As an urban planner, you need to collect and analyze data from various sources to inform your decisions and designs. Surveys are one of the most common and effective tools to gather feedback, opinions, and preferences from your stakeholders and target groups. But how do you choose the right survey tool for your project? Here are some tips to help you decide.
Before you select a survey tool, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your survey. What are the main questions you want to answer? Who are you targeting and why? How will you use the results to improve your planning process or outcome? Having a specific and realistic goal will help you narrow down your options and design your survey questions accordingly.
Before defining the goals, there is a need to know what are the problems in the city and the citizens, it is poverty? infrastructure? Housing? Pollution? Corruption and too much red tape? The goals should based in reality on the ground, otherwise can be based on utopia ideas. So goals are limited by the social and urban realities, that’s why cities develop in different speeds, in China is faster than Argentina or Nigeria. Build a GIS and real time simulation. With that realistic scenario you can benchmark with other cities and star building goals, short and long term
Another factor that will influence your choice of survey tool is the amount of resources you have available for your project. This includes time, budget, staff, and technology. How much time do you have to create, distribute, and analyze your survey? How much money can you spend on the survey tool or service? How many people can help you with the survey tasks? What kind of devices and platforms do you and your respondents have access to? These questions will help you determine the feasibility and suitability of different survey tools for your project.
Satélite imaginary, mapping, GIS systems, control room like in a war zone, planning needs a chain of command and rules of engagement. Old laws and planning regulations needed to be updated and adapted to modern conditions. A.I. tools are import at for all parts of the planning process, but accurate data needed to be input on it. Them survey the population after providing clear information of the situation and possible scenarios
Once you have defined your goals and considered your resources, you can start comparing different survey tools that meet your criteria. There are many types of survey tools available, such as online platforms, mobile apps, paper forms, or interactive kiosks. Each tool has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on the features, functionality, ease of use, cost, and reliability. You can use online reviews, ratings, or demos to evaluate the pros and cons of different tools and see how they fit your needs.
Before you launch your survey, you should test it with a small sample of your target group or a similar group. This will help you identify and fix any issues or errors with your survey tool, questions, or design. You can also ask for feedback from your testers on how they found the survey experience, and if they have any suggestions for improvement. Testing your survey will help you ensure its validity, reliability, and usability.
Finally, after you launch your survey, you should monitor its progress and performance regularly. You can use the analytics or reports provided by your survey tool to track the response rate, completion rate, and other metrics. You can also check for any feedback or complaints from your respondents, and see if they encounter any problems or difficulties with your survey tool. If you notice any issues or gaps, you can adjust your survey tool, questions, or design accordingly, as long as it does not compromise the integrity of your data.
Monitoring is a key part for the success. Monitor’s people need the real power of the law behind them, otherwise they are paper tigers, no real impact on the city and society. Laws, policies and monitoring have to be flexible and cooperative learning from each other. For this there is a need of a central authority like the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) that coordinate housing, heritage management, green areas, etc, avoiding compartmentation and silos management by different urban and planning departments