Rethinking the Regional Equity Atlas: Mapping platforms in constellations for social change

Many U.S. localities use digital equity mapping in the form of Regional Equity Atlases (REAs) to inform the activities of policymakers and advocates. This article highlights lessons from our research leading up to and during an REA-building process in Central Virginia from 2018 to 2021 using constellation analysis ( Ohlhorst & Schön, 2015 ). In the first section, we contextualize REAs by recounting a brief history of the intersections of geospatial mapping with regional and equity considerations within urban planning and policy. In the second section, we describe a field scan of existing REA platforms we conducted as in the 2018–2019 academic year. We assess the overall development of REA tools through modified constellation analysis in relation to an emerging body of planning scholarship around REAs. In the third section, we describe how we translated lessons from the field scan into a pilot REA and associated mapping and policy tools for a project in Central Virginia from 2018 to 2021. Our conclusion summarizes lessons we drew from these efforts in the context of accelerating shifts in the policy landscape and regional governance contexts in recent years.