Geodesign in-practice

Geodesign in Practice:
Designing a Better World
August 2013

Geodesign in Practice: Designing a Better World
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2
Table of Contents
3 Introduction
4 Geodesign and Wildlife Corridors
9 The Importance of Connecting Protected Areas
11 Singapore's Sustainable Development of Jurong
Lake District
16 Preparing for a Vibrant Future in the Township of
Langley
20 Where the Wild Things Are in Yellowstone Park
26 Keeping Traffic Moving during Bridge Repair
Project
31 From Urban California to Rural Kenya
35 How UPlan Works in California
37 From Maps to GeoDesign
41 3D Modeling Shows Off Elevated Rail System
Landscape
45 Participatory GIS
48 Turning Red Fields into Green Fields in Los
Angeles

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3Introduction
Our world faces serious challenges, and it's clear that
we need to work together to collectively create a
better future.
Geodesign offers an iterative design method that
uses stakeholder input, geospatial modeling, impact
simulations, and real-time feedback to facilitate
holistic designs and smart decisions. It gives us a
framework for understanding, analyzing, and acting,
with the ultimate goal of creating a better future for
us all. Geodesign tools and techniques offer what
may be our best hope for transforming the way we
interact with the world.
While there is still much more to do in order to
transform geodesign into a full-fledged movement,
the 12 articles in this e-book are proof positive we
have already started to fundamentally transform
how we think about making the world a better place.
Geodesign is here to stay.
—Shannon McElvaney, Community Development
Manager and Geodesign Evangelist, Esri
Introduction

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4Geodesign and Wildlife Corridors
Over the last decade, wildlife corridors have become a
cornerstone for promoting species persistence within
conservation planning. While corridors have become an
increasingly viable conservation strategy, issues still remain in
translating modeled corridors beyond plans into implementable
designs. Although modeled corridors result in the delineation
of boundaries, they lack planning and design guidance for
programming the appropriate vegetative types and patterns
that may be desirable throughout the corridor. This represents
a considerable implementation gap for practitioners interested
in employing corridors as part of a conservation or land-use
planning strategy.
This University of Arizona team proposes that a modeled
corridor by itself is not a design but rather a first step toward
design. Design requires attention to site-specific characteristics;
functions; and even more qualitative variables, such as aesthetics,
as a means of informing the fine-grained decisions necessary
for implementation. Further, the team believes that the growing
field of geodesign holds promise in moving toward this end, as it
strikes the needed balance between developing the analytically
based methods required in conservation planning and the
graphic and communicative language necessary for design
implementation. As a result, this article illustrates and discusses
the development of a new tool while showcasing the marriage of
geodesign with real-world applications in conservation planning
and design.
A New Tool—ADM
The Automated Design Module (ADM) described here was used
to inform the design of wildlife corridors within the Sonoran
Desert, an incredibly biologically diverse region that spans
Geodesign and Wildlife Corridors
By Ryan Perkl, Assistant Professor, School of Landscape Architecture and Planning, University of Arizona
Saguaro and mesquite are among the many plants that should populate
the corridors through the Sonoran Desert.

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southern Arizona and California in the United States and Baja
California and Sonora in Mexico. Corridors were modeled
between Saguaro National Park east and west. Located adjacent
to the city of Tucson, Arizona, Saguaro National Park comprises
two distinct districts, which are separated by the city. The wildlife
in this area includes the mountain lion, bobcat, bighorn sheep,
mule deer, javelina, gila monster, desert tortoise, red-tailed hawk,
and the charismatic pygmy owl, among others.
The ADM was created using Spatial Modeler within
ArcGIS 10. The ADM starts by evaluating the landscape's
capability to support various species of native vegetation
specific to the Sonoran Desert. Vegetation species include the
iconic saguaro cactus, palo verde, agave, cholla, cottonwood,
creosote bush, prickly pear, and velvet mesquite, among others.
Individual capability models were developed utilizing a standard
raster-based overlay process that parameterized landscape
characteristics and factors known to impact the distribution and
persistence of each plant species. The resultant output of each
model yields a capability surface that delineates the portions of
the landscape most capable of supporting each plant type. The
end result of this process yields a library of scored capability
surfaces for each plant type.
The ADM then employs a selection algorithm that identifies the
plant type from the library that exhibits the highest capability
score for each cell within the corridor. This results in the selection
of the plant type that is most appropriate for each cell. An
additional query is then initiated to identify the next best plant
type for each cell, and a corresponding dataset for each of
these processes is derived. Where cells are equally capable of
supporting multiple plant types, a random selection generator is
employed to break ties. Together, these surfaces are utilized as
the foundation for populating the modeled corridor's interior with
the most appropriate site-specific vegetation.
Landscape elements are digitized using a Wacom monitor and
incorporated as part of the pattern generator process within the
Automated Design Module (ADM). Integrating such an interface allows
vegetation clustering and linearity to be addressed in the final corridor
designs and represents the inclusion of geodesign-based methodologies.

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The selection process can be further refined based on the
requirements of the focal wildlife species for which the corridor
is being designed. Individual wildlife species may require
varying levels of vegetation diversity and/or density to facilitate
movement. As such, vegetation diversity is a parameter within
the ADM that can be used to populate the modeled corridor
with the desired level of variation among plant types. For focal
species, such as the pygmy owl, which requires the presence
of saguaro cacti, the ADM can be parameterized to select the
most optimal plant type for each cell while still meeting the
desired criteria of the focal species. For species like mountain
lions, however, which prefer more diverse conditions, the ADM
can derive more assorted assemblages of vegetation through
employing a random selection algorithm across all optimal and
second-best plant types for each cell until the desired level of
vegetation diversity is achieved.
The ADM employs a similar selection algorithm for determining
the relative density of vegetation within the corridor. For example,
the pygmy owl prefers more densely vegetated conditions.
When these conditions are desired, the ADM selects and
populates all or most of the available cells. Bighorn sheep, on
the other hand, are more comfortable with moving through
less densely vegetated conditions. In these instances, the
ADM drops cells from being populated to achieve the desired
condition. Additionally, the ADM can link vegetation density with
other modeled connectivity outputs, such as flows of wildlife
movement. When linked with current-flow surfaces of species
movement, for example, the ADM can be parameterized to
populate the corridor interior with greater vegetation density in
areas where greater species movement has been modeled, and
vice versa.
Vegetation Patterns
The ADM also has the ability to place vegetation in patterns that
are known to either facilitate or impede wildlife movement. A
series of pattern generators are employed to alter the relative
The desert tortoise is among the many animals that would negotiate the
corridors.

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dispersal, clustering, and
linearity of the spatial locations
of all vegetation assemblages
to encourage movement where
it is desirable throughout
the interior of the corridor.
Conversely, where movement
is to be discouraged, the ADM
can be parameterized to include
linear patterns that have been
documented to reduce species
movement. Such patterns may
be desirable along the periphery
of the corridor, where species
conflicts with adjacent land uses
and mortality may be elevated. In
this way, the ADM uses patterns
to direct movement to where it is
most desirable within the corridor
and discourage it elsewhere, thus
increasing the corridor's function
through design.
Additionally, development of the
ADM provides a more seamless
design interface, allowing
analysis, modeling, and design all to be completed within the
ArcGIS environment without the need to export geospatial
data to an alternative graphic design platform. This can be
accomplished by using ADM-derived outputs within ArcScene.
Additionally, this team believes that tools such as the ADM will
aid in the development and design of functional wildlife corridors
and contribute to the effectiveness of corridors as an increasingly
viable conservation planning strategy. Further, the team believes
that such developments will aid in spanning the gap between
A typical Sonoran Desert scene
(top), followed by a modeled
wildlife corridor (second),
followed by specific vegetation
types and patterns generated
by the ADM represented as
points populating the corridor
(third), and a final corridor
design as derived from the
ADM vegetation library
(bottom).
The ADM populates the corridors with individual cells coded and arranged
based on the optimal vegetation type and configuration for that location.
This results in design guidance for both vegetation type and pattern
integration, which can be utilized to create more functional wildlife
corridors.

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modeling, planning, design, and eventual implementation of
wildlife corridors in a wide spectrum of planning applications.
About the Author
Ryan Perkl, PhD, is an assistant professor in the School of
Landscape Architecture and Planning at the University of Arizona
who specializes in environmental planning, wildlife connectivity
modeling, and the emerging field of geodesign. Contributors to
this work include Samuel Chambers, a doctoral student in arid
lands resource sciences, and Brandon Herman, Wanyi Song, and
Garrett Smith, all graduate students in planning at the University
of Arizona.
Visit www.planning.arizona.edu to learn more about the Planning
Master's Degree Program at the University of Arizona.
See also "The Importance of Connecting Protected Areas."
(This article originally appeared in the Summer 2012 issue of ArcNews.)

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9The Importance of Connecting Protected Areas
Given the recent trends of urban expansion, species decline,
and habitat conversion and fragmentation, conservation
planners have developed a wide spectrum of tools devoted to
inventorying and analyzing environmental conditions, simulating
and forecasting change, and identifying and prioritizing areas for
conservation action. More recently, a subarea of conservation
planning known as connectivity conservation has resulted in an
emphasis on the importance of combating the negative effects
of landscape fragmentation on species populations. Connectivity
conservation recognizes the importance of setting aside natural
areas for protection purposes but goes a step further by stressing
the importance of connecting these areas so that they may
function as larger systems rather than isolated units. It is believed
that such an approach may hold the most promise for protecting
the greatest number of species, given the shifting environmental
conditions due to climate change.
As a result, connectivity conservation has yielded a number of
tools and approaches for modeling landscape connectivity within
ArcGIS and other platforms. All approaches make assumptions
about how wildlife will move through the landscape, given their
individual interactions with local landscape conditions. These
interactions and subsequent movements are represented as
the relative permeability of the landscape or as the cost of
movement to the individual. While connectivity modeling tools
vary greatly in their underlying methodological processes
and employ different techniques to model permeability and
cost, the most common output is the delineation of spatially
The Importance of Connecting
Protected Areas
The mountain lion is among the many animals that would negotiate the
corridors.

