GIS – Creating a Sustainable Future

Summary

The speaker emphasizes the importance of GIS in creating a sustainable future, inspired by Mario Palma's insights on societal risks due to a lack of understanding of our reality. He advocates for a geographic approach that integrates science, technology, and creative thinking to address challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss. The rapid advancement of geospatial technology, including cloud computing and AI, is highlighted as crucial for scaling up collective efforts towards sustainability.

Takeaways

• 🌐 GIS plays a critical role in creating a sustainable future by understanding our complex and interdependent world.
• 📚 The lack of understanding of our reality is one of the greatest risks our society faces, as highlighted by Mario Palma.
• 🌱 Our world is facing challenges due to human-induced climate change, overpopulation, and the rapid disappearance of biodiversity.
• 🔄 The concept of the 'Anthropocene' reflects a period where human activities dominate Earth's life and history.
• 👥 Collective responsibility is emphasized for the future of our world, with a call for dramatic changes in priorities.
• 🌿 Sustainability requires a holistic approach, integrating environmental, economic, and social factors spatially.
• 🗺️ Geographic thinking is essential for organizing and integrating factors to illuminate patterns and relationships.
• 💡 The geographic approach integrates geographic science and information for understanding and managing our planet.
• 🚀 Geospatial infrastructure is expanding rapidly, creating a nervous system for sustainability by integrating data and providing powerful apps.
• 🌟 Advanced GIS analytics, geo-visualization, geodesign, and geo-accounting are methodologies that support a sustainable future.
• 🌐 Geospatial hubs and collaboration are fostering new types of geo collaboration, essential for making geospatial infrastructure work.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the conference discussed in the script?

The main theme of the conference is 'GIS: Creating a Sustainable Future', which emphasizes the role of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in addressing the challenges of sustainability.

Who is Mario Palma and what is his contribution mentioned in the script?

Mario Palma is one of the founders of ENAHI, a large statistical and science and mapping organization in Mexico. He wrote a book that inspired the speaker, highlighting the lack of understanding of our reality as one of the greatest risks society faces.

What does the term 'Anthropocene' refer to as used in the script?

The 'Anthropocene' refers to the current geological epoch where human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

What are some of the human-induced challenges mentioned in the script that threaten our future?

Some of the human-induced challenges mentioned are climate change, overpopulation, interconnected patterns of change, steep declines in biodiversity, and unsustainable living practices.

What does the speaker suggest is necessary to create a sustainable future?

The speaker suggests that creating a sustainable future requires a dramatic change in priorities, a major commitment to life and future, and immediate action. This includes restoring nature, improving business efficiencies, reducing pollution, consuming less, and implementing sustainable land use patterns.

What is the 'geographic approach' as described in the script?

The 'geographic approach' is a way of thinking and problem-solving that integrates geographic science and information into how we understand and manage our planet. It is holistic, collaborative, and supports multi-disciplinary solutions.

How does the speaker believe GIS can help in achieving sustainability?

The speaker believes GIS can help achieve sustainability by enabling the geographic approach, providing tools for measuring, visualizing, analyzing, and making predictions, and by integrating knowledge widely.

What is 'geospatial infrastructure' and how does it relate to the script's discussion?

Geospatial infrastructure is an interconnected system that organizes and shares geospatial data and services. It is seen as a nervous system for sustainability, integrating various types of data and supporting collaboration and decision-making at different scales.

What technological advancements are mentioned in the script that can help scale up collective efforts towards sustainability?

Technological advancements mentioned include cloud computing, advanced analytics, integration of imagery and remote sensing, interactive mapping, 3D visualization, and the use of apps for data collection and dissemination.

What role does 'geoAI' or 'geospatial artificial intelligence' play according to the script?

GeoAI, or geospatial artificial intelligence, plays a role in enriching GIS by allowing for advanced raster analytics, machine learning, and the extraction of feature information from imagery, which enhances our understanding and management of the planet.

How does the speaker view the current state of geospatial technology and its potential impact on society?

