GIS in Tough Economic Times A technology for revitalization An 8.5 percent national unemployment rate (March 2009) A 6.2 percent decline of the gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of 2008 The failure of thousands of businesses including household names like Circuit City and Lehman Brothers These numbers make the extent of the current downturn clear. There is an immediate need to deal with effects of job losses and high foreclosure rates on local communities. Revitalizing the United States economy will be a formidable task that will require innovative approaches to challenges such as modernizing energy generation and rebuilding the nation's infrastructure. Unlike previous recessions, government and business have a powerful technology for dealing with diagnosing and treating the ailing economy on the local, state, and national levels. GIS has evolved beyond the organization level to become a framework for managing and analyzing data, modeling scenarios, supporting decision making, and disseminating information. that have taken them back and are targets for vandals. Local governments in two California cities, Chula Vista and Riverside, have GIS applications that address the problems of poor house maintenance and graffiti and minimize the negative impact of vacant houses on neighborhood values. Articles in this issue explain why GIS has been invaluable in enforcing the home maintenance ordinance in Chula Vista and identifying and prosecuting taggers in Riverside. New Strategies and Sources Even before the current economic troubles, the effects of the run-up in oil prices in mid2008 made clear the urgency of managing and using existing energy more efficiently and incorporating new sources of energy, particularly renewable energy. GIS is contributing significantly to the development of commercially viable renewable energy. Utilization of the two most common renewable energy sources, solar and wind, is more challenging than conventional energy sources. Both energy sources are available intermittently and are typically more geographically dispersed than oil or natural gas. GIS helps evaluate the potential of sites for energy generation and the feasibility of getting energy to users. The Boston Redevelopment Authority created Solar Boston, an online mapping application developed using the ArcGIS API for Flex, that allows users to see active renewable energy installations within the city and calculate the solar potential of building rooftops. In addition to calculating usable roof area and incoming solar radiation, this application generates figures for annual energy output in kilowatts per year, anticipated annual cost savings, and CO2 savings. The site for the wind farm project and the location of individual wind turbines within Iberdrola Renewables' Rugby Wind Project were determined using GIS to assess wind availability, take into account the existing electrical transmission infrastructure, and consider many environmental factors in the surrounding area. The project, currently under construction near Rugby, North Dakota, could produce enough power for 11,000 homes. Solar Boston generates figures for annual energy output in kilowatts per year, anticipated annual cost savings, and CO2 savings. Local Effects A cascading series of events in the last two years—declines in the housing market, financial institutions in crisis, contracting credit, and business failures—has led to widespread job loss and house foreclosures. Communities that have experienced high rates of home foreclosure, in addition to the impacts on revenue, have the very practical problem of dealing with neighborhoods with many vacant houses. These houses often are not maintained by the financial institutions 10 ArcUser Summer 2009 r www.esri.com