Detailed Agenda

GIS was integral to a urban masterplanning project aimed at enhancing green spaces. The project unified open and client data into a geodatabase and web maps for multidisciplinary collaboration. Field apps enabled data collection on key metrics, informing heatmaps via multicriteria analysis to guide sustainable urban planning.

This research presents a Geodesign-based approach to developing ecological strategies for restoring vanished resacas in the Lower Rio Grande region of TX. The strategies address water quality and quantity issues in Mercedes, an under-resourced, largely Hispanic city. Flood control and agriculture have degraded natural levees, reducing biodiversity and causing pollution. Restoring the resacas creates a 344-acre system to improve flood control, purify water, revitalize vacant lots, capturing 1.5M ft³ of stormwater and reducing pollutants.

In this paper, we discuss the ways in which citizen science can be harnessed to assimilate knowledge sources and engage local minority populations in planning. To date, a digital collaborative planning process has only been partially examined in terms of its ability to integrate knowledge sources towards comprehensive planning of distinct minority neighborhoods. By combining local knowledge with big data in urban future planning for Beit Tzafafa, an enclave neighborhood in Jerusalem inhabited by Muslim communities, this study updates previous theoretical approaches. 

Tourism is one of the world’s fastest-growing industries. In ecologically and culturally sensitive destinations like Three Rivers, California, tourism presents both opportunities and challenges.  As a gateway to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, the town experiences an influx of visitors that strains its limited infrastructure, disrupts local communities, and threatens its fragile environment. Unregulated short-term rentals exacerbate housing shortages and the lack of a unified community voice hampers the town's ability to implement sustainable tourism strategies.