The concept of GeoDesign involves a more interactive interface to geospatial layers with the means for sketching and design upon those layers in a collaborative way while contributing and interacting with an evolving intelligent model. The concept itself isn’t new, but various technology pieces have been missing, and the enabling software is now being worked on.

Solving the connections between various software tools and discipline workflows is a sticky problem that will take some time to address and unravel. Now is the time for more dialogue on the definition and practice of GeoDesign.

The definition is being considered by practitioners, associations and academics. As the concept, process and technologies come together, it’s interesting to consider the question of whether GeoDesign is an activity, can be defined as a  practice, or can become a software-enabled approach.

Changing By Design

The master of the idea of GeoDesign is Carl Steinitz from Harvard University who has been active in consensus-building urban design approaches for a long time. ESRI’s Matt Artz wrote up a nice profile piece about GeoDesign in which he quoted Steinitz’s definition as: GeoDesign is changing geography by design.

In this definition, the emphasis is on the active role of GeoDesign to shape and mold our surroundings to our desired uses. The desire to change geography looks at broader-scale plans beyond individual buildings for a better understanding and affect on the  landscape.

GeoDesign as an activity centers on projects for specific outcomes in specific locations. The individual GeoDesigns for an area can be thought of as integrating over time in a larger planning-oriented repository, but in order for GeoDesign to be realized it must have funding as individual projects, perhaps even in a way that mandates the approach.

Defining a Practice

GeoDesign involves the modeling of desired outcomes that goes beyond building plans to incorporate the design of the broader geography. This purview for broader change involves the input of such disciplines as landscape architects, environmental scientists, engineers, urban planners, elected officials and citizens.

In order for GeoDesign to truly take off, it must take an interdisciplinary approach that is inclusive of all of the various parts in the planning process. The practice of GeoDesign would need to be taught and promoted in each individual discipline. The role of GeoDesigner might even involve being the coordinator and keeper of the central model, ensuring its integrity and compliance, while also spurring the project to completion.

GeoDesign from a practice perspective emphasizes collaboration and interdisciplinary cooperation toward the best and most sustainable design that takes into account livability (people), the environmental impacts (planet), and efficiency (profit).

The Role of the Model

The interoperability of the model between different disciplines is the central enabler of the GeoDesign concept. With a malleable central model that lives and is updated, we can realize the vision of more sustainable and more informed designs.

The key software requirements for GeoDesign include rich 3D visualization, an ability to store and search all project data regardless of format, the tools to model change through time, inputs from real-time sensors, and customizable interfaces for all participants and all workflows. Given the process-oriented nature of GeoDesign, another key component involves the means for individuals to communicate and design collectively. The model becomes the medium for project design, construction, management and maintenance.

Because digital design software and a rich 3D model are central to GeoDesign, it seems reasonable to think that software will be central to facilitating and enabling the GeoDesign approach. Without the tools to increase the communication and efficiency of the process, we might as well stick to today’s repetitive and wasteful processes.

Thankfully, the hot concept of GeoDesign neatly coincides with an expanding foundation of enabling technology, an interest in interdisciplinary approaches and a renewed interest in making our cities the most livable spaces for human habitation. The advancement is also being spurred by new projects for green and livable city initiatives that have funding.

The emphasis of GeoDesign so far seems to favor an active design-centric vision with a process that can exist outside of software. Ultimately, however, the definition rests with the properties and capabilities of the collaborative model that are dependent upon some software advancements, and a public will to take a new approach.

REFERENCES

The Next Big Thing: Green Neighborhoods, Sustainable Life, March 11, 2010

Intelligent infrastructure combines sensors, network connectivity and software to monitor and analyze complex systems to uncover inefficiency and inform optimal operations. The sensor component collects operational detail over time as well as providing real-time inputs on current conditions. The network connectivity ensures the flow of information between systems, other sensors, and practitioners. The software component provides oversight and analysis, integrating insight from various systems and personnel. The approach incorporates the management of multiple processes for more collaborative and multidisciplinary workflows. Intelligence is constantly improving from such a system through incremental improvements that are informed through constant monitoring and analysis.

