These traditional atlases have served us well for many hundreds of years.  But today, the world is changing rapidly, and it’s difficult for traditional atlases to keep up with the pace of that change.  To help us keep pace with our evolving planet, our concept of what exactly constitutes an atlas must also evolve.

The pages of traditional atlases have served us well for many years, but a new approach is evolving.

At Esri, we strive to communicate the value of geospatial technology; that this technology matters, and that it can be used to make a difference.  Technology is one of those things that is changing rapidly in our world today, and many individual pieces of advancing technology are clustering and converging together to create a new platform for understanding.  We can leverage these advances to integrate geographic knowledge and apply it to solve the difficult problems the world is facing, and in doing so evolve our definition of an atlas to something that’s more relevant to our needs today.

A New Kind of Atlas

Geography is a science that helps us understand our world, and GIS is a technology that makes geography come alive, providing a framework for that understanding.  GIS is the enabling technology for an idea that Esri president Jack Dangermond has called a “Living Atlas of the World.” It’s a new vision for the concept of an atlas: a global gathering place for integrating and applying dynamic knowledge about our planet and sharing it with everyone.

The Living Atlas of the World leverages recent advances in computing and communications technologies to build an atlas that anyone can contribute to, can cover any geographic extent, and is available to everyone.  The thematic information available within this virtual atlas is dynamic; it’s not stored in one centralized, static database—it’s live, linked to and feeding in from multiple sources across the web and across the world in real time.

Story maps can incorporate text, multimedia, and interactive functions to inform, educate, entertain, and inspire people about a wide variety of topics.

The geographic extent covered by the Living Atlas of the World can vary from your own backyard to the entire world.  The online, interactive, multimedia nature of this new kind of atlas also makes it possible to integrate and display new types of information not possible in the traditional atlas paradigm. The geographic knowledge it contains knows no bounds, and includes more traditional themes such as geology, vegetation, and land use, as well as more dynamic, real-time information like weather, traffic, and sensor data.  We’re even working with our partners to get live satellite imagery coming in to the system just seconds after it has been captured.  All of this and more makes the first Living Atlas of the World an exciting new mapping environment that gives everyone the ability to visualize the world around them in unprecedented depth and detail, and to do it all in real time.

ArcGIS Online, Community Maps, and Story Maps

GIS technology is a strong enabler of the vision of a Living Atlas of the World, but GIS is only a part of the overall solution.  New types and sources of geographic content, and new ways of sharing them, play a big role in the realization of this vision.

ArcGIS Online—the common platform that you can use to create interactive maps and apps and share them with the rest of your organization or the world—acts as the foundation of this new kind of atlas. Esri is also investing heavily in building basemaps and thematic layers that make ArcGIS Online instantly usable, and the content for this platform is growing very rapidly. We now provide multiple basemap options, and we recently added DigitalGlobe and GeoEye imagery for the entire world. Hundreds of thematic layers of information are now available.

Another rich source of content for this new atlas is the Esri user community. We call this program Community Maps. It’s a place where people can share their geographic information with the world, like they might share their photos on Flickr. Our vast user community is helping us build these maps, and they are also supplying hundreds of thousands of related content layers.

Esri’s Community Maps program lets you share your map data with the world.

Another important element that separates atlases from simple maps is that most atlases tell stories. A new framework for organizing and sharing geospatial information in the form of stories, called story maps, is taking this idea to the next logical step.  Story maps can take you from globe to street corner in seconds; they can dynamically show change over time; they can organize and present charts, graphs, photos, and video. With the sweep of a fingertip across a tablet, map users can compare one theme with another, ask questions of maps, add their own information to maps, and cast votes on maps. Almost anyone can put their own and shared data into a story map to communicate a specific message in a manner that is engaging and compelling.

All of this and more taken together constitutes a dynamic, comprehensive, and rapidly evolving ecosystem of geographic tools and data that enable the Living Atlas of the World.

A New Atlas for a New Planet

This concept of a Living Atlas is not only changing the way we look at the world, but it is also changing the way we interact with it.  Everyone—from planners to designers, architects, scientists, politicians, businesses, non-profits, and even the general public—now has access to an increasingly diverse and deep collection of knowledge about the planet as well as to the tools to make sense of and use this information.

