This project involved analyzing the quality of life across 77 Chicago neighborhoods using GIS tools. ArcGIS Pro was used to map and assess various socioeconomic factors, including health, culture, education, green space, and crime. Each factor was normalized using the Max-Min method in the Field Calculator to ensure comparability across different metrics. A livability score for each neighborhood was then calculated using the Weighted Sum Model, with final scores ranging from 15.6 to 79.7. The resulting map highlights overall livability in Chicago, emphasizing five neighborhoods with the highest scores (70-80), primarily located in the northern part of the city. Project: Assessing Neighborhood Quality of Life in Chicago: A GIS-Based Comparative Analysis Instructor: Karim Malik Team: Zhuoxinran(Zoe) Li, Muhammad Nurmohamed, Ziyi(Quella) Shao Time: 2023, October to December Skills: ArcGIS Pro
This project evaluates the quality of life in 77 Chicago neighborhoods using GIS, focusing on key factors: crime, healthcare, cultural amenities, education, and green space. Data was sourced from the Chicago Data Portal (2005-2023), and a Weighted Sum Model (WSM) was used to calculate overall livability scores. The weighting scheme was: 25% crime, 20% healthcare, 20% cultural amenities, 10% education, and 25% green space, with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) ensuring balanced indicator weighting.
Neighborhoods in the northern periphery, such as Forest Glen, ranked highest, while southern neighborhoods like North Lawndale and West Englewood scored lowest. The higher quality of life tends to cluster in peripheral areas, driven by factors like green space, healthcare, and cultural amenities, with crime negatively impacting scores.
Data was processed in ArcGIS Pro with shapefiles projected to UTM 1983 Zone 16N, and population data was spatially joined to neighborhood boundaries. Future research could explore transportation, employment, housing, and income stability. This analysis highlights the value of AHP in urban planning and the importance of both quantitative and qualitative green space analysis.
City of Chicago Data Portal. (2005-2023). Chicago Neighborhood Socioeconomic Data [Data sets: Crime, Health, Green Space, Education, Cultural Amenities, Population, Boundaries]. Retrieved from https://data.cityofchicago.org/