The idea of intelligent infrastructure has been around for a long time in one form or another. Early forays into real-time monitoring of systems include industrial control systems such as SCADA. What largely sets the newer concept of intelligent infrastructure apart is an advancement in sensors, systems and networks that enable us to go beyond simply monitoring. Instead of the more passive alarms when inputs exceed accepted norms, intelligent infrastructure is a more holistic approach that aims to model and manage with a greater understanding of the interconnectivity of systems and the implications of events.

Big Blue Leads the Way

IBM is well out in front of publicizing and practicing the concept of intelligent infrastructure with their Smarter Planet campaign and their SmarterCity initiative. The company trades on their large-scale integration work and their understanding of complex systems to promote this idea of instrumented, interconnected, and then intelligent systems.

At the core of this concept is the idea of a system of systems approach. In the complex urban core, it’s a combination of transportation, healthcare, economic development, public safety, energy and utilities, and education systems. Each of these individual systems is in themselves a system of multiple inputs from multiple sensors and systems. IBM asserts that it’s largely an issue of constant data collection and open data exchanges that yield smarts for these systems. The resulting repository yields the ability to see how things are performing and a clear picture on how to redeploy resources quickly in advance of any problems or failures.

IBM takes a partnership approach toward achieving their Smarter Planet goals, working with a number of geospatial players to map assets and analyze details geographically. IBM’s Maximo Spatial Asset Management system integrates with ESRI’s ArcGIS Server to incorporate the GIS view, display map content, provide geospatial querying capability, and read data direct from multiple geodatabases. The geospatial component is clearly needed, particularly in the complex environments of an urban setting, and location often acts as the glue to integrate disparate data and systems together.

Flexible and Responsive

Given the changes of rapid urbanization and the pressures to adapt to climate change, it’s imperative that we fine tune our systems to be more flexible and responsive. The concept of intelligent infrastructure is also strategically timed for great demographic shifts that will leave many high-level jobs vacant due to retirements. These systems can bridge the knowledge gap by recording and modeling best business practice and process in advance of losing legacy operational knowledge.

Examples of industry approaches that might qualify as “intelligent infrastructure” in my mind are:

• the skeletonization of water networks for better understanding of full-network issues
• intelligent traffic systems and sensors on bridges to measure and monitor performance
• the detailed use of spatial analysis for renewable energy siting and ongoing monitoring of in situ conditions for optimal energy generation
• more efficient building heating, cooling and lighting systems for energy conservation
• detailed underground models for more informed oil and gas extraction

In all the above examples, there is a considerable increase in infrastructure and mapping efforts, but the payoffs can also be huge. An energy savings of 40 percent translates into a lower energy bill, less of a dependence on foreign energy sources, and reduced emissions. Intelligent traffic can dramatically reduce drive times and congestion, while cutting down on carbon emissions. While the solutions themselves are smart, the investment is also smart because the benefits far outweigh the costs.

Unleashing Creativity

Given the cross-cutting nature of intelligent infrastructure, where operational data from multiple separate operations are combined, there’s a great deal of opportunity for creative approaches to problem solving. Instead of being constrained by traditional business silos, these new systems will unlock cross-organization information to reveal the inefficiencies that exist between different systems.

As the systems mature and much more is known about operations, solutions to problems can be tested almost as in a laboratory setting. With the sensor-based feedback, and the growing knowledge base, pilot projects can be tested and the great deal of data that is generated can be analyzed to determine any performance improvements.

Through the application of intelligent infrastructure, we can gain a much better handle on the materials and resources that our systems consume. This conservation-first approach will go a long way toward improving our efficiency for a more sustainable approach, and will greatly improve the way we manage and construct our built world.

Get Involved: The Geospatial Information & Technology Association will be exploring the geospatial dimension of intelligent infrastructure at their upcoming annual meeting in Phoenix in April. I’ll be acting as facilitator for discussions with the Industry Trends Analysis Group (ITAG) on Monday morning of the event. If this topic is of interest to you, be sure to become involved.

Additional Resources

IBM – A Smarter Planet Initiative

Intelligent Infrastructure Definition – University of Toronto, Dept. of Civil Engineering

Intelligent Infrastructure – Water Matters Blog at the Earth Institute at Columbia University

The concept of Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is really quite simple as it involves the capability to tune the wavelength, pulse width and frequency of laser light, bounce that light off objects, and capture returning light over time to measure X,Y, and Z dimensions as well as the returning light’s intensity. The technology has proven to be quite useful for capturing 3D terrain and features, and is being used extensively to map infrastructure and natural resources.

