Redlands, California—Planning and design professionals from local government, landscape architecture, architecture, health, engineering, and academia will gather at Esri headquarters in Redlands, California, January 29–30, 2014, for the fifth annual Geodesign Summit. The event is open to anyone interested in finding innovative design solutions to address today’s major challenges. This year’s event will explore the use of geodesign for the planning of sustainable and resilient cities.
Geodesign—the blending of science, technology, and design—has taken off around the world with growing numbers of conferences and educational degree programs.
"Wherever I travel in the US, Asia, and Europe, people are saying we need holistic, integrative, evidence-based planning and design if we are going to solve the world’s biggest challenges," said Shannon McElvaney, global industry manager of community development at Esri. "We are moving beyond the siloed thinking of the past. People who attend the Geodesign Summit want to share their ideas and learn how they can apply geodesign thinking and tools to their work."
Attendees will have many opportunities to get involved. Hands-on training, featured speakers, stimulating discussions, and Lightning Talks will be offered. New to this year’s summit are preconference workshops taught by leading geospatial and design evangelists. In addition to a welcome social, networking breaks, and lunches, attendees will be able to further connect with others during the summit party on the last night of the event.
Featured speakers in this year’s lineup include the following: Chris Markuson, director of economic development for Pueblo County, Colorado, will speak on how he is using geodesign to secure funding to build a sustainable, resilient community in a former mining and steel town. David Early, principal of The Planning Center DC&E and an expert on smart growth and development, will speak about GreenScore, a methodology for evaluating the impacts of various planning scenarios to increase the health and sustainability of local communities. Will Rogers, president and CEO of The Trust for Public Land, will discuss ParkScore, a groundbreaking effort to analyze the accessibility of a city’s parks and open space to its citizens. He will introduce the new geodesign application that will allow city managers to increase their ParkScore rating. Carl Steinitz, professor emeritus, Harvard Graduate School of Design, will present a case study of his work done for Soma City, Japan, where geodesign was used to derive alternative plans against the constraints of flooding, radiation, rapid evacuation, and a shrinking population after the devastating earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant disaster of 2011.
For more information and to register for the summit, visit geodesignsummit.com.