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10The Importance of Connecting Protected Areas
explicit wildlife corridors that link user-defined locations. Such
outputs result in linearly arranged polygons that represent either
structural connections between locations with given landscape
characteristics or functional paths through which individuals are
expected to move. While useful for planning purposes, such
outputs lack the specificity necessary for informing the physical
design of their interiors upon implementation.
The Automated Design Module (ADM) is intended to provide
additional insight and guidance in the physical design of a wildlife
corridor's interior by populating it with vegetation arranged in
patterns known to impact wildlife movement in desired ways.
Developing such a tool sheds light on the suggested physical
structure and design of the modeled corridor's interior, aspects
that current tools do not address. Additionally, the automated
nature of this tool allows large swaths of the landscape to be
designed based on widely available data pertaining to landscape
characteristics and considerations, such as soil, terrain, and
vegetation, among others. Until now, designing such large
portions of the landscape has been impractical due to the
massive time constraints that are required to manually develop
such designs. Finally, the ADM allows analysis, modeling, and
design to all be accomplished within an ArcGIS environment
without the need to employ other graphic design platforms,
resulting in a more streamlined workflow.
See also "Geodesign and Wildlife Corridors."

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11Singapore's Sustainable Development of Jurong Lake District
The Republic of Singapore is a city-state composed of 63 islands
off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It is highly urbanized,
with approximately 5.1 million people (as of 2010) living in an area
that covers approximately 270 square miles. By comparison, the
City of San Diego has a population of 1.3 million people living in
an area of 340 square miles. Singapore has finite space, limited
water supplies, and no natural resources. Nearly everything in
Singapore is imported, whether it is for personal consumption,
manufacturing, or construction. The government of Singapore
has made sustainable development, the use of renewable energy,
and the efficient use of resources primary considerations in all
future planning efforts.
Every 10 years, Singapore reevaluates its long-term land-use
strategies to ensure there is sufficient land to meet anticipated
population and economic growth needs without damaging the
environment. Given the high population density and amount of
existing urbanization, a strategy of developing and rejuvenating
existing buildings is encouraged.
In the 2008 Draft Master Plan for Singapore, the Urban
Redevelopment Authority (URA) heralded the Jurong Lake
District (JLD) as an ideal place for such redevelopment, referring
to it as "a unique lakeside destination for business and leisure."
To help with this complex planning effort, URA would use GIS to
model, visualize, and communicate the advantages of alternative
scenarios.
JLD comprises two distinct but complementary precincts totaling
360 hectares: a commercial hub at Jurong Gateway and a vibrant
world-class leisure destination at Lakeside. The 70-hectare
Jurong Gateway is planned to be the largest commercial area
outside the city center. As outlined in Singapore's Blueprint
for Sustainable Development, unveiled by the Inter-Ministerial
Singapore's Sustainable Development
of Jurong Lake District
Skyline of Singapore's business district.

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Committee on Sustainable Development, JLD will be developed
as one of Singapore's new sustainable high-density districts.
Overall, the aim is to formulate a holistic framework to guide
the planning, design, and development of Jurong Lake District,
one that considers the environment, the economy, and society
concurrently during the decision-making process.
URA proactively included aspects of the sustainability blueprint in
the JLD planning efforts, such as the incorporation of landscaped
open space and pedestrian park connectors, to heighten
the sense of greenery and closeness to nature and increase
accessibility to existing transit, public facilities, and venues.
Land sale requirements were also put in place to encourage
developers to achieve higher Green Mark ratings (Platinum and
GoldPlus) for new buildings.
Additional initiatives promote "sky rise" greenery—the addition
of elevated parks, gardens, and green roofs on rooftops and
skyways; the protection and enhancement of biodiversity; the
reduction of resource use through building rehabilitation; and the
increase of water catchment and treatment using natural systems
whenever possible.
But how were these visionary goals going to be evaluated
and translated into reality given the myriad of stakeholders,
assortment of variables, and budgetary constraints?
To assist with this ambitious plan, URA enlisted the help of Esri
Partner AECOM (headquartered in Los Angeles, California), which
proposed the use of a geodesign framework using ArcGIS to
help organize and address the complex sustainability needs for
such a large-scale project as JLD.
The Sustainable Systems Integration Model
AECOM's Sustainable Systems Integration Model (SSIM) is a
key component of the team's sustainability planning process,
providing a platform for rationally evaluating, balancing, and
An example of the positive and negative effects of three alternative plans,
the last focusing on Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT).

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costing a wide variety of sustainability strategies to determine the
combination best suited to the economic, social, and business
objectives of a given project. The model places ecological
enhancement and service components side by side with energy,
water, mobility, green building, and sociocultural strategies so
that a truly integrated, balanced sustainability program can be
measured and conceived. The result is a whole-system economic
and GIS evaluation tool developed to work at multiple scales.
The model consists of many steps and techniques that allow
users to select the themes and variables most befitting a
given project's needs. The framework tracks a set of indicators
including total energy use, water demand, waste produced,
vehicle miles traveled, and total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
that can be modeled to show the impact of a single building,
block of buildings, or entire community. Various energy or water
conservation strategies can be recombined and modeled to
show the immediate carbon or water footprint, as well as initial
development costs or ongoing maintenance and management
costs of a given scheme for any point in the future.
Stage I—Urban Form and Master Planning
Urban form—the physical layout and design of a city, including
land use and circulation patterns—has the largest impact on a
city's energy use and GHG emissions. Stage I of developing a
master plan seeks to identify the best mix of urban form, land-
use density, and transportation network to achieve the highest
trip capture and reduction in carbon emissions at the lowest cost.
The process started out with a visioning workshop at which all
stakeholders and subject experts were brought together to help
define and prioritize issues, metrics, and target goals. In this
case, the stakeholders were the Building Construction Authority,
Land Transport Authority, National Parks Board, National Water
Agency, and URA, among others. Participants were encouraged
to address problems beyond their field of expertise. The end
result of this dynamic interaction and the sharing of views and
perspectives across disciplines was an increased understanding
among stakeholders of the complexity of key issues, enabling
them to reach agreement on priorities.
To create a relatively accurate frame of reference, the team
established definitions for business as usual (BaU) and baseline,
to which the aspirational targets and all future scenarios could
be compared to help the team understand improvements in
performance, as well as associated costs (evaluation models).
For JLD, BaU was defined as the original master plan in place
for Jurong Gateway and Lakeside assuming conventional
construction practices. The baseline was defined as the original
master plan, combined with the existing sustainable development
initiatives already implemented by URA, such as Green Mark
certification, the proposed pedestrian network, and the greenery
replacement program.

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Once the BaU and baseline models were created, alternative
master plans (change models) were "sketched" by participants
using customized templates or palettes of predetermined land
uses, building types, transportation modes, community facilities,
and other amenities to help facilitate this process. Sketching
was enabled through the standard ArcGIS 10 editing template
functionality.
The model's GIS mapping and geoprocessing tools, developed
as an ArcGIS for Desktop add-in using ArcObjects, were used to
model accessibility to certain plan features, including land-use
spatial allocation, internal and external connectivity, and access
to key services and transit. A unique addition to the JLD project
was the creation of tools to measure the accessibility of vertical
components, such as elevated parks, skyways, and trams. These
evaluation models, characteristic of a geodesign process, quickly
evaluated design decisions, allowing participants to see the
impact just by running the tools.
Stage II—Infrastructure or Primary
Systems Evaluation and Modeling
After a preferred master plan framework was selected, a more
intensive evaluation of sustainability practices and measures took
place, focusing more at a detailed infrastructure level of analysis.
By tweaking certain measures—for example, selecting certain
building materials or switching to low-flow faucets—additional
improvements can be made in water consumption, energy
consumption, or cost. This step seeks to answer three core
questions for each theme: What energy reduction targets should
be evaluated? Which combination of project design features are
required to achieve each target? Which combination of project
design features will achieve the reduction targets in the most
cost-effective manner?
Just like in the evaluation of urban form in stage I, stage II
requires the identification of a BaU and baseline for each system
(the former being the minimum level of performance allowed by
building and zoning codes, while the latter represents the level of
performance required by URA in the existing plan). The primary
difference between these two was in the amount of open space
and green building requirements in the Gateway district. Three
additional levels of performance (termed good, better, best),
which had been earlier identified in the Sustainability Framework
Matrix, were the basis for assembling "packages" of measures
that would theoretically achieve each of the respective targets for
Example of the spatial analyses performed to show the impact of plan
changes on different indicators important to the stakeholders. Heat maps
created using ArcGIS for Desktop, showing colors from red to yellow to
green, indicate good, better, and best for each plan. Plan C shows the
highest benefit for each of these indicators.

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each system. These packages were then modeled to test whether
they in fact achieved the targets.
After identification of the packages of measures to be utilized
in closing the gap between the aspirational targets and the
current BaU case, each package of strategies underwent a cost
estimating step and a cost-benefit analysis.
Stage III—Master Program Optimization
The goal of SSIM stage III is to combine the effects of multiple
systems and strategies to create integrated sustainability
programs across the entire project site for each of the alternative
master plan scenarios refined in stage I. The Gameboard
tool of SSIM facilitates this goal by allowing the selection of a
performance package for each major system and simultaneously
reporting various performance and cost indicators resulting from
the package selections.
Gameboard is used to optimize the overall master sustainability
program. In this context, optimization is the process of selecting
unique combinations of sustainability choices that result in
achieving the aspirational targets set out in stage I using a set
of predetermined cost thresholds. The optimization process is
assisted by a logic engine that solves for the set of constraints
stipulated by the thresholds.
Conclusion
In the end, Singapore defined and evaluated three to five master
sustainability framework programs. The variation between the
programs included multiple combinations of good/better/best
scenarios on all the systems. SSIM allowed URA to examine the
theoretical 10-year life cycle analysis comparing net present value
for each model run.
The savings from energy and water efficiency are expected to
offset the investments in other sectors, such as parks, open space,
public transportation, potable water infrastructure, and even
social programs.
The refined sustainability framework matrix serves as the master
checklist for achieving a holistic sustainability program for JLD. It
is a living document that will be amended as time goes on and as
adjustments need to be made in targets, due to changes in either
technology, demographics, costs, or priorities.
(This article originally appeared in the Spring 2012 issue of ArcNews.)

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16Preparing for a Vibrant Future in the Township of Langley
Located in the heart of British Columbia's (BC) Lower Mainland,
the Township of Langley is 45 minutes east of Vancouver and
offers access to major transportation routes as well as the US
border. Its central location, affordable land, young labor force,
and diverse job opportunities make the township appealing
to families and businesses. As one of the fastest-growing
municipalities in BC, the township expects its population of more
than 100,000 people to double in the next 30 years. To support
this growth, it is implementing the principles of geodesign to
plan sustainable community development and provide efficient
services to residents.
Rich in fertile soil, 75 percent of the township's land is designated
as provincial Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). An ALR is a tract of
land in British Columbia where agriculture is recognized as the
priority use, and anything other than farming or leaving the fertile
soil forested or vacant is not allowed.
Since most of Langley's land is designated as ALR, Langley
Township staff face unique challenges to effectively developing
the land that is available. While farming and agriculture remain
important local industries, Langley has seen a steady rise in
industrial and commercial development. In 2010 alone, the
municipality issued nearly 1,000 building permits.
For a community that is used to a landscape of farmland and
single-family housing, new proposed pockets of urban growth
that include higher-density apartments and condominiums can
be a bit jarring.
Since 1995, the township has used Esri technology to manage
land information across its enterprise and enable geographic
applications in various departments, including planning, finance,
engineering, and protective services. It maintains GeoSource,
a web-based GIS interactive mapping system that provides
staff and the public with access to maps, land data, and aerial
photography of the township. To stay at the forefront of GIS
technology, the township upgraded recently to ArcGIS 10. The
ability to create an interactive, shareable 3D model for the
township that can be used for current and future needs was a
major driver when adopting the technology.
Designing Tomorrow's Communities
To effectively plan new buildings and communities, the township
uses ArcGIS with the ArcGIS 3D Analyst extension to view and
Preparing for a Vibrant Future
in the Township of Langley

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analyze large datasets in three dimensions. This includes remotely
sensed lidar data that provides highly accurate geographic
positions of properties and assets whether they be buildings,
utility poles, or trees. This data is being used to create a 3D
model that will provide a current baseline against which the
township can visualize alternative growth scenarios beginning
with the Willoughby community, a growing, suburban area that is
the new home of the civic facility.
An important characteristic of geodesign is the ability to measure
the impact of a proposed change in a virtual world while in the
design or planning stage. GIS allows township departments to
conduct viewshed and line-of-sight analyses to see how new
development—multifamily housing structures and mixed-use
buildings, which are taller than single-family houses predominant
in the township—might impact the current skyline or special
views to landmarks. Taller buildings can also mean more shadow.
GIS supports the visualization and estimation of the total amount
of shadow that a new building might cast on adjacent properties,
which could result in greater heating costs for the impacted
property.
"Our planning department had always used print maps and
traditional architectural scale models to envision how new
communities would look," says Derik Woo, manager, Geomatic
Services, Township of Langley. "Now, they're able to model a 3D
virtual city that more accurately represents township properties
and combine numerous data to visualize and analyze the impact
of proposed projects. This helps them present evidence-based
plans to council officials and makes it easier to communicate new
development projects to residents."
Using the geodesign concept, township staff also conduct
population and employment modeling to create projections
by combining various data—including provincial land parcels
(cadastral fabric) and land use, township neighborhoods,
population, and employment values. Taking a holistic or cross-
disciplinary approach to view all this data, along with the physical
building model of the city, provides a powerful planning tool
that can create, evaluate, and compare the cumulative impact
3D modeling allows planners to visualize the impact of new buildings on
the landscape.

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of different alternatives, allowing decision makers to make the
wisest decision possible given a projected growth scenario.
Managing Municipal Assets
For an integrated approach, the township also uses ArcGIS to
obtain a clear picture of its infrastructure and assets. Recently,
it completed digitizing videos of sewer inspections, which staff
can access through the internal version of GeoSource. This has
significantly increased efficiency and reduced costs. Previously,
engineers needed to look up a proprietary database that lists all
available recordings of the township's sewer pipes, then they had
to manually find the disk or tape media to view the footage.
"In just a few clicks, our engineers can now easily view videos,
photos, and documents related to our underground infrastructure
through GeoSource," says Chad Huntington, GIS coordinator,
Township of Langley. "This enables them to plan timely
maintenance schedules and respond to requests for repairs more
quickly."
The GIS also contains data about the township's infrastructure
projects, thereby assisting in meeting Public Sector Accounting
Board requirements.
Increasing Community Engagement
Through Open Data
The township recently opened its data to the public to conduct
their own research or develop commercial applications. In
addition to providing an open data catalog on its website, the
township contributes geographic content that is integrated into
a free, national web basemap through the Esri Canada Limited
(Esri's distributor) Community Maps Program.
The township was also selected to participate in the Community
Maps Exchange, a pilot project that tested two-way data
exchange between the township's database and ArcGIS Online,
where the community basemap is hosted. This allows data to be
automatically updated and helps ensure that information on the
basemap is always up-to-date.
"This program reduces costs for people who regularly use
township information," says Woo. "In the past, they had to pay
a fee to obtain the township's topographical, infrastructure,
and neighborhood data. Now, businesses planning to open a
site here can access the data for free through the community
basemap. The program also reduces our costs by allowing
us to leverage outside resources to distribute information
and encourage current and future residents to participate in
improving our community."

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In embracing GIS technology and the geodesign process as part
of its corporate strategy, the township is well positioned to meet
the needs of its growing population.
"GIS is an integral part of our information technology strategy,"
says Steve Scheepmaker, information technology manager,
Township of Langley. "We've been using the technology for more
than 15 years to increase efficiency in our business processes."

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20Where the Wild Things Are in Yellowstone Park
Where the Wild Things Are in Yellowstone Park
A Science-Based Approach to Collaborative Decision Making at Ecosystem Scales
The human history of the Yellowstone region can be traced back
to an undesignated time in tribal oral history more than 11,000
years ago, when many groups of Native Americans used the
park as their home, hunting ground, and source for gathering
medicinal plants. These traditional uses of Yellowstone lands
continued until the first explorers and trappers of European
descent found their way into the region, recounting tales of a
bountiful land full of natural wonders where "fire and brimstone"
gushed up from the ground. In March 1872, President Ulysses
S. Grant signed into law a congressional act making Yellowstone
the first national park in the world, an area so extraordinary that
it was set aside and protected in perpetuity for the enjoyment of
future generations. Thanks to its early designation and protection,
Yellowstone is one of the few remaining intact large ecosystems
in the northern temperate zone of the earth.
In recent years, managing these ecosystems has become
increasingly challenging. Drought, wildfire, habitat fragmentation,
contaminants, invasive species, disease, and a rapidly changing
climate have begun to threaten human populations, as well as
native species and their habitats. To plan for this uncertainty, a
dedicated group of ecologists is using ArcGIS, statistical analyses,
The greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

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and a GeoDesign workflow to measure the impact of potential
land-use change before it happens.
Ecological Forecasting
The Yellowstone Ecological Research Center (YERC), a private,
nonprofit organization located in Montana, spends much of its
time conducting long-term, large-scale, collaborative ecological
research and education in concert with both public and private
organizations. Historically, that work has relied heavily on ArcGIS
to help organize, analyze, and visualize data on the health and
status of native species and the land and water that sustain them.
Simulating ecological system dynamics is a complex undertaking.
The sheer volume, variety, and complexity of geospatial
data have grown exponentially in recent years, requiring the
development of new tools and efficient workflows to help
decision makers spend more time on the issues without having
to sort through data. More importantly, decision makers need
to be able to synthesize this data into standardized, transparent,
and defensible information to support the management needs of
today while preparing for the needs of tomorrow. And that means
having a repeatable process, a core tenet of scientific inquiry.
To support the entire process of ecological forecasting, YERC
ecologists, statisticians, and GIS analysts created the Ecosystem
Assessment, Geospatial Analysis and Landscape Evaluation
System, known as EAGLES, which is essentially GeoDesign at an
ecosystem scale. EAGLES is an integrative workflow architecture
that organizes vast amounts of historic spatial data, some
covering the entire United States, with modeling routines to
create predictive ecosystem and species models. ArcGIS is a key
component of EAGLES, providing a mapping platform to make
the data easily understandable to decision makers.
The workflow begins with the assembly of experts having
a strong knowledge of the organism of interest, including
physiological drivers, feeding habits, predator/prey relationships,
competitive interactions, and habitat. Additionally, this effort can
integrate pathogens, parasites, or other hazards. These experts
When all data is referenced in a common coordinate system, the
referential link gives the scientist or manager the ability to investigate
all the various interdependencies of a single point to all other data,
increasing the efficiency and quality of the inquiry.

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help develop a conceptual model of key issues and management
objectives. The conceptual modeling process begins with a
verbal description of important relationships between the species
of interest and its environment. The verbal description is then
used to help select a set of hypothetical drivers to be considered
for inclusion in the model. The environmental variables (i.e.,
covariates) and their relationship to the species of interest (i.e.,
response data) are referred to as a narrative model using a mind
map.
The Case of the Pronghorn Antelope
For example, the Yellowstone pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra
americana) faces a suite of risks characteristic of small populations
with geographic/demographic isolation, low abundance, and low
recruitment. Decision makers need a management plan based on
demographic monitoring of abundance, especially species vitality
rates. This study focused on demographic monitoring, especially
recruitment and survival; ecological interactions, especially
predation rates and recruitment; and habitat assessment.
One of the park's pronghorn antelope.
(Photo courtesy of Hamilton Greenwood.)
A mind map is a quick way to display potential factors affecting variation
in a focal species response, for example, the health and vitality of a
population. The mind map could be based on present-day data or legacy
datasets, either of which helps visualize the narrative model, which can
get rather complex. The narrative model will eventually be used to create
a quantitative model to support statistical analytics, which occur later in
the workflow.