This new concept of a world atlas is open, shared, and universally accessible.  While connecting people and leveraging their information in a kind of global synergy, it provides us with a completely new way to look at the science of our planet.  And as we evolve the atlas from a platform primarily focused on mapping and visualization towards a platform supporting spatial analytics, it will provide everyone with the tools and data they need to become more actively engaged in designing and building the planet which will be our future home.

The Living Atlas of the World is your atlas.  Contribute your geographic knowledge to this new ecosystem, and use the vast library of knowledge it contains to address the issues facing your neighborhood, your organization, and your world.  Use it to make the world a better place.

More Information

• ArcGIS Online
• Community Maps Program
• Story Maps

When they can least afford it, many seniors are also carrying mortgages and credit card debt. Others have made loans to adult children that have not yet been repaid. AARP comments that 34% of older Americans have used credit cards for basic expenses such as mortgage payments, healthcare, groceries, and utilities. As a result, their average household credit card debt stands at approximately $8,248.

What percentage of the US population is currently of traditional retirement age? According to Census 2010, the number of people aged 65 and older jumped 15.1 percent between 2000 and 2010, and they now comprise 13 percent of the total US population.

Percentage of US population age 55 plus.

Face the Facts USA notes that four in 10 Americans aged 55 and older are still working. This is the highest percentage of people aged 55-plus in the workforce in more than half a century. Longer life expectancy, better health, and more women in the workforce are all factors contributing to this change. Other reasons for postponing retirement include concerns about assets lost during the Great Recession; access to healthcare before being eligible for Medicare; a desire to contribute to society; enjoyment of one’s job; staying busy; and earning extra money. Over the years, the US economy has shifted from heavy industrial manufacturing jobs to less physically taxing service occupations, enabling more seniors to work longer.

What do these changes in the workforce and retirement plans mean to the overall economy? They provide both challenges and opportunities for companies and governments. For example, some cash-strapped seniors have given up their homes and moved in with their adult children. An increase of multi-generational households creates opportunities for a variety of businesses including construction companies, home remodelers, home improvement stores, and handyman franchises.

In this new social landscape, local governments may have to provide health services to unemployed, uninsured seniors who are not yet eligible for Medicare. Hospitals, emergency rooms, and urgent care clinics will feel the pinch of caring for those who are unable to pay. On the other hand, business opportunities will grow as many seniors prefer to age in place and will require additional services, such as home health aides, delivery of medical supplies and groceries, or help with household bills. Insurance policies tailored for seniors can tap into this important consumer market.

Where can you find seniors in the US? They’re everywhere! Learn more about the US senior population with Esri’s 2012/2017 Updated Demographics.

A number of new technologies are combining to enable the real time collection of data, and the sharing of that data in real time with GIS. The result is a dynamic platform which enables real time visualization, analysis, and understanding of our world. This is the new age of real-time GIS.

Some of the new technologies enabling real-time GIS include:

• GeoEvent Processor is a new ArcGIS for Server extension. It gives users the ability to connect to real-time data streams from a wide variety of sensors, perform continuous processing and analysis of those data streams, and send relevant information to users or other systems.
• Geofencing is the creation of a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area. In the case of GeoEvent Processor, the GIS server is detecting and using geofences to issue an alert when a mobile device approaches, enters, and leaves the geofenced area (which can be based on any map feature).  GeoTrigger technology will let developers build geofences into their apps that can be triggered based on time of day, speed, or position. This technology will be available as part of developers’ ArcGIS Online subscriptions in the second quarter of 2013.

GeoEvent Processor for Server makes it possible to use GIS features as geofences and create geofences on the fly.

• Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS provides a common operating picture for monitoring events. Operations Dashboard integrates maps and a variety of data sources to create comprehensive operational views that can include charts, lists, gauges, and indicators which update automatically as underlying data changes.
• Collector for ArcGIS is designed with field crews in mind, and is used to capture and update both tabular and spatial information via smartphones using the built-in GPS capabilities of the device, or by tapping on the map. Data captured using Collector can be displayed in the Operations Dashboard.
• Mapping social media data provides insight into what people are saying and where they are saying it. Social Media Mapping apps let you display in real time what people are saying through location-based social media such as Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Esri is also busy adding new features to ArcGIS Online such as Real-Time Data Services, support for GeoRSS Feeds, and more, and we are working with our imagery partners to enable the delivery of Real-Time Imagery in to ArcGIS Online just seconds after it has been captured by satellites.

