The Regional Equity Atlas 2.0 is a collaborative project involving numerous public and private partners. The primary project team includes the Coalition for a Livable Future, Metro (Portland’s regional government), and Portland State University’s Institute for Metropolitan Studies. This page describes how the project team was developed.
Project Sponsor: Coalition for a Livable Future
The Coalition for a Livable Future (CLF) unites diverse organizations and individuals to promote just and sustainable communities in the Portland metro region. CLF accomplishes this by using a multi-disciplinary, collaborative approach to shaping public policy and investment decisions that impact physical and social conditions in communities so that exposure to health risks decline and it becomes easier to live a healthy life. CLF members include affordable housing groups, environmental organizations, public health advocates, labor, civil rights organizations, neighborhood and faith-based groups, food and hunger organizations, transportation and land use advocates, and more.
CLF initiated the Regional Equity Atlas project in response to its members’ assessment that equity and its relationship to sustainable development were not generally understood by the public and policymakers. Yet, all agreed that equity is a core component of sustainability and should be a prominent element of our regional approach to managing future growth and development.
As the Regional Equity Atlas’s primary project sponsor, CLF brought the community relationships and background in stakeholder engagement necessary for the Equity Atlas 2.0 project. CLF knew it would need to partner with other entities around the region to provide the technical expertise in data and mapping for the project.
Mapping Partner: Metro
CLF staff spent several months at the beginning of the Regional Equity Atlas 2.0 project researching potential off-the-shelf options for developing the online mapping tool. They determined that there were no existing mapping platforms that would readily meet the needs of the project, but they learned that Metro, the Portland metropolitan area’s regional government, had recently completed development of an innovative mapping platform for its internal planning work. The mapping platform, which Metro referred to as the Context Tool, provided many of the features CLF was looking for. Metro agreed to modify the Context Tool for CLF’s use with the Equity Atlas 2.0.
At the same time, CLF learned that Metro and several of its member jurisdictions were interested in developing maps to guide their policy and planning decisions. CLF and Metro decided to work collaboratively to develop a regional data repository and online mapping tool that would meet CLF’s goals for the Equity Atlas 2.0 while also enabling Metro and its member jurisdictions to create their own customized maps for internal planning purposes. Metro expressed an interest in hosting, maintaining and updating the data on an ongoing basis as part of its role as a regional data hub. CLF was enthusiastic about this possibility, which it felt would serve to institutionalize the Regional Equity Atlas project into the future.
Data Partner: Portland State University’s Institute for Metropolitan Studies
CLF knew that the Equity Atlas would not be useful as an advocacy tool unless it was based on objective, high quality data and analysis. CLF therefore needed a partner who could provide the methodological rigor and data expertise necessary for the project.
Portland State University’s Institute for Metropolitan Studies (IMS) conducts policy research and curates data to stimulate dialogue and action to address critical regional issues. IMS works to convene regional partners and connect them with credible data to support them in creating a common understanding of regional conditions and trends. IMS is closely affiliated with PSU’s Population Research Center, which provides demographic data and expertise for the region. IMS also houses a Community Geography project that focuses on citizen empowerment through GIS analysis, data visualizations, and asset mapping.
The goals of the Equity Atlas project align closely with IMS’s mission and expertise, and IMS was the obvious data partner for the project. IMS brought expertise in the methodological and data aspects of the project and worked in collaboration with CLF and Metro on the technical development of the tool.
During the initial planning for Equity Atlas 2.0, IMS launched a regional indicators project in partnership with Metro, called Greater Portland Pulse. The indicators project sought to engage regional stakeholders in identifying and tracking key benchmarks for regional progress. The project’s approach, which focuses on summary-level data at a county or regional scale, complements the Equity Atlas’s work.