UrbanFootprint Launches Offering for Educators and Researchers

BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- UrbanFootprint, a Berkeley-based urban planning software company, today announced a new offering, UrbanFootprint Academic, for use by educators, researchers, and students in undergraduate and graduate programs.  UrbanFootprint Academic is being used by a growing family of institutions, including the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, the Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Redlands, and UC San Diego.

UrbanFootprint Academic allows professors and students to quickly examine existing conditions, compare future scenarios, and analyze plan impacts across a range of key planning metrics for any U.S. location. The easy user interface requires no GIS experience,  helping educators shift classroom focus away from teaching complex tools to teaching planning methodologies.  By using UrbanFootprint, instructors are able to reclaim classroom time and further their students' understanding of core academic and practical urban planning concepts.

Amir Hajrasouliha, Assistant Professor at California Polytechnic State University, used UrbanFootprint as part of an undergradate Land Use Planning course. "Using UrbanFootprint challenged students to think critically and creatively about the topics we covered in class. Rather than focus on mastering the technology itself, students were able to quickly visualize concepts and explore the impacts of land use changes," stated Professor Hajrasouliha.  "As we were able to focus on design and critical thinking, the ease of use really contributed to increased interest in urban planning and student engagement."

UrbanFootprint Co-founder and President Joe DiStefano believes the use of UrbanFootprint at colleges and universities will help students better prepare for their professional careers.  "Planners today need better tools to quickly understand potential plan impacts during the design process. UrbanFootprint, with its built-in data library, design toolkit, and analytics, makes it easy to create new scenarios and explore plan impacts in terms of emissions, accessibility, transportation, energy use, and more," stated DiStefano.  "Use of UrbanFootprint in the classroom will help professors and students focus more on critical design thinking and plan outcomes, instead of wrestling with clunky GIS tools."

UrbanFootprint Academic is available to colleges and universities for use in classrooms and for research purposes. To learn more about UrbanFootprint's new offering, visit urbanfootprint.com.

About UrbanFootprint: UrbanFootprint is a cloud-based software designed to help planners, designers, environmental analysts, policy makers, and advocates produce more informed outcomes for their cities and communities. UrbanFootprint helps you deliver projects faster and with more insight across all phases of a planning project. Spend less time collecting data and get your projects started faster with hundreds of cleaned, curated, and ready-to-use planning datasets at your fingertips. Design and explore future scenarios and test them against key metrics such as accessibility, emissions, risk and resilience, transportation, conservation, and many more. Finally, compare alternatives to identify co-benefits and winning results for your project area.

Contact: Andrew Fetterer, UrbanFootprint
Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE UrbanFootprint

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