The Administration should partner with leaders from relevant sectors to design a central, user-friendly information clearinghouse on sustainability. The federal government, community-based organizations, and national associations have already accomplished a great deal in linking sustainability information available on the World Wide Web. These partners should develop an information support system that can address questions stimulated by the National Town Meeting and facilitate information exchange among sustainable community development initiatives. This clearinghouse should also address how to reach low-income and rural communities that may not have access to Internet resources.

Federal agencies and foundations should improve the capability of communities to use GIS information in support of place-based ecosystem management, sustainable land use, and community reinvestment. In particular, these stakeholders should support a community/federal information partnership in which the Secretary of the Interior would lead a four-year interagency initiative to advance the capacity of communities and regions to create and use geospatial data, and improve federal agencies. Capabilities to provide community information. These agencies should provide incentives in the form of demonstration grants, training and technical assistance, or subsidies for software upgrades where needed.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, in cooperation with EPA, the U.S. Department of Energy, HUD, and the Joint Center for Sustainable Communities, should establish a comprehensive program to develop new and improved analytical tools for land use, transportation, and environmental planning. States and localities need useful tools for analyzing and modernizing their planning laws and techniques, and for guiding public and private development in a sustainable manner. This effort should recognize ongoing work by professional associations that have developed planning tools on smart growth with the support of federal funding, such as the American Planning Association's Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook and Clearinghouse.

The federal government, foundations, and technical assistance providers should design and disseminate tools and methods that can assess the benefits of investments in sustainable community strategies. In particular, tools are needed that will capture the cross-benefits of investments. For example, PLACE3S (Planning for Community Energy, Economic, and Environmental Sustainability) software, a land use and urban design model sponsored by the Department of Energy, identifies the energy impacts of land use decisions. Other tools are needed to estimate more precisely the benefits of investments in green infrastructure, materials reuse and resource efficiency strategies, and sustainable rural strategies.