Historical Geography in Action: Linking Information Technology to Urban Planning Policies

The collaboration brings together visual artists, librarians, historians, urban planners, with research scientists and engineers At the San Diego Supercomputing Center to analyze the lingering impact of historical policies on urban housing. The practice of "redlining" (institutionalized racial zoning, devised in the 1930s under various FDR New Deal initiatives) is visualized across time using GIS mapping, interactive 3D models, and data grid environments to support persistent archives and distributed repositories. The project dramatically illustrates the benefits from drawing visually enhanced relations between the past and present, with important policy implications. The San Diego Supercomputing Center is a founding member of HASTAC.