The benefits of visualization - how to eXplore a municipality

Introduction The purpose of this paper is to describe how the municipalities may benefit from using visualization in the planning process and when sharing knowledge within the municipality. As municipalities in different countries may have different prerequisites, a short overview of the local government in Sweden and the role of the Swedish municipalities give the necessary background. After that the outcome of a project that was carried out in 2009 with participation from three municipalities, Linköping University (National center for Visual Analytics, NCVA) and Statistics Sweden, SCB, is described. Two examples show the use of visualization in the municipality of Linköping, a participant in the project, and in the city of Gothenburg, that use visualization in a blog about sustainable development. The recent developments at Statistics Sweden conclude the paper showing how the Statistics Atlas may support municipalities and others interested in analyzing statistics on municipality level.