Typically, analytical work takes a familiar form such as a comprehensive report, a presentation, or even formal testimony. While these formats allow us to thoroughly document the methodology, present findings and context, and deliver insight to our clients, sometimes there is the need or opportunity to create a product that is more dynamic and interactive to meet the moment. While traditional deliverables serve an essential role, particularly with stakeholders who need detailed documentation for decision-making processes or regulatory requirements, the evolving landscape of data consumption and stakeholder engagement brings opportunities where interactive online dashboards can complement and enhance standard analytical offerings.

Online dashboards prove particularly valuable when timing, accessibility, and dynamic engagement are paramount considerations. When urgent policy decisions require rapid information dissemination, dashboards enable us to get critical data into stakeholders' hands quickly without waiting for comprehensive report production. They also serve as powerful tools for marketing and public awareness campaigns, allowing community groups, investors, and other specific audiences to explore relevant data at their own pace and according to their interests. Perhaps most importantly, dashboards excel in scenarios involving multiple variables that can significantly alter outcomes—situations where static reports cannot adequately capture the range of potential impacts or allow users to model different assumptions in real-time. In these cases, the interactive nature of dashboards transforms our analysis from a fixed snapshot into a dynamic tool for ongoing strategic planning.

Seasonal and Time-Sensitive Information

Public entities often face the recurring challenge of distributing critical information on a regular schedule at specific times of the year. Existing dashboards and other online platforms can also be adjusted at certain times of the year to add seasonal and time-sensitive features. This is another advantage to using dynamic online tools because users can adapt their content and prioritize what features users first see based on cyclical demands. Rather than creating separate systems for each information need, these dashboards transform familiar digital infrastructure into responsive tools that automatically surface the most relevant data.

The City of Philadelphia has several good examples of delivering information in a variety of ways. A couple of the tools that they use to achieve this goal are Atlas.phila.gov and Property.phila.gov. These are not only used to access city data for a myriad of uses and needs, but to also make time-sensitive data available. During election season, Atlas.phila.gov reprioritizes its landing page to show Voting information. When tax assessments are released, Property.phila.gov is the key place to see the updated values. Additional features can be employed to evaluate proposed changes in policy, such as a possible increase in the homestead exemption that might offset a higher than typical annual tax increases.

Figure 1 The Voting Landing Page Used by The City of Philadelphia on Atlas During Election Season

In 2019, the City of Philadelphia released its first Litter Index Report, which ESI has helped to update for the past four years. Initially this report was released as a public dashboard to help guide government programs and community stakeholders. Dashboards from the Litter Index have since been used to help to prioritize efforts in Street Sweeping and Corridor Cleaning Citywide.

Policy Evaluation Tools

Online dashboards provide residents with powerful tools to evaluate complex policy proposals and development decisions affecting their communities. By allowing users to adjust variables and model scenarios in real-time, these interactive platforms transform abstract policy concepts into tangible outcomes. Residents can explore "what-if" situations, comparing potential impacts of different development densities, tax policies, or infrastructure investments, enabling more informed civic participation and creating transparency in previously inaccessible decision-making processes.

New Hampshire's Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA) recently identified a need for an online Fiscal Housing Calculator that could be used by residents and municipalities to help evaluate decisions made in locales across the state, involving a number of factors that touch on various development variables. The impacts of development are not always known. In many cases development can have a positive fiscal impact on a community, but there are times when this is also not the case either. Folks may often have a misperception of what type of impact new development may have on infrastructures and services. Some places also have the misperception that any development (of any type and density) is always a net positive, which may not be true.

ESI used Microsoft's Power BI platform as the solution to help the public better understand how development might directly affect the tax base in their community.

Figure 2 New Hampshire BEA's Fiscal Housing Calculator Landing Page

Map-Based Narratives

Clients who need to convey information to the public for projects, such as those related to transportation, may decide that an interactive online tool such as ESRI's StoryMaps, is an optimal way to make information more widely available and accessible. StoryMaps allow written information to be presented in concert with geographic and location-based visualizations. By integrating narrative storytelling with interactive maps, a StoryMap can make complex spatial data accessible and help stakeholders understand the relationship a project has within a fuller geographic context.

ESI has used ESRI's StoryMaps to effectively communicate transit-oriented development's station siting analyses by integrating multiple data layers that benefit from interactive exploration. These digital narratives allow stakeholders to toggle between zoning, land use patterns, development densities, ground-level photography, satellite imagery, and detailed mapping alongside real estate market data and contextual information. This interactive approach proves particularly valuable for TOD station siting because it allows decision-makers to visualize how various factors—existing development patterns, available land, community character, and market conditions—intersect spatially to influence optimal station placement, creating more comprehensive understanding than traditional static reports.

Through our work with clients like the City of Philadelphia, developing datasets for use in interactive applications such as the litter index, we've learned how to work with clients so that the data from our analysis can feed into updating existing pipelines and tools. ESRI StoryMaps, like the one highlighting ESI projects around Philadelphia, are often a useful product along this same vein that ESI can build and deliver for clients to help when they do not have existing tools built. Power BI dashboards are a great option for allowing users to work with different variables and display a wide variety of custom information to educate and evaluate the impacts of policy and development decisions in a region.

Why it Matters

The diverse applications of public information dashboards, from seasonal data delivery and dynamic policy modeling to interactive geographic narratives, demonstrate their versatility in modern civic engagement. Dynamic web-based solutions become essential when static reports cannot adequately capture the range of potential scenarios or allow users to explore data according to their specific needs. Each category serves distinct purposes in bridging the gap between complex data analysis and public understanding. Our experience has taught us that tool selection should be driven by specific analytical goals, target audience, and lifecycle considerations rather than technical preferences, allowing us to recommend the most appropriate solution for each client's circumstances.

Stephen Skilton, Associate Director | Sskilton@econsultsolutions.com

Stephen Skilton is an Associate Director at Econsult Solutions, Inc (ESI). Prior to joining ESI, Stephen worked for the City of Philadelphia's Office of Innovation and Technology (OIT) as a Software Engineer where he developed several of the City's public web mapping and business applications. Before that time, Stephen served as an Economic Analyst at Smart Growth America in Washington D.C., where he measured the fiscal impact of various land use, transportation, and housing policies for municipalities across the country.