Geodesign: Case Studies in Regional and Urban Planning Paperback – June 25, 2012

I am developing a Master's thesis into GeoDesign, so when I saw this book I jumped on it expecting some in-depth explanation to the basis of GeoDesign. It is nothing more than ESRI saying "GeoDesign is cool and you should buy our products to see why." I should have known better considering the price of the book. Unless you want ESRI blowing smoke up your nether-regions and nothing of academic substance, do not waste your money on this book.

my friend asked me to buy the book and send him, he lives in Iran right now and it seems the book is useful for him.

I think the previous review of this book is a bit unfair. It sounds to me like the review was more a matter of unmet expectations and a need for a different treatment of this subject. While I applaud reviewer for starting a Master's thesis on the topic (certainly something VERY important to the future of geodesign) it does not mean this book is not helpful to readers interested in learning about geodesign. In fact, several of the students I had in a GIS class last fall who were very interested in geodesign enjoyed and complimented this book. They said it helped them get their minds around what is really meant by the term geodesign through the case studies of the book. It helped to make the term more real and concrete for them and gave them good examples of its practice. If professionals in academic circles desire more "in-depth explanation to the basis of geodesign" and "academic substance" why don't we publish materials that meet this need as Esri press has done for the needs of people brand new to geodesign? They are certainly different needs (and therefore audiences) but, with the geodesign in its infancy an an established design method, all have value. Geodesign is a method that is ripe for research and publishing.This book is just what it says it is and the subtitle spells out - "Case Studies in Regional and Urban Planning" presented within the context of the professional evolution of geodesign. It's not a "how-to-do" book but rather illuminates trends, success factors, lessons learned and fundamental underpinnings of the topic. This is accomplished through a wide variety of case studies from grassroots community groups, government agencies, private design firms, university think-tanks, and non-governmental research centers. These illustrate that geodesign is being done by a very broad and diverse group of stakeholders: design professionals, geographic scientists, IT professionals, "systems-thinkers" and, most importantly, interested citizens or what Carl Steinitz refers to "the people of the place" in  A Framework for Geodesign: Changing Geography by Design This book has value to readers new to the topic and interested in learning about how geodesign can be done on a variety of projects with differing spatial scales, project sizes, and multiple dimensions (2D, 3D, 4D, etc). This is key when considering that geodesign is still very early in its evolution as a design method. I believe that many designers in the varied design-related professions throughout this world may have actually been doing geodesign for years without even knowing it much less have a meaningful term to describe what they do. Helping to properly define the evolving term geodesign is one of the many things that this book does pretty well through the varied case studies and rightly avoids confusing the reader with all the various definitions floating about inside and outside of academia (I can count at least 10 and all seem valid). McElvaney's "Geodesign" goes beyond these and illustrates that geodesign is much more about the evolving processes, group dynamics, participatory fundamentals, and identifying and measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) than the tools. This includes Esri's tools, which the company officials are quick to admit still need to evolve to support fully geodesign by any definition. As the book points out by quoting Doug Walker of Placeways "The geodesign process can be as important as the tools."While the case studies in this book may have their origins in the growing geodesign community and it is true that Esri is helping to organize the community by sponsoring an annual geodesign summit, I certainly do NOT think this book is an Esri "sales pitch" for purchasing products. If it is, it is certainly a poor one! In fact, the case studies cover the use of many non-Esri tools - Microsoft Excel, Sketchup, CAD, Adobe Illustrator, OpenWare, etc. - with several that could be considered competitive to Esri's own ArcGIS platform. It is my opinion that Esri press has done the emerging "geodesign movement" a service by taking the real step and publishing a book like this on this increasingly important topic.

My first in-depth exposure to geodesign came at the February 2014 Geodesign Summit in Redlands, CA. This led me to Shannon McElvaney’s book Geodesign: Case Studies in Regional and Urban Planning, which provides an overview of the geodesign concept based on the framework developed by Carl Steinitz; explores eight case studies demonstrating how the concept is being applied in practice; and concludes with some observations on geodesign's future, with quotes from “thought leaders” in the field. The meat of the book is in the diverse case studies, which range from master plans for sustainable development in Singapore and Kuwait to regional visioning exercises in Massachusetts (Cape Cod) and central Florida.As a practicing planner who first trained as a landscape architect, I am intrigued by geodesign's use of GIS technology to integrate planning and design across scales and disciplines of practice. To realize its full potential, it will need to be deployed in ways that impact policy, capital investment, and decision-making in complex sociopolitical contexts. From this perspective, implementation is most developed in the book’s district-scale case studies (which have state-sponsored master plans), while the extent to which the regional scale examples are being translated into action is unclear. Nevertheless, the use of geodesign to visualize alternative futures and provide instant feedback on their impacts in public workshops, as well as decision support systems like Ashville, NC’s Priority Places, provide glimpses of its potential to inform community planning processes and provide public access to analytical tools that have previously been the domain of experts. I recommend this book for anyone who is looking for an introduction to geodesign with concrete examples of how it is being used in practice.

This is a very short book, so imagine my surprise when I found out that 18 (EIGHTEEN) pages show the exact same two-photo page spread over and over. Well over 10% of the total book. Being that this is a book about design, the irony is palpable.At a cursory glance, this book looks pretty close to worthless - the case study quality and lengths don't seem much better than what you'd expect from those in a textbook. Also, the simple diagrams are too large, and the complex ones are too small to really suss out any real detail.I'd certainly pass on this one.

It is good to see that geodesign is actually used in concrete projects. A good description, with good references. Nice work