SBIR Phase I: State of Place Urban Data Analytics Platform Modeling Economic Return on Investment and Evidence-Based Urban Design and Development Strategies

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to guide real estate development toward walkable development by forecasting its economic value. In this way, the project will enhance environmental sustainability in cities by creating conditions that promote walking and reduce auto use. Mounting evidence reveals walkability has many social, health, and environmental benefits including increased happiness, lower rates of obesity and chronic disease and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Walkability also enhances residential and commercial property values, retail and tax revenues, price resiliency, and occupancy rates. However, most US cities offer a limited number, if any, of walkable places. Allowing the real estate and planning industry to directly quantify the potential walkability of proposed developments and to forecast their potential economic value will help address existing structural and financial challenges to delivering more walkable places, consequently helping to enhance the sustainability of cities and the well-being of urban dwellers. Additionally, the proposed software product has potential applications within the healthcare industry by quantifying the health impact (both physically and economically) of walkability, as well as in the retail (i.e., siting) and the mobile advertising (i.e., predicting pedestrian behavior) industries. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will produce an integrated, user-facing urban database and analytics platform that forecasts the value add of walkable development. The demand for walkability - the ability to access goods and services within a safe, convenient, comfortable and interesting walk near homes and workplaces - far outpaces its supply. Cities lack ways to prioritize built environment projects based on their potential impact on walkability and economic development; planners are unable to integrate private market goals into their normative-based walkability plans; and real estate developers and investors are pressed to balance walkability goals with their fiduciary responsibilities. In response, the company has developed an algorithm quantifying walkability and a forecasting model predicting the economic impact of investing in walkable development. The proposed project would allow the company to integrate its backend calculations into a seamless database management and analytics platform with a user-friendly interface. Advancing the company's technological capacity will allow it to test whether its customers are willing to adopt a Software as a Service model (versus the current consulting structure), subsequently helping to scale the business, facilitating widespread adoption by the real estate and planning industries, and promoting more walkable, sustainable development.