Portals for planners: current state of open land development data in Canada

Abstract

<p>As municipalities struggle to keep up with the rising amount of development applications and population growth, open data has been overlooked as a solution to improve the development review process. This paper explores the current role of open data portals in providing land development data in five large urban centres in Canada, assessing the issue of availability. A set of 10 land development datasets, from an urban planning perspective, was investigated, as well as a case-study analysis on the respective municipalities open data history and initiatives. It was found that land development data is more prevalent in larger populated cities; simple geographic location points are common; and there is inconsistency within each municipality on how information is released publicly. Through these findings, recommendations were made for various municipal staff members to address the challenges in opening essential land development data. Key words: open data; open data portal; open government; urban development <br> <br> <br> </p>