Measuring LEED-ND

Quantifying and measuring a neighborhoods assets and character can be difficult, but as planners and policymakers see the benefits of dense, walkable neighborhoods, new metrics are being created attempting to do just that. This project is an effort to look more critically at one of those measures by using LEED's new sustainable neighborhood (ND) certification as a guide for determining where cities should prioritize residential growth.

 

Using the prerequisites outlined by the LEED-ND certification process, I created a suitability map of Ann Arbor that pinpointed which parcels met the most LEED-ND prerequisites and would be considered 'most sustainable' by LEED's metrics. In order to do so, I dug deep into the available spatial data to measure indistinct concepts like walkability through street intersection density, block length, and amenity density and bus connectivity through bus stop density and route frequency.