The speaker views the current state of geospatial technology as exciting and rapidly expanding, with the potential to transform organizations and create a new kind of global information system that can support sustainability and collaboration across sectors.

Outlines

00:00

🌿 Sustainability and the Role of GIS

The speaker introduces the theme of the conference as creating a sustainable future, inspired by Mario Palma's book. Palma emphasizes the lack of understanding of our reality as a significant risk, and the necessity of creating and applying that understanding for our future. The speaker highlights the world's complexity and the rapid changes it's undergoing, including human-induced climate change and overpopulation. They stress the collective responsibility of humans and GIS users to shape a sustainable future by changing priorities and acting now. The geographic approach is presented as a holistic method integrating geographic science and information to understand and manage the planet, with GIS playing a crucial role in this endeavor.

05:00

🌐 Geospatial Infrastructure and Its Impact

The speaker discusses the impact of the geographic approach and geospatial infrastructure on society. They mention the integration of methodologies such as geoanalytics, geo-visualization, geodesign, collaboration, and geo-accounting. The speaker appreciates the audience's work in applying the geographic approach and creating solutions for a sustainable future. They also emphasize the need to scale up efforts and the role of technology in achieving this scale. The rapid advancement of GIS, including cloud computing, advanced analytics, and interactive mapping, is highlighted as essential for this scaling. The speaker also talks about the creation of a 'nervous system for sustainability' through geospatial infrastructure, which integrates various types of data and supports both local and global applications.

10:00

📈 Geospatial Capabilities and Big Data Integration

The speaker delves into the details of geospatial infrastructure, explaining how it integrates different types of data and delivers powerful applications for various users. They discuss the pervasiveness of web apps and the hope for continued expansion of geospatial capabilities. The speaker also touches on how geospatial capabilities are being embedded in large IT enterprise systems by companies like Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce, and Amazon. They highlight the enrichment brought about by advanced GIS analytics, real-time information ingestion, and the integration of big data sets. The potential of imagery and remote sensing in enriching GIS is also discussed, along with the role of geo AI and machine learning in pulling off image feature information.

15:01

🤝 Collaboration and Leadership for a Sustainable Future

In the final paragraph, the speaker calls for leadership and problem-solving within organizations, thinking holistically about one's place in the world and promoting the best tools and methods. They emphasize the importance of informal communication and collaboration with other organizations. The speaker expresses their personal commitment and urges the audience to act with urgency, highlighting the need to work at different scales to address the challenges facing the world.

Keywords

💡Sustainable Future

A sustainable future refers to a society that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In the video, the concept is central to the theme, with the speaker emphasizing the need for dramatic changes in priorities to ensure a sustainable future. The speaker mentions various actions like restoring nature and reducing pollution as part of creating a sustainable future.

💡Anthropocene

The Anthropocene is a term used to describe the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. The script mentions the Anthropocene as the era where human activities are so pervasive that they are affecting the life and future of our planet.

💡Biodiversity

Biodiversity refers to the variety of life on Earth and the ecological complexity it represents. The script points out that biodiversity is disappearing at an alarming rate, which is a critical issue for our sustainable future. It is one of the environmental factors that GIS can help monitor and protect.

💡Geographic Information System (GIS)

GIS is a system designed for capturing, storing, manipulating, analyzing, managing, and presenting all types of geographical and spatial data. In the context of the video, GIS is presented as a crucial tool for understanding and managing our planet, allowing users to visualize and analyze spatial data to make informed decisions for a sustainable future.

💡Geoanalytics

Geoanalytics is the use of geographic data to gain business intelligence and derive insights from it. The speaker in the video mentions geoanalytics as a powerful methodology that can create insights and understanding from geographic data, which is essential for planning and decision-making in a sustainable context.

💡Geo-visualization

Geo-visualization is the process of representing spatial data visually. In the script, it is highlighted as a language for communicating the content and context of our world through maps and visualizations, which helps in understanding complex spatial relationships and patterns.