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The issue assessment resulted in the creation of two narrative
models, one representing birthing arenas and another for
resource selection (involving the identification and use of viable
habitats). In this case, species vitality could be explained by
forage availability, predator intensity, geophysical context, and
climatic variables. For example, the more rain, the more food,
and the more newborns, the healthier the population might
become.
Information Needs
Once the narrative models have been created, the next step is
the identification and gathering of relevant datasets that could
answer questions regarding road impacts, predator impacts,
and range condition impacts on pronghorn antelope. A few of
these datasets are elevation, topographic complexity, land cover,
predation, and distance to roads.
The map on the left displays a portion of the original resource (RSPF)
model showing predicted habitat use for pronghorn in Yellowstone
National Park. The Swap tool was used to apply the resource model to a
hypothetical road addition (shown in green).
The new prognostic RSPF model output for pronghorn (right map)
indicates that pronghorn would be excluded from portions of their original
selected habitats.

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In the case of the pronghorn antelope study, the species
observations included 762 telemetry fixes from 26 collared
animals from May to July of 2005. The spatial extent of the
analysis was defined by this data in combination with expert
knowledge of known habitat use. The spatial resolution for
all environmental data was a 100-meter grid produced by
resampling the data as appropriate.
Analysts used various modeling techniques to create forage,
herbaceous, sage, soil, and cumulative net primary production
(NPP) layers (i.e., process models). Additional models using
empirical field data created coyote and wolf intensity of use
and small mammal biomass layers. Finally, available space
layers were created using one-kilometer buffers around each
pronghorn location in which points were randomly generated
over that space to simulate potential habitat use. Since the spatial
scale at which pronghorn select their habitat was unknown, this
process was repeated at three kilometers and five kilometers for
comparative analysis.
Examining Alternative Futures—
Ecological Forecasting
EAGLES has a tool called the Swap tool that enables users to
build alternative scenarios (i.e., change models) using an already
constructed model and change only one attribute while holding
all else constant to examine the effects of that change on the
model. This approach allows a transparent investigation of
the changes in levels of treatments, such as geophysical layer
alterations, changes in forage availability, or more sophisticated
modeled input layer substitutions. The goal is to apply a model
that previously "fit" to observed data for a potential scenario in
an effort to make projections about the ecological ramifications
of a given landscape change (i.e., impact models).
For example, a forecast about the impact of building a new
road through a habitat would rely on the input of a new layer
that contains the proposed road. The user can then apply the
fitted resource model to the new road layer (instead of the
original layer) and view the response surface under the changed
landscape. Such projections allow a measured assessment of
habitat change. Visualization of the resultant surface occurs in
GIS, and the resultant equations and models can be examined
statistically, as well. The intent is to provide a utility for planning
for landscape change.
Humans with Nature
The benefit of the EAGLES toolset is that it streamlines the
finding, compilation, and integration of data by allowing the user
to identify the geospatial data inputs, region of interest, scale,
and a common data resolution—even a temporal resolution—
to make it easier to assemble available national datasets into
a common georeferenced coordinate system using ArcGIS.
Applying such a workflow to standardized datasets across the
United States would help propel the adoption of GeoDesign.

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Finding solutions to major ecological challenges will require new
ways of thinking. It is no longer humans against nature or humans
in nature—it is humans with nature. Whether it's Yellowstone's
pronghorn antelope, grizzly bear populations, or the collapse of
Pacific Northwest salmon runs, science and GIS have lifted each
of these issues—and many others like them—from subjective
opinion and polarization to a place where decisions can be made
based on facts.
For more information about the Yellowstone Ecological Research
Center, visit www.yellowstoneresearch.org.
(This article originally appeared in the Winter 2011/2012 issue of ArcUser.)

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26Keeping Traffic Moving during Bridge Repair Project
With 12 percent of US bridges declared structurally deficient
by the Federal Highway Administration in 2006, bridge repair
remains a top priority for most states. Three years before that, an
extensive investigation of Oregon's bridges conducted by the
Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) found that 365
of Oregon's bridges had structural problems that necessitated a
large-scale bridge repair plan. Implementing that plan required
that the department expand its GIS infrastructure and integrate
a new traffic modeling application to ease congestion at multiple
construction zones along the state's highway system.
Oregon Transportation Investment Act
From 2001 to 2003, Oregon passed a series of funding packages
called the Oregon Transportation Investment Act (OTIA I, II,
and III) to improve its highway infrastructure. For OTIA III, which
included the State Bridge Delivery Program, ODOT turned to
engineering consultants Oregon Bridge Delivery Partners (OBDP),
a joint venture between HDR Engineering and Fluor Corporation,
to create practices that would ensure the project finished
successfully and within budget. One of the primary goals of the
program was to reduce the impact on commuter and business
traffic during large-scale construction on its road system.
Many of the bridges designed during the early development
of Oregon's highway system used a reinforced concrete deck
girder (RCDG) design specified in the regulations of that time.
Keeping Traffic Moving during Bridge Repair Project
By Matthew DeMeritt, Esri Writer
The Oregon Department of Transportation repaired the Snake River
Bridge on Interstate 84 as part of the OTIA III State Bridge Delivery
Program.

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As specifications became more stringent in the 1960s, Oregon
transitioned to pre-stressed and post-tensioned concrete bridges
that improved structural integrity at a reduced cost. However,
many RCDG bridges remained in service well past their expected
decommission date and began to show signs of deterioration
on deeper investigation. "In 2001, ODOT inspectors noticed
that cracks identified in previous inspections had grown to the
point of threatening structural stability," said Jim Cox, assistant
manager of major projects at ODOT. "We immediately placed
load restrictions on these bridges and started discussion on
how to plan repairs with the least impact on commercial and
commuter traffic."
GIS and Geodesign
Established in 2004, ODOT's GIS comprised the department's
information-sharing infrastructure to plan and manage roadway
projects. To integrate with ODOT's GIS, OBDP designed its
system on the same ArcGIS platform for flexibility and scalability
throughout the project life cycle and beyond. "We wanted easy
adoption of tools and practices to smooth transition during
project closeout and ensure usefulness beyond that," said
Robb Kirkman, GIS Services manager for HDR Engineering.
"GIS provided the foundation to start linking program systems,
automate tasks, and better mitigate environmental impacts."
Before any construction work began, ODOT collected
comprehensive environmental data on more than 400 of its
bridge sites to identify nearby environmental resources. Standard
ODOT practice involves consultation with experts such as
biologists, wetland specialists, and archaeologists to get a better
understanding of the effects of construction zones in ecologically
sensitive areas. "We took a different approach for the OTIA III
Bridge Program by conducting environmental fieldwork before
we did any design," said Cox. "In ArcGIS, we drew a box around
a bridge site and identified all the resources inside the box. This
The OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program is a 10-year, $1.3 billion
program that will repair or replace hundreds of aging bridges on
Oregon's highway system.

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allowed the engineers to develop designs that minimized impacts
on the surrounding environment."
Improving Work Zone Traffic Analysis
Prior to its collaboration with OBDP, ODOT had been using
spreadsheets containing traffic counts and automatic traffic
recorder information from across the state to document
and predict traffic impacts for its various road construction
projects. That process could take up to four hours for each
scenario because data had to be searched and collected from
multiple databases within the agency and then inserted into a
spreadsheet. "Gradually, that process evolved to incorporate GIS
processes," Kirkman said. "Using macros and automation tools in
ArcGIS, ODOT's traffic group was able to automatically populate
the spreadsheets with information from the database."
Although much leaner, the spreadsheet-only approach
experienced crashes as the database grew ever larger. The traffic
team worked with OBDP to develop a more efficient GIS-based
method for running traffic scenarios—one that tightly wove
ODOT's geospatial data into a dedicated web-based analysis
tool. Using common protocols, they worked on tying the datasets
together to give ODOT staff direct access to the department's
databases from a single interface. Called the Work Zone Traffic
Analysis (WZTA) tool, the application allowed traffic scenarios to
be run and shared in a web browser.
WZTA serves as a repository for information on traffic and road
data that can be accessed and queried in a browser. The system
allows users to view ODOT data to determine the effects on
mobility created by lane closures related to construction and
roadwork. Today, the department can run traffic scenarios in a
matter of minutes, eliminating redundancy and enabling ODOT
engineers to modify traffic plans on the fly.
The department can run traffic scenarios in a matter of minutes rather
than hours—enabling ODOT engineers to modify traffic plans on the fly.
Easy access to reliable data helped the agency determine how to stage
projects with minimal delays.

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Using a GIS-based interface also improved accuracy by allowing
ODOT analysts to select the location and other information for a
specific project site from the map itself rather than tabular lists.
"Lookup tables using numbering systems aren't intuitive to all
users," Kirkman said. "GIS enabled users to find exactly what they
were looking for and verify the correct project information within
a more appropriate map-based user interface where spatial
relationships are more obvious."
Documented Return on Investment
In 2010, ODOT and OBDP documented their experience with
the tools to evaluate the impact of ODOT's investments and
determine if they should be used after completion of the bridge
program. With the assistance of economic consultant Mark Ford,
they analyzed every piece of software OBDP created for the OTIA
III Bridge Delivery Program to determine the economic benefits
and cost to the department. The study concluded that ODOT
experienced a combined benefit-cost ratio of 2:1 for all enterprise
IT investments related to management of the bridge program.
ODOT's GIS infrastructure alone returned a benefit-cost ratio of
3:1. "Integration of formats and standards proved to be important
in generating value from the investment," said Ford.
In addition to these tangible benefits, ODOT experienced three
types of intangible benefits. Migrating the data from disparate
sources into a unified system allowed OBDP to employ consistent
analysis methods, reducing the risk of calculation errors. The
centralized database also made it easier for ODOT to maintain
data integrity and reduce the risk that analysts working at
different locations could use outdated information. "Systems like
ODOT's GIS infrastructure generate accurate, consistent, and
timely information for reporting and responding to inquiries,"
Ford said. "WZTA, and GIS in particular, has resulted in improved
coordination with other agencies and interest groups, increasing
Using a GIS-based interface, ODOT analysts can select the location
and other information for a specific project site from the map itself
rather than tabular lists. In 2007, WZTA received the Team Excellence
Pathfinder Award from the American Association of State Highway and
Transportation Officials.