Since the technology’s first inception in the late 1960s, LIDAR has been applied to atmospheric studies of air quality, marine and hydrographic studies, for bathymetric studies and water quality issues, surveying and mapping, as well as positioning and guidance. The technology has been tweaked and fine tuned for each subsequent application area, lending improvements back to the technology development as a whole. While all of these applications and their insight have been impressive, we’re still just scratching the surface with the capabilities of this technology.

Intensity Returns

The ability to measure and classify different intensities of the light returns means that LIDAR can be tuned to capture and record a variety of different phenomenon, both visible and invisible. The intensity can be customised for atmospheric research to pick up different signatures from molecules to understand what elements are present in our air, and can do the same in water. The signatures of the elements can then be monitored to understand changes in the atmosphere and the makeup and changes in the composition of our water bodies.

Seeing what can’t be seen by the naked eye is a key application of this technology. Coupling measurements with composition also lends itself to detect environmental changes in terms of soil composition, as well as changes in vegetation. The technology is being applied to monitor variations in how soil is compacted from as far away as a kilometer and to detect how soils have been disturbed to understand if they are polluted. The technology is also being applied in forestry to assess the overall health of forests and to detect susceptibility of forest fires.

The number of applications for LIDAR sensing of various environmental change are nearly limitless. To date, a number of different LIDAR instruments have been developed to monitor specific phenomenon. There will come a time in the development of this technology where we’ll see a highly dynamic LIDAR sensor to measure a myriad of different intensity signatures to gather far more information about how our planet is constantly changing around us.

Fusing Other Sensors

The combination of high-resolution color images on both aerial and terrestrial applications of LIDAR have provided very interesting and quick captures of reality that can be rather easily deployed in models in order to represent a virtual reality. The applications of this technology are as diverse as informing engineering and design projects to incorporation in the entertainment and game industries to inform storytelling.

The addition of other sensor on the aerial platform such as hyperspectral or thermal imaging provides even greater sensing synergy to detect a myriad of environmental measurements. Hyperspectral imaging provides a means to add to the topographic information of the 3D scan with measurements that help identify the types of vegetation with a resolution that’s only available through the assessment of the various color bands of the image independently. Through the application of thermal sensors on active fires, fire managers can get a much better understanding of fire behavior on different fuel types, informing mitigation approaches.

Multi-sensor confirgurations are proving to be a very interesting technology for scientific and surveillance use. The types of sensors and various applications will continue to proliferate, and will be an important tool in our increasing interest to monitor and understand change on our planet.

The Proliferation of the Technology

Just as video cameras were once too expensive to mount and leave connected, so too will LIDAR sensors come down in price to proliferate in areas that need constant measurement. The idea of a LIDAR surveillance system isn’t too far fetched, with the ability to measure distance, motion and composition. A LIDAR system could be used for virtual fence creation, alerting a central system when encroaching object pass a certain distance threshold. The ability of LIDAR to measure and classify would provide a means to quickly understand the makeup of the objects and would send an alert based on certain profiled compositions, such as metals or other detectable elements such as explosives.

We now have constant measurement from space with LIDAR deployed on satellites. These instruments provide fairly regular measurements on a global scale that needs to be augmented with both aerial and terrestrial sensors in order to get a wide scale of measurements. With decreasing costs of components, and more capable systems, we’ll see a proliferation of LIDAR sensors that will greatly inform us.

With increasing speed of data classifcation and analysis, we’ll gain a much greater understanding of change. And with increasing overlap of sensors at various scales, we’ll be able to aggregate these different measurements for a much greater understanding of the whole from the region and country scale all the way down to millimeters of accuracy on the ground.

Overcoming Data Limitations

One of the biggest technological hurdles for greater LIDAR utility has been the issues faces with the amount of digital storage space that is required to house the measurements, and the computing power that is needed to visualize and analyze these returns. The rapidly dropping prices in computer storage and capacity is easing some of these burdens, and the advent of cloud computing is providing whole new ways to deal with the data and visualization limitations.