New types and sources of geographic content, and new ways of sharing them, provide people with exciting new capabilities to incorporate dynamic, real-time information into decision making. The result, as Esri president Jack Dangermond likes to call it, is a Living Atlas of the World—a new vision for the concept of an atlas. “It’s a kind of global gathering place for integrating and applying knowledge about our planet and sharing it with everyone—and to do it all in real time,” says Dangermond.

The thematic information available within this virtual atlas is dynamic; it’s not stored in one centralized, static database—“It’s live, linked to and feeding in from multiple sources across the web and across the world in real time,” adds Dangermond. “The Living Atlas of the World is not only changing the way we look at the world, it is also changing the way we interact with it.”

Further Reading:

• ArcGIS Enables Real-Time GIS. ArcNews, Spring 2013.
• Sensor to Service.  ArcUser, Spring 2013.

The man, the myth, the UX legend

Fast forward to today’s keynote speech where Jarred Spool, founder of User Interface Engineering, the largest usability research organization of its kind in the world, brings his wisdom to the big stage. Attendees will take away Spool’s five styles of decision-making to advance their own creations.

Mobile, tablets, and international Esri distributors…oh my

The international distributors gather at the DevSummit to collaborate on ways to extend the ArcGIS platform across all devices in their markets. Joined by Plenary sensation, Pedro Torres, Marketing Director, Esri España

Gotta have your afternoon code snack

One of the RideAmigos, who are pioneering location-based apps to help people travel smarter, takes a moment to refuel from one the over 30 GIS for mobile tech sessions.  This year’s DevSummit includes more than 111 awe inspiring tech sessions for geogeeks, here, there and everywhere.

Dropping native app knowledge

You wanted to know what the latest ArcGIS Runtime SDKs tools are available for your coding enjoyment?  You got it at the morning Plenary session. Catch the latest updates  from Will’s tweet stream.

What could your app do if it knew where it was?

The DevSummit brought it’s own version of madness to the demo theaters as Aaron Parecki from the Esri Portland R&D Center provided a packed house with the latest Esri tools for geocoding and place search, directions and routing, and how to store and query geographic data in feature services for your next app. Which can now all be found on one site, in one place at developers.arcgis.com. Live by the code.

Team Blue Raster in the house

DevSummit Silver sponsor Blue Raster presented both a lightning talk and user presentation before they get down to real business at the dodgeball tournament.  Partnering with the World Resources Institute, Blue Raster has developed an innovative tool to map the health of the southern forests of the United States, showcasing the ArcGIS Server Flex API application.

For your viewing enjoyment

It’s like going to your very own geogeek cinema. Videos of the DevSummit Plenary sessions have been uploaded to the Esri video channel.

The I am GIS card of the day

The ArcGIS 10.2 buzz has everyone all smiles as we head into day two.

And the envelope please…CEDRA receives the 20-year partner award.  Esri is honored to have partners like you.

The Esri partner breakfast is the perfect moment for the GIS community to come together and celebrate your truly amazing work. Plus, there’s pancakes!

The return of the Amazing Mapman and other geogear sparked a shopping frenzy at the spatial outlet.

And yes, introducing the Magnificent Mapgirl!

Apps were hacked and minds were blown during the DevSummit’s epic hackathon.

Geogeeks arrived from near and far to break the new location code. The next wave of geogeek boy bands lands in the desert.

Discovering the latest ArcGIS tricks. A demo a day keeps the geodoc away.

No way? Yes way! You can build apps all day with the new developers.arcgis.com.

A break in the session action is the perfect time to get down to business.

You can’t live on code alone…

Stay tuned for more photo journals throughout the week.

Esri president Jack Dangermond creates a moment of WOW as he presents the ArcGIS platform for the future.

Josh Lewis shares the roadmap for the 2013 Esri partner strategy.

The brightest of the bright geogeeks begin their epic two-day hackathon.

A quick break in the action brings the conversations outside the Plenary. Map talk around every corner.

Linda Hecht answers the question of how every map has a story.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Esri’s partners create plans for taking over the geo world.

Bern Szukalski electrifies the crowd and sets the stage for the ArcGIS platform.

Inside the geogeek command center where the Plenary comes to life.

Scott Morehouse prepares to bring his technological wizardry to the Plenary stage for his update on the ArcGIS platform.

Amber Case makes a few last minute preparations before introducing the latest geolocation tools and unveiling the developers.arcgis.com site.

Who Is GIS lands in Palm Springs. Make sure to get your I am GIS trading card and remember to trade wisely.

