Foreword The Geographic Approach to Good Governance Nations strive every day to ensure that their communities are prosperous, secure, and resilient. Achieving these attributes requires collaboration between local, state, tribal, and federal jurisdictions, with a knowledge that all issues happen somewhere. Using the common denominator of location, governments rely on the power of geographic information system (GIS) technology to understand the contexts and drive economic, societal, and environmental improvements. GIS integrates knowledge from within, across, and among government partners to map the dimensions of every challenge. Maps, and the stories they tell, raise awareness and guide evidence-informed decision-making. Together, GIS and maps help to reveal patterns and trends, model scenarios, and craft place-based solutions. The geographic approach creates good governance. GIS helps agencies and organizations understand enterprise data in its real-world context. GIS uncovers the needs and proclivities of people with economic and demographic data. Community development can be analyzed for impacts. Ecosystems can be modeled to preserve or restore critical habitats. Department operations, such as managing a fleet of vehicles or a group of people working in the field, can be monitored to find efficiencies and ensure their safety and security. Networks can be optimized, including electricity, water, and transportation. Disaster response can be coordinated with real-time maps that display activities. This story collection, Mapping the Nation: Guiding Good Governance, documents how thinking geographically guides important governing decisions. New Patterns of Data Sharing The ultimate awareness that GIS can provide governments is called a digital twin. This combination of reality capture and real-time data inputs shows what’s happening, forecasts what might happen, and models scenarios to mitigate risk. With a GIS-powered digital twin, we gain new insight into how every part of a system interacts with and affects the others. The Key Bridge Collapse story describes the creation of a digital twin to coordinate the response to a tragic and complex cargo ship collision that cut off the busy Port of Baltimore. A constantly updated map, including a detailed 3D web scene of the bridge pieces, kept everyone informed of progress. The data fed purpose-built apps for use by specialists across federal, state, and local governments. The digital twin eliminated siloed information and broadened interdisciplinary collaboration. Connections between GIS portals gave each agency control of their own data and access to data from collaborators. This pattern of data sharing was new to these agencies, and it has been repeated in subsequent hurricane responses. As Lt. Commander Ian Hanna, lead of the Coast Guard’s Response GIS Support Team, said: “This is the way we should be doing business. Instead of exchanging things like memory sticks or email attachments, we can connect. It makes it so much faster and more efficient. Everybody could use the data for their mission and be aware of what was happening.” Empowering Transformation Over the nearly 60 years of GIS use in government, it has guided waves of digital transformations at agencies and organizations that understand the power of geography. I am continuously amazed by how governments are applying GIS and how its use measurably improves their own organizations and the communities they serve. Fundamentally, it facilitates more informed conversations and tighter collaboration, with full transparency that eliminates duplication of effort. Using GIS, professionals advance science, make communities more livable and efficient, improve public safety, secure nations, protect natural spaces, enhance human health, and mitigate conflicts. Good governance starts with geography. Now is the time to work together to strengthen our nation and create the world we all want to see. Warm regards, Jack Dangermond 7
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