In California, local communities are both important centers of wealth and concentrated areas of poverty. Building economic and social capacity will require targeted investment if the state is to prosper. Thorough information regarding opportunities and needs in various fields, as well as the connections between nearby communities and their surrounding areas, are necessary for making wise investment decisions.

The Regional Opportunity Index (ROI), an index of community and regional opportunity for understanding social and economic opportunity in California's communities, was developed by the U.C. Davis Center for Regional Change and Rabobank in collaboration with VESTRA using Esri's ArcGIS platform.