By harnessing large arrays of computers, analysts are much easily enabled to dive into the details of the data. The ability to store the large amounts of data on shared machines also eases some of the burden of storage management, and makes the data much more readily and speedily accessible.

With easier data storage, analysis and integration capabilities in the cloud, the burden of collection is eased in order to proliferate more sensors. With greater capacity to utilize the data, more of the data will be looked at, which will lead to whole new application areas.

The future of LIDAR is quite bright in a myriad of ways, because of the uniqueness of its sensing capability. In a time when we need more and better means to measure and analyze our world, LIDAR technology will certainly shine in the coming decades.

REFERENCES

• Proposed NASA LIDAR Surface Topography Mission [PDF background]
• Quantifying Structural Physical Habitat Attributes using LIDAR and Hyperspectral Imagery, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Volume 159, Dec. 2009
• Extracting Wildfire Characteristics Using Hyperspectral, LIDAR, and Thermal IR Remote Sensing Systems, Christos Koulas, Proceedings of the SPIE, Vol 7298, 2009

The unfolding events in Haiti have underscored the fact that accessibility to map making tools and open spatial data can make anyone a mapmaker. Mapping is an activity that provides a tangible means for concerned citizens to reach out and help make sense of a very complicated and evolving situation where the more that is known, the more that can be done, and the quicker the mapping response, the quicker aid will reach the effected population.

The various Crisis Camps that are taking place to respond to the devastating earthquake in Haiti have stoked the advancement of the citizen mapmakers who are creating detailed, timely and valuable volunteered geographic information. While in the past there were only separate mapping efforts from various government entities and non-governmental organization that might each struggle with available data and resources, now there’s a mapping effort by many that are far removed from the area or event that can support good work on the ground.

Organic Efforts

Within a very short time frame the small and poor country of Haiti has been mapped extensively with great detail, far exceeding the quality of any previously available maps. Largely this effort was done by volunteers who benefited from the availability of freely provided high-quality data, such as satellite imagery from GeoEye and DigitalGlobe. This certainly isn’t the first disaster that has benefited from such resources, but this event was different in terms of the quick mobilization of collaborative teams that quickly and efficiently teased out information from this data from far-flung locations as diverse as New York, Chicago, Montreal, London and Bogota, Colombia.

Social networking was largely responsible for the quick and collective response. The tools such as Twitter and Facebook spread the word quickly that there was need for technologists to assist, and many responded to the unprecedented opportunity to do more than just send money. While the information technology efforts weren’t relegated to mapping only, the mapping effort was one of the more visible aspects of the effort that quickly put a visual face to the scope and severity of the disaster, and it was an aspect that was widely covered by the news media.

Communications Aggregation

One of the more interesting aspects of this effort was the mapping of SMS text messages from those that were in need of help. With a devastated communication network with little capacity, text messages were often the only means of communication with the outside world, and many messages came in, even from those trapped in rubble. A volunteer effort took these messages, having to translate many from Creole into English, and endeavored to geolocate them in order that help might be sent to where it was needed most.

The map aggregation of this information provided near real-time information for first responders in Haiti. Having this information in their hands made these responders much more effective. Word spread quickly of this map resource and many teams were able to provision their personal GPS devices with updates and accurate map data to greatly speed their response times.

Open But Not Interoperable

OpenStreetMap and Google Mapmaker were largely the mapping tools of choice, but amidst all the mapping there was a call for a conflated and coordinated effort between the two. The spectre of interoperability was magnified by the altruistic intent of the effort where data created to help in one platform couldn’t be used to update the other, causing a needless duplication of effort and knowledge gaps that degraded both platforms despite the best intentions of all involved.

The Open Geospatial Consortium approach of W*S services were active and effective to help eliminate such duplicated efforts. There were Web Mapping Services to pull together SDI layers, and Web Feature Services to help bring framework data such as boundaries, hydrography, transportation and population to the masses. There was also a OpenLS route service to help route emergency services based on OpenStreetMap data.

While all these efforts were helpful, clearly more work needs to be done for greater coordination and easier portability of data between different platforms and different creators and users of the data.

Making Mapmakers

In the heat of the mapping effort, many untrained mappers were adding quality information that helped to solve problems, but also plenty of bad data were also generated because of unfamiliarity with the mapping process, and the fact that people will always have different approaches to the task at hand. While it’s difficult to learn the nuances of the task during the heat of such a moment, the WikiProject Haiti did a good job of aggregating lessons and providing a place for discussions.

