I interviewed Dr. Robin D. Smith, ESRI’s new environmental industry manager, about the role of GIS in solving environmental problems. Below is an excerpt from the interview that neatly summarizes the clarity that the toolset brings to complex problems.
“I think it is my mission and the mission of ESRI, to bring a system orientation to problems. It’s looking at the system in its entirety and figuring out the variables and helping those people who are deciding about making change to do those things most efficiently, in a most informed fashion.
I really look at these things objectively, it becomes an issue of workflow, it’s process and it’s systems. Drawing on my background in evolutionary ecology, there’s no one thing that resides by itself in any system, as much as we like to try and isolate things. As much as we can, we need to look at the system and the processes within the system, and variables within the system, in order mitigate negative impacts and to promote the health of that system.
GIS is the approach that can organize and clearly display all of the aspects of these complex systems. When you can visualize something, see it for yourself, then your ability to analyze and comprehend is so much more rapid and full. You then have the ability to make decisions quickly, cost-effectively, and based on a very sustainable approach.”
Read the full interview here.
