Sustainable Communities Indicator Mapper FAQ

The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development's Sustainable Communities Program (“the Program”) designates Maryland communities working toward sustainable revitalization. Its goal is to equip local governments with the resources they need to revitalize their older communities through environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable projects and programs. 

The Program facilitates revitalization and sustainability planning by providing resources, including technical assistance and public investment incentives. Please visit Sustainable Communities to learn more about the program.

The Sustainable Communities Indicator Mapper is an interactive digital application that allows users to review, compare, and export a selection of community indicator data for all Maryland Sustainable Communities (SCs) designated as of the start of the current calendar year.

The Mapper is intended to support local government agencies and community partners in completing their Sustainable Communities applications and strategizing community development projects and revitalization projects in designated SC areas as part of their required Sustainable Community Action Plans. 

The mapper is also available to anyone interested in understanding the opportunities and priorities in Maryland’s Sustainable Community Areas.

The Mapper primarily displays GeoEnriched third-party data provided through Esri’s ArcGIS Business Analyst software. 

Data enrichment is an ArcGIS service function that enhances data with locational information, allowing users to more accurately estimate conditions in custom geographies. 

Data displayed in the Community Snapshots have been enriched using the Sustainable Community Areas in order to estimate conditions within those areas. Data, Sustainable Communities, and Sustainable Community Areas are updated annually.

The following keyboard functions are compatible with the Mapper: 

• Tab: Moves focus forward through interactive elements (e.g., panels, widgets, links, and buttons).
• Shift + tab: Moves focus backward. 
• Enter: Activates the selected element (e.g., button, link, menu item), or selects a row/item. 
• Spacebar: Checks/unchecks boxes, activates inputs, or selects items. 
• Arrow keys: Navigates within elements like charts, tables, or dropdown lists (up/down for items, left/right for expanding/collapsing layers).
• Escape (Esc): Closes dialogs, menus, or pop-ups.

When you launch the Mapper, the Welcome page provides: 

• Brief overview of the application
• The date of the last update
• Terms and conditions

Select the checkbox to agree to the terms and proceed to the data dashboard.

The left panel contains: 

• Sustainable Community (SC) search field with a filtered list in the upper-left corner of the screen, and a guidemap in the bottom-left corner of the screen (intended to assist with navigation and SC selection). 
• The central panel will display a data snapshot based on the SC selection made in the left panel and which of the four tabs below the central panel (Community Snapshot, Principal Indicators, Community Assets, and Additional Resources) is currently selected.

There are two methods for selecting a Sustainable Community:

1. Enter a property address or place name into the search field in the upper-left corner of the screen and select from the filtered list of options related to search terms.

2. Zoom in on your target area using the guidemap in the lower-right corner of the screen to narrow the filtered list from which to select the target SC, or click within the boundaries of an SC in the guidemap to select that SC.

The central panel will display community indicator infographics across the following thematic categories (requested in the Sustainable Communities New Designation and Designation Renewal Application templates) for the selected Sustainable Community: 

• Demographics
• Housing Access & Stability
• Community Economic Vitality
• Community Climate Resilience
• Community & Environmental Health
• Transportation Access & Mobility
• Community Assets & Amenities

By using the arrow buttons or page number dropdown menu on the upper-right corner of the screen, users can page through the thematic categories. Most data elements are interactable.

The Principal Indicators tab (second from the left) on the bottom of the screen will display a map of the Sustainable Community Area associated with the selected Sustainable Community. 

The spatial distribution of the following eight community indicators can be explored by selecting them from upper-right corner of the screen: 

• Population Density
• Median Home Value
• Median Household Income
• Homeownership Rate
• Vacancy Rate
• Cost-Burdened Rate
• Unemployment Rate
• Poverty Rate

The legend in the right panel will update based on the selection. The interactive timeline in the lower-right corner of the screen shows how the Sustainable Community has changed over time in relation to the selected indicator.

The Community Assets tab (third from the left) on the bottom of the screen will display the locations for each of the following eight community asset categories, depending on which is selected from the right panel: 

• Educational Facilities
• Parks & Public Spaces
• Tourism & Recreational Attractions
• Libraries, Museums, & Community Facilities
• Fire Stations
• Police Stations
• Hospitals & Emergency Services
• Other Essential Medical Services

The Additional Resources tab (in the lower-right corner of the screen) provides a selection of data sources and research tools (with associated links) relevant to the Community Snapshot categories.