Perhaps at no other time has an event exposed so many novices to the power and the complexities of mapmaking. We can expect that these now-trained volunteers will be willing and eager to help out in the next such event, and that their ranks will swell. In the interim, the geospatial community would all benefit if we were prepared to facilitate these efforts with more and easier tools for quick and coordinated mapping where the work of all benefits those that are in need and those that are at risk.

REFERENCES/RESOURCES

Ushahidi Haiti

Open Street Map Haiti

Crisis Commons – Home of the collaborative CrisisCamps

WikiProject Haiti – Earthquake Map Resources

Google Map Maker – Mapping Haiti

ESRI Haiti Disaster Relief and Support

Open Geospatial Consortium Haiti Effort

Virtual Disaster Viewer

The plight of the land developer is tough right now, given the housing bubble and the long-lasting impact of available credit due to the global recession. This downturn has had it’s Darwinian moments though, because the developers that took a more irresponsible tact with cheaper and more homes as fast as they could be built have taken the hardest hits, and in many cases are no longer in business.

The demand for new housing will not go away anytime soon. However, new development plans are under increasing scrutiny regarding the value that they bring to communities, and the impacts that they’ll have on quality of life. This growing sentiment of more reasoned development plays neatly into the hands of evolving design and planning approaches as well as supporting geospatial technologies.

Cumulative Intelligence About the Land

There are a broad number of disciplines that are involved in the design of new developments. These steps are currently very disjointed, with such foundational elements as the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) being delivered in static reports that are only done because they’re mandated, and are immediately filed away, having met the requirement. The coming evolution of this work will use the EIS and its knowledge of the land as a template for development, and a base map for an intelligent land model, much the same way that topology is a foundational feature about the land.

The idea of intelligence within the land model means that each subsequent discipline adds to the intelligence, with more details about the land, the web of infrastructure that connects each structure, the details about each structure and property, and key operational and maintenance tasks for ongoing work after the last structure is built.

The amount of intelligence that’s encapsulated in the model will depend upon the complexity of the site. The development of new land won’t require the same sort of details that will be contained in a complex urban environment where land is being redeveloped. But all models should live on for the lifecycle of the site.

Collective Field Work

The idea of land design on site in a collaborative manner with a team of diverse professionals was on display recently at the GeoDesign Summit through the work of Dennis Williams with the Civil Design Team. William uses CAD and ArcPad to take his design out into the field for on-site design sessions with planners, the land owner and other stakeholders. The site work is a collaborative endeavor where multiple participants are walking the land and visualizing its future, along with a collection of inputs and measurements that form the baseline for the discussion.

The interactive, real-time and collaborative approach has proved to be greatly efficient in the work that William has done planning 1,000 to 5,000-acre developments in South and North Carolina. The in-context questions help resolve issues before they become problems, and the collaborative work approach means that all concerns are addressed and resolved early in the process, alleviating costly changes that tend to happen later in the design and planning process.

Consensus Planning

The advent of crowd-sourced and Internet-enabled planning methodologies, along with a movement to greater government transparency, has given rise to more citizen involvement in the planning process. An inclusive approach is aided by technology to gather opinions and drive consensus in a much quicker timeline than previous approaches.

While the developer can expect much greater feedback and scrutiny in the design and planning process, the end result is an engaged and satisfied customer base that will be ready and willing to support it. With each well-planned development that takes into account the community and the environment, we make our collective home a better place.

The idea of modeling external influences gets to the root capabilities of geospatial modeling and visualization. There’s a degree of sleuthing involved to truly understand the processes and influences of complex systems — applying spatial analysis to a place to profile the players, their impacts on each other, and the long-term trends of change over time.

Geospatial tools are ideally suited for a deep understanding of place, whether it’s an ecosystem or a complex urban environment. This technology can help us gain the required knowledge about our cities, regions, countries and planet — helping us understand our past and present in order to predict and manager our future.

