Authored by Sara Kidd, Senior Regional Planner

The regional map created by the HRPDC for the Reality Check regional visioning exercise held on May 17, 2012 was entered into the 2012 Esri International User Conference (UC) Map Gallery competition during the week of July 23 – 27 in San Diego, California.  The 5-foot by 5-foot map, along with a poster explaining the technical process of developing the map and analyzing the results of the game, received second place in the “Best Data Integration” category in the competition.
 
The Reality Check game map was developed at the HRPDC using geographic information systems (GIS) technology to portray current land use and density of development. It also indicated where protected lands, wetlands, and military facilities are located. This information was used by Reality Check participants to decide where to place the LEGOs used for the game.  The LEGOs represented future housing and jobs in Hampton Roads for 2035. GIS was also used to analyze the patterns of LEGO placements to show where new development was placed by the participants and also which areas were allocated the most growth overall.
 
The analytical process and poster for the conference were developed in collaboration with George McLeod, GIS Systems Engineer from Old Dominion University (ODU) and Dr. John Lombard, Associate Professor and Chair of Urban Studies & Public Administration and director of the E.V. Williams Center for Real Estate & Economic Development (CREED) at ODU.
 
Esri is the largest vendor of GIS software in the world. The Esri UC was attended by 15 GIS professionals from 131 countries.

Reality Check map and poster in the Esri Map Gallery

Conference attendees viewing the Reality Check map during the Map Gallery Opening reception