Abstract
Postal Data & ArcView Shine Light on New Orleans Recovery
Track: Census and Geodemographics
Author(s): Denice Ross, James Fee
After Hurricane Katrina emptied New Orleans and damaged 71% of the housing stock, government, nonprofits and neighborhood groups needed a way to track when and where people returned. Standard data sources, such as the Census, are infrequent, involve lag times in reporting, and are not available at the neighborhood level. Frequent surveying is resource intensive. However, data on the number of households actively receiving mail compiled by Valassis in collaboration with USPS is updated continuously and released with little lag time.
At the Data Center, we focused our efforts on preparing and understanding the postal data using Esri ArcGIS Desktop and then making it available at the census block level via a Google Maps Mashup. By having this information publicly available and easy to use, neighborhood groups, government and nonprofits can focus on the real work of recovery instead of spending time gathering data.
Denice Ross
Greater New Orleans Community Data Center
1600 Constance Street
New Orleans , Louisiana 70130
United States
Phone: 504-304-8260
E-mail: denicew@gnocdc.org
James Fee
RSP Architects
502 S College Ave
Suite 203
Tempe , Arizona 85281
United States
Phone: 480-889-2095
E-mail: james.fee@rsparch.com