{"id":1184,"date":"2012-08-22T08:54:23","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T15:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/?p=1184"},"modified":"2012-08-22T08:54:23","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T15:54:23","slug":"geodesign-pioneer-honored","status":"publish","type":"insider","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/geodesign-pioneer-honored","title":{"rendered":"Geodesign Pioneer Honored"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Stephen Ervin<\/a> is as vibrant as his day of birth\u2014Mardi Gras<\/a>. Like the celebratory day itself, Ervin is animated, larger than life, and full of contagious energy. He has spent two decades working at Harvard University teaching courses, speaking at conferences, and authoring books about his passion\u2014the intersection of computing, design, and science. \u201cGeodesign has taken over my life,\u201d Ervin chuckles.
\nThe Assistant Dean for Information Technology at Harvard\u2019s Graduate School of Design<\/a>, Director of Computer Resources, and lecturer in the Department of Landscape Architecture, Ervin still somehow manages to find time to evangelize and promote the principles of geodesign<\/a> in various ways around the world.
\n\u201cWhen I first heard the term, I thought I\u2019d been using it all my life,\u201d said Ervin. \u201cBut I hadn\u2019t. There was no geodesign 50 years ago. We finally have the means to go about geodesign with all this digital technology\u2014computers and software and satellites and collaboration tools, apps and smartphones\u2014we have a whole new discipline on our hands.\u201d
\n
\nA Defining Moment<\/strong>
\nIn Ervin\u2019s opinion, geodesign is something that has been talked about for many years. \u201cWe called it computer-aided design,\u201d said Ervin. \u201cWe didn\u2019t mean CAD\u2014we meant design aided by computation, and that\u2019s really where we are headed.\u201d
\n

\"Stephen
Stephen Ervin (right) accepts the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2012 Esri User Conference for his pioneering work integrating GIS and design.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOne of the defining moments in Ervin\u2019s career was studying in the graduate school at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Massachusetts in the landscape architecture program, which introduced Ervin to computer representations of the real world. \u201cI saw this image of ski slopes cut into the hills and the forest clearing that were quite primitive graphically; at that time trees were little triangles with sticks,\u201d said Ervin. \u201cIt probably cost days and thousands of dollars for the US Forest Service to produce back in the 1970s. I was drawn to this idea that took bits and bytes and tabular data about tree positions and species and an elevation model and turned it into a visual representation from which decisions could be made.\u201d
\nThe idea that data could be combined with graphical representations was inspirational to Ervin, and shortly after he was introduced to GIS at Harvard University\u2019s Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis. In 1984, Ervin took this knowledge and began a software company to help landscape architects visualize the results of design decisions.
\n
\nThe Future of Geodesign<\/strong>
\nAt the 2012 Esri User Conference<\/a>, Esri president Jack Dangermond presented Ervin with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for his pioneering work in melding together the disciplines of GIS and design. In presenting the award, Dangermond noted that \u201clifetime\u201d didn\u2019t mean that Ervin\u2019s work was done. There is still much important work to do.
\nErvin sees the marriage of science and design as the real challenge to geodesign, so interactions may be orchestrated and we can see the true impacts of design decisions. The idea that people can have visual feedback for decisions\u2014such as with the ski slope representations\u2014has become a fundamental driver to what Ervin finds the most exciting about geodesign. \u201cThe idea of immediate visual feedback and dashboards to display key indicators that tell us how well we\u2019re doing, and in real time, is important,\u201d said Ervin. \u201cWhether measuring carbon footprint or total costs or total number of houses, cars, people, buses or even elephants\u2014it\u2019s important to have this kind of feedback and in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Geodesign<\/a>View Ervin\u2019s presentation on the future of geodesign from the 2012 Geodesign Summit<\/a><\/p>\n

Guest post by Karen Richardson<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10862],"tags":[25072,441,277052,277062],"class_list":["post-1184","insider","type-insider","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esri","tag-esri-user-conference","tag-geodesign","tag-lifetime-achievement-award","tag-stephen-ervin"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGeodesign Pioneer Honored<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/geodesign-pioneer-honored\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Geodesign Pioneer Honored\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Stephen Ervin is as vibrant as his day of birth\u2014Mardi Gras. 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