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the credibility of both ODOT and the bridge program in the eyes
of the public and the legislature."
At the beginning of 2011, 351 of the 365 bridges in the OTIA III
Bridge Delivery Program were free of construction zone delays.
WZTA played a primary role in expediting the construction
process by allowing the team to run lane closure traffic analyses
in minutes as opposed to hours. The tool is now being used by
ODOT on other roadway maintenance and construction projects
to quickly determine impacts from lane closures across the state.
(This article originally appeared in the Summer 2012 issue of ArcUser.)

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31From Urban California to Rural Kenya
After centuries of a pastoral way of life, with livestock providing
the basis for sustenance, many Maasai pastoralists in southern
Kenya have been transitioning from communal land tenure
to individual parcel ownership. The introduction of private
landholdings frequently leads to a more sedentary, crop-based
livelihood, and the land is often demarcated with fences. Effects
of land subdivision go beyond the direct changes to people's
landownership to include landscape-scale habitat fragmentation,
reduced resistance to drought, and a decrease in wildlife
populations. Some of the group ranches in southern Kenya
have completely converted from communal lands to individual
landownership, while others still have a choice in setting their
land-use policies but are struggling with decisions about the
future of landownership, subdivided or not.
There have been few if any systematic methods for estimating
longer-term impacts of differing land-use scenarios on wildlife
and other environmental resources in Africa. At the University of
California, Davis, Information Center for the Environment (ICE),
researchers endeavored to model and visualize some of the
land-use issues facing the Maasai in Kenya with UPlan, an urban
growth GIS modeling tool (see "How UPlan Works in California").
UPlan was developed to simulate growing urban areas of
California and is widely used for long-range planning in rapidly
growing cities. This would, at first glance, seem to have nothing
in common with sparsely populated pastoral lands in East Africa.
But the author, one of the ICE researchers, had been a Peace
Corps volunteer in Kenya 20 years earlier and has connections
From Urban California to Rural Kenya
Applying the UPlan Model
By Karen Beardsley, Managing Director, Information Center for the Environment, University of California, Davis
A Maasai herdsman.

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(through the Society for Conservation GIS) with the African
Conservation Centre (ACC) based in Nairobi, Kenya.
In summer 2007, the author spent three weeks in Kenya working
with scientists at ACC visiting areas outside park boundaries,
where ACC focuses most of its conservation efforts, and
learning more about the issues facing the historically pastoralist
communities. Potential land-use conflicts included a complex
and interacting mix of livestock grazing lands, wildlife corridors,
agricultural lands, and human settlements. Combining her
knowledge of UPlan and ArcGIS with her interest and experience
living in Kenya, she and ACC developed a plan for this
collaborative work, adapting UPlan for use in a rural setting far
away from its traditional applications in the cities of California.
In general, people prefer pictures or maps over reams of
numbers to help them understand the world now and in the
future. Geographic tools, such as ArcGIS, provide a visual
framework within which to view the future or, better yet, a
variety of possible futures. When dealing with the past or the
present, scientists typically seek complete, unbiased data at
the maximum resolution practical. This is not so when looking
into an unknowable future. The UPlan urban growth model is an
appealingly simple and easy-to-understand tool, built in ArcGIS,
that has been far more instrumental in helping planners see what
California's future might look like than similar, but more complex,
models. The application of UPlan to rural Kenya explores some of
the ways that ArcGIS can be designed to peer into the future at
a low resolution and with multiple potential outcomes for a rural
region experiencing rapid land-use change.
UPlan's output from five different Mbirikani scenarios,
based on past trends, various degrees of fencing, and
different management plans involving Mbirikani, will
assist researchers and ultimately local ranch members
with land subdivision decisions.

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ICE researchers gathered existing data from many sources,
including ACC, the United Nations Environment Programme in
Nairobi, and several other researchers working in this part of
Kenya. With very minor modifications to the urban version of the
model, ICE scientists adapted UPlan to model different land-use
choices in rural areas of southeastern Kenya. They modified UPlan
to work within the Kenyan policy framework by developing five
land-use scenarios for the Mbirikani Group Ranch in the Amboseli
ecosystem in Kajiado District, Kenya. California projections use
urban variables, such as general plan boundaries, distance to
freeways and major arterials, residential/commercial/industrial
land uses, and employment statistics. UPlan for the Mbirikani
region includes temporary/permanent/fenced bomas (living
areas), distance from water sources and villages, suitability of
habitat types for farming and grazing, and proposed locations of
new conservation areas.
The output from five different Mbirikani scenarios, based on past
trends, various degrees of fencing, and different management
plans involving Mbirikani, will assist researchers and ultimately
local ranch members with land subdivision decisions. Taking this
one step further, ICE researchers combined the pattern of human
settlement from each scenario with possible wildlife migratory
routes modeled across Mbirikani. Not surprisingly, the results
pointed to the scenario with the highest level of subdivision
and fencing having the most detrimental effects on migratory
patterns of zebra and wildebeest in a landscape connecting
some of the world's best-known wildlife areas.
Californian city and county planners and Maasai group ranch
leaders are not as different as one might think when it comes
to interpreting maps and developing and evaluating alternative
future scenarios. When applied to rural locations, such as
southeastern Kenya, overlaying potential wildlife corridors with
modeled future human habitation patterns using ArcGIS is a
powerful method that can facilitate decision making in ways not
previously envisioned. This study demonstrated the applicability
of the UPlan model to rural Kenya and provided an example of
Maasai cattle raising dust in the South Rift region of Kenya.
(Photos: Karen Beardsley.)

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how the model and its output can be used to evaluate different
land-use options. Principal wildlife management stakeholders,
including the local community, private conservancies,
nongovernmental organizations, and the government, could work
collaboratively (despite potentially opposing planning priorities)
to determine a mutually agreeable way to plan for future uses of
the land.
The goal in conducting this research was to develop the ideas
and test the methods for applying UPlan in rural, group-
managed lands in Kenya, recognizing all along that these
methods and results should be taken back to the local people
for their full value to be realized. The expectation is not that
ArcGIS applications like UPlan be placed in the hands of Maasai
herdsmen. Rather, local support organizations such as the ACC
would manage the technical aspects of the process and work
with local stakeholders to visualize and evaluate model results.
ACC could operate the models, produce maps, and work directly
with the local people using the Swahili or Maasai languages
instead of English. An iterative process of developing alternatives,
observing potential outcomes, and modifying parameters as
needed to develop and evaluate new alternatives (following the
geodesign paradigm) would keep people involved and engaged
at all levels of the process. ACC has expressed a keen interest in
moving forward with this work. The main obstacles, as is so often
the case with international collaborations, have been time and
funding.
It will be an informative experiment to take the next steps
and make these methods and results available locally and see
how they are used to support Maasai group ranch subdivision
decisions.
About the Author
Karen Beardsley, PhD, GISP, has worked for the Information
Center for the Environment, Department of Environmental
Science and Policy, at the University of California, Davis, since its
inception in 1994 and is currently the codirector of ICE together
with professor James F. Quinn. She has a master's degree in
geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a
PhD in geography from the University of California, Davis.
For more information, visit www.conservationafrica.org.
See also "How UPlan Works in California."

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35How UPlan Works in California
How UPlan Works in California
UPlan is a rule-driven, ArcGIS software-based urban growth
model suitable for rapid scenario-based modeling. Originally
developed by researchers at the Information Center for the
Environment (ICE) at the University of California, Davis, more
than 10 years ago, UPlan is continually maintained by ICE and
has been widely applied in California and adapted to planning
needs in other USA states, as well as several international settings,
including China, Egypt, and Kenya (see "From Urban California
to Rural Kenya"). Input parameters, including urban growth
attractions, discouragements, masks, and planning datasets, are
easily collected and configured using UPlan. While not an explicit
economic model, UPlan uses "attraction" and "discouragement"
factors that score the attractiveness of each modeling grid cell
to each kind of potential development, generally based on
economic factors understood to drive land-use decisions. UPlan
uses a raster, cell-based environment within ArcGIS for Desktop
with the Spatial Analyst extension. The model is available online
and free of charge (ice.ucdavis.edu/doc/uplan/download).
The basic assumptions of UPlan are the following:
• Population growth can be converted into demand for land
use by applying conversion factors to employment and
households.
• Urban expansion (population growth) will conform to "general
plans" (or an analogous land-use plan boundary defining
allowable extent of growth) until demand exceeds the spatial
capacity of the plan.
• Some cells, such as lakes, wetlands, publicly owned land, and
existing development, will not be developed.
• Cells have different scores denoting attractiveness for
development because of legal status (e.g., zoning in the
United States); accessibility to transportation; infrastructure;
and necessary resources, such as water.
• Other cells, such as high slopes or rare habitat types, will
discourage new growth.
UPlan allocates growth into each land-use category based on
demographic inputs, such as average household size, employees
per household, and the percentage of housing development

