The Next Generation of GIS Dealing with design and space-time The rapidly changing nature and scale of problems such as global climate change and the widespread failure of the banking system threaten to overwhelm the resources of individual nations and defy the methods of traditional science. However, leading researchers and practitioners of geospatial technology believe a new generation of GIS is evolving that will help understand and address these problems far more effectively. Many of these leaders were recently brought together for a pair of related meetings held at the Esri headquarters in Redlands, California. The first event, the 2010 GeoDesign Summit, was sponsored by the University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of Redlands; and Esri. It was held January 8–10. More than 170 academics and professionals met to discuss GeoDesign, a new GIS field that marries the original conceptualization of GIS by Ian McHarg as a tool for designing the human environment with the natural one with the more familiar applications of GIS for data collection, creation, and management; data analysis; and decision support. As Esri president Jack Dangermond noted when introducing keynote speaker Thomas Fisher, this new field is exciting because it creates a “continuum between measurement and design.” Fisher, the dean of the College of Design, University of Minnesota, approached the topic from the design side rather than the GIS side. He emphasized that 14 ArcUser Spring 2010 GeoDesign should fulfill the real mission of design, which is “making things work better in the world,” particularly as related to sustainability and social justice issues rather than just making things look more attractive, the popular impression of what design does. He also recognized that GeoDesign has a strong temporal element because it brings together geography, which looks at the “way the world is and was,” with design, which looks at the way the world might be, connecting the past, present, and future. Also, he noted, geography and design both are fundamentally spatial disciplines. Fisher said that historically, society has been designing without a lot of information on consequences—consequences to the environment, other people distant in time or space, and other species. The focus has been almost exclusively on fulfilling present needs. As GeoDesign can bring data to bear on these decisions “it will profoundly change the way we live and the way we inhabit the planet.” (For more information on the GeoDesign Summit, see “Designing GeoDesign: Summit on new field that couples GIS and design,” on page 16 of this issue.) Developing tools for dealing with largescale, complex problems was also the impetus behind the Space-Time Modeling and Analysis Workshop. Thought leaders from seven countries, who work in academia, government, and industry, met February 22–23, 2010, to share current work being done on this aspect of geospatial technology and develop an agenda for defining research areas and designing spatiotemporal tools going forward. This workshop, cosponsored by the Association of American Geographers (AAG), the University of Redlands, the University of Southern California, and Esri, was the first Redlands GIS Week event. The workshop included keynote presentations, Lightning Talks, and breakout sessions that identified the most important challenges and immediate strategies for incorporating space-time into GIS processes. In his Keynote Address, Michael F. Goodchild, professor of geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and director of spatial@ucsb, observed that while “we have been talking about spatiotemporal analysis modeling for a number of years, we are now at a bit of a tipping point where we can really start making progress.” Spatiotemporal tools are “a way for looking at spatial data that will help us deal more effectively with the complex problems we now face, like climate change and economic meltdowns and infectious disease, that don’t allow for a leisurely, reflective approach to solving them.” The geospatial approach has become more valuable because the role of the scientist and science in society have changed. The era of the lone scientific investigator is over. Discoveries about complex systems require www.esri.com