Stay tuned for more photo journals throughout the week.

Matt Artz: What is agent-based modeling?

Kevin Johnston: Agent-based modeling (ABM) explicitly models the causality of individuals or objects in time and space. Conceptually, in ABM you give instructions to virtual agents that allow the agents to interact with each other and their environment. Agents can be people, wildlife, tanks, cars, or any discrete object. From the resulting decisions and actions of the agents, patterns are created in time and space. Unlike many other modeling techniques that quantify and then re-create the patterns, agent-based models explore the causes of the patterns; the patterns are emergent properties from the individual decisions of the agents.

Agent Analyst: Agent-Based Modeling in ArcGIS

Matt Artz: What kinds of decisions are aided by agent-based modeling?

Kevin Johnston: Agent-based modeling, combined with spatial data, allows you to address a wide array of problems such as:

• Developing corridor connectivity networks for wildlife movement
• Anticipating potential terrorist attacks
• Analyzing traffic congestion or producing evacuation strategies
• Planning for the potential spread of disease such as bird or swine flu
• Understanding land use change
• Optimizing timber tract cutting
• Exploring energy flow on electrical networks
• Performing crime analysis to deter future impact

Many phenomena or agents exist and make decisions in, and relative to, space. The location of an agent and its surrounding environment will influence the agent’s decision making. The agent can influence or change the landscape it interacts with. GIS is a spatial modeling tool that stores and displays geographic data and analyzes spatial relationships. A natural synergy exists between ABM and GIS.

Matt Artz: How does an agent-based model work?

Kevin Johnston: In its simplest form, an agent-based model works in the following manner: identify the agents and define their actions.

First, the agents need to be identified. As mentioned earlier, agents can be animals, terrorists, land parcels, delivery trucks, weather patterns, or anything that “makes a decision”, performs an action, or changes state. “Making a decision” is being used in the most general meaning: the agent does “this” as opposed to “that.”

Next, the agents act; at each time step they perform an action or no action based on their state and what is occurring around them. An animal agent might run, walk, eat, or sleep. A terrorist might attack. A land parcel might change from agricultural use to residential use.

Time is explicit in the simulation of an agent-based model. Each decision is made in some specified time step. The length of each time step is controlled through a scheduler. The duration for the time step should be determined based on the decision making and characteristics of the agents being modeled. For example, if the model is exploring delivery truck movement, the time step will be much smaller (e.g., every hour), as opposed to possibly using a much longer time interval when modeling the change in land use types based on an economic model.

The main Agent Analyst interface (upper left) for a cougar movement model running within ArcGIS. The Data Source Editor is displayed (lower right) for the male cougar agents. It reflects a cougar GIS shapefile as the data source for male cougar agents, and the fields (the properties) for the agents were derived from the shapefile.

Matt Artz: Can an Esri user create an agent-based model from within ArcGIS using their existing data?

Kevin Johnston: Yes they can, with Agent Analyst, a free, open-source software developed to integrate an ABM development platform—the Recursive Porous Agent Simulation Toolkit (Repast)—with ArcGIS 10.0. Agent Analyst is a mid-level integration that takes advantage of both modeling environments. Repast is used for the creation of the agent rules, object support, and scheduling. ArcGIS is used for data creation, GIS analysis, and display of the simulations. Agent Analyst is implemented as a new model-tool type supported in the ArcGIS geoprocessing environment. As a result, an Agent Analyst model can be used as any model tool in the geoprocessing environment. With Agent Analyst, the model developer can utilize ArcGIS Java objects, allowing the developer to access the full suite of GIS functions and incorporate them into the agent model.

Esri has provided a great deal of support in the development of Agent Analyst, but it’s important to note that Agent Analyst is not an Esri supported product.

Matt Artz: What resources are available for ArcGIS users interested in using Agent Analyst?

Kevin Johnston: Twelve eminent agent-based modeling experts recently collaborated on a step-by-step tutorial style book called Agent Analyst: Agent-Based Modeling in ArcGIS. Each exercise is designed to expose you to different ABM techniques on agents that are associated with different types of spatial features. The book focuses on agents that can be represented as points, polygons, or raster cells and agents on networks, and its structure is based on these agent types. The exercises build upon previous chapters and progressively get more sophisticated. The exercises are placed in the context of application models that include animal movement, housing segregation, land use change, and criminal activity; however, this book is not about creating specific application models.

