Spatial Equity Data Tool Documentation

Author

Alena Stern, Ajjit Narayanan, Gabe Morrison, Sonia Torres Rodríguez, and Graham MacDonald

Published

April 30, 2024

1 Introduction

The Urban Institute’s Spatial Equity Data Tool (SEDT) enables users to upload their own data and quickly assess whether the construction, improvement, and implementation of place-based programs and resources are equitably distributed across neighborhoods and demographic groups.

There are two ways for users to interact with the SEDT:

  1. Through the web tool, by visiting the SEDT website and uploading data through the website’s interface (see Chapter 9 for more on the web tool).
  2. Through the application programming interface (API), by writing code to programmatically upload data to the API and process the analysis results (see Chapter 10 for more on the API).

Both approaches use the same spatial equity analysis algorithm (see Chapter 3) to analyze the user-provided data and return the same results for the same set of inputs. However, some of the analysis options differ across the web tool and the API, which we will highlight throughout the documentation.

This documentation provides an overview of the basic functionality of the tool, how to use the web tool and the API, and frequently asked questions about the tool.

Chapters 2-8 provide an introduction to the tool and its methodology. We recommend that all first-time users read these chapters.

Chapter 9 covers usage of the web tool.

Chapters 10-12 cover usage of the API and common errors and warnings users may receive using the API.

Chapters 13-15 provide more detail on the tool’s methodology and limitations.

Chapters 16-18 provide references, acknowledgements, and version history for the web tool and API.

Questions:

For questions, please contact sedt@urban.org.

Citation:

Please include this information, in your organization’s style, when citing this project:

Stern, Alena, Ajjit Narayanan, Gabe Morrison, Sonia Torres Rodríguez, and Graham MacDonald. 2024. “Spatial Equity Data Tool” [API] (Version 1.1.1). Washington, DC: Urban Institute. https://ui-research.github.io/sedt_documentation/. Data originally sourced from various sources, analyzed at the Urban Institute and made available under the ODC Attribution License.