Open Data Showcase
Below are some current community-created projects that showcase the potential uses of the City of Boulder's open data. If you're using the City of Boulder's open data and would like to have your project or application featured here, please contact us .
Art of Data Exhibition
The City of Boulder Open Data Program and the Boulder Public Library co-sponsored an Art of Data exhibition, which ran from December 2018 through February 2019. The vision behind the exhibition was to encourage community members to use local data as inspiration for their artwork; 15 different artists participated and over 25 datasets from the Open Data Catalog were featured. Several programs were hosted during this time frame as well, including a Data Visualization Contest.
Denver Data Storytellers Contest Winner - Evictions During COVID-19
In the midst of COVID-19, the Denver Data Storytellers worked with Slalom to put together a DataViz contest with the hope of learning a bit about the critical issue of evictions in Colorado while also strengthening data communication skills. All participants started with data that Andrew Kenney gathered during his phenomenal reporting on the topic for Colorado Public Radio. The City of Boulder's own Katie Bridges chose to build on that with results from the Census' Household Pulse Survey collected during the pandemic. Throughout the course of the challenge, Katie was able to iterate on some initial ideas and ended up with a final viz (available as a .pdf and on Tableau Public ) that told the story of the hardships many in Denver may face without further policy protecting those who are housing insecure during COVID-19. It was great to learn more about this issue, and Katie is looking forward to working on more similar projects, both with this group and in my role at the City, to continue advocating for folks impacted by the pandemic.
Boulder Data Hub for Select Local Data
The Boulder Data Hub (https://boulderdata.org), developed by Jeff McWhirter using Geode System's RAMADDA repository software, is a large collection of data and information about Boulder and its environs. The sources of data include the City of Boulder's Open Data Catalog and other City sources, Boulder County's Open Data Repository, US Census Bureau, NOAA, UCAR, USGS and many more sites. On the Data Hub you can view real time weather and other environmental data; explore Boulder crime, traffic and homelessness; and view maps and historical imagery. Local datasets are added regularly, so check back for new data summaries and searchable data files for some of the more high-profile datasets that the City of Boulder publishes.
The Daily Camera Public Safety Maps
Interactive maps of crime locations and fire/ambulance responses in Boulder. Each map allows the user to search for specific addresses to zoom in. Clicking on an icon on the map shows important information about the incident, and a feed at the bottom shows the latest reported incidents. Data are pulled from the Crime Locations and Fire Response Times open datasets and are updated daily. These maps were created by Christopher Ryan of Future of News, who was a winner of the 2019 Data Visualization Contest, co-hosted by the City of Boulder Open Data Program and Code for Boulder.
Crime and Location in Boulder
An interactive map of crime locations in Boulder. You can filter the map by year or crime type. Shows the frequency of each type of crime and total number of crimes per year. This Observable notebook by Jenny Knuth can be edited and forked to create your own categories and features. A winner of the 2019 Data Visualization Contest, co-hosted by the City of Boulder Open Data Program and Code for Boulder.
Crime Waves
A ridgeline graphic showing the relative number of crimes in Boulder each year, by month. This Observable notebook by Jenny Knuth can be edited and forked. A winner of the 2019 Data Visualization Contest, co-hosted by the City of Boulder Open Data Program and Code for Boulder.
Boulder Prairie Dog Areas
A time lapse visualization showing increase/decrease of prairie dog acreage over time.
Management of Ecosystem Services in Boulder
A network map and analysis of ecosystem management in Boulder, Colorado.
Rental Property Floodplain Calculator
An interactive application that lets renters and property managers know if the property they currently rent or are considering renting lies in a floodplain.
GIS Poster Project
Rebecca Shirley, a graduate student at the University of Georgia chose to analyze some of Boulder's open data for a GIS project. The result was a poster that "review(s) existing conditions and analyze(s) the bus service area, trail head service area and bike infrastructure." Follow the link below to view a PDF of the final poster.
Crime Dashboard
Christian Koltonski created a dashboard utilizing the crime locations dataset that examines various crimes that occurred in Boulder, Colorado from 2008 to 2018. The dashboard features a map of crime locations, proportions of crimes committed, percent change of crimes committed from 2016 to 2017, crime trends over time, a map of crimes plotted by census tracts and map of the percent change of crimes committed from 2016 to 2017 plotted by census tracts.