💡Geodesign

Geodesign is a collaborative, planning-centric, and science-based design process that leverages geographic technologies. The video script suggests that geodesign is about designing sustainable and inclusive futures by engaging stakeholders and using geographic data to make informed design decisions.

💡Geospatial Infrastructure

Geospatial infrastructure refers to the integration of geographic data with other systems to enable better decision-making and collaboration. The speaker describes it as a nervous system for sustainability, integrating various types of data and providing powerful apps for GIS users and beyond, thus supporting a wide range of applications and users.

💡Remote Sensing

Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about Earth's surface without direct contact with the planet. In the video, remote sensing is mentioned as a significant part of the geospatial infrastructure that helps in creating detailed maps and monitoring changes in the environment.

💡GeoAI

GeoAI refers to the application of artificial intelligence techniques to geographic data. The script discusses how GeoAI and machine learning are being used to extract feature information from images, enriching GIS data and enabling new forms of understanding and analysis.

💡Big Data

Big Data refers to extremely large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations. The video script mentions big data integration as a way to open our eyes to new relationships and insights by linking massive data collections to GIS tools.

Highlights

The theme of the conference focuses on GIS creating a sustainable future.

Lack of understanding of our reality is one of the greatest risks our society is facing.

Our future depends on creating and applying understanding of our world.

The world is a complex and highly interdependent ecosystem that is rapidly changing.

Human-induced climate change and overpopulation are resulting in interconnected patterns of change.

We are collectively responsible for the future of our world.

Creating a sustainable future requires a dramatic change in our priorities.

Sustainability requires seeing the world as one single ecosystem.

Geographic thinking is essential for sustainability.

The geographic approach integrates geographic science and information for understanding and managing our planet.

Geoanalytics, geo-visualization, geodesign, and geo-accounting are methodologies for creating sustainable futures.

GIS enables the geographic approach by providing tools for measuring, visualizing, analyzing, and planning.

Examples of sustainable solutions include protecting biodiversity, reducing resource use, and optimizing logistics.

We need to scale up our collective efforts exponentially.

Technological advancements like cloud computing, advanced analytics, and 3D visualization can help scale up efforts.

Geospatial infrastructure is creating a nervous system for sustainability.

Geospatial infrastructure integrates all kinds of data and delivers powerful apps.

Geospatial capabilities are becoming embedded in large IT enterprise systems.

Advanced GIS analytics allows us to see new things and create new insights.

Big data integration will open our eyes to new relationships and understanding.

Geo collaboration is essential for making geospatial infrastructure work.

We need to act with urgency and move at many different scales to create a sustainable future.

Transcripts

[Music]

