openplaces 0.1.0

A Python package for place-based geospatial analysis

openplaces

openplaces is an open-source data and analytics platform for integrating parcel boundaries, environmental indicators, and socio‑economic data at scale.

Maintained by researchers at academic institutions and released under the Apache-2.0 license, it supports reproducible research for conservation, land policy, and environmental analytics.

This repository is an inital commit with a sceleton structure and will be populated with code from sister projects 2025-2026.

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✨ Features (goals)

• Standardized parcel-level data ingestion and harmonization.
• Connectors to remote-sensing archives (Landsat (LS), Sentinel, NAIP) and environmental datasets.
• Utilities for valuation modeling, conservation planning, and spatial statistics.
• Cloud/cluster-friendly workflows for reproducibility (containers, CI, distributed compute).
• Modern Python stack (GeoPandas, Rasterio, Xarray, Dask, Scikit‑learn/PyTorch).

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📦 Installation

From PyPI:

pip install openplaces

From source (development):

git clone https://github.com/chrnolte/openplaces.git
cd openplaces
pip install -e .

Optional (recommended) extras:

# Example extras; adjust to your setup
pip install "openplaces[dev,docs]"

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🚀 Quick Start

The snippet below is illustrative for intended use — consult the docs for the current interface.

import openplaces as op

# Load parcels for Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States
parcels = op.load_parcels("US-MA-MI")

# Join satellite-derived forest change
parcels = op.join_forest_change(parcels)

# Get sales dataset for hedonic analysis
sales = op.get_sales(parcels)

# Estimate land values
values = op.estimate_land_values(parcels)
print(values.describe())

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📖 Documentation

• User Guide: https://openplaces.readthedocs.io/
• API Reference: https://openplaces.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api/

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🧭 Governance & Sustainability

• License: Apache-2.0 (see LICENSE.md).
• Consortium: Currently: informal network of international academic collaborators; new partners welcome.

Contact: [e-mail]

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📜 License

Released under the Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.md for details.
© 2025 The openplaces Consortium.

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📢 Citation

If you use openplaces in academic work, please cite:

@misc{openplaces2025,
  author       = {Christoph Nolte, openplaces Consortium},
  title        = {openplaces: Global property data and analytics platform},
  year         = {2025},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/chrnolte/openplaces}}
}

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🙏 Acknowledgments

This work has been supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), together with partner institutions across multiple countries.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the supporting agencies.