{"id":771981,"date":"2026-03-31T19:59:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T02:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&p=771981"},"modified":"2026-03-31T15:04:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T22:04:44","slug":"creating-sustainability-the-most-important-design-problem-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/creating-sustainability-the-most-important-design-problem-in-the-world","title":{"rendered":"Creating Sustainability: \u201cThe Most Important Design Problem in the World\u201d"},"author":6921,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[121252,401,381322],"tags":[1741,339072,279122,1631,351],"arcnews_issues":[493400],"class_list":["post-771981","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geodesign","category-government","category-sustainability","tag-ai","tag-city-planning","tag-climate","tag-collaboration","tag-planning","arcnews_issues-spring-2026","arcnews_sections-news"],"acf":{"short_description":"When planners can see their communities\u2019 plans in context, they\u2019ll be able to gauge the effects across counties, nations, and regions.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"What if planners from neighboring communities or different parts of the world could share their planning information with one another? Using the same technology, the same language, the same maps, they could see how other cities are zoning new developments, building much-needed housing, and preserving green spaces. They could even evaluate how their plans either contribute to or detract from local, regional, national, and international goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions, protect natural resources, adapt to changing weather patterns, and promote economic growth.\r\n\r\nTwo interconnected projects seek to foster these connections among planners and the communities they serve. The Global to Local to Global (GLG) Climate Mitigation Implementation Project, led by geodesign expert Dr. Carl Steinitz and an international cadre of geospatial thinkers, is bringing together individual climate mitigation projects at the local, regional, and global levels in one platform to evaluate how they would work together to cut global emissions by 2050. Open Plan Map, a forthcoming component of Esri\u2019s Community Maps Program, will encourage planners to share their planning data in ArcGIS Online so that they and others can compare their work with adjacent jurisdictions, explore plans from around the world, get a general understanding of their plan\u2019s CO2<\/sub> impact, and see whether local climate mitigation initiatives align with global goals."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":772015,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"\u201cThe idea is to let people view their communities\u2019 plans in context and see what\u2019s happening at other scales,\u201d said Esri president Jack Dangermond. \u201cIn Southern California, for example, hundreds of communities could share their plans and develop a patchwork quilt that provides a picture of what\u2019s happening across the region. If planners around the world share their information, then regional, state, national, and even global agencies can understand what\u2019s being planned at an aggregate level.\u201d\r\n\r\nBoth projects are ambitious. At a time when disconnect and disquietude seem to capture the prevailing mood, these undertakings deal in the art of the possible\u2014in what communities may be able to achieve when it comes to sustainable, climate-friendly development.\r\n

The Urgency of Mitigation<\/h2>\r\nThe last 11 years have been the warmest on record, and ocean temperatures and concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to increase, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Rising sea levels, coastal erosion, thawing permafrost, and extreme weather are forcing residents to move from places as disparate as the Pacific Islands and the Arctic. Many millions of people may need to relocate in the next century due to lack of local water and food, according to \u201cFuture of the Human Climate Niche,\u201d a paper written by Dr. Chi Xu of Nanjing University, and others, and published in PNAS<\/em>.\r\n\r\n\u201cMillions of people are in crisis now, and they need to adapt immediately,\u201d said Steinitz, honorary professor at University College London and the Alexander and Victoria Wiley professor of landscape architecture and planning, emeritus, at Harvard University. But what we urgently need to focus on, he says, is mitigation.\r\n\r\n\u201cAdaptation is short term because much will be overcome in two, maybe three generations if temperatures continue to rise,\u201d he explained."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":772016,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"There are mitigation plans being made\u2014at the local, state, regional, and global levels. But how do they all connect? How can city government officials be sure their new housing, transportation, and zoning plans will protect water supplies and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere? And how can leaders of global organizations, such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, establish goals that aren\u2019t merely aspirational but are actually feasible?\r\n\r\nSteinitz and a team of experts from international universities and Esri are taking concepts from geodesign to link localized plans with global goals. The team has created projective maps that compare existing climate conditions everywhere in the world, at one-kilometer grain, to what climate conditions and land use are credibly predicted to be in 2050 if current trends persist and if, on the other hand, targeted climate mitigation projects are implemented. Using AI, the team has developed a range of numbers assessing various emissions reduction scenarios, as well as what each of those scenarios would cost.\r\n\r\n\u201cOur experiments say that we can produce 80 gigatons of CO2<\/sub> reduction for around 3\u20135 percent of annual global GDP\u201d\u2014much less than what a one-degree-Celsius increase in temperature will cost the world, Steinitz said. \u201cThat\u2019s a very good investment with enormous secondary benefits.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe hope is that with this system, and by using modern geospatial technology, local government planners and GIS practitioners will be able to create planning documents that conform to what\u2019s needed nationally and internationally to mitigate Earth\u2019s rapidly changing environmental conditions.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe technology is finally here to be able to think about solutions to this global problem\u2014not merely by looking at each national piece separately, but by thinking and designing across global to local to global scales,\u201d Steinitz said.\r\n

Connecting Local, Regional, and Global Projects<\/h2>\r\nMost nations have between 3 and 12 climate regions\u2014and those regions will change over the coming decades, according to Steinitz. China, for example, has 12 climate regions, which range from subtropical moist to polar moist and cool temperate dry. Each nation and its climate regions demand different ways of implementing broad policies, not least because of their economic, social, and environmental diversity, as well as how ready they are to tackle climate issues. But these more viable local plans also need to connect at larger extents."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":772017,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Steinitz and his team have developed 117 climate mitigation project types spanning nine land-use and land-cover categories, such as energy, forest, agriculture, and ocean, that can be implemented across 10,000 jurisdictions in nearly 200 nations. Detailed Gantt charts, plus maps and simulations built in ArcGIS Pro, show the emissions reduction and cost impacts of these projects if carbon emissions increased at different rates through 2050.\r\n\r\nThe focus on climate regions is important. Plans developed at the national level shouldn\u2019t be monolithic. In the United States, for example, Phoenix, Arizona, and Madison, Wisconsin, shouldn\u2019t have the same climate plan, Steinitz pointed out.\r\n\r\nThe workflow that he and his team have developed is designed to test, not prescribe, pathways to climate mitigation. But the hope is that it can bring local planning initiatives out of their silos and into the global milieu, give context to climate mitigation projects of various scales, and inspire collaboration.\r\n

Increasing Access to\u2014and Uses for\u2014Planning Data<\/h2>\r\nCurrently, however, there\u2019s a data vacuum in the planning sphere\u2014not just at the global scale but at local levels, too.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo two jurisdictions use the same categorizations for land use and zoning. There is no common language where one city\u2019s map legend matches another\u2019s. They\u2019re similar in that they both have commercial and residential types of land use, but there\u2019s not a direct match,\u201d said Dr. Ryan Perkl, Esri\u2019s lead for geodesign and planning. \u201cThere\u2019s also no centrally located spot where people can find anyone\u2019s plan.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"The following people have been instrumental in developing the Global to Local to Global project\u2019s methodology and technology:\r\n