Peeling Back the Surface

Modeling the layers of the earth, whether natural or man-altered, provides an important understanding of influence. Looking under what’s visible on the surface helps reveal the history of change in a place. The discipline of geology provides the perspective of the deep history and origin of our planet, while archeology similarly unveils ancient civilizations buried by earth processes. Geospatial technology allows us to catalog changes, to amass our knowledge, and uncover insights about our ancestors and back beyond the existence of our species on this planet.

What’s underneath is an important perspective in understanding environmental issues. The legacy of industrial processes and natural resource extraction needs to be traced below ground, uncovering contamination that impacts all species and the viability of future settlements. The movement of water below the surface of the earth transports contaminants, and it’s only through modeling that we uncover the full picture of external influence in order to manage and mitigate harmful impacts.

Observing the Now

With an amassed understanding of processes in a specific place, we can determine the primary actors of change in that spot and begin to monitor them in real time in order to avert adverse outcomes. Geospatial technology provide the means to determine what the primary actors are, and to establish thresholds for change by modeling the various processes. By continuously measuring fluctuations against established norms, we can become more effective stewards.

Without an understanding of impacts before action, we’re constantly in a state of trying to rebuild things that we’ve broken. The maintenance of our planet requires a deeper understanding of natural and man-influenced change, so that we’re incrementally taking care of the fragile balance of nature, and avoiding catastrophic consequences. It’s far easier and the least costly to take care of change over time by developing a deep understanding rather than reacting in order to rebuild.

Predicting Impacts

It’s a difficult task to pull together all known and unforeseen events that will impact a location in order to mold its future. Geospatial technology provides the means to continually build upon what we know, to test constantly various what-if scenarios, and to determine which actions have the desired effects.

Public policy is our primary means to curtail impacts by setting guidelines of human behavior so that our planet can sustain future generations. Geospatial technology provides the hub between scientific observation and policy, so that regulations can be crafted for greatest benefit with constant monitoring to ensure improved outcomes.

The focus on external influence involves the distillation of process in order to identify change agents and to curtail adverse outcomes across time. The growing  global impacts of climate change provide the ultimate test of geospatial technology to understand external influences. A deeper analysis of the planet is necessary, particularly in how we generate and consume energy. With these impending and profound changes in our planet, we need a greater understanding of the external influences at different scales of both time and space.

There’s not much consensus of opinion regarding the likelihood of a comprehensive treaty on climate change in Copenhagen at the United Nations Climate Change Conference early next month. The “Hopenhagen” campaign and other efforts are promoting the need for strong action, but there are other equally strong detractors.  In recent days there have been indications that policymakers in the United States and China will make some strong moves that would make a new treaty along the lines of the Kyoto Protocol a near-term reality. However, regardless of the outcome it will take time to turn around climate impacts and a level of adaptation will need to take place.

Even with rising awareness and actions, the global rise in carbon emissions appears to be a losing battle. The amount of carbon already in the atmosphere, and what’s coming along behind it, mean that the Earth’s climate will be warmer for the next thousand years. Tapping existing technologies, and creating new solutions, will become essential to combat coming changes. Geospatial technology contains the ideal tools for the four M’s that are building blocks for climate change adaptation– measuring, modeling, monitoring and mitigating.

Measuring

When looking at the time scale of our planet’s evolution that made it possible for our species to live and thrive, we have a very limited understanding of the changes that our land and atmosphere undergo, and even less knowledge about the repercussions of even minor variations in global temperatures. In order to gain an understanding of these changes, it’s necessary to measure changes over time as well as to research and understand past adaptations.

Geospatial technologies provide the means to survey and measure our natural systems, gathering data that allows us to represent the current reality as well as build upon that knowledge with accuracy over time. The cataloging of details about our world must take place in the context of geography in order to be able to see and understand interactions. This knowledge begins at a local scale that can then be expanded to regional and global scales. Without accurate measurements and disciplined knowledge building, we’ll continue to guess about the outcomes of our interactions with our planet and the plants and animals that share it with us.

Modeling

It’s an amazing exercise to look back through time to try and understand past changes. The fossil record provides many clues to dramatic changes, and we’re slowly building up our knowledge to be able to create visualizations of what changes took place. The next step in our understanding is to incorporate a diverse set of viewpoints into a computer model where we can manipulate different ecosystem processes in order to both gain a greater knowledge of relationships, but also to be able to better predict future ecosystem changes based upon our growing knowledge of individual variables.

