GIS: Designing Our Future

We are living in a highly developed world that is reaching a tipping point caused by the imbalance and irreversible damage placed on the environment by humanity.First,we need to realize the urgency of the matter,and then propose possible solutions or strategies,and finally implement feasible remedies to this situation.This paper suggests the urgency of taking immediate action to protect the environment and proposes an effective means of earth system management via a framework called "GeoDesign".The concept of GeoDesign draws inspiration from the theoretical foundation laid out in Ian McHarg's seminal work Design with Nature and from other related holistic fields such as Earth System Engineering and Management in practice.Methodology wise,it follows the Steinitz Model of Landscape Change.Thus far,GIS has successfully mapped out our past and current situations,but we need to expand its power to help us design our future.We need to integrate design elements into the existing GIS framework to make it an effective,friendly,all-encompassing planning and design tool.Some early prototypes arose from GeoDesign oriented implementations of GIS,such as ArcSketch.Although geography and design have existed for ages,the field of "GeoDesign" is still a relative new concept.The author believes that it is now high time to integrate all related fields and make a concerted effort to unify these concepts in the form of a unified GeoDesign initiative that will stem environmental deterioration and make our shared and changed world - the anthropogenic earth - healthier and sustainable.