional research interests are developing models for effective support for technology over time, such as TCO, and the use of technology to provide access to graphic data and historical images. Dr. Rowe is a
co-investigator for the KDI: 3D Knowledge: Acquisition Representation & Analysis in a Distributed Environment funded by the National Science Foundation.