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36How UPlan Works in California
going into specified densities of residential or employment
categories. Three primary factors determine where each land-
use class will be allocated: city and county general plans (or
comparable boundaries indicating where future growth types
may be allocated), areas where growth is prohibited (masks),
and site development attraction and discouragement factors.
Attraction and discouragement factors are representations of
physical, political, or economic effects that make a particular
location either more or less attractive for future growth of a
given land-use category. First, areas permitted to each land
use under the general plan are identified. Then, areas with
other growth prohibitions (lakes, very steep slopes, publicly
owned lands, or existing development) are removed from the
available space. Finally, the attraction and discouragement
factor values are established for the remaining cells based on a
location's potential suitability for growth. These values permit
systematic prioritization of development within the UPlan model
for each land use, resulting in an attraction grid. This is a purely
additive process, with user-weighted attractions adding values
and discouragements subtracting values. Population growth
allocation occurs on a raster cell basis starting with the highest-
value net attraction and working incrementally downward until
either all the available land has been occupied or all the demand
has been met.
Currently, about one-quarter of the 58 counties in California
are using UPlan, many with technical support from ICE staff.
In particular, rural counties rely on UPlan for their planning
process as part of the California Rural Blueprints process, which
is a long-term public visioning exercise run by counties and
regional planners and funded by the California Department of
Transportation. In California, UPlan has proved to be an effective
and popular tool for visualizing future growth in part because it
is adaptable, it runs quickly, and the assumptions are transparent.
Problems in implementation have risen where political will is
lacking, access to high-quality data is difficult, and personnel
resources are limited.
UPlan lends itself well to the geodesign concept based on
Carl Steinitz's framework. ICE is currently working with several
counties to help them revise their planning process using a
geodesign approach, with UPlan serving as a tool for developing
alternative scenarios and iteratively evaluating the impacts of
potential future growth outcomes on such features as wildlife
habitat corridors, agricultural lands, water resources, and
transportation needs.
See also "From Urban California to Rural Kenya."

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37From Maps to GeoDesign
The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) has been very interested in the
evolution of the new field of GeoDesign, which offers the vision
and the infrastructure to bring people, disciplines, data, and
technology together to not only better describe landscapes but
also develop more successful conservation strategies and actions.
One practical application of GeoDesign has been the successful
use of geospatial and conservation sciences to inform decisions
in the Greater Gombe Ecosystem in Tanzania. JGI greatly
improved village land use in this very sociopolitically difficult
and historic setting. We were successful not only because of
the technology we employed but also because the JGI staff
understood human values and decision-making processes that
influence landscape change in that particular region. We learned
that helping develop the region (e.g., through working together
to provide clean water sources, among many projects) opened
the door to communities and motivated them to "buy in" to our
efforts, creating a window of opportunity to apply conservation
science to threatened ecological systems. Some of these
programs are discussed in detail below.
At the core of JGI's applied conservation science program
is using geography as a common framework to support our
projects in Africa by connecting people, their values and
activities, and conservation data and developing a shared
understanding and vision of landscapes and how they should
be changed. This in turn enables us to implement, monitor, and
measure the success of those changes for both human and
chimpanzee livelihoods.
We Need to Make More Enlightened Decisions
Time is running out for many endangered species, including our
closest living relatives, chimpanzees. Chimpanzee and human
From Maps to GeoDesign
Conserving Great Ape Landscapes in Africa
By Lilian Pintea, Africa Programs, The Jane Goodall Institute
Jane Goodall with Freud.
(Courtesy of The Jane Goodall Institute.)

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populations are part of the same life support system, embedded
in ecological systems that are intimately linked and dependent
upon ecosystem services to survive. Unsustainable uses of natural
resources by humans result in loss of those ecosystem services,
with negative consequences for both chimpanzee and human
livelihoods. The fundamental problem is that, despite advances
in science and technology, we have not yet developed the
methodologies to apply these to conservation and make more
enlightened decisions about how to achieve a better balance
between environmental and economic results.
Fifty years ago, on July 14, 1960, Jane Goodall stepped for the
first time onto the shores of Lake Tanganyika and, through her
groundbreaking discoveries about chimpanzees in what is now
Gombe National Park in Tanzania, opened a new window to the
natural world and to ourselves. This unique long-term research
continues today with daily chimpanzee data collected by the
JGI Gombe Stream Research Center and digitized, stored, and
analyzed at the Jane Goodall Center at Duke University.
GIS and Imagery for Clearer Understanding
GIS has been used to georeference and digitize hundreds of
thousands of chimpanzee behavior locations and analyze ranging
and feeding patterns and relations with habitat characteristics
as detected by remote-sensing and field surveys. The use of
geospatial data for chimpanzee research was straightforward.
Spatial tools and variables derived from GIS and remote sensing
were directly used as part of research collaborations to test
hypotheses. For example, a vegetation map derived from
4-meter IKONOS imagery helped demonstrate that chimpanzee
hunts on colobus monkeys are more likely to occur and succeed
in woodland and semideciduous forest than in evergreen forest,
emphasizing the importance of visibility and prey mobility. JGI
also worked with the Tanzania National Parks to improve the
management of the park by using geospatial technology to
visualize habitat change, map the park boundary, and support the
development of the Gombe National Park Management Plan.
In addition to continuing Jane Goodall's pioneering research,
JGI has been accumulating decades of experience and practical
knowledge outside protected areas on how to successfully
engage local communities and decision makers in the sustainable
use of their natural resources. While the technology to map
land cover inside and outside Gombe National Park was mostly
the same, the way geospatial information was used to inform
decisions was very different.
The use of geospatial information to inform decisions outside the
park has been more complex. Gombe National Park was created
in 1968. The park inherited a history of conflict with the local
communities that started in 1943 when the colonial government
established for the first time Gombe Stream Game Reserve. In
1994, JGI began working with the local communities outside
Gombe through the Lake Tanganyika Catchment Reforestation
and Education (TACARE, pronounced "take care") project to

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seek ways of arresting the rapid degradation of natural resources.
TACARE project staff quickly learned that community buy-in
was essential for success. Therefore, the TACARE project added
agriculture, health, social infrastructure, community development,
and clean water components to the range of interventions it
employed. These interventions initially focused mostly on areas
close to village centers.
However, forest change detection using Landsat imagery from
1972 and 1999 showed that most chimpanzee habitats outside
the park had been in areas away from the village centers and
almost 80 percent of it converted to farmland and oil palm
plantations. Remote-sensing and GIS analysis led to a landscape
approach by focusing conservation efforts geographically
on areas away from village centers and on forest patches
with the most benefits to chimpanzees. In 2005, adopting
the recommendations obtained through analysis of satellite
imagery and with funds from the US Agency for International
Development (USAID) and other donors, JGI and its partners
embarked on a five-year Greater Gombe Ecosystem (GGE)
project.
A Conservation Action Plan approach was developed to identify
and prioritize conservation strategies. Village land-use planning
was identified as one of the top strategies. GIS was used to
overlay deforestation layers, historic distribution of chimpanzees
and habitats, slope, footpaths, roads, streams, watersheds,
density of human structures, and 60-centimeter QuickBird
imagery to prioritize a conservation area that, if protected, would
substantially increase the viability of chimpanzees inside and
outside the park and stabilize the watersheds to support human
livelihoods.
Participatory village land-use plans were prepared by the
communities according to Tanzanian laws and with full
involvement of government and community stakeholders. JGI
facilitated the process and provided technical support, including
maps and geospatial tools to record and manage spatial data.
The planning process followed seven steps and required villagers
to settle any existing land disagreements and agree on village
boundaries and how land resources located within the villages
should be used to meet specific human livelihood needs and
environmental objectives.
At the end of the project in 2009, 13 villages within GGE
completed their participatory village land-use plans, which
became ratified by the Tanzanian government. Local communities
voluntarily assigned 9,690 hectares, or 26 percent, of their
village lands as Village Forest Reserves. These reserves
are interconnected across village boundaries to minimize
fragmentation and cover 68 percent of the priority conservation
area identified by the GGE Conservation Action Plan.
With renewed financial support from USAID, JGI and
partners are now engaged in facilitating community-based
organizations, developing bylaws and building local capacity

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to implement these village land-use plans and restore and
manage newly established Village Forest Reserves. The plan is
to use DigitalGlobe imagery continuously to provide detailed
information on village land-cover change, such as increases in
forest cover in Kigalye Village Forest Reserve, and monitor both
new threats and conservation successes.
About the Author
Dr. Lilian Pintea brings more than 15 years of experience in
applying remote sensing and GIS to the job of protecting
chimpanzees and their vanishing habitats in Africa. As vice
president of conservation science at JGI, Pintea directs the
scientific department at the institute and conducts applied
conservation research in Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of the Congo.
See also "Harnessing the Power of Our GeoDesign Vision."
Participatory village land-use plans were prepared by the communities
according to Tanzanian laws
(Courtesy of The Jane Goodall Institute.)

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413D Modeling Shows Off Elevated Rail System Landscape
Honolulu Uses Geodesign to Build Case for Rail Corridor
Being on island time conveys the aura that everything is as
peaceful and slow traveling as an islander in paradise. In
Honolulu, the islanders can boast they do travel slowly through
their paradise, but maybe not so peacefully on their roadways,
since Honolulu has claimed the top spot as the worst US city
for traffic. Compounding the problem, citizens have moved to
suburban areas in search of affordable housing, creating urban
sprawl, which increases traffic demand when traveling to urban
centers for work.
For Honolulu, the effects of urban sprawl go beyond increased
traffic demand and have negative impacts, such as environmental
pollution, natural habitat reduction, loss of agricultural land, and
even decline in human health and well-being. In an effort to help
alleviate some of the traffic pressure on its roadways, the City
and County of Honolulu have approved and begun construction
of an elevated rail system connecting East Kapolei to Ala Moana
Center. Not only will the new railway change the way citizens
and tourists will travel through Honolulu, but the planning and
development surrounding the rail corridor will be redefined
through what is known as transit-oriented development (TOD).
Planners look to TOD as a common solution to accommodate
future population growth, control urban sprawl, and decrease
traffic demands on communities through the use of dense,
mixed-use housing placed near transit. This creates mass-transit
and walkable access to retail and amenities. This paradigm
shift to TOD planned communities with medium- to high-rise
development and a new feature in the landscape, the elevated
rail system, can and has been met with opposition by some
community members. Part of the planners' role is to persuade
the citizens of the benefits of TOD for their community through
a collaborative planning process where they share information
The City of Honolulu, shown here in CityEngine, shows the elevation
levels of the downtown corridor, as well as the proposed transit-oriented
development, giving citizens and planners a dynamic view of potential
changes to the city.

