Course Library
Browse our library of planning courses
Building a Transit Map Web App
This course examines the entire process of building an interactive, web-based mapping application.
Introduction to WebGIS
This course explains various Internet technologies commonly used to build web-based visualization applications with municipal data.
Creating a Low-Carbon, Resilient City
This course introduces strategies for achieving low-carbon, resilient communities.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting for Cities
Greenhouse gas emissions accounting is a core tool for developing, implementing, and monitoring climate actions and strategies. This course provides a basic overview of concepts that can be supplemented with training in specific software.
CartoDB for Planners
In this course, we'll cover the web interface of CartoDB, an innovative online mapping platform. Learn how to setup a basic map, add data from ArcGIS and other sources, and publish your map on the web.
Economic Thinking for Planners: Economics of the Environment
This course provides an introduction to environmental economics by exploring the economic effects of national and local environmental policies. By the end of the course, you'll understand market failure, externalities, and private and social costs, applying these concepts to issues like recycling, species preservation, and climate change.
Greening the Neighborhood: LEED-ND Globally and v.4 Update
The final course in the "Greening the Neighborhood" series discusses international considerations for LEED-ND and reviews LEED v.4, the first major update to the LEED-ND system since 2009.
GeoDesign Using CommunityViz: Buildout and Visualization
This second course in the "GeoDesign with CommunityViz" series shows how the CommunityViz extension of ArcGIS can guide the design, and assess the impacts, of a project.
GeoDesign with CommunityViz: Land Use Designer
Learn how the CommunityViz extension of ArcGIS can guide the design of a project and assess the project's impact. This course specifically focuses on a suitability analysis using essential functions and the Land Use Designer wizard.
GIS Fundamentals: Geocoding, Geoprocessing, and Online Sharing
This fifth installment of the GIS Fundamentals series provides instruction on how to geocode addresses, the basics of geoprocessing, and the use of ArcGIS Online for collaborative mapping and processing.
GIS Fundamentals: Importing, Selecting, and Managing Data
The fourth installment of the Geographic Information Systems Fundamentals series explains how to configure data sets, including advanced methods for selecting data through spatial and SQL queries, working with relational databases and geodatabases, and importing non-spatial data into ArcGIS.
GIS Fundamentals: Thematic Maps
This third GIS Fundamentals course covers the basics of making several kinds of thematic maps, including choropleth, dot density, and proportional symbol maps.
GIS Fundamentals: Projections and Map Design
The course will continue core concepts of GIS that began in the first course, including projections, coordinate systems, cartography, and the difference between raster and vector data models.
GIS Fundamentals: An Introduction
This first of a series of courses covering Geographic information Systems (GIS) will guide beginners interested in learning more about GIS, especially with the use of Esri's ArcGIS software.
Geoanalysis with ArcGIS and Google Earth
Combining ArcGIS and Google Earth allows for a convenient, powerful way to create and share professional, accurate spatial visualizations of geographical analysis to a wide audience. This course explores how to prep shape files for ingestion into Google Earth, share city data with the public, and aid in pre-visualizing via geo-referencing around potential development sites.
Tactical Urbanism: How It's Done
From unsanctioned crosswalks to city-led "Pavement-to-Plaza" programs, instructor Mike Lydon describes the success of short-term, temporary projects in influencing long-term physical and policy changes in cities across the United States and Canada.
Regional Scenario Planning: An Overview
This first of two courses offers a brief history of regional scenario planning in the late 20th century and beyond, with examples from Portland, Oregon's Vision 2040, Salt Lake City's Envision Utah, and the Chicago Metropolis Plan. Principles of regional planning relating to land use, urban design, and transportation are discussed. Finally, more advanced regional planning topics are touched on, including jobs/housing balance, and the relationship between demographics and regional housing market demand.
CommunityViz Introduction
In this course you will learn practical applications for CommunityViz, one of the world's premiere GeoDesign and planning scenario tools. Planners, resource managers, local and regional governments, and others use CommunityViz to help them make decisions about development, land use, transportation, conservation and more.
Regional Scenario Planning: Understanding Urban Footprint
This course is the second of two scenario planning courses hosted by Garlynn Woodsong. This course introduces UrbanFootprint, a next-generation open source scenario planning tool developed in response to a changing policy environment in order to automate and streamline the processes involved with: loading base data; assessing and defining developable lands; translating existing plans and scenarios; creating new scenarios; and analyzing those scenarios for their performance according to a range of metrics.
Bicycle-Friendly Streets: Design Standards
"Bike Friendly Streets: Design Standards" presents examples of cities across the United States and globally redesigning their streets to accommodate and encourage bicycling. From road diets that make room for bike lanes to complete redesigns of streets, cities are stepping up to the challenge of providing a variety of options for the bicyclists in their communities.