Matt Artz: Where can people get a copy of your new book?

Kevin Johnston: Agent Analyst: Agent-Based Modeling in ArcGIS and the tutorial data as well as the Agent Analyst software can be downloaded for free from http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/agent-analyst/.

Diversity describes the composition of American households. Husband-wife families remain the dominant household type; however, their share of all households continues to slip—from 52 percent in 2000 to 48 percent in 2010. From 2000 to 2010, the real increase in family households was in single-parent families, up by 22 percent, and multi-generational households, up by 30 percent. Increasing social acceptance of singles adopting children as well as single parents resulting from divorce or having children but never married may account for some of the increase in single-parent families.

Household size tended to increase in areas that gained population from immigration. For example, multi-generational households are part of the tradition in Hispanic and Asian neighborhoods. Parents go out to work while grandparents stay home to care for the little ones. These seniors may be language-isolated with low cultural assimilation rates. The increase of multi-generational households could also be attributed to the Great Recession. Young people have had to move back home when they either lost jobs or couldn’t find employment, or early retirees ran out of money and moved in with their children and grandchildren.

Although non-family, 1-person households are found across the US, higher averages are located along America’s “Bread Basket” and in the lower South. Below average incidences of these households in CA could be due to the high Hispanic population which tends to have larger family households. This map of the US by county clearly illustrates the presence of non-family, 1-person households in the country. Click on the map to see a larger version.

Husband-wife families increased by less than 4 percent in 10 years, and husband-wife families with children declined.  All family households increased by 8 percent during 2000–2010 and non-family households by 16 percent. The fastest-growing non-family households, however, are unmarried partners. At 80 percent, single-person households retain the highest proportion of non-family households; however, the increase was less than 15 percent in the past decade. Non-traditional family types are the fastest growing segments of households.

Average household size changed little from 2000 to 2010—2.59 to 2.58—with no obvious change in 2012.

These demographic changes present challenges—and opportunities—for governments and businesses. For example, Hispanic and Asian populations with traditional large, multi-generational households may require dwellings with architectural features that can accommodate each generation. On the other hand, the need for smaller quarters or more apartments for single-person households provides additional opportunities for developers. Local governments may also be challenged to find housing for these different types of households.

In the consumer product industry sector, the difference in household size provides savvy companies with expanded opportunities to market their products to a wider, more diverse group of consumers. For example, the convenience of prepared, super-sized, or smaller packaging of food products answers the needs of various household sizes. Catering to different ethnic and cultural needs can also add market share by versioning these same products to fit different racial and ethnic populations.

For more information about Esri’s Updated Demographics data, visit www.esri.com/demographicdata.

What do we need for this transformation? We need authoritative data at a variety of scales – local, regional, and national. We need tools that can integrate data from many sources, and bring it together in meaningful ways. We need analytic capabilities that can help us glean every drop of valuable information that we can from these sources, and gain previously hidden insights. And we need ways to enable broader access to our work, foster collaboration among our peers and stakeholders, and facilitate public engagement when needed.

Today, we’re lucky enough that we actually have all these things. And these capabilities are continuing to evolve rapidly.

Recently Bill Meehan, Esri’s director of utility solutions, told me a story about a potential client that he had visited, one not currently using GIS. One of the corporate executives there told Bill about how they were embarking on a large project to meet customer needs and improve efficiency and infrastructure. It was a costly project that would last for years into the future.

Bill asked them a good, and perhaps obvious, question. Were they sure that this would achieve their intended goals? With what I would imagine was just a bit of hesitation they responded “We think so.”

Going beyond “I think”

Geography is a science that we leverage in GIS. It’s the context within which we work. While some degree of uncertainty is sometimes unavoidable, as geospatial professionals we need to do better than “I think” and achieve a deeper understanding. As GIS professionals we believe in, and strive for geographic understanding. We want to turn “I think” into “I know” or “I understand.”

So how do we accomplish this?

GIS – a platform for geographic understanding

Many years ago I worked with ARC/INFO, Esri’s first software package. I sat at my desk in front of an ASCII terminal to type commands at the ARC: prompt, the only way to perform a task. It was software installed on a minicomputer in a back room that long ago vaporized from the Esri campus.

Today, I think of ArcGIS as much more than software. It’s a platform. A platform we can use to turn simple geography and location into something more powerful and meaningful – geographic understanding. We use this platform to discover the how and the why from the where, and to share and communicate that knowledge with others.

