Supporting Shrinkage describes a new approach to citizen-engaged, community-focused planning methods and technologies for cities and regions facing decline, disinvestment, shrinkage, and social and physical distress. The volume evaluates the benefits and costs of a wide range of analytic approaches for designing policy and planning interventions for shrinking cities and distressed communities. These include collaborative planning, social media, civic technology, game design, analytics, decision modeling and decision support, and spatial analysis. The authors present case studies of three US cities addressing shrinkage and decline, with a focus on issues of social justice, democratization of knowledge, and local empowerment. Proposed as a solution is an approach that puts community engagement and empowerment at the center, combined with data and technology innovations. The authors argue that decisions informed by qualitative and quantitative data and analytic methods, implemented through accessible and affordable technologies, and based on notions of social impact and social justice, can enable residents to play a leading role in the positive transformation of shrinking cities and distressed communities.

List of Tables and FiguresAcknowledgments1. Planning, Technology, and Shrinking Cities2. What Can Data and Technology Do for Shrinking Cities and Distressed Communities?3. Three Shrinking Cities: History, Practice, Data, and Technology4. Data and Modeling Preliminaries: An Application to Fall River, Massachusetts5. Shrinking City Data and Decision Modeling: Baltimore, Maryland6. Technology, Data, and Community-Building Where People Matter7. Lessons Learned: How Can Data, Models, and Technology Support Shrinking Cities and Distressed Communities?Works CitedAbout the AuthorsIndex