City Maps for… Fighting Climate Change?
Implementation stories of how global cities are using interactive maps to combat climate change
It was in my second year of studying environmental science at the University of California, Los Angeles when someone recommended that I take a class called Geographic Information Systems (GIS), where you learn how to map things on the computer. I was sceptical, what do maps have to do with solving environmental challenges? As it turns out, quite a lot, and after completing my minor in the subject and years of professional experience, I am still learning exciting new uses, including many applications for facing our multi-generational struggle with fossil fuels and the resulting climate crisis.
How does GIS fit into the grand scheme?
Cities around the world are making bold commitments towards decarbonisation, with many leading global cities and countries pledging to completely decarbonise by 2050 or sooner. Achieving these ambitious and important goals will require transformations of city infrastructure, policy and behaviour. Institutions will make major decisions affecting millions of lives and billions of euros with limited time to do so. GIS is a powerful tool shaping these decisions in a myriad of innovative ways.
GIS is a framework for integrating a variety of types of data with spatial location into visualisations such as maps or 3D models. This allows us to analyse patterns, relationships, and situations to better inform decision making.
On a global scale, GIS has been used to analyse climate change for decades. Interactive maps showing factors such as sea-level rise, deforestation and temperature change have informed scientists and citizens alike about the consequences of carbon emissions and has helped lead to the demand for climate action that exists in many cities today. At the city level, GIS is being used to plan energy infrastructure, implement policy and inspire behavioural changes.
Around the World
UAE
To truly help understand the potential of GIS in planning carbon-neutral cities, consider the case of the United Arab Emirates’ Masdar City, built to be the first-ever, carbon-neutral and zero-waste city. To meet these goals, extensive GIS-informed planning was required. Sun angles, wind patterns, and building shading are all examples of factors that were carefully modelled in GIS software beforehand to maximise efficiency. Data layers included transportation, vegetation, drainage, structures, boundaries, elevation, biodiversity, buildings, and utilities.
The UK
Already existing cities have successfully used GIS to more optimally plan new energy infrastructure as well. For example, modelling solar potential on city rooftops is a common application that is invaluable for planning investments in photovoltaic systems. East Lothian in the United Kingdom used geospatial analysis for electric vehicle planning to great success. Using aerial photography, high-resolution satellite imagery, and Ordnance Survey digital mapping data, the project created a probability dataset of where demand for on-street charging stations would be highest, where charging stations can be most easily accessed, and where they would most be hampered by high levels of on-street parking.
Spain
Another application in planning low-carbon energy infrastructure is shown in the case of optimising co-digestion power plant sites and mixtures in Spain. Different agricultural waste has different caloric values and can produce different amounts of energy, so finding the geographic areas with high energy potential is very valuable for planning co-digestions power plants. Agricultural and livestock waste data were georeferenced, or assigned geographic coordinates in order to be spatially placed in the GIS software, and integrated with a computational model that outputted the mixture of waste with the most energy potential. As pork slurry was the main component of the best mixture, the areas of Spain that produce the most pork were found to be areas that were favoured in the optimisation model. Other criteria for optimisation included minimum power generation potential, distance from urban centres or natural parks, proximity to power lines and roads, and social factors such as unemployment rate since a plant would provide jobs. This case was not limited to a single city but illustrates effectively what kind of factors can be incorporated into GIS models to inform decision making.
Belgium
In addition to planning decarbonisation infrastructure, cities are using GIS to influence policy agendas and prioritise climate mitigation strategies. For example, Antwerp in Belgium, conducted a detailed thermal mapping of the city to map current and future temperatures, as well as thermal comfort. The city found future results based on the combined heating effects of climate change and the urban heat island effect to be unacceptable and implemented a number of policies to combat heat stress. Some of the results, like planting trees and building green spaces, also contribute to reducing the city’s carbon footprint.
Some research groups are using GIS to quantify at least some of the economic value of parks and urban green space in cities in an effort to better support their existence in landscape planning. Through a method called hedonic pricing, the researchers can georeference home or property transactions over time and measure their distance from parks and green spaces to calculate a value for the relationship between park proximity and real estate value.
Energy consumption, 3D modelling, digital twins… oh my!
GIS can be used to inspire more climate-friendly behaviour in ordinary citizens as well. Projects doing this include a Virtual Energy Advisor in Barcelona and a Real-Time Energy Map in Nottingham. These GIS use cases provide real-time visualisations of residential energy consumption to the consumers, allowing them to see and reduce their carbon footprint and save on their energy bill.
GIS today is being used by cities to make infrastructure planning decisions, influence policy and encourage sustainable behaviour. But the depths of the geospatial analysis tool’s usefulness in combatting climate change are still being discovered.
New innovative applications continue to develop with 3D models and digital twins. Smart cities such as Helsinki and Boston are creating advanced 3D models of their cities that allow them to analyse how new infrastructure influence their city and allows them to visualise any potential problems that may arise before construction begins.
Singapore takes this a step further by backing a project to create a digital twin of their city. Digital twins go beyond structural data to include real-time data using sensors and the Internet of Things. With live updates and predictive modelling, digital twins can be used to see exactly how different planning measures will influence the city’s carbon footprint. It is also an invaluable tool in disaster preparedness and climate resilience planning. The potential of GIS is great and new uses are still being imagined.
If GIS can do all of this today, what will its role ultimately be in tackling society’s greatest challenges of tomorrow?
