2016 Washington GIS

Geodesign is a comprehensive framework with a well-defined workflow that supports transforming the world through sustainability management. However learning and implementing this workflow can seem daunting from both management and GIS technical perspectives. This presentation introduces geodesign and Carl Steinitz's workflow and explains how it is a natural fir for sustainability management. The presenters then describe a series of seven GIS Labs they have used to teach the key elements of geodesign to professional masters GIS students at the University of Washington. The subject of the study was a simplified levee setback design problem for the Duwamish and Lower Green River. The labs, using ArcMap and python tools, were conducted one per week over seven consecutive weeks. In parallel, the students were taught the core concepts of geodesign as a method to change geography. Course and labs together covered all aspects of the geodesign workflow, including all three passes through the six models that make up the geodesign framework. Each student created all of the models, and finished with a preferred design for a levee setback. Finally a sequential design approach was used to create levee setback programs that met competing requirement targets such a households protected from floods and acres of wetlands added, while accommodating differing stakeholder perspectives. The presenters will close by discussing assumptions, efficiencies, successes and shortcomings of this GIS lab-based curriculum for teaching a working knowledge of geodesign concepts and methods to GIS professional and resource managers.