CommunityViz™ is a GIS-based, decision support system for community planning and design applications that provides an interactive, real-time 3D environment. It is designed to help both citizens and professionals alike in understanding and developing plans and policies for their community. The software fully integrates the words, numbers, maps, and images that planners and designers traditionally use for planning purposes into one, real-time,multidimensional environment.

The ESC, with the support of the Orton Family Foundation, assembled and led a development team consisting of IBM (formerly PwC Consulting),Multigen-Paradigm, and Foresite Consulting. The ESC provided conceptual design, functional specification, project management, and quality assurance and testing from project conception through beta testing and the first commercial release.  Today, CommunityViz™ is an important part of many of the planning services we provide.   CommunityViz™ is a tool that can help planners plan better, but it does not provide all the answers. Rather it allows users to do more with the information and the knowledge they already have.

If you have questions about CommunityViz™ and if it might be right for your community, please contact us (escny@simcenter.org) or call us at 212-279-1851.  You can also read ESRI's publication "Planning Support Systems"or go straight to the CommunityViz™ website.