i'd next like to move on to

the theme of this year's conference gis

creating a sustainable future this is a

strong vision

and part of the vision was inspired by a

recent book that i read

by mario palma who is one of the

founders of

enahi which is the large statistical and

science and mapping organizations in

mexico

he said the following in his book

lack of understanding of our reality is

one of the greatest

risks our society is facing and i think

all of us in the gis community all of us

in the

in the world community can understand

this

he also later said in his book our

future depends upon

creating and applying that understanding

and these were the beacons that started

an ahi

but they're also for me they speak to me

these words speak to me

because they really are a purposeful way

of describing

our work creating

and applying understanding

our world is a complex and highly

interdependent ecosystem

that's rapidly changing and evolving

the world we live in is actually not

well known

it's fragile it's rich in biodiversity

which is

disappearing at an alarming rate it's

also increasingly dominated by human

activities

geologists are beginning to call this

the anthropocene

epic that epic where humans absolutely

dominate

the life and his history the life the

future of our world

today our world is being challenged

because

us as humans are living recklessly

and unsustainably and this is

threatening our future

human-induced climate changes and

overpopulation

are resulting in interconnected patterns

of change

steep declines in biodiversity and many

other factors

we read about them scientists tell us

about them

almost every day clearly for me

personally for me it speaks

that we collectively we as a

general human population but also we as

gis users

are collectively responsible for its

future

and it could go many ways

creating a sustainable future which i

believe is possible

will require that we dramatically change

our priorities

i believe in this strongly about making

a major commitment

to life and our future

and we must act now in order to achieve

this

there are many things to do like

restoring nature

improving business efficiencies reducing

pollution

consuming less implementing sustainable

land use patterns and many many more

applying our best science and our best

technology and our best creative

thinking

will clearly be necessary and i can't

help but

think and know that geographic thinking

is going to be essential in this

sustainability requires that we see the

world as one single

ecosystem geography the science of our

world provides the science and

the language to be able to do this it

helps us

organize and integrate all the factors

environmental factors

like biodiversity and ecosystem services

and integrate them with economic systems

spatially

seeing their connections it allows us to

integrate them with social factors and

the maps that you shared that i shared

about your work a few minutes ago

are the evidence of this it not only

organizes and integrates all the factors

it also illuminates patterns and

relationships

and helps us discover things it provides

us a framework for

understanding and applying our knowledge

i like to call this the geographic

approach

the geographic approach is a way of

thinking and problem solving

that integrates geographic science and

information

into how we understand and manage our

planet

and mario palmer would clearly

understand that

it's a holistic approach it brings

sciences together

it's integrated it supports and is

enriched by

spatial understanding and it is

also collaborative the idea is

supporting multiple

objective solution creating inclusive

and multi-disciplinary in its nature

and the great hope the great vision

is that this will impact virtually every

sector of our society going forward

this approach integrates and supports

powerful methodologies familiar to many

of you here in the audience

geoanalytics creating insights and

understanding

geo-visualization a language like

through maps and visualization

for communicating the content of our

world and the context of our world

geo design designing sustainable and

inclusive

futures dual collaboration engaging all

the stakeholders on geo accounting

being able to account for all the

factors

setting up measures that are not just

economic driven but

are driven in a mixed way balanced way

and this geoscience and understanding

can support

our future it can support our planning

our decision making

our engineering our operations how we

manage our individual organizations

and how we manage the world these are

all critical

and i appreciate the good work that you

are already doing

clearly gis enables the geographic

approach

the very tools that you use for

measuring and

and visualizing and analyzing and making

predictions

doing planning making decision makings

all that work that you do

is a kind of framework and a process for

applying

geographic knowledge this integrative

knowledge widely

and as i already said you're already

doing this

you are applying the geographic approach

and creating

so many solutions for a sustainable

future

you are protecting biodiversity you are

reducing the use of

precious resources you're optimizing

logistics

you're managing sustainable agriculture

and forests the examples from

for example the great coffee growers are

proof of this however

clearly we need to scale up our

collective efforts

exponentially

just technology can help us it's not the

only thing but it can help us

and it is advancing rapidly it's

integrating many

new innovations helping us reach this

kind of scale

this will be essential things like cloud

computing

advanced analytics the integration of

imagery and remote sensing

interactive mapping 3d visualization

remote sensing is just a piece of it but

it's a major and significant part

opening up

access to this through the multitude of

apps all of this will help us

scale up our collective efforts

gis is also increasingly becoming

interconnected

creating what i like to refer to as

geospatial infrastructure

we're connecting our systems and this in

turn

is helping us collaborate it's helping

us

share it's transforming workflows and

decision-making

at many scales geospatial infrastructure

actually is and i'm seeing this alive

