The geographic approach refers to using geographic science supported by GIS as a framework for understanding our world and applying geographic knowledge to solve problems and guide human behavior.
Understanding our World
Geography is the science of our world, describing the physical and cultural patterns and processes of our planet. This science provides humans with awareness of what's going on, predictions of what may happen, and systematic information for planning and decision making.
Geography helps us better understand various spatial phenomena and their interrelationships, for example, the relationships between land use change, surficial hydrology, flooding, biodiversity, etc. These understandings are helping society become more conscious and aware of the interrelatedness of our world and how our cumulative behavior is affecting the evolution of the planet.
Today GIS is extending the power of geography by providing digital tools that abstract and organize geospatial data, model geographic processes, and visualize these data and models with advanced computer techniques.
Applying Geographic Knowledge
GIS is helping us apply geographic knowledge to a host of problems, ranging from making organizations more efficient to supporting location decisions that require examining many geographic factors.
For example, when selecting the route for a new highway, GIS and the geographic approach can be used to consider the physical and human factors that should guide its layout and design: the environment, existing land use, terrain, and social impacts, as well as engineering constraints and costs.
Considering all these factors can be overwhelming, particularly when trying to make complex tradeoffs. This is where the use of geographic information systems is particularly valuable.
Origins
A key method of the geographic approach involves integrating many factors on a map and interpreting their meaning in a holistic way by means of map overlay. This classical method was popularized by Ian McHarg in his book Design with Nature in the 60's.
The advent of GIS allowed planners to replace plastic overlay maps with digital overlays that could be integrated and modeled using various quantitative spatial analysis tools. These weighted overlays combine the various factors of importance based on scientific or human judgments related to a particular decision. An example might be a map showing the relative suitability of a landscape for locating a new facility or land use.
Today, biologists use this type of approach for modeling the geography of natural habitats. Similarly, hydrologists model flooding and flood risks, sociologists model neighborhoods and social behavior, and land use planners regularly combine these types of models to better understand how to design strategies for creating the future.
This approach is being used in many other fields: by the military for cross country mobility; by resource planners for forest management, mining, and petroleum extraction; and by city planners in organizing and managing urban growth. It's being used in disaster preparedness planning and response to fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods. This approach is helping organizations provide humanitarian assistance during famines and social conflicts. Utilities are applying the geographic approach to planning, engineering, and managing infrastructure networks, and businesses use it to select the best locations, market their products, manage territories, efficiently route vehicles, and make their business more efficient. All these applications deliver huge benefits to organizations and to the rest of us.
Societal Consequences
While there are clearly many direct benefits, the use of the geographic approach goes far beyond specific applications. It is already having profound effects on how we think about and understand the world, how we analyze and make decisions, our methods for evaluating choices, the way we educate our young people, how we communicate with others, our management style, and how we behave toward our environment.
The Road Ahead
Yet, with all that has been accomplished, this approach has only been possible for the last few decades, so the process of applying geographic knowledge to the full range of human problem solving is just beginning.
Perhaps the most challenging application will be understanding and managing global change. Our world is changing rapidly. Continuing population growth, urbanization, consumption of natural resources, climate change, and disappearing biodiversity all make for a challenging future.
What is clearly necessary is a new approach, one that considers not just economic and political factors but also the ecological infrastructure that underpins our life support systems.
Some suggest that we need to change how we live in our environment: reduce energy usage, cut CO2 emissions, protect/restore natural areas, reduce our consumption, and stop polluting. As valuable as these individual activities are, it is clear that the world also needs a systematic and comprehensive framework – an approach for understanding and managing human activities in the context of the environment. This approach needs to consider all the necessary factors for creating and maintaining a sustainable world.
Geographic science supported by GIS technology provides just such a powerful approach. It provides a new context for thinking and behaving, and for designing and creating solutions for our future . . . the geographic approach.
Evolving Technologies
Today, with the introduction of GIS Web services in open Internet environments, it is becoming easier for anyone to access and work with geospatial information. As these technologies evolve they will facilitate broader and richer applications of geographic information and the geographic approach.
GIS Professionals will be Required
Despite its great success, the widespread application of the geographic approach will not happen automatically. It will require continual dedication to building and maintaining GIS infrastructure (quality databases, strong Web applications, and all the related workflows). In addition, we will need to foster open sharing of information and new forms of cooperation and collaboration.
Clearly, GIS professionals will play an important role in making this vision a reality.
—Jack Dangermond, ESRI President