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and ideas about the development. The planners must tell the
story of the future of the community from both sides of the coin.
To do so, planners and consultants are using more sophisticated
visualization tools, which can be very effective at shifting the
attitudes about new and different development in this island
paradise.
To tell the story of TOD, the City and County of Honolulu
turned to GIS as a primary tool within the process. The city GIS
department embraced and applied the concept of geodesign—
that is, incorporating geographic knowledge into design—to
more effectively analyze, compare, and visualize different
scenarios of TOD for the key communities affected by the new
development. To build the case for TOD, the GIS team needed to
support the planners' goals to share with the public who would
have safe access to rail; how changes to the zoning would visually
redefine their community; and how the TOD would positively
affect the community and region, preventing future urban sprawl.
The team identified three core models that would be needed
for the TOD geodesign process: walkability, urban growth, and
densification models. As with any new GIS project undertaking,
the GIS department first determined data resources needed to
support the analysis and whether these datasets were available
or needed to be developed. Most of the core data, such as roads,
zoning, and buildings, was available in the rich geodatabase that
Honolulu has been developing for years. Since visualization is a
key component of geodesign and a powerful tool for persuasive
planning support, a 3D model of the physical environment would
be needed for the transit corridor. Honolulu had a good start
to the city model with 3D geometries for the downtown area,
including key landmark buildings with textures.
However, the model was not complete and needed to be
enhanced in areas, since more than 3,000 buildings were without
textures and some were mere footprints. The team used Esri
CityEngine to improve the model by creating 3D geometry
and applying textures based on a custom set of rules. Honolulu
wanted to simulate the true look and feel of the city and
accomplished this by collecting photos of real facades that were
used to create a custom set of textures. These textures were
applied based on the rules, instantly painting the remaining
buildings. Rules were further applied to create 3D geometries by
converting simple building footprints into complex structures with
textures. The last component was the addition of the proposed
evaluated rail, which was added from the existing engineering
drawings, completing the 3D urban model of Honolulu.
The next step in the geodesign process was to analyze the
effectiveness of a TOD and create alternative scenarios used
by the planners to convey the benefits of TOD for a given
community and the region. Utilizing the ArcGIS 3D Analyst
and ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extensions and ModelBuilder, the
GIS team developed reusable walkability, urban growth, and
densification models in which data was run against changing
variables to create different scenarios. A key factor of TOD is

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to provide the acceptable and safe walking or biking distance
to a transit stop. The walkability model used Spatial Analyst
geoprocessing tools to determine the travel distance from
residences or work to a transit station.
From this analysis, stakeholders or citizens could determine the
viability of transit for their use. Since the acceptance of TOD in
a community must be more convincing than just ridership, the
planners must convince members of the public that TOD will
benefit Honolulu's future whether they utilize the rail or not. The
GIS team supported the planners by creating scenarios based on
the projected future with TOD and without. The TOD plans for
each station were run against the urban growth and densification
models using Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst to perform the
analysis.
Using CityEngine, the rules for creating 3D geometries and
texture were applied to the resultant analysis, and new models
were generated representing proposed build-out of the future
with TOD. The 3D model showed urban growth concentration
around stations with low- to medium-density buildings and
ample undeveloped land. The same models were run against
the existing zoning with no TOD, resulting in a sea of houses,
showing a stark comparison of Honolulu's landscape in the
future as urban sprawl. An incentive of geodesign for planners
is to equip them with analytic outcomes that could be used
to persuade the stakeholders and public that TOD will have a
positive impact on the community. Honolulu approached the
community engagement with unique visualization technologies,
which included 3D holograms and simple web views of TOD
scenarios. The GIS team worked with Zebra Imaging, a leading
3D visualization company and Esri Partner (Austin, Texas), to
create visually captivating, true 3D views of the analysis in 3D
holographic images.
Through Zebra Imaging software, ArcGIS 3D Analyst, and Esri
CityEngine, the holograms were sourced directly from the
exports of 3D GIS data models representing TOD and rendered
to capture thousands of unique 3D views. The 3D views of the
Preparing this model for hologram printing and display is as simple as
adding textures, saving the project, and loading the model into ArcGIS for
use with the Zebra Imaging plug-in.

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GIS were used to create a holographic grating that is recorded
on film with lasers. When illuminated with an appropriate light
source, what looks to be a flat piece of plastic reveals a 3D, full-
parallax, color image reflected above the film's surface.

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45Participatory GIS
The nation of Suriname is tucked up against the Atlantic Ocean in
northeastern South America. Southern Suriname is covered with
continuous tracts of unspoiled tropical forest, and it is the home
of approximately 2,000 Wayana and Trio indigenous peoples.
The area is currently remote, and economic development is
practically nonexistent, which has helped it remain intact.
However, several economic development projects for the area
are becoming priorities for the national government, including
mining, hydroelectric dams, and road construction. While these
investments may benefit Suriname, they also pose a threat
to Suriname's ecosystems and local communities' livelihoods,
fundamentally in the lack of socioecological information. In the
absence of reliable information, the decision-making process will
fail to include local people's needs in terms of land and natural
resources, bringing further inequity and poverty to vulnerable
people in the country.
Conservation International Suriname (CI Suriname) is working
with five indigenous communities in southern Suriname to
produce maps depicting perceived importance for landscape
services. Through this work, the organization is supporting the
development of a visual tool for tribal communities to facilitate
their interaction with government planners and external
institutions in all issues related to their territory.
To foster progress with informed decision making, CI Suriname
is undertaking participatory mapping processes that produce
Participatory GIS
Indigenous Communities in Suriname Identify Key Local Sites
By Sara O. I. Ramirez-Gomez and Christian Martínez
Map of the Sipaliwini village's perceived importance of the landscape for
subsistence, based on the count of overlapping locations.

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46Participatory GIS
spatial information to support a community bottom-up approach
in the land-use decision-making process. To do this, the project
team looked for a way to combine community mapping with
GIS technology to put people's spatial knowledge into digital
maps that could be incorporated into conservation planning. As
a longtime user of Esri technology, CI Suriname chose ArcGIS
to build a tool to effectively count the times that thousands of
polygons were overlaid to produce maps showing the frequency
of landscape services polygons as surrogates of importance;
the more overlays, the more use of the area and thus the more
important the landscape for the indigenous people.
To produce these maps, the development of an operational tool
was needed to count the number of times that the landscape
services polygons were overlaid. This tool combined several
ArcGIS tools to effectively map intensity of use. The input data
was obtained through social mapping workshops with community
participants in five Amerindian villages of South Suriname.
During the data collection process, people were prompted to
individually indicate, by drawing polygons on a georeferenced
landscape map, the areas that they use for four distinct landscape
services. The services were distinguished by using different color
markers: subsistence (red), income-generation-related services
(blue), culture (orange), and life-sustaining services (green). The
number of maps produced during the workshops coincided with
the number of participants. The polygons in each of these maps
were then digitized in ArcGIS, queried by the landscape service
they represent, and prepared for the data analysis process. At
this stage, thousands of polygons were processed.
Using the ModelBuilder environment in ArcGIS, a tool was
developed to count overlapping polygons inside a shapefile, and
a new shapefile was created with polygons whose attributes are
the number of overlaps identified in that specific spatial unit. The
developed tool has a simple user interface: it first asks for an
A village woman drawing polygons on an elevation map.

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47Participatory GIS
input shapefile, which has all the polygons mapped in the area,
and then it asks the name and location of the output shapefile. CI
Suriname uses this tool to identify concentrations of important
places for provision of landscape services according to the
perceptions of local people.
ModelBuilder flexibility lets CI Suriname integrate available
tools to create a new user-designed tool able to process a
large amount of information and with a user-friendly interface.
Identification of the areas important to local people is useful
input to develop sustainable action plans and support decision
making. Indigenous communities see the importance of the
maps to facilitate dialog with outsiders. Some of the villagers
highlighted the importance of the maps for tourism, while others
highlighted their importance for future generations.
Kapitein Euka, the chief of Sipaliwini village, is a firm advocate
of ensuring that the natural environment remains intact so that
his village can continue to exist. At a meeting with CI Suriname,
with whom villagers have created maps showing the areas and
ecosystems they depend on, he said, "It is important for us to be
able to show the government what parts of land are necessary for
our way of life and are important to us." He added that he thinks
the maps are vitally important to this cause, especially if future
infrastructural development takes place. "It's good that everyone
knows about these maps and is aware of how important this land
is to our village."
About the Authors
Sara O. I. Ramirez-Gomez is South Suriname project coordinator
for Conservation International Suriname. Christian Martínez is
the land-use planning coordinator for Conservation International
Ecuador.

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48Turning Red Fields into Green Fields in Los Angeles
Geodesign is about holistic design and communication. It is
about easily linking seemingly disparate data into a cohesive
graphic language that can tell a story far more powerful than
its individual parts. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the
story of how something as humble and democratic as a park
could help reverse the country's economic malaise.
Michael Messner, a Wall Street fund manager and cofounder of
the Speedwell Foundation, proposed Red Fields to Green Fields
(R2G), a plan for turning distressed properties (red fields) into
parks (green fields). His argument is simple—remove the glut of
overbuilt and foreclosed properties and redeploy that capital out
of underperforming real estate and into green space. It would
stabilize property values, strengthen banks, and create jobs. As
Messner puts it, "Tearing down can create wealth. Land without
buildings should be considered an asset by our financial system."
He goes on to point out that the benefits are far more than
financial.
In essence, parks benefit the "triple bottom line" by improving
economic, social, and environmental health of communities. From
New York City's Central Park to the City of Boulder's greenbelt,
history has shown that parks and open space tend to increase
nearby property values; attract tourists and residents who
contribute to local commerce; increase public health by providing
opportunities for physical recreation and mental relaxation; and
perform vital environmental services, such as treating storm water,
reducing heat island effects, and improving air quality.
Turning Red Fields into Green Fields in Los Angeles
It's All Connected
ArcMap, 2000 Census
data, and land use
data from both Esri
and the Southern
California Association
of Governments
(SCAG) were used to
identify three areas
that were both park-
poor and economically
disadvantaged (outlined
in black).
(From Dakotah Bertsch,
Michael Boucher, Eran
James, and Abby Jones.
Red Fields to Green
Fields Los Angeles,
Pomona: California State
Polytechnic University 606
Design Studio, used with
permission.)

