Designing GeoDesign Continued from page 17 “One of the powers of GeoDesign is it makes these problems visual,” he said. “They are easier to ignore when they are abstractions. Because we have been designing the world without data-rich knowledge of consequences, we’ve created a situation where we’ve made ourselves vulnerable as a species, which to me gives urgency to GeoDesign. This is something we don’t have a lot of time to develop.” The purpose of the two and a half day summit was to „ Define and formalize the term GeoDesign and its methodology. „ Promote and advance GeoDesign research and education. „ Discuss how to go about creating better GeoDesign technologies and tools. „ Talk about how to more deeply couple design with GIS and other geospatial technologies. „ Prepare a set of use cases to show what GeoDesign can accomplish. In his opening remarks, Dangermond spoke about the great potential for GeoDesign, which is described by some as a pairing of design and GIS. It unites the art and creativity of design with the power and science of geospatial technology. GeoDesign can produce more informed, databased design options and decisions. “The notion of integrating these two fields is very exciting to me. We have a kind of continuum from measurement to making decisions that integrates all of our ways of doing things into new processes,” Dangermond told the gathering. Dangermond said accelerating improvements in geospatial technologies will hasten advances in GeoDesign. New design-friendly capabilities and tools in the upcoming release of ArcGIS 10 will help professionals apply GeoDesign methodologies to problems and challenges related to anything from climate change to pandemic diseases, environmental protection to food production, and resource conservation to infrastructure improvements. “Geospatial technology is migrating to the Web and will be used by practically everyone in some way or other,” Dangermond said. This new style of serving geography will affect virtually everything that people do—not just a few researchers, GIS professionals, or those who work with geographic information. Improvements in GIS, the explosion of location-based services (LBS), faster computers, more bandwidth and storage, the boom in mobile devices, and the emergence of cloud computing will also speed GeoDesign along, according to Dangermond. While some people describe this as disruptive technology, for Dangermond, “it’s just another step in the evolution in the enabling technology that allows us to bring these new ideas that will come out of this meeting to fruition. Organizations also are beginning to serve geographic knowledge, which is providing a new infrastructure to build on top of, hopefully, the design notions that come out of the summit.” Dangermond continued, “Agencies will not be providing data files or maps. They will be providing services, and these services will be a new framework. Just like the Apple iPhone is providing a framework for all kinds of apps, these geospatial services—and the ability to build creative applications on top of them—will explode our field and the general interest in designing our future.” Designer-Friendly GIS Technology Matthew Baker, Nathan Shephard, and Bern Szukalski from Esri demonstrated currently available tools and services and soon-to-be-released technology that will assist designers in their work. Baker’s demonstration focused on the modeling, sketching, and feedback capabilities in ArcGIS Desktop 10, set for release in the second quarter of 2010. To find the best areas suitable for redevelopment in Detroit, Michigan, he created a model that used public GIS data and extracted block group parcels in the city that met criteria such as high poverty rates, vacant properties, and high unemployment. He used basemaps available from ArcGIS Online, an Esri Web site that provides free maps and other resources for GIS applications. The model’s results pointed Baker to key redevelopment areas. Baker then began sketching a new neighborhood using standard landuse symbols for neighborhood design, which will be available in future templates in the ArcGIS 10 editing tools. He received instant feedback on the suitability of his designs in the form of pie and bar charts that were based on the features he sketched using an ArcGIS 10 add-in called the Dynamic Charting tool. Every time new features are added to the map, the Dynamic Charting tool provides updates. Shephard demonstrated new design-friendly capabilities in the ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension to ArcGIS Desktop 10. These capabilities included template-based (sketch) editing in 3D; 3D vector analyses of line of sight; 3D object intersections and skylines; volumetric analysis of buildings, shadow impact, and visibility zones; and a template of a virtual city. The virtual city template provides a useful example of a well-defined 3D city. The four key elements of such a city are a topographic basemap, high-resolution imagery, an elevation surface, and 3D buildings. If the data is available, users can add other elements such as vegetation, streetlights, and park benches. “These new capabilities allow you to quickly and accurately solve 3D GIS problems, such as assessing the impact of a proposed building on your city or identifying areas of concern based on 3D topography,” The virtual city template, available with the ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension at ArcGIS 10, provides a useful example of a well-defined 3D city. It was demonstrated during the summit. 18 ArcUser Spring 2010 www.esri.com