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“What is spatial design, and how can it be applied to sustainability problems?”

This week we attempt to answer the question - "What is spatial design, and how can it be applied to sustainability problems?"

This column is sponsored by ESRI.

Spatial design is a new term that defines the relationship of people to environments through the use and application of design principles and is specifically oriented toward space-location. Architects, urban planning professionals and economic development personnel have traditionally understood this relationship, although today we consider this relationship in an extended manner such that it includes and understanding of the relationship of sustainability principles across the design processes. Geospatial technologies and geoinformation are tools and data useful for the practice of this emerging area of study, whose foundation and future appears to lie in integration, the notion of holistic study and new approaches.

GIS, GPS, remote sensing, surveying tools and other technologies enable the underlying processes supporting sustainable systems to be measured, calculated and analyzed - spatially.  There are no other tools that can do this as effectively as these can. Furthermore, they integrate processes in such a manner that the relationships (design processes) can be altered, manipulated and managed, thereby providing further creative possibilities.

Auckland University of Technology says, "Spatial Design involves the study and research of relationships between people and their environments to enable the design and manipulation of spaces that respond in a progressive manner to the nature of these relationships." At Kingston University in London, the course Design MA indicates, "In a climate of rapidly developing technology and changeable cultural, political and economic attitudes, this course provides the opportunity to pursue an active role in designing the future landscape of our everyday environment."  The article Design for All and Sustainable Development notes, "The Swedish government has decided that the terms meaning will permeate all public sector projects in architecture and design. The official statement says that: Design for All can be regarded as a guiding principle, which means that during all planning and design of products, buildings, environments, and IT services, consideration will be paid to accessibility and useability for all individuals as far as this is possible."

The notion of design and spatial (space)
As mentioned above, the notion that people, design and environments all connect together is the primary idea behind spatial design.  It denotes an active response toward the creation of efficiently operating environments that serve the purposes and needs of people.

The geospatial industry has been coming at spatial design for a long time, although it has not identified the relationship using such a specific term.  Can we argue that geographic information systems (GIS), surveying technologies and computer aided design (CAD) software have not been used directly to design and plan environments, previously? I think not. But on the same note we have not identified geospatial within a sustainability framework so tightly, succinctly and directly as the term implies.

If you have listened to ESRI Founder and President Jack Dangermond over the last few years you will have heard him use the term 'Geographic Approach'.  Fundamentally, he is talking about the relationship of people to environment, but Dangermond adds the angle of 'geography' thereby elevating the perspective to spatial design - the use of spatial design tools for the development of environments and communities that serve people sustainably. I sat with Dangermond in London recently as he described ArcSketch, a free product add-on for ArcGIS software. I asked him what was so unique about the product. He pointed to the freedom to design spatially. "Designer's sketch when they design," he said. The idea he was underlining was that the design process, in its freedom, could be captured in spatial tools for later use. Users could focus on creation and not technology through this process.

It is a different matter to consider spatial design as location alone as compared to design on terms that an architect would think of it. Most architects like to focus on the creative element of the process, whereas the location aspect relates more closely to the technology aspects.

Spatial design and sustainability
The relationship of spatial design to sustainability is interesting. It is the future, I think, and I've attempted to write about it from a number of aspects on this blog over time. Geospatial technologies are the tools that enable sustainability to be understood and decisions relating to governance to be established.

GIS, GPS, remote sensing, surveying tools and other technologies enable the underlying processes supporting sustainable systems to be measured, calculated and analyzed - spatially.  There are no other tools that can do this as effectively as these can. Furthermore, they integrate processes in such a manner that the relationships (design processes) can be altered, manipulated and managed, thereby providing further creative possibilities. The coupling of geospatial tools into the spatial design, as currently defined, is not yet fully exploited. It is very much at the infancy stage, although IT systems and processes have realised they can increase efficiency through the use of these tools.

Spatial design and data
There are huge gains to be realised through the use of designing processes based on quality data and approaches that integrate information efficiently. In terms of sustainability issues, one might argue that more holistic methods for reviewing environmental processes, particularly those connected to human influence, are needed.

Our industry has placed considerable time and effort into interoperability, for example, thereby enabling disparate systems to integrate information. This capability has then been used to further enable spatial design processes in areas such as urban planning, transportation, utility / infrastructure and business geographics.

We don't often talk about quality data and technology and their relationship to design. But we should. The practicality and efficiency of specific designs might only be assessed (accessible) through the use of high quality information and tools. What we don't know can harm us. What we do know, we can manage.

CAD / GIS integration and spatial design
The integration of CAD / GIS is often viewed as a technology issue alone. This is unfortunate because the real power behind this integration lies in the fact that it enables spatial analysis as a connection to the design process. This is why coordinate systems and geo-referenced interiors and exteriors are vital to the understanding and design of more sustainable environments.

This relation of technologies is highly complimentary. But we might also ask ourselves if other tighter connections to technologies in surveying, remote sensing and so on are possible. While remote sensing has increasingly moved toward the analysis function and processes associated with CAD / GIS, can we say the same for surveyor's? Why haven't surveyor's seemed to articulate a sustainability message through the application of their tools and geoinformation that remote sensing professionals have? These are avenues that ought to be explored further.

For the moment, automated processes are connecting remote sensing to the tools of GIS and CAD. This relationship is closing a loop, enabling the understanding and development of sustainable systems, planning and decision making.

Infrastructure appears poised to reap the benefits of the next wave of spatial design development. We in the geospatial community ought to be planning to inject, embed and develop approaches for the use and application of the spatial designs that will lead us further into the 21st century.

Our role is clearly before us.

V1 Magazine - "Spatial Design for a Sustainable Tomorrow"

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Read what Matt Ball has to say on this topic here.

Further reading:

Design for All and Sustainable Development

Auckland Univeristy of Technology

Towards a “Leonardo da Vinci approach” of GIS for Spatial Design

Effective Infrastructure is Efficient

GIS for Building and Infrastructure

As Scientists Contemplate Geo-engineering, How Do Geospatial Technologies Assist in Assessing Feasibility?

Communication Design MA

Related Posts

1. Australia: Thesis — The Integration of Multi-source Spatial Datasets in the Context of SDI Initiatives
2. Spatial Tools: Software for Sustainability
3. Sweden — Not Just Sustainability, But Solving the Problems for Next Generation
4. Editorial: Putting Your Finger on the Spatial Pulse of Design
5. The Sustainable Design Path and ROI
6. GIS by Design
7. Land Management and Sustainability: Communication Tools
8. Green to high-tech building
9. 3D Processing and Visualization: Design by Standardization
10. Learning Sustainability

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