Geospatial technologies provide a means to visualize, animate and model the changes taking place around us. The toolset provides the framework to integrate different data sets and layers of information about the Earth with the means to also perform powerful spatial analysis functions. Peeling back different layers of reality, and divining the relationships of different layers and variables, is becoming of increasing importance as our planet undergoes large and lasting changes.

Monitoring

Once we have a model of complex interactions, we can then begin to isolate the indicators that will alert us to change. Placing sensors to monitor individual variables helps us understand the constant flux of specific places, and in aggregate we piece together an understanding of whole ecosystems.

The geospatial framework provides a means to aggregate many different monitoring points at varying scales in order to piece together a picture and put together early-warning systems where dramatic changes impact the health of our planet and its inhabitants. Constant monitoring of earth systems is key to understanding change and gauging necessary adaptations to meet those changes.

Emission caps exist at local scales and are a likely outcome of international talks. Monitoring emissions against a baseline of prior use is the established goal and geospatial technologies provide the means for monitoring.

Mitigating

The analytical tools allow us to take a look at different variables and also help isolate specific problems so that they can be addressed. In the mitigation phase, all of the individual elements of measurement, modeling and monitoring come together to feed multidisciplinary teams that devise management approaches to address harmful changes.

Among the harmful changes that will need to be addressed with climate change are biodiversity, sea level rise, and agricultural production issues. Each of these challenges have a dedicated group of experts that aim to solve and evolve practices in order to meet them. There are greater calls for conservation, plans for adaptive coastal regions, and new types of crops in development. Each of these efforts address areas where the potential economic impacts could be extremely disruptive, thus justifying the investment in technologies as an insurance measure against catastrophic change.

Adaptation to climate change will become a necessity regardless of international action. The difficulty is developing approaches and protocols that work across areas with different land uses, weather, and other site-specific conditions. Geospatial technology provides the means to adapt to local conditions as well as to aggregate knowledge globally for coordinated responses.

Just a few years ago there was a flurry of activity to create virtual digital worlds such as Linden Labs’ Second Life for interaction in spaces some call the metaverse. At that point in time, the prediction was that these worlds would far surpass Facebook and MySpace as the places that we’d want to gather and interact. The thinking was that the almost real-life interpersonal connections in these virtual worlds would cause us to congregate. The flurry of early adoption hasn’t sustained, and if anything we’re far less virtual but more constantly connected today.

The virtual reality of a metaverse requires a great deal of programming, data creation and design in order to approximate reality and become a compelling experience. The time and resources needed for such an effort is a hard thing to justify without a clear understanding of rewards, but that barrier has yet to stop almost all other Internet fads. Perhaps it’s the complexity of the user experience to date, and the chaos of the commons that’s holding the idea back. The metaverse is not an ‘if’ scenario, it’s a ‘when’ scenario and it’s interesting to think about how it will come about.

Digital Earth Momentum

All of the metaverse activity has direct ties to the geospatial concept of a Digital Earth where we will model our world more closely, incorporating science in order to continue to expand our knowledge about Earth systems, and share insights along with interactions in virtual space. The interactive 3D environments that use avatars for interaction seem to be on the wane, but that sort of interface has always been part of the Digital Earth vision.

The concept of stepping into a digital reality to interact with data and others provides a means for collaborative knowledge building. Gathering to learn and share knowledge such as a in a digital classroom or online event goes beyond the social interactions to achieve the “collaboratory” vision.

This Digital Earth dream remains relevant today, but is a long way from being realized. Geographic information explorers such as Google Earth, Microsoft Bing Maps for Enterprise, and ArcGIS Explorer explore what’s possible to extend beyond a 2D map representation, but they’re far from the realism of the vision and they lack interactive elements .

More than 140 Characters

By far the most popular social media tool right now for online interaction is Twitter. While Twitter offers quick connections to like-minded individuals, and the ability to create community links, it’s far from the rich social interaction that’s envisioned in the metaverse. The limit to 140 characters creates terse back and forth exchanges with links to outside content, but no real dialogue.

The idea of collaboratory spaces with interactions to solve problems requires a much richer user experience and exchange of materials than is available through current online tools. One recent new technology that starts to come close on interaction and idea sharing is HP’s “visual collaboration” SkyRoom. The new site allows for multiple people to work together using 3D visualization software.

