ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews to how community data information systems advance the post-disaster response using advocacy and neighborhood planning. This approach reflects the application of citizen science in planning practice, based upon a traditional model of citizen participation. While there is general agreement that the City planning department was understaffed and under-resourced, their counterparts in College of Urban and Public Affairs (CUPA) provided planning services beyond typical academic planning research. As a primary community outreach arm of the university, CUPA had developed name recognition with many neigh-borhood groups, nonprofits, and city agencies". The chapter evaluates the applied citizen science model which focused on participation geographic information systems as a data collection and citizen engagement model. In order to establish a framework for estimating the existence, level, and extent of post-Katrina blight, the university partnership developed a data collection methodology that was refined and adopted by residents and volunteers in the field before and during data collection.