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Los Angeles was one of 11 cities selected to test the viability of
the R2G concept. The Red Fields to Green Fields Los Angeles
(R2G-LA) case study was developed by the Verde Coalition with
the help of several agencies, including Occidental College's
Urban and Environmental Policy Institute; Parks for People;
the Trust for Public Land; and California Polytechnic University,
Pomona's Landscape Architecture Department 606 Studio
(606 Studio). 606 Studio played a significant role in developing
the R2G-LA case.
City of Angels—Defining the Issues
Los Angeles is the third richest city and fifth most powerful
and influential city in the world. It is also recognized as the
most diverse metropolitan area in the United States. However,
compared to other large cities within the United States, Los
Angeles's parkland falls short both in terms of its percentage of
the city's land area and in terms of park acres per resident. While
a few large tracts of parkland do exist, parks are not distributed
equally throughout the city, being especially deficient in lower-
income neighborhoods.
Lack of parks is not the only disparity. Food deserts, obesity,
asthma, and other ailments associated with lack of open space
and low income dominate in these areas. Poor environmental
quality is also highest in these communities. During the recession,
property values plummeted everywhere, but disadvantaged
communities were hit hardest.
Working Across Scales
Geodesign is also about discovery. It is about reading the
landscape to tease out what is most important. It involves
Lincoln Heights aggregated capability bar chart map.
(From Dakotah Bertsch, Michael Boucher, Eran James, and Abby Jones. Red
Fields to Green Fields Los Angeles, Pomona: California State Polytechnic
University 606 Design Studio, used with permission.)

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assessing the condition of a place and its people working across
scales to determine how one region, neighborhood, or number of
sites might affect another. Since it is holistic in nature, it requires
gathering diverse geographic data covering the natural, cultural,
and built environments.
To begin the study, data inventories had to be collected and/or
created for each level of investigation to meet the informational
demands of each scale from the region to the neighborhood
to the site. ArcGIS played a significant role by providing the
data storage framework necessary to store, analyze, query,
and visualize economic, environmental, and social data across
multiple scales.
Identifying Neighborhoods
To begin the study for Los Angeles, researchers examined the
geographic context of the region to determine the highest-
need neighborhoods that could most benefit by the improved
environmental, social, and economic health resulting from
converting distressed properties to open space.
Two criteria were chosen, which were based on California
Proposition 84 funding standards that have been instrumental in
providing funding for parks and nature facilities in California:
• Identify the most park-poor areas, defined as having three
acres or less of parkland per 1,000 people based on census
tract data.
• Identify disadvantaged neighborhoods, defined as census
tracts with a median household income that is 80 percent of
the state median household income.
At the regional scale, these two criteria formed the basis of
the geodesign evaluation models that would result in the
identification of three neighborhoods most in need: Lincoln
Heights, Westlake, and Florence.
A simple map/graphic diagram illustrates the key opportunities and
constraints of the Lincoln Heights Local site analysis. Arrows represent
direction of movement, flow, or views. Just enough detail to support the
development of various design program elements.

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Red Fields
Red fields are parcels of land that, for various reasons, are not
functioning at their highest civic capacity. Many are vacant
lots, brown fields, foreclosed properties, and run-down or
collapsing buildings. Commercial real estate data helped
narrow the search down to individual parcels; however, early
site investigation showed that many vacant lots and distressed
properties were missing from the data. The Studio 606 team
surveyed all three neighborhoods to locate, ground truth, and
inventory site characteristics for all available red fields. The site
inventories provided a much more in-depth understanding of
red field conditions and their community context, invaluable for
later site design. The total number of red fields found in all the
neighborhoods was 138 sites, with a total area of 67 acres.
The inventory included relative sun exposure; size; commercial
use or zoning; average slope; buildings present; land-use
designation; ownership; proximity to the network of planned bike
lanes; and proximity to Metro stations and major commercial
intersections (nodes), either of which are indicative of higher-than-
normal pedestrian use.
Green Fields
Green field types were developed that address the social,
environmental, and economic needs of local Los Angeles
communities. The four broad categories of green field types
included urban agriculture, recreation, community, and ecology.
Urban agriculture green field solutions support food production
in the context of the urban environment through community
gardening, farming, composting, or production of value-added
products from agriculture. Recreation green field solutions refer
to parks, sports fields, trails, or other facilities that promote active
or passive physical activity. Community green field solutions
focus on building community capital through social, cultural,
educational, or artistic exchanges by creating plazas or space
for community interaction. Ecology green field solutions provide
ecological function and opportunities for people to connect with
nature, for example, through engineered wetlands, reintroduction
of native vegetation, etc.
Site Selection
Having identified the neighborhoods of highest need, the next
step was to narrow selection down to individual parcels using a
suitability analysis. One highly suitable site for each green field
type was chosen from the list of suitable sites.
However, for the purposes of this article, only one site will be
focused on to illustrate how a red field might be converted to a
green field—the Lincoln Heights Local red field site. For the rest
of this article, Lincoln Heights Local will be used for the green
field site development discussion.

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Lincoln Heights Local—Site Analysis
Lincoln Heights Local, a large red field, is a sloped, vacant lot
located on Broadway, a busy commercial street in one of the
oldest neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Multiple schools surround
the site, including a high school, elementary school, preschool,
and kindergarten. An adjacent bus stop on Broadway is heavily
used by high school students and other residents.
The site has steep topography on one side, providing views of
buildings in downtown Los Angeles, and a relatively flat parking
lot on the other side. It has high visibility, good accessibility, and
a stream of pedestrians passing by—particularly at the beginning
and end of the school day. The south-facing site receives full
sunlight. Other factors to include in any determination are the
following:
• Site area: 1.1 acres
• Neighborhood density: 10,602 people/square mile
• Surrounding uses: schools, residential, commercial
• Adjacent bus stop
• Sloped topography with views of city
• Pedestrian traffic from high school
• Water drainage needs handling
• Possibility of site needing terracing
Program Development
A detailed suitability analysis was performed that showed that
a community garden and a farmers' market plaza, representing
urban agriculture and community green field types, respectively,
were the best fit for this red field, both programmatically and
physically, given the opportunities and constraints of the site.
Lincoln Heights Local would focus on promoting healthy food
options and building community. The community garden would
provide plots to surrounding schools as well as other members of
the community. The top floor of the community building would
serve as an outdoor classroom, while the bottom floor would
house garden tools.
Lincoln Heights Local site selection.

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The farmers' market plaza, with a large oak tree, would host
weekly farmers' markets, as well as other community events, such
as health fairs, arts and crafts fairs, and flea markets.
Built-in seating would enhance the functionality of the plaza and
provide people with the option of dining on-site after purchasing
healthy food at the farmers' market or meet with friends.
Site Design
Using ArcGIS, CAD, Illustrator, Photoshop, and sketching tools,
design renderings of the proposed Lincoln Heights Local green
field were produced to better illustrate the design concepts that
had been developed for each site. Care was taken to ensure that
the designs were appropriate applications of green field solutions
to the specific site conditions, as well as to the neighborhood
context and regional objectives. Photorealistic renderings
backed by GIS analyses and hard data help community members,
government officials, and special interest groups understand the
consequences of a particular design so they can make better,
more informed decisions.
The Big Picture
This study has shown that if all the area of need's red fields were
converted to green fields, park space would more than double
in the disadvantaged communities of Los Angeles. A $7.2 billion
investment would allow Los Angeles to rebuild disadvantaged
neighborhoods, add vital park space, and improve economic
conditions citywide. Converting red fields to green fields would
reduce disparities between communities and strengthen the
city's social, economic, and environmental health. Key impacts
would be the following:
• Create 77,000 new jobs.
• Remove 1,300 acres of distressed real estate from the market.
• Add 1,100 acres of small and walkable parks and increase
the ratio of parks per thousand people by 48 percent in
disadvantaged communities.
The photorealistic design rendering.

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• Restore 400 acres of habitat in the Santa Monica Mountains
National Recreation Area.
• Create 200 acres of park space along the Los Angeles River.
Moving Forward
At this time, the results of this analysis are being used to help
government officials and other stakeholders build support to
fund some of the proposed R2G-LA strategies. Community
advocacy groups, environmental nonprofits, and others, are now
working with LA officials to find ways to move forward with this
integrative approach to solving multiple issues.
For more information on how to put geodesign into practice, visit
esri.com/geodesign.
This article is adapted from "Chapter 8: Red Fields into Green
Fields" from Geodesign: Case Studies in Regional and Urban
Planning by Shannon McElvaney, Esri Press, ISBN: 978-1-58948-
316-3. Visit esri.com/esripress.
(This article originally appeared in the Winter 2012/2013 issue of ArcNews.)

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through a deeper, geographic understanding of the changing
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Governments, industry leaders, academics, and nongovernmental
organizations trust us to connect them with the analytic knowledge they
need to make the critical decisions that shape the planet. For more than
40 years, Esri has cultivated collaborative relationships with partners
who share our commitment to solving earth’s most pressing challenges
with geographic expertise and rational resolve. Today, we believe that
geography is at the heart of a more resilient and sustainable future.
Creating responsible products and solutions drives our passion for
improving quality of life everywhere.
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Geodesign in-practice

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