Green Space: Ann Arbor launches website to assess state of city's environment

When your city's State of the Environment report reaches a level of detail that fills 90 pages, it's time to think about the best way to present such information.

That's why Ann Arbor has launched a website to do just that. "No one reads 100 pages -- I know that," says Matthew Naud, the city's environmental coordinator. "[With the website,] we give you enough information to get you interested, and then you can drill down to specific parts of the site."

Information is presented for 10 environmental goals and numerous indicators that fall under each category. For example, Sustainable Energy contains four indicators: electricity, natural gas, renewable energy and alternative fuel use. All indicators are displayed in a manner that indicates where the city currently is -- good, fair or poor -- and where it is going -- getting better, stable or getting worse.

Naud says that Ann Arbor residents have interest in the subject, and the website is an effective tool in which to convey the message. "We have a pretty well-educated set of residents that push to make sure some of this stuff gets done," he says.  "We want to get this information out to the public, to tell the story of where their tax dollars are going."

The site was developed by city staff, the Environmental Commission and several graduate students from the University of Michigan. Naud is currently spending time talking to residents and students to assess their opinions in the site's usability.

Source: Matthew Naud, City of Ann Arbor
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh