About the Regional Indicators project
CMAP has partnered with the Chicago Community Trust to develop a comprehensive key indicators system for measuring and tracking regional quality of life over time.
An indicator is a quantitative measure that describes an economic, environmental, social or cultural condition over time. Examples include the unemployment rate, infant mortality rates, number of new business start-ups, or air quality indexes.
This page describes the rationale and progress of the Regional Indicators project. For more information or to participate, contact Drew Williams Clark (312-386-8770 or awilliamsclark@cmap.illinois.gov).
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Tracking Progress
The overall purpose of the Regional Indicators project is to track progress toward achieving the GO TO 2040 Regional Vision. As such, indicators are divided into the major themes identified in the Regional Vision, with equity, sustainability, and innovation woven throughout. Click here to open a PDF (122KB) of the preliminary tracking indicators list, with appendices that show updated recommendations from subject area experts.
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Data Warehouse
Having identified more than 200 tracking indicators, CMAP staff are acquiring more than 500 tables to measure these indicators across different times and regional geographies. These tables will be available to the public when the comprehensive Regional Indicators website is released along with the GO TO 2040 plan in the fall of 2010.
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Scenario Evaluation
Over 2009, CMAP has been engaged in a scenario evaluation process that resulted in three alternative futures for comparison, illustrating the impacts of different policy and investment decisions on a series of key indicators. This scenario evaluation process was similar to the Invent the Future workshops and online software. The alternative scenarios were roughly translated into the policy choices available in the “Invent the Future” web application.
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Web Tools for Decision Makers and the Public
Ultimately, the Regional Indicators project will deliver a state-of-the-art website that will enable both local decision makers and the public to access data in a variety of formats. Alongside data acquisition, CMAP staff are developing interactive visualizations and maps for eventual deployment in the website. Finally, an early prototype website has been developed and will be beta tested with CMAP partners in the upcoming months to ensure that the final product meets the needs of potential users.
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