in different organizations like

louisville for example

it's actually transforming organizations

it's creating a whole new

kind of intelligent infrastructure not

just digital infrastructure

not just water infrastructure sewer

infrastructure or

road infrastructure it's creating a new

a new kind of infrastructure for

organizing

and making distributed data that we

collect

available as a basis for this

it's shared geospatial services

organized through

portals for discovery and access by apps

apps that now support all types of users

this is an exciting time because this

infrastructure and i'm watching it

closely and so are you

is expanding really quickly it's

supporting not only

local applications shared information

and so on but also

global applications with millions of

users and ten

tens of millions of shared data sets and

services

that are being made available in this

way it's making billions of maps every

day

and these billions of maps are reaching

millions of people

they're changing how they think it's

creating a whole new kind of global

information system you've heard me

before

talk about a nervous system for our

planet

my sense is this infrastructure is

creating a nervous system for

sustainability

i'd like to talk about some of the

details of this nervous system

first geospatial infrastructure is

integrating all kinds of data

it can now integrate all types of of

tabular data and map data and imagery

data

it can integrate real-time data and

abstract them into these

web maps and layers and scenes that

we're finding so

dramatically useful so that apps of many

types can use them

geospatial infrastructure delivers

powerful apps not just for gis users in

desktops and so on

but these apps are going to scale with

massive mobile deployments

for collecting data and also

disseminating data

and also the pervasiveness of web apps

is just

unbelievable literally trillions of maps

being looked at

around the world and my big hope is that

this will continue to expand

as it has in the last couple of years

enveloping

and bringing us together as a society

some more details this geospatial

environment these geospatial

capabilities are becoming embedded

in other large it enterprise systems

our colleagues and other companies like

microsoft and ibm and salesforce

and amazon and on and on autodesk are

putting

maps and geospatial information into

their apps and that is in turn changing

how they do engineering and crm

and yeah well you can just look at it

it's

it's really integrating geospatial

thinking and geographic thinking

into the apps that non-gis professionals

use across the organizations

and complementing this is the enrichment

that's happening as a result of advanced

gis analytics

this is allowing us to see new things

create new insights with predictive

modeling or

the ability to analyze spatial temporal

information together

the ingestion of real-time information

and the

simple tools to be able to interactively

do visual

spatial analytics these are powerful and

then enriching it further is geoai

machine learning and so on and the

ability now to

store imagery in the cloud and perform

advanced raster analytics

and finally big data the ability to

integrate

and pull on and create understanding

from these massive data sets

i want to talk about a couple of these

big data integration is going to open

our eyes

it's going to let us see new things

relationships we never understood before

the ability to access these massive data

collections

from transactional systems and imagery

and link them to the very same tools

that you are using

will create new forms of understanding

imagery and remote sensing is one

category of that big data

and it is enriching gis as we already

saw

in the examples that you shared all the

way from

simple image base maps for thematic

underlays

to oriented imagery

integration of motion imagery dynamic

image processing

point cloud visualization and as i

mentioned before geo ai

and machine learning which is allowing

us to pull off the image

feature information that enriches our

gis

all of this imagery data is increasingly

being

used in raster analytics and modeling

and increasingly that's being put into

the cloud

we'll talk more about that together

bringing

all of these sources of data together

and being able to

integrate into your work these timely

timeless

information sets many of you are

implementing

this concept of geospatial hubs and

engaging with other communities

this trend and the technology associated

with it

first started with engaging citizens and

cities

it's all about organizing initiatives

and then organizing the teams and

organizing their activities

but this is now especially in the last

year expanded to organizing professional

relationships between users of different

types

this is this technology and the

organizational

strength of the people behind it is

fostering many to

new types of geo collaboration and i

love that concept because it's essential

to make the concepts of geospatial

infrastructure

work i'll summarize what i've been

talking about

our world is being challenged on many

fronts

and we will increasingly need to be

responsible for its future part of this

presentation is about getting us

even conscious about it among ourselves

the geographic approach and geospatial

infrastructure this rapidly

expanding new pattern is going to

provide us with the science

and also the practical means the

essential means to be able to make this

uh work but they're not going to be

enough

you you and your work are going to be

essential

providing leadership in your own

organization

carrying out problem solving the kind of

things you already do

but thinking larger thinking

holistically

my place in my organization my

organization's place

in the world promoting our best tools

and methods

and thinking being able to communicate

clearly and effectively

and most of all collaborating with other

kinds of organizations

exchanging ideas which i really wish we

could be doing

here together physically this is this

informal

communication is so very important

also for me personally i feel like i'm

all in i'm going all in and i really

want to encourage you to go all in

act with urgency these are the times

where we really have to get it together

and move at many different scales

you