Collaboration on GIS Applied to Climate Action

Keywords: GIS, climate, sustainability, action
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 47

Abstract

Esri proposes a new opportunity for serious collaboration in the area of climate action. This includes related topics of sustainability, climate justice, environmental science, and other fields of interest aligned with helping to save our planet with the non-exclusive use of GIS and related geotechnologies. Esri has for more than 25 years supported thousands of universities around the world to teach about and with GIS, and with GIS-related research and GIS related campus planning and operations. The GIS application areas at these universities and research agencies has been very diverse, from geography to public health, business, and even dance (The Ohio State University). Student projects utilizing GIS have covered almost any imaginable subject having a geospatial component, so much so that now we ask if perhaps it is a moment to regroup, do some collective brainstorming, and focus ourselves a bit more on climate-related studies before "it is too late". This paper outlines steps that Esri is taking help people to take positive action on climate and sustainability related matters. This involves completing the geographical inquiry cycle, and not just visualizing our geographical results (often a map) but also moving to take action in the world with these results. Esri can contribute in several concrete ways and we seek community feedback about ways in which the geography community would like to collaborate.