The steady pace of browser and web improvements means we can do a better job of visualising data online, beyond simple charts and graphs. The City of Melbourne decided to do a neat thing with its cache of development activity info — it’s created an interactive 3D model showing all planned and under construction buildings in the local government area.
While its usefulness to the average person is questionable, if you’re at all curious what’s on the horizon (or soon to block it) in terms of Melbourne’s developments, it’s nice to see it presented in this way. I mean, the alternative is to trudge through the data yourself and that’s much less… good. In so many ways.
You don’t have to just view it — selectable options on the left-hand side of the visualisation let you filter developments by constructed, under construction, approved and applied for. You can even click on each development for more information, such as how many levels it’ll have, or how many dwellings or car parks it’ll contain.
The visualisation draws from spatial and tabular data gathered by the government’s property planning department. Which you’re free to look at yourself, but I think most will go with the 3D version.