The idea of sharing complex 3D models across the Internet with colleagues across the globe is a very compelling first step toward the richer idea of the metaverse. HP starts to reveal the benefits of rich, high-definition interactions that include audio, video and a design space for manipulation of 3D models between collaborators.

The kinds of complex problems that we face today require an interactive multimedia space like this. Imagine sharing rich 3D models of scientific data or models of better buildings or better infrastructure. There are barriers today for allowing even real-time model sharing within the same office. Imagine the possibilities when these barriers come down for interaction across the entire globe.

My sincere hope is that the next online collaboration and social media fad will take us in the direction of much richer interaction. Rather than constantly monitoring a stream of distracting information, it would be great to move toward more seldom but richer interaction. I’d love to experience the metaverse in my lifetime, and our planet desperately needs a collective knowledge base with rich problem-solving interactions.

The idea of long-term maintenance is an essential component of sustainability. Individually, thinking about every purchase is the way to combat our throw away culture, and to place fewer stresses on our planet. Wrapping your business plan around the concept of sustainable development means a long-term commitment to customers that delivers value and maximizes their efficiency.

There was a time when products were built to last, and necessary repairs were done locally. You may remember when there were cobblers and electronics and vacuum repair shops around. While those days of local repair have faded, given our finite resources there’s a growing movement to return to the production principles that ruled in those times.

It’s not that big of stretch to relate the repair and maintain philosophy to building quality software, hardware, systems and consulting services. The guiding principals of sustainable development require a measured and consistent approach that takes into account both short-term and long-term goals with a culture that is committed to making a positive impact on the world.

Software Can Be Sustainable

While software products are different than tangible manufactured products they can still adhere to the tenets of quality manufacture that stands the test of time. Part of that philosophy revolves around design of products that adapt well to change and are supported by professional assistance and user education.

All sustainable development focuses on efficiently doing what’s needed now, while supporting long term needs and keeping the cost of change under control. This development requires a measured and focused approach that minimizes complexity while allowing the code to be adapted to specific needs while also providing a solid core that performs quickly and without catastrophic errors.

It is possible to break software and to lose considerable time and productivity. There are also many instances of major software upgrades that dramatically discard the previous generation of product and force users to spend considerable amounts of money to port over to a new system that isn’t backward compatible.

The geospatial software tool space has a core set of corporations that take the long term view with quality customer support and an eye toward an efficient user experience. Continued vigilance is needed to keep the customer experience central to all subsequent products and upgrades.

Hardware of Professional Grade

When it comes to geospatial hardware, such as handheld GPS mapping tools, rugged computers for fieldwork, scanners, large-format printers and other surveying equipment, these products are designed to be professional grade. The professional grade status realizes that these tools will be put to the test in a production environment, and that any losses of worker productivity means losses in revenues. With this focus, the consumers of these products pay higher prices than consumer products with the understanding that they’re paying extra for quality design that is backed by a professional company.

While there has been considerable consolidation in the surveying industry lately, the shrinking of companies and products have also resulted in a refined focus on research and development. The drive toward greater precision means the need for more durable and precise instruments rather than toward cheaper and lower quality tools.

Maintenance for Meaningful Decisions

In the geospatial services and practitioner’s space, the implementation and maintenance of systems requires a long-term view that looks beyond the short term gains. While many of the initial system installations took a myopic view toward quick return on investment, the companies that have benefited most from their geospatial technology investments have realized that with a long-term commitment they can achieve constant business process improvements.

The quality of data in these systems is directly related to the value of decisions that can be derived from them. Adding more and better data results in better decisions, but there’s also a need to constantly check and improve the quality of the existing data so that bad business practices don’t foul the system.

The geospatial technology toolset is helping to solve the broad needs of communities with an eye toward the health of our entire planet. While contributing to these broader goals, keeping an eye toward sustainable development within each company will enable these companies to achieve and maintain consistent business returns, improving the lives of customers and employees, while making a positive impact on the world.

Resources

How to Achieve Sustainable Software Development, by Kevin Tate, informIT, Jan. 27, 2006

Sustainable Business Practices, a checklist from the International Institute for Sustainable Development