What’s a platform in this context? I struggle a bit to define that exactly, but I can identify its characteristics more easily.

• Platforms serve many communities; GIS serves utilities, health care, local government, conservation, public safety, education, business, and many others.
• Platforms can be used by many different people;  professionals, knowledge workers, developers, and information consumers.
• Platforms include applications, data, services, and APIs.
• Platforms can be used by individuals, workgroups, organizations, and even entire governments.
• A platform provides a base upon which developers can build, leveraging core characteristics and components to create unique solutions.
• A platform supports a variety of ways to implement or experience it, in the cloud, on your desktop, via servers, and on mobile devices.

That’s how I think of the ArcGIS platform – a complete  ecosystem that incorporates the many facets mentioned above. We use it to turn geography into geographic understanding, and to share that understanding with others. What’s are challenge after that? Our challenge as GIS professionals and organizations is to turn that understanding into action.

Thus spoke President Barack Obama in his 2nd inaugural address, to the delight of many, if not most in the scientific community. Indeed, there are many societal problems across the world that increasingly revolve around science. These include pollution and waste management, pandemics and biosecurity, access to clean air and clean drinking water, response to and recovery from natural disasters, choices among energy resources (oil and gas versus nuclear versus “alternative”), and the loss of open space in urban areas, as well as biodiversity in rural areas. And yet, there is a tension between the world of science, which is focused on discovery, and the world of policy making, which is focused on decisions.

“We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” said President Barack Obama in his inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 21, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

In the US it does not help that less than 2% of Congress has a professional background in science [Otto, 2011]. Members of Congress are not as interested in science as they are in what science can do for society. They look to the scientific community to give them answers to help them make policy decisions. But the answers they seek are often simpler than the scientific community is able or willing to provide, given the complexity of Earth processes and the persisting gaps in our knowledge and ability to measure certain parameters. Policy makers live in a world that is extremely binary in comparison to scientists (e.g., casting a simple yes or no vote on a bill; a simple yes or no on a decision; standing for elections that are essentially driven by money and value-based issues that get citizens out to cast yes or no votes for or against them). Scientists are also used to communicating in a certain way, using their own specialized language and jargon that is often understood only among their peers. They may also be distrustful of how their results and interpretations may be used (or misused) outside of the traditional academic outlets of scientific journals and meetings. The academic world rewards scientists for participating in these activities, but not necessarily for reaching out to policy makers, the media, and the general public.

And yet, the ramifications of the aforementioned critical societal challenges have become too great. Inaction by our governments on these issues will have dire consequences, and many in the scientific community are realizing that scientists can no longer afford to stand on the sidelines and not speak out beyond the boundaries of academe. What is the “new normal” in terms of the frequency of severe storms [Shepherd and Knox, 2012] and how can we be more adequately prepared; how can we more quickly catalyze solutions for the protection and the good of our societies? Indeed, science is now part of an unavoidable and contentious public discussion on a host of issues, including climate change and public health. Perhaps the clearest example of late is the conviction of six Italian scientists and a government official on multiple charges of manslaughter for failing to adequately communicate the risk of the L’Aquila earthquake that claimed the lives of more than 300 people in April 2009 [Cicerone and Nurse, 2012]. They were sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay a fine equivalent to US$10 million in damages. Goldman [2012] discusses the many complexities of this case, including the important differences between communicating scientific uncertainty and communicating risk.

Indeed, the issue of scientific communication is paramount. Goldman [2012] goes on to state: “In times of crisis–hurricane, earthquake, tsunamis–scientists have a crucial role to play as trusted and sought-after sources of information. They should communicate their science, within their expertise….” I would argue further that both scientists and policy makers need each other now more than ever. The policy maker needs the knowledge of science communicated in a way in which they can take action to solve ever-pressing problems. In fact, scientists today can say not only that we have a problem, but also suggest what can be done about the problem. In turn, the scientist needs the policy maker to help extend his or her research into the realm of practical, useful outcomes that inform relevant, real-world societal issues. The policymaker may also be the one providing the lifeblood of funding that makes the science possible. However, two caveats are important to note:

1. Not every policy maker is going to be concerned with science and not every scientist is going to be concerned with policy; and
2. The role of science in policy should be that of informing policy, not making policy.

Resources for Scientists

The culture of science is changing to the point that there is growing agreement that scientists can and should seek to engage with policy makers, and many have already been called up by policy makers to do so [e.g., Baron 2011]. And increasingly, scientists as communicators are moving into positions of administrative leadership, where they not only continue to engage with society in various ways, but also working to change the culture of academic institutions from within. Many are devoted to developing strategic thinking and science communication outreach skills in their graduate students and young faculty, exposing them to issues not typically covered in the classroom or in research training.

What resources are available to scientists to help them become effective communicators to policy makers, especially in light of the already huge demands on their time?

Special sessions on science communication and science informing policy are now being held regularly at prominent scientific meetings such as the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society, and the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), which hosts 20,000 attendees annually. To wit, the 2012 Fall AGU meeting featured workshops entitled Climate Communication: Tools and Tips and Finding Your Voice: Effective Science Communication. I am co-organizer of a session this week at the AAAS entitled The Beauty and Benefits of Escaping the Ivory Tower, that’s part of a broader theme of exciting sessions on science communication. Along similar lines, scholars from the University of California, Santa Barbara will present a paper this spring at the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting entitled, What Can You Learn About Climate Change by Following the News? Themes and Frames in US News Reports, 1970s to Present.

There are also several excellent programs available, including COMPASS, which supplies scientists with the communication tools needed to effectively bridge the worlds of science, policy, and journalism (and offered the aforementioned “Finding Your Voice…” workshop). One such tool is the “message box,” which aids scientists in effectively distilling the importance of their research to policy makers in terms of what they really need to know, stated in a way that most matters to them. The message box below distills an entire scientific journal article [Patz et al., 2005] on the many effects of climate change on global human health for the benefit of policy makers, with the overarching and powerful message: “A warmer world is a sicker world.”

Message box (after Patz et al. [2005]) aimed at policy makers and focused on climate science.

Message box aimed at a science journalist, and focused on GIS for marine mammal conservation.

Staffers of COMPASS are also regular trainers in the Leopold Leadership Program at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment, which helps outstanding academic environmental researchers gain the tools and connections needed to translate their knowledge into action through engagement with media, government, NGOs, and business. Scientists chosen as fellows receive intensive experiential training and expert consultation in leadership and communication, including practice media interviews and meetings with policy makers in Washington, DC. After completion of the program, the new cohort joins other fellows in the Leopold Leadership Network, a community of academic scientists and former fellows who continue to communicate scientific information about environmental issues to policy makers and other non-scientists. Current fellows include members of the National Academy of Sciences, National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence, TED speakers, and top advisers to the nation via the National Academies of Science or Federal Advisory Committees.

Another effective tool is the Esri “Story Map” which combines the new medium of “intelligent web maps” with text, multimedia content, and intuitive user experiences to inform, educate, entertain, and inspire many audiences about a wide variety of environmental issues, including policy makers. The example below shows a Story Map developed in collaboration with the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the Eye on Earth Network that allows examination of climate model predictions suggesting that Europe’s urban areas will experience more hot days and tropical nights in the period 2071-2100. Clearly this should be of interest to European policy makers. In fact, less than 24 hours after the EEA first posted an initial heat wave risk map on the Eye on Earth website, it received more than 100,000 views.

Story Map coupling climate model predictions of hot days and warms nights with population density throughout Europe. Given that elderly people are particularly vulnerable to climate change, clicking on a map symbol shows what percentage of the population was 65 or older in 2004.

Whither Geospatial?

What are the implications for scientific researchers in the geospatial realm? Scientists are normally concerned with how the Earth works. But the dominating force of humanity on the Earth begs the question of how the Earth should look, especially with regard to landscape architecture, urban planning, land use planning and zoning, and ocean/coastal management. These involve decisions that must be made by policy makers and require the use geospatial data and geographical analysis. And along these lines, geodesign will continue to make an impact in the sustainability world, leveraging geographic information and scientific modeling so that future designs for urban areas, watersheds, protected areas, and the like will more closely follow natural systems and result in less harmful impacts. How should geospatial scientists communicate this to policy makers? Given the challenges that our planet faces, I hope the geospatial community will also ponder and discuss whether communicating with policy makers is now an ethical issue, and if science communication should be made a formal part of geospatial curricula and professional GIS certification.

[Small portions of this article appear in the January 2013 issue of Geospatial World magazine.]

[February 13th update: See this National Academy of Sciences overview of the President's 2013 State of the Union address, where he continued his focus on climate change, energy, and education.]