Page 9 - Mapping the Nation: Taking Climate Action

Introduction Applying GIS to Climate Action Climate action requires balancing the impact of climate change on the built world and the environment. GIS is well poised to address both domains as users of the technology have long applied it to analyzing urban and environmental problems. A modern GIS facilitates combining data collection, analysis, and sharing to achieve coordinated operational intelligence. With these tools, organizations gain an edge on complicated challenges because they can see trouble coming and manage decisively to avoid it. For cities, regions, and nations, these tools provide awareness through maps and dashboards to ensure that everyone can participate in community and ecosystem protection. The climate crisis shows us that nature needs our attention and our best efforts at resolving or mitigating challenges. At Esri®, we like to think of GIS as a geospatial nervous system for the planet, one that can help guide an effort such as climate resilience by empowering organizations to keep the pulse of climate pressures. GIS also provides tools to better manage the natural environment and to design with nature rather than against it. We are committed to helping our users design a better, more sustainable future. And we're confident that the collaborative nature of GIS will foster important connections among and within organizations. Leaders need a tool that provides a visual means to understand the full context of a scenario and the way the context affects—and is affected by—weather events and other changing conditions. They need a technological solution to see what's happening and query across space and time to make crucial resource management decisions, acting proactively rather than reactively. Using GIS technology can help accomplish these interwoven objectives with a suite of tightly integrated tools that can achieve several goals simultaneously. GIS brings data together from disparate sources, with smart maps offering a comprehensive view of what's happening now. Weather reports, incidents, environmental stresses, harm to people, impacts on wildlife—it all comes together to provide full awareness of current conditions and ways to improve them. With access to historical data, you can discover trends and patterns to guide decisions. The global commitment to dramatically cut back on carbon emissions will require new approaches and much more efficient use of water, food, energy, shelter, and mobility. For business and government, this is uncharted territory. GIS manages this level of complexity while bringing visibility to problems and awareness of what it takes to progress toward meeting the sustainability goals that define a resilient city—and nation—for the 21st century, from providing for the essentials to supporting a comfortable and vibrant way of life. The earth's woes are inextricably linked to the sustainability of every living thing, and as such, nature must be a key consideration in the choices we make going forward. As organizations around the world working with complex problems already know, GIS fosters a ground truth, a common operating picture for everyone involved in solving a problem. In the context of climate change, we can use GIS to sort priorities. Now is a time for organizations and leaders to be bold, to face the environmental harm of our globalized economies. Intensifying storms and resource scarcity require action now. And although we may wring our hands because it's difficult to know where to act first, GIS can show us where the needs are greatest while also rallying people and resources to take quick and decisive action. Every challenge presents an opportunity. And the climate crisis provides a promising time for business and government to lean in and try new approaches, using the best technology to innovate and show how progress on this existential threat is possible. 8