A Geospatial Approach to Quantifying Ecosystem Performance in Urban Design

Design is driving engineering to a biophilic approach and engineering is driving design to high performance metrics, the nexus creates a dynamic and ecologically rich fabric that indicates there has to be an integration of technologies in order to provide rigorously engineered ecosystem services. Our cities are underperforming as passive objects, and climate change is underscoring our need to understand these urban environments better. By shifting our perception of the built realm and treating it as a geomorphological skin, we can design to enhance ecological performance and promote more resilient communities. This can be achieved through the hybridization of software tools to elucidate how these spaces respond to alternative designs in various contexts, and to create a more nuanced and scalable process for data analysis. This is important because every city is different, and no single solution can be applied universally, due to the unique spatial and material composition of each city which in turn influences distinct site-specific patterns. By leveraging geospatial technology and data to facilitate evaluation-based design, we can elevate the planning and design process by quantifying environmental performance metrics, enabling complex analysis, enhancing visualization of data, and optimizing solutions across multiple scales. This is essential if we are to reduce the consumption of energy and water, reduce the emission of carbon and waste, and promote ecology and public health. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow us on Social Media! Twitter: https://twitter.com/Esri Facebook: https://facebook.com/EsriGIS LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/esri Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/esrigram